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Article In:
Cognitive Approaches to Mind, Language and Society: Theory and description
Edited by Mario Serrano-Losada and Daniela Pettersson-Traba
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 11:1] 2024
► pp. 75–98

A cognitive-pragmatic account of the structural elements of the ironic event

A typology of ironist, target and interpreter roles

ORCID logo | Universitat Politècnica de València

This article discusses the ironist, the interpreter, and the target as structural elements of irony from a cognitive-linguistic standpoint. It builds on the scenario-based approach to irony, where ironic meaning is taken as a contextually adjustable inference that results from a clash between epistemic and attested conceptual scenarios. The article provides a classification of ironist, interpreter, and target types, and then it discusses the functions of irony (i.e., attacking, mocking, being playful, showing off, and persuading) and the solidarity component involved in ironic production and interpretation. It further explains the factors involved in the identification of the epistemic and the attested scenarios, and those involved in the interpretation of irony. The resulting analysis of the structural elements of irony endows the study of irony with greater descriptive delicacy and explanatory adequacy.

Keywords: irony, structural elements of irony, ironist, interpreter, target
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.A brief overview of ironists and interpreters
  • 4.Structural elements of irony
    • 4.1The ironist
      • 4.1.1Functions of irony
      • 4.1.2Solidarity
        • 4.1.2.1The identification of the epistemic scenario
        • 4.1.2.2The identification of the attested scenario
    • 4.2The interpreter
      • 4.2.1Factors involved in the interpretation of irony
    • 4.3The target
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
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