Pragmatic Functions of Irony 反语的作用.doc

Pragmatic Functions of Irony 1. Abstract Irony mon linguistic phenomenon in munication. Recent years have seen a mushroom growth of distinctly angled theorizations in this orientation, which nevertheless exhibit plementarity. Traditionally, irony is treated asa figure of speech whose intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words uttered. In this paper, focus will be laid upon what is irony , what are the Pragmatic functions of irony in English culture and in Chinese culture .and what parison between English irony and Chinese irony . 2. What is irony It is difficult to define the word of“ irony ” which could be understood in various ways. The expansion of its research area may be the direct cause of the diversity of the definition of irony. The following are some definitions of irony from dictionaries. Dictionary definitions of irony 1) Expression ofone ’s meaning by saying the direct opposite ofone ’s thoughts in order tobe emphatic, amusing, sarcastic, etc. [2] Oxford Advanced Learner ’s English-Chinese Dictionary 2) Use of words which are clearly opposite toone ’s meaning, usually either in order to be amusing or to show annoyance (. by saying ‘ What charming behavior ’ when someone has been rude.) [3] Longman Dictionary of English Language &Culture (English-Chinese) 3) Irony isa literary technique that achieves the effect of saying one thing and mean