Comprehension Of Irony: A Relevance-Adaptation Perspective

Irony is a universal phenomenon of natural languages used in our daily communication.The study of irony first originates in the field of rhetoric. Later, many analyses have beenmade on irony in the fields of philosophy, psychology, pragmatics and especially cognitivepragmatics. The thesis introduces different studies on irony in different fields and analysizesseveral main models in explaining figurative languages. Through these investigations, thethesis puts forward that it lacks applicability if using a single theory or model. So it suggestsa model of relevance-adaptation which is combined by two important theories that are putforward respectively by Sperber&Wilson and Verschueren in order to better understand thenature, recognition and interpretation of irony.The thesis is made up of five chapters. The first chapter is introduction. It introduces theorigin and classification of irony. And it makes clear that the object discussed in the thesis isverbal irony. The methodology adopted in the thesis is introspection supported by someamount of language data, which have established status as ironies.The second chapter is literature review of irony. Different explanations of the definitionsof irony are listed;then studies of irony from the perspective of rhetoric, psychology, andpragmatics are reviewed. At last some comments are made on three models that are oftenused in understanding figurative languages.The third chapter firstly introduces some main concepts of Relevance Theory andAdaptation Theory. Then the features of the Relevance-Adaptation model are listed.The fourth chapter uses Relevance-Adaptation model in the analysis of irony.The fifth chapter sums up the main points in the thesis and points out some issuesworthy of further study.