Mohammad Al-Kuran : Translation Department/Faculty of Arts /Yarmouk University
Mahmoud Kanakri : Translation Department/Faculty of Arts /Yarmouk University
Abstract
Verbal irony traditionally holds that one says something literally and means the opposite. This paper argues that the ironic intention occurs when the speaker says something that differs from what he intends. The intended meaning is not necessarily contradictory to what is said. The paper, therefore, is an attempt to demonstrate that the traditional view of verbal irony is not an adequate representation of the various forms that verbal irony can take, where oppositeness, which seems not to be straightforward in its dictionary sense, is an unnecessary condition to account for verbal irony. More specifically, it will show that verbal irony tends to occur even when the utterance means exactly what it literally says. The paper also aims to show that verbal irony occurs not only as a result of flouting the Quality Maxim but of other maxims as well.
Keywords: Reconstruction, Truthful maxim, Cultural expectation, Negation, Relevance principle, Principle of politeness.