A Study Of Irony In Pride And Prejudice From The Perspective Of Reference Point Theory

Irony is a ubiquitous phenomenon in languages,consisting of three kinds which are verbal irony,situational irony and dramatic irony.It is widely used in people’s daily life as well as literature works.Because of its popularity,many scholars have studied irony from different perspectives,such as rhetoric,pragmatic views and so on.Reference Point Theory is an important theory in cognitive linguistics,which is put forward by Langacker.Pride and Prejudice is a widespread novel of Jane Austin,who is known for the use of ironic expression in her literature works.This novel covers all kinds of irony and contains many typical examples of irony.In this thesis,irony is chosen as the subject.The novel,Pride and Prejudice,serves as data for the interpretation of irony from the perspective of Reference Point Theory.The thesis is to find out the process of the perception of three kinds of irony,and the cognitive characteristics of irony in light of Reference Point Theory.The thesis aims to answer two research questions.Firstly,what is the process of the perception of three kinds of irony? Secondly,what are the cognitive characteristics of irony in light of Reference Point Theory?Based on the analysis of irony in Pride and Prejudice,the main findings are,1)In every kind of irony,there exists a cognitive reference point and a mental path.The cognitive reference point is noticed easily,and around it the ironic target is perceived along the direction provided by the mental path.In verbal irony,the cognitive reference point is the literal meaning,and the mental path is the contradiction between literal meaning and context.The cognitive reference point of situational irony is a character’s expectation,and the mental path is the incompatibility between the expectation and the real development of the situation.In dramatic irony,the reference point is the perception of a character,and the mental path is the contradiction between the cognitive reference point and the perception of the audience.2)From the perspective of Reference Point Theory,the cognitive characteristics of irony are salience,dynamism and economy.This thesis will be helpful to deepen people’s understanding of irony in reading and facilitating communication.