Publications
Publication details [#50846]
Kotthoff, Helga. 2009. An interactional approach to irony development. In Norrick, Neal R. and Delia Chiaro, eds. Humor in Interaction. (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 182). John Benjamins. pp. 49–78.
Publication type
Article in book
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Annotation
This article discusses conversational data from a project on how pupils use irony and related forms of communication. It employs a Bakhtinian and frame analytic approach combined with a pragmatics of presumptive meaning to understand what sorts of irony nine-year-olds use. Some types of irony correspond to teasing, others more to critical comments or joint fantasy production. The children in the study often perform an authoritative, ironic voice directed at the supervising university students, thereby showing their knowledge of typical adult voices and stances, and the students join in the irony by “playing along.” Irony thus helps the students and children to create an in-group that plays with its knowledge of official and unofficial stances and unites in sharing unofficial perspectives and attitudes.