A Study Of Irony From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

This thesis aims to study Chinese students'understanding of irony in English and apply adaptation theory to interpret irony so as to help them understand irony more successfully.Irony studies abroad has obtained prosperous development in recent years,western linguists have proved with empirical researches and data analysis that irony possesses functions of criticism, humor and face-saving etc. and it is easy to understand. However, all the researches are conducted among native English subjects, there is no definite answer whether their views are also applicable for non-native people especially for Chinese learners. Domestic scholars mainly focus their irony studies on literature review and theoretical analysis with few empirical tests. In this thesis, an empirical research, applying Colston & O'Brien's questionnaire and method, is carried out among Chinese college students to test their understanding of English irony.The result proves that Chinese students can perceive irony's functions of humor and face-saving with lower degrees of perception, but not criticism. Chinese students can not understand irony completely and successfully.Suggestive strategies are put forward for irony comprehension from the perspective of adaptation theory. The process of irony interpretation is the realization of adaptation to communicative context and language reality.