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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton March 27, 2015

On the characteristics of verbal irony

  • Alan Bailin

    Alan Bailin (b. 1951) is an associate professor at Hofstra University <alan.bailin@hofstra.edu>. His research interests include figurative language, semiotic and semantic/pragmatic analysis of linguistic comprehension, readability, and the critical assessment of research. His publications include “The evolution of academic libraries: The networked environment” (with A. Grafstein, 2005); “Online library tutorials, narratives, and scripts” (with A. Peña, 2007); “Ambiguity and metaphor” (2008); and The critical assessment of research: Traditional and new methods of evaluation (with A. Grafstein, 2010).

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From the journal Semiotica

Abstract

During the last forty years there have been a number of attempts to understand verbal irony in relation to specific kinds of speech acts (negating, echoing, pretending, alluding). This article argues that these theories can account for certain subsets of ironic phenomena but not others precisely because of their focus on substantive kinds of speech acts rather than more general relational semiotic properties. The article proposes two conditions based on relational semiotic properties. These conditions, it is argued, allow for a unified account of ironic phenomena and a better understanding of irony in relation to other tropes.

About the author

Alan Bailin

Alan Bailin (b. 1951) is an associate professor at Hofstra University <alan.bailin@hofstra.edu>. His research interests include figurative language, semiotic and semantic/pragmatic analysis of linguistic comprehension, readability, and the critical assessment of research. His publications include “The evolution of academic libraries: The networked environment” (with A. Grafstein, 2005); “Online library tutorials, narratives, and scripts” (with A. Peña, 2007); “Ambiguity and metaphor” (2008); and The critical assessment of research: Traditional and new methods of evaluation (with A. Grafstein, 2010).

Published Online: 2015-3-27
Published in Print: 2015-4-1

©2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

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