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Part of
Figurative Thought and Language in Action
Edited by Mario Brdar and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Figurative Thought and Language 16] 2022
► pp. 185–212

Verbal and situational irony

On the conceptual mechanisms underlying two patterns of irony

| University of Osijek
| University of Osijek

Unlike metaphor and metonymy, irony has no “standardized” conceptual tools to rely on for its detection. The detection of irony proceeds entirely on-line; its comprehension does not rest on prior acquisition of conventional figures in the processes of language learning; it rests on our ability to establish, creatively and on-line, a dynamic relationship between our knowledge of language and the relevant information about the communicative situation and its protagonists. The goal of the present study is to shed light on the conceptual underpinnings of on-line interpretation of two main types of irony, verbal and situational, within a communicative context, using the methodological tools of cognitive linguistics, specifically Blending Theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) and frame semantics (Fillmore, 1977, 1982, 1985).

Keywords: verbal irony, situational irony, Blending Theory, frame semantics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conceptual integration as a mechanism of interpreting and processing irony
  • 3.Verbal and situational irony
    • 3.1Verbal irony
      • 3.1.1Ironic utterances based on schematic frames
      • 3.1.2Ironic utterances based on specific frames
    • 3.2Situational irony
      • 3.2.1Situational irony associated with the less conventional frames
      • 3.2.2Situational irony associated with highly conventional frames
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.16.08bel
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