Study On Verbal Irony Within The Framework Of Relevance Theory

In our speech and writing, people often use irony. Irony is a kind of linguistic phenomenon commonly seen in our daily communication. However, the study on irony lags far behind the use of irony. As compared to the study on metaphor, the study on irony is far from enough. In fact, like metaphor, irony pervades our lives. Research on irony originated with rhetorical field, later philosophy, psychology and linguistics began to set foot on irony. Thus different conclusions were made. This thesis aims to make a pragmatic study on irony from the perspective of relevance theory, in revealing the nature of irony and discovering the strong explanatory power of relevance theory to analyze irony.This thesis is divided into six parts. Chapter one presents a general definition and classification of irony. Irony can be generally divided into four types: verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony. This thesis takes verbal irony as the focus of research. Chapter two casts a reviewing glance at the vast literature of irony study and points out the drawbacks of these traditional approaches.After the literature interview, Chapter Three gives an introduction to Relevance Theory proposed by Sperber & Wilson. Chapter Four makes an analysis of how the irony-speaker opts for irony to express their communicative intention and it also unveils some psychological motives underlying the production of irony. Chapter Five makes an attempt to reveal the nature of irony and discover the explanatory power of echoic interpretation theory to the recognition and interpretation of irony within the framework of Relevance Theory. A large space of the thesis is devoted to the discussion of the relevance theory's point of view on irony from three aspects: (1) the production of irony from the perspective of relevance theory; (2) the recognition of irony from the perspective of relevance theory; and (3) the interpretation of irony from the perspective of relevance theory. The last chapter is the conclusion of research of irony, in this chapter some limitations of the research and suggestions for future research are put forward.