Outline And Evaluate The Relevance Theoretic Account Of Verbal Irony.

Outline and evaluate the relevance theoretic account of verbal irony, illustrating your answer with examples. What do you take to be the main advantages and disadvantages of this account?

In this essay I will be studying the relevance theory in great detail, giving a brief outline of the core principles of the theory and using it's apparent advantages and disadvantages, evaluate how well this theory functions in the explanation of the phenomena of verbal irony. I will use examples throughout the essay to further explain and illustrate, as well as exploring two other theories associated with verbal irony in reference to relevance theory. The two other theories in question are, Grice's account of verbal irony and the other being the theory of irony as pretence. Grice's account of verbal irony has been somewhat overshadowed by the theory of relevance, coined by Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson, but still has validity in the field of linguistics.

The relevance theoretic account of irony has two rules that are used to define an utterance as ironic. These are the benchmark of verbal irony according to relevance theory. Without adherence to these rules irony cannot be achieved. The first rule is that the utterance has to be echoic. The intended meaning of the utterance must be referring to a previous utterance, thought, expectation or pre existing cultural/contextual assumptions. Different types of irony rely on referring to a particular type of echoing, one in particular, 'echoing the thoughts of a group' raises some interesting questions of whether being echoic is objectively needed when understanding irony. I will discuss this later on the essay. It is important to note that verbal irony is a form of tacit, interpretive language so the echoic nature must remain tacitly so.

The other rule that relevance theory claims is intrinsic to the creation of irony is a dissociative attitude. By this it means the utterance has to have elements of wryness, bitterness, sarcasm or mockery in order to show the listener that the speaker is distancing themselves from the opinions echoed. Again this in a tacit manner to implicitly communicate a dissociative attitude.

(1) Context: The weather is very warm and sunny and Sarah and John are out on a bike ride. Sarah: It's a great day for a bike ride. John: It IS a great day for a bike ride.

(2) Context: The weather is very wet and windy and Sarah and John are out on a bike ride. Sarah: It's a great day for a bike ride. John: It IS a great day for a bike ride.

Example (1) and (2) are both seen as echoic because John is echoing Sarah's previous utterance and implicitly attributing his attitude to what was said. Only (2) is a case of verbal irony as the opinion that is being echoed is of a negative nature, in example (2) John is promoting the utterance that Sarah contributes and of course isn't seen as ironic, he is merely in agreement with the echoed proposition. "Sperber and Wilson claim that the two defining features of verbal irony are that the utterance is tacitly attributive (interpretive use) and that it tacitly expresses a negative (mocking, contemptuous) attitude to the thought represented." (Clark 2013: 282)

Grice's approach to verbal irony is a 'classical' or 'traditional' one that seems to have been overshadowed by the application of relevance theory. Many problems arise when dealing with certain examples when applying Grice's theory but these problems seem to disappear when using relevance theory. One of which is the claim that in Gricean verbal irony the speaker violates the first maxim of quality to create an implicature that is the complete opposite of the utterance.

(3) Context: Sarah and John have fallen out. Sam: Do you like John? Sarah: Yeah. I like John.

In example (3) Sarah is communicating that she dislikes John. Here Sarah has violated the first maxim of quality in order to communicate the opposite of what is being said. Grice would account for this with use of the Co-operative Principle. The listener would assume that maxims were in fact being obeyed to a certain degree and therefore understand that a 'related implicature' is the intention of Sarah's utterance. This example seems to be intuitively explained by this theory, but when you look at other examples the flaws begin to appear. Take (4) for example;

(4) Context: Sarah is at home and Sam comes round to visit. Sam: Hey Sarah do you want to go for a walk? Sarah: I have a broken leg.

According to Grice this wouldn't be classed as a form of verbal irony as the first maxim of quality hasn't been broken. Sarah is telling the truth and is, in terms of the Co-operative Principle, not being ironic in any sense, she is merely communicating that the semantics of the utterance match the pragmatics. When applying relevance theory both of these examples are seen as accounts of irony. Namely example (4), which Grice's theory fails to account for, we can see that what Sarah is saying is relevant, tacitly interpretive, echoic and dissociative. This denotes that it is, in fact, an example of verbal irony. Sarah's utterance is relevant enough to Sam's question for Sam to have the information needed to access the implicated premises and contextual assumptions to understand that Sarah doesn't want to go for a walk. "At every stage the hearer is looking for an interpretation that satisfies his expectations of relevance and this is consistent with relevance theoretic pragmatic principles. " (Clark 2013: 284). We can see from this application of relevance theory against Grice's theory of verbal irony that relevance theory offers a much more comprehensive account when analysing irony. Being echoic, dissociative in a tacit manner and being relevant are the elements that account for all types of verbal irony.

