VERBAL IRONY AND SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS

VERBAL IRONY AND SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS

Neshkovska, Silvana
Lazarevska-Stanchevska, Jovanka

А number of socio-cultural factors such as distance, common ground, social status of the ironist and his/her interlocutor, as well as “the victim” of irony, have a very significant impact on the usage of verbal irony. This study focuses on various combinations of these factors and their impact on the incidence with which verbal irony is used in formal and informal speech in Macedonian and English. In that respect, the analysis of the linguistic corpus, purposefully created for this research, reveals certain similar and dissimilar tendencies in both languages. For instance, in informal speech, both Macedonian and English speakers tend to use verbal irony more frequently when they have equal status with their interlocutors. Macedonian speakers, nevertheless, are more prone to using irony when addressing acquaintances and complete strangers with whom they share ‘low’ or no common ground, respectively, whereas English speakers prefer using verbal irony with closest family members and friends with whom they normally share ‘high common ground’. “The victim” of irony in informal speech doesn’t seem to bear any significant influence on the incidence of verbal irony in English, but in Macedonian the usage of verbal irony is manifestly more frequent when the ironist himself/herself is “the victim of irony”. Keywords: socio-cultural factors, verbal irony, English, Macedonian

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2014

3542