Language and Linguistics Seminar Series: Week 24 with Dr Eleni Kapogianni, University of Kent

ABSTRACT

One of the few points of consensus among the various pragmatic approaches to verbal irony (neo-Gricean, post-Gricean, interactional, Speech-Act-based) is its inherently evaluative nature. The observable imbalance between the frequencies of negative versus positive evaluation conveyed by irony has led researchers to dismiss cases of the latter as cases of non-ironic meaning (Garmendia 2010, 2011; Dynel 2014).

This talk revisits the debate on positive irony making three main claims: (1) the perceived equation between irony and negative evaluation is mainly due to a conflation of the notions of irony and sarcasm (2) positive and negative attitudes can co-exist in ironic utterances (3) the use of ironies with a “positive charge” is culture-dependent. The latter argument is supported by survey-based data from a variety of languages (Greek, German, English, Italian).

References:
Dynel, M. (2014). Isn’t it ironic? Defining the scope of humorous irony. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 27: 619-639.
Garmendia, J. (2010). Irony is Critical. Pragmatics and Cognition, 18 (2): 397-421.
Garmendia, J. (2011). She’s (not) a fine friend: “Saying” and criticism in irony. Intercultural Pragmatics, 8 (1): 41-65.