A Pragmatic Study On Situational Irony

Although situational irony is as complex and commonplace as verbal irony and literary irony, it doesn't receive the same attention from scholars.This paper makes a tentative systematic study on situational irony from the perspective of pragmatics. It analyzes the classifications and pragmatic features of situational irony, makes a comparison between verbal irony and situational irony. Based on bi-coherence theory and conceptual integration theory, it proposes an interpretation model of situational irony.With regard to the classifications of situational irony, some scholars divide it into different types according to different criteria. Littman & Mey divide it into intentional plan irony, serendipitous plan irony and competence irony. Lucariello sorts it into double outcome irony, coincidence irony, and dramatic irony and so on. Shelley classifies it into bi-coherent class and bi-coherent element irony. Although the first two kinds of classifications show the unexpectedness of situational irony, they have their disadvantages. The author agrees to Shelly's opinion, for it distinguishes situational irony from non-situational irony. From the classifications of situational irony, we can find out its pragmatic features: unexpectedness, opposition and indirectness.As far as the comparison between verbal irony and situational irony is concerned, it has some similarities and differences. Verbal irony is always in verbal communication. The similarities between verbal irony and situational irony are that they all have the features of opposition and unexpectedness. However, there are many differences between them. In verbal irony, ironists intentionally utter something that is opposite to their intended meaning. Therefore, verbal irony is also called intentional irony. Situational irony is also called unintentional irony, because the participator's action is out of his control in ironic situationBoth bi-coherence theory and conceptual integration theory can be used to analyze situational irony. According to the former, a situation is ironic when it has a bi-coherent conceptual structure, adequate cognitive salience, and evokes appropriate emotion response. In the light of the latter, conceptual integration is a theoretical framework for exploring information integration that underlies the construction of meaning. It involves a set of operations for combining dynamic cognitive models in a network of mental spaces. So we can apply this theory to analyzing situational irony and get its implied meaning. It is reasonable to classify situational irony with bi-coherence theory. In this theory, people's emotional response, which is caused in understanding situational irony, is emphasized. But people's mental inference process is not mentioned when people interpret situational irony. In conceptual integration theory, though the meaning construction in different mental spaces is explained, the emotional factors are not taken into consideration. Based on those two theories, a new interpretation model of situational irony --- bi-coherence integration model is proposed. This model holds the following positions: first, the interpretation process of situational irony is a dynamic blending process. Second, there is internal and special relation between the participator's and the observer's mental spaces. These mental spaces can not be separated from each other, and are regarded as an entirety. Third, the opposition in situational irony is reflected by the conflict not only between the participator's expectation and the outcome of his action, but also between the observer's expectation and the outcome of the event. Finally, the observer's particular emotion response is evoked in the comprehensive process of situational irony. This model is a useful tool for interpreting situational irony and analyzing its implied meaning.