A Relevance-Theoretic Approach To Verbal Irony

The present dissertation, based on the achievements made within the relevance-theoretic framework, takes verbal irony as a case and presents a comprehensive account of the generative and operative mechanisms underlying its use as well as the communicative effects it may produce or is intended to achieve in order to fully reveal its richness of meaning, diversity of function and complexity of use, especially in the case of literary texts.With Sperber and Wilson's echoic-interpretation theory of irony and the relevance-theoretic approach to context as background, Yus's model of irony comprehension is utilized as the core of the theoretical framework of the present study. The echoic-interpretation theory of irony defines verbal irony as a variety of echoic interpretive use, in which the communicator dissociates herself from the opinion echoed with accompanying ridicule or scorn. Therefore, for the identification of verbal irony it is essential to find the echoic quality of the utterance and the speaker's attitude of dissociation towards this utterance. Although the echoic-interpretation theory of irony is more explanat(?)ry and predictive than the classical approaches, Sperber and Wilson do not specify how the hearer identifies the speaker's dissociative attitude during the process of irony comprehension. As a further development of Sperber and Wilson's hypothesis, Yus's model of irony comprehension assumes that some kind of incompatibility between the information provided by contextual sources and the proposition expressed by the utterance is necessary to foreground the speaker's dissociative attitude, thus helping the hearer to grasp the ironic interpretation of utterances. The identification of verbal irony can be speeded up with the multiple activation of contextual sources. Yus summarizes seven irony-relevant contextual sources: A. Encyclopedic, factual information; B. Mutually manifest physical environment (setting); C. Speaker's nonverbal behavior; D. Addressee's background knowledge of addresser's biographical data; E. Mutual knowledge; F. Previous utterances in the conversation; G. Linguistic cues. Yus's criterion of optimal accessibility to irony has been proposed to account for the different possibilities in irony comprehension. The spirit of his criterion is that the more (simultaneous) incompatibilities detected by the hearer, the easier to access and process verbal irony. In addition, an exploration is done with the applications of the theoretical framework to the analysis of ironic utterances in literary works. The relevance-theoretic framework can answer the question: what is it about the implicit expression of ridicule or contempt that gives rise to poetic effects associated with verbal irony? In order to achieve optimal relevance, the writer has to estimate the reader's contextual resources in order to make decisions about the means of conveying her thoughts. By leaving her attitude implicit, the writer of an ironic utterance conveys a suggestion of complicity, that is, the reader and the writer share assumptions about what, for example, is ridiculous or absurd. The search for the optimally relevant interpretation of ironic utterances will lead in some cases to a wide extension of context and the consequent accessing of a large range of implicatures. The result is what Sperber and Wilson have defined as poetic effects, and the effort that the reader expends is rewarded by a closer relationship with the ironist. All these ideas form a bridge of applying the relevance-theoretic approach to verbal ironies in literary communication.More significantly, on the basis of the theoretical framework discussed above, this dissertation makes a case study of verbal irony in Pride and Prejudice. Quantitative as well as qualitative analysis is employed in the study to give statistic support to the findings. The first ef(?)ort is devoted to a tentative study of the multiple activation of contextual sources in the comprehension of ironic utterances which are taken from Pride and Prejudice. The dissertation enumerates typical examples for each category of irony-relevant contextual sources and makes a relevance-theoretic analysis of each of them to see how the contextual sources can be simultaneously activated to assist in the determination of the addresser's ironic intention. Then, the criterion of optimal accessibility to irony is explored in detail. As have been shown in the three prototypical cases exemplified by ironic examples taken from Pride and Prejudice, the echoic-interpretation theory of irony may be complemented with a model of contextual activation which explains the identification of the speaker's attitude of dissociation and also the fact that the hearer may not be easily led to an ironic interpretation, or even choose a different interpretation from the ironic one intended. Finally, an in-depth study is conducted on the poetic effects of echoic irony in Pride and Prejudice. Three main kinds of poetic effects are produced in the novel: satirical humorous effect, joyous and cordial effect and vigilant effect. Among them, satirical humor is Austen's favorite style of writing and satirical humorous effect is the poetic effect that she exploits various devices to achieve.These theoretical discussions and practical applications, in turn, lead to further implications, which are more significant than the claims themselves. On the one hand, the case study of Pride and Prejudice proves the feasibility and the strong explanatory power of the relevance-theoretic approach to verbal irony in literary works, making contributions to the wider range of application of relevance theory; on the other hand, the relevance-theoretic study on verbal irony provides a new perspective on the unique charm of Jane Austen's art of verbal irony, making a significant attempt to the combination of cognitive pragmatics and literary criticism. As a part of the development of literary pragmatics, it calls for further studies.