Metaphor and irony
Messy when mixed
We address metaphor/irony mixing, as in ironic
“What a rocket!” about a very slow train. We
agree that the final meaning is often better viewed as resting
ironically on metaphorical meaning (the train is very fast) than
metaphorically resting on ironic meaning (the train is far from
being a [literal] rocket). However, we discover that matters are
much messier than previously discussed. The reverse meaning
dependence can be supported; it can sometimes be preferable; and
there is parallel mixing, with irony and metaphor mutually
independent. Also, even when hearers do metaphoric processing mostly before
ironic processing, they can benefit from first of all detecting the
utterance’s ironicity. This in turn suggests metaphor processing
that involves contrast-based, as well as similarity-based,
mappings.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Examples of irony/metaphor mixing
- 2.1Some examples suitable for irony-upon-metaphor
- 2.2An example suitable for metaphor-upon-irony
- 3.A (non-fatal) problem with metaphor-upon-irony analyses
- 3.1The potential and cost of metaphor-upon-irony
analysis
- 3.2Pasta and siestas revisited
- 3.3A middle way
- 4.The ironicity-first processing strategy
- 5.Further discussion: When other analyses are appropriate
- 5.1Contrast-imbued analogy and metaphor
- 5.2Parallel versus serial mixing of irony and metaphor
- 5.3Metaphor within attitude-wrapped irony
- 5.4Hyperbole in metaphor/irony mixtures
- 6.Summary and conclusions
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
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