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In:Irony in Language Use and Communication
Edited by Angeliki Athanasiadou and Herbert L. Colston
[Figurative Thought and Language 1] 2017
► pp. 237–254

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Chapter 11
The standard experimental approach to the study of irony

Let us not be hasty in throwing out the baby with the bathwater

Published online: 14 December 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.1.12kat
Abstract
The traditional way in which irony has been studied in the laboratory takes a critical item, such as the sentence “You are a true friend” and embeds it in a verbal context that either supports a sincere reading or a counterfactual ironic one. One can question the ecological validity of this approach. In this chapter, three demonstrations are presented to show that by making slight changes to the traditional methodology one can provide insights into the discourse context in which irony is embedded, the pragmatic effects of the critical statements above that provided by the discourse context and, finally, a means of disentangling the multi-faced aspects of the ironic experience.
Article outline
  • Irony and the ecological discourse context in which it is found
  • Sarcastic irony usage: Compared to what?
  • Unpacking the effects of irony
  • Concluding statements
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (38)
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2019. How Language Makes Meaning, DOI logo
Colston, Herbert L.
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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