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Article published In:
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 34:2 (2021) ► pp.527–554

Form-function dialectics in the analysis of irony in political discourse

ORCID logo | University of A Coruña

In this paper, I analyze the construction of the trope of irony in a political interview, more specifically the interview with a Spanish politician on television in 2013. Its context is the emergence of the 15M, a citizen’s protest movement against the cuts imposed by the European Union and the Spanish Government. From a theoretical-methodological point of view, I adopt a holistic perspective, inspired by Halliday’s approach of jointly analysing the form-function relationship and White’s constructivism. I also review the different definitions and explanations of irony. After analysing the formal resources that construct irony, I give an account of the cognitive frameworks that are opposed in this discourse, and finally describe their narrative disposition and the communicative functions that those resources fulfill.

Keywords: constructivism, post-15M discourses, discourses of social change, irony, critical discourse analysis, functionalism, political discourse, political interview
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Definition of irony
  • 3.Methodology and analysis of data
    • 3.1Analysis of the interview with Miguel Ángel Revilla
    • 3.2Form-function dialectics in the expression of irony
  • 4.Interpretation and final conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.19015.mor
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