The different types of irony

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One of the definitions of irony attributed to Aristotle is "saying something but meaning the opposite". This means that irony is displayed, when, in making a statement, the speaker wants to communicate something else. Kierkegaard, (1996) in Concept of Irony, resumes this idea, saying that with irony, the words spoken do not correspond to the meaning. At a pragmatic level, irony is used to give intensity to what one conveys by accommodating the language to the ideal of truth. We can put forward the following example to illustrate this idea: when someone says "what lovely weather" (constructed example) when it is raining, irony emphasizes his criticism. There are different sorts of irony found mainly in literature, such as tragic irony, Socratic irony, cosmic irony or irony of fate. This work will focus on verbal irony which is produced intentionally by the speaker in a context of communication. Verbal irony is a figure of speech. The different sorts of discrepancies between the meaning of what is said, and what is really meant, bring to light different kinds of verbal irony.

Extraits

[...] In time of great trouble, Susan remarks: “Isn't life (Winner 1989:28) Here, a hearer who knows about her trouble may understand the implication that life is not easy. Moreover, this form of irony is used to criticize someone in a very efficiently way: rhetorical question prevents the addressee from replying which makes the criticism more intense. For instance, Alice asks John during a bumbled dance: “Could you step on your own (Constructed example). Here, her utterance is a statement rather than a question. Finally, understatement is the form of irony in which a lesser expression is used than what would be expected. [...]

[...] Paul. "Logic and Conversation." Syntax and Semantics, Vol. Speech Acts. (Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan. New York: Academic Press, 1975). 41-58. Hutcheon, Linda. Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony. (London: Routledge, 1994) Jasper Johns: Functions of Irony” Rosalind Krauss October, Vol (Summer, 1976), pp. 91-99 Jorgensen, Julia. "The Functions of Sarcastic Irony in Speech." Journal of Pragmatics 26 (1996):613-34. [...]

[...] A Rhetoric of irony (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1974) Clark, H (1996). Using Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. Colebrook, Claire. Irony (London: Routledge. 2004) Gibbs, R (1994). The Poetics of Mind: Figurative thought, language and understanding. New York: Cambridge University Press. Gibbs, R W (2000). Metaphor and Symbol 15. 1&2 Special Issue: The Uses and Processing of Irony and Sarcasm (University of Toronto, 2000.) Grice, H. [...]

[...] Now, let us examine an example of sarcasm. When something bad happened, if I say “that is just perfect”, I am sarcastic (constructed example). In fact, sarcasm means speaking positively to convey a more negative intent and is usually used to vent frustration when the speaker finds some situation offensive. This form of irony is the most typical instance of ironic discourse. It expresses virulent criticism. For instance, when somebody comes without saying someone else can say love people who are so polite” (constructed example) which is a direct criticism . [...]

[...] In this conversation from Gibbs (2000), David mocks Cherie's previous comment by echoing it in an ironic tone: Cherie: Why you guys dissin' on Latin? David: (mocking tone) what, wo-ah, you're dissin' my Latin. Most of the time, the addressee responds to jocularity which leads to a scene created by the coordination of the speaker and the addressee. That's why one could say that this form of irony is very close to humor, more than any other form. What's more, the jeering is reinforced when there are hearers other than the victim who do recognize the utterance as ironic. [...]