Chapter published in:
Irony in Language Use and Communication
Edited by Angeliki Athanasiadou and Herbert L. Colston
[Figurative Thought and Language 1] 2017
► pp. 43–60

Chapter 2
How does irony arise in experience?

How does irony arise in experience? Most studies of irony focus on the verbal expression of ironic meaning. Irony is typically viewed as a rhetorical tool used for indirect communication. But irony also emerges automatically in many nonlinguistic contexts. People often judge paradoxical situations to be ironic, and sometimes recognize that their own failed attempts at thought suppression also lead to a sense or feeling of irony. Irony can also emerge when people enact certain embodied metaphors relevant to pretense and benign violations of the body. This chapter explores these various ways by which irony presents itself in everyday life. We suggest that irony is less an indirect form of communication than fundamental kind of bicoherent thought which underlie many cognitive and expressive actions.
Keywords: benign violation, humor, paradox, verbal irony, thought suppression, bicoherence, embodiment, situational irony, consciousness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ironic language
  • 3.Ironic situations
  • 4.Ironic experience and thought suppression
  • 5.Irony and benign bodily violations
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 14 December 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.1.03gib
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