Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. — x, 607 pages. — ISBN 978-1-4106-1668-5.Irony in Language and Thought assembles an interdisciplinary collection of seminal empirical and theoretical papers on irony in language and thought into one comprehensive book. A much-needed resource in the area of figurative language, this volume centers on a theme from cognitive science – that irony is a fundamental way of thinking about the human experience. The editors lend perspective in the form of opening and closing chapters, which enable readers to see how such works have furthered the field, as well as to inspire present and future scholars.Featured articles focus on the following topics:theories of irony, addressing primarily comprehension of its verbal form
context in irony comprehension
social functions of irony
the development of irony understanding
situational irony.Scholars and students in psychology, linguistics, philosophy, literature, anthropology, artificial intelligence, art, and communications will consider this book an excellent resource. It serves as an ideal supplement in courses that present major ideas in language and thought.Introduction
A Brief History of Irony
Theories of Irony
On the Pretense Theory of Irony
On Verbal Irony
How About Another Piece of Pie: The Allusional Pretense Theory of Discourse Irony
On Necessary Conditions for Verbal Irony Comprehension
Irony As Relevant Inappropriateness
Context in Irony Comprehension
On the Psycholinguistics of Sarcasm Irony: Context and Salience
Neuropsychological Studies of Sarcasm
Discourse Factors That Influence Online Reading of Metaphor and Irony
Obligatory Processing of Literal Meaning of Ironic Utterances: Further Evidence
Irony: Negation, Echo, and Metarepresentation
The Social Functions of Irony
Why Not Say It Directly? The Social Functions of Irony
Salting a Wound or Sugaring a Pill: The Pragmatic Functions of Ironic Criticism
Irony in Talk Among Friends
From “Blame by Praise” to “Praise by Blame:” Analysis of Vocal Patterns in Ironic Communication
Responding to Irony in Different Contexts: On Cognition in Conversation
Development of Irony Understanding
A Developmental Test of Theoretical Perspectives on the Understanding of Verbal Irony: Children’s Recognition of Allusion and Pragmatic Insincerity
Children’s Comprehension of Critical and Complimentary Forms of Verbal Irony
Children’s Perceptions of the Social Functions of Verbal Irony
Situational Irony: A Concept of Events Gone Awry
Situational Irony: A Concept of Events Gone Awry
Verbal Irony As Implicit Display of Ironic Environment: Distinguishing Ironic Utterances From Nonirony
The Bicoherence Theory of Situational Irony
Conclusion
The Future of Irony Studies
