A Study Of Verbal Irony In Computer-mediated Conversations In Chinese

Irony is perceived through a complex interaction between an utterance and its context. It serves many social functions such as to be humorous,to show the negative attitudes. It has attracted the interest of linguists, philosophers, psychologists, rhetoricians and other scholars. This thesis limits itself to the approaches to irony that are predominant within linguistics and deliberately ignores the vast literature on the literary and philosophical uses of irony. Many linguists and theorists mainly concentrate their studies on irony in the written discourse or in the face-to-face conversation, neglecting the irony in other fields. Built on the previous theories in irony, this thesis aims to explore verbal irony in computer-mediated conversations in Chinese.Based on relevance theory, we predicate that addressors will provide some particular ironic cues when addressing verbal irony in computer condition that lacks physical communication cues which we depend on heavily in face-to-face communication, such as a visual channel. We further predicate that addressees will use this information in addition to context, when interpreting the utterances in the computer-mediated conversations. The whole irony communication can be divided into two phases: the phase for an addressor to produce a verbal irony and the phase for an addressee to recognize and respond to it. Therefore, the thesis studies verbal irony in the computer-mediated conversations from the perspective of irony-addressor and irony-addressee separately.The study addresses three research questions:(1) With lack of extra-linguistic cues, what are the ironic cues for the addressors to use in expressing ironical utterances in computer-mediated conversations in Chinese?(2) To what extent can the addressee recognize the ironical utterances in computer-mediated conversations in Chinese? And how does S/he respond to the verbal irony? (3) Is the addressor's motivation in using irony interpreted by the addressee as intended?Corresponding to the research questions, this study has obtained the following findings:(1) The addressors provide many ironic cues when they employ verbal irony in computer-mediated conversations. Theses ironic cues include: Emotional symbols on the Internet; laughter; punctuation and underling. More than half of subjects tend to use verbal ironies with laughter-HAHA…, Hehehe…Emotional symbols on the Internet are second to laughter to be preferred for addressors, due to their vivid and lifelike features.(2) More than half of subjects recognize the verbal irony addressors framed in the computer-mediated conversations. However, when the verbal irony is addressed with ironic cues, it is more easily for addressees to recognize. Therefore, ironic cues are more important in expression and recognition of verbal ironies in computer-mediated conversations.As far as the responses to verbal irony in computer-mediated conversations concerned, more than 80% participants respond to verbal irony. Among the seven forms of responses, responses to the said are more applied.(3) The addressors'motivation to use verbal irony interpreted by the addressees is not as intended. When couching verbal irony, the motivation for addressors is to complain, criticize, while, addressees claim that the addressors intend to be humorous. Therefore, there are some discrepancies in the motivation of verbal irony. That is due to the nature of verbal irony.The thesis consists of five Chapters. In chapter one, the background of the thesis and researcher questions are given. In the second chapter, through the discussion of the definition and types of irony in English and Chinese, the researching scope of the irony in this thesis is defined. The theoretical foundation of the research is given after reviewing the previous study of irony in pragmatics and cognition, that is, relevance theory and its echoic interpretation of verbal irony. Chapter three makes a detailed description of three questionnaires concerning verbal irony in the computer-mediated conversations in Chinese- the production, the recognition of verbal irony in the setting. In the fourth chapter, an attempt is made to analyze and discuss the results based on the data collected from three questionnaires. Finally, implication and limitations of the thesis are briefly discussed.This thesis, mainly dealing with verbal irony in computer-mediated conversations in Chinese, takes a different perspective from the previous researches in irony, so it makes certain valuable contribution to the present irony study.