3.2 Irony as violation of CP
Grice classifies irony as an example of implicature and shows how one can account for irony as a case of flouting the Cooperative Principle by violating the maxim of quality.
Examples:
(1) This diligent student seldom reads more than an hour per month. [12]
The intended meaning of the speaker is this is a lazy student. However, he uses an opposite of “lazy”—diligent. Diligent is here used to produce sarcasm.
(2) A: Sorry, Mary. I cannot give you a lift after work. I have to meet a friend at the airport.
B: Thank you very much. It’s very kind of you. [13]
In this conversation, B does not really praise A. He uses “It’s very kind of you.” to show his dissatisfaction in fact.
(3) A: John says he tops us all at football.
B: I like his cheek. [14]
When B said, “ I like his cheek.”, he infringed the quality maxim to tell a lie. It is easily inferred from the context that B uses the opposite word “like” to mean his truly dislike.
(4) Rose and David met an elegant woman on the street. They appreciated her fine action until she suddenly spitted phlegm to the floor. Under this situation comes the discourse as follows:
Rose: She is really lovely, isn’t she?
David: She sure is. [15]
Rose tended to use “lovely” to laugh at the elegant woman’s poor action here.
These instances are violations of the maxim of truth by saying something he/ she does not really believe. In these irony acts, indirectness seems like a shield which masks a genuine intent considered risky by the speakers. The ironical utterances not only convey messages but also conceal what the speakers really bear in mind. The speakers violate the Cooperative Principle consciously to express their real meaning in indirect way. Irony helps to make the utterance much more humor. 4. Irony and the Politeness Principle
4.1 The Politeness Principle
Leech thinks that Grice’s Cooperative Principle in itself cannot explain why people employ indirectness while conveying what they mean. In addition, different societies may operate maxims in different ways. There must be some apparent exceptions in actual communication that Cooperative Principle cannot explain. Therefore Leech proposes to supplement Grice’s Cooperative Principle with the Politeness Principle (PP for short). The strategies are summarized below:
Tact:
a). Minimize cost to other.
b). Maximize benefit to other.
Generosity:
a). Minimize benefit to self.
b). Maximize cost to self.
Approbation:
a). Minimize dispraise of other.
b). Maximize praise of other.
Modesty:
a). Minimize praise of self.
b). Maximize dispraise of self.
Agreement:
a). Minimize disagreement between self and other.
b). Maximize agreement between self and other.
Sympathy:
a). Minimize antipathy between self and other.
b). Maximize sympathy between self and other.[16]
Altogether, the maxims are said to “save” the Cooperative Principle, they explain what happens in the case when it is breached.
Example:
Forrest: I only caught five.
Boat Salesman: A couple more and you can have yourself a cocktail.
…[17]
This is a dialogue in the movie Forrest Gump. Although Bubba tells Forrest everything about shrimping, but Forrest still finds that shrimping is tough. One day, he only catches five after a-whole-day hard working. The boat salesman just makes a joke to Forrest in order to cheer him up. Meanwhile, he also tells Forrest a fact that Forrest catches too little. It is an instance of politeness according to the Politeness Principle. 4.2 The Irony Principle
According to Leech, irony is a second-order principle that builds on or exploits the Politeness Principle. The Irony Principle (IP for short) may be stated in a general form as follows:
“If you must cause offence, at least do so in a way which doesn’t overtly conflict with the Politeness Principle, but allows the hearer to arrive at the offensive point of your remark indirectly, by way of implicature.” [18]
Irony can happen if the speaker overvalues the Politeness Principle by blatantly breaking a maxim of the Cooperative Principle in order to uphold the Politeness Principle. For example:
A: Geoff has just borrowed your car.
B: Well, I like THAT! [19]
According to the Irony Principle, we can interpret this ironical utterance this way: what B says is polite to Geoff and is clearly not true. Therefore what B really means is impolite to Geoff and true. Leech believes that the IP can make a speaker impolite while seeming to be polite. In being polite, a speaker is often faced with a clash between the CP and the PP. The speaker has to choose how far to “trade-off” the CP against the PP. In being ironic, a speaker exploits the PP in order to uphold, at a remote level, the CP.
The Irony Principle serves the purpose of avoiding direct criticism through ‘being antisocial’, being insincerely polite. This principle explains why some of the Gricean maxims are breached. [20] |