It is also noteworthy to say there are clear examples of irony being created when what is being said is quite literally true. An example taken from (Clark 2013: 285) that I have slightly adapted illustrates this quite intuitively.

(4) Context: John is playing football for his local team on a Sunday, he gets substituted off after 25 minutes. John's coach: That's not the best game of football you have ever played.

Again this example doesn't conform to Grice's account of verbal irony, in the sense that the truth is merely being stated. Recognising the features of relevance theoretic irony in this utterance doesn't depend on whether it is false or not. Irony can be expressed just as simply by telling the truth and the dissociative manner can be communicated by other methods, The speaker can dissociate herself for other reasons, e.g because it would be inappropriate to have this thought or to express it in this way.

The main disadvantage of relevance theory lies within it's account of 'echoing the thoughts of a group' or 'the hopes of all humans'. For example;

(5) Context: It's raining outside. John: What a lovely day!

Now imagine if there hadn't been a weather report the night before saying that the day that John is commenting on was, in fact, supposed to be a nice day or any kind of previous utterance stating or implicating that the day was going to be nice. The echoic element would not be drawn from a previous utterance, it would come from what Sperber and Wilson call 'the hopes of all humans', humans naturally hope for things to go well. In (5)'s case John is hoping that day would have been nice and is echoing the fact that humanity wants nice weather. This is seen as a very vague account as many different factors could contribute to these thoughts and expectations that 'all' humans hold. This is where the theory of irony as pretence comes into play. Pretence theorists would say in regards to (5) that John is not echoing hopes but in fact pretending to be a weather reporter saying that it is a nice day when it clearly isn't. John expects the listener(s) to understand that he is mimicking or pretending for ironic effect, he isn't asking his audience to tap into a shared 'hopes of all humans' assumption. "Leslie (1987) [.] argues that engaging in pretence depends on the capacity to understand pretence in others, which in turn depends on an ability to understand another's mental state." (Rucinska 2013: 1). This would seem to illustrate that pretence could account for irony without an echoic element. It is also interesting that 'the hopes of all humans' are perhaps not entirely universal. A rainy day for someone who lives in an arid desert may actually be seen as a nice day, thus rendering (5) not ironic. This raises the question of; if people assume that not everyone shares the same beliefs and pre existing contextual and cultural beliefs why would they be trying to echo something that may not be understood as irony? It would simply be irrelevant to the context and an implication would not have been derived from the utterance. The dissociative attitude still exists but in place of the irony, pretence instead. Linguists argue that 'Grice's problem' (by saying something that is completely opposite or absurd doesn't always achieve irony) shows that some form of context is required and has to be echoed to let the listener know that irony is being employed. 'The problem disappears, however, if she is assumed to be mentioning the words instead, [.] But the problem also disappears if the speaker is assumed to be pretending to be a weather forecaster using those words.' (Clark and Gerrig 1984: 123)

Another example of how pretence can account for the creation irony is to consider an essay written by William Swift, entitled 'A Modest Proposal' (1729) (Wilson 2006: 29). It is a written parody that, in a nutshell, jokes about eating Irish children and serving them as meals to rich folk. The irony doesn't come from an echo, as this would be impossible, "It is implausible that anyone had uttered the entire essay [.] or that dining on Irish children was ever a part of 'popular wisdom or received opinions' (Jorgenson et al, 1984, p.114)" (Clark and Gerrig 1984: 123) So the irony stems from the fact that Swift is merely pretending to be someone that believes his notion is ethical, the absurdity of this creates the irony. He also was writing as an English nobleman to audience of English people, again it is clear to see that, "He expected his readers to recognize the pretence and to see how by affecting the pretence he was denouncing English attitudes towards the Irish." (Clark and Gerrig 1984: 123).

As we can see from the points raised and examples used relevance theory is a very comprehensive view of verbal irony, much more so than Grice's 'traditional' approach. Although, there are still theories, such as pretence, that can intuitively account for some types of verbal irony but there are still flaws in these theories where relevance theory can offer an explanation, such as the famous "Grice's problem'.

Bibliography

Clark, B (2013). Relevance Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rucinska, Z. (2013). Towards Non-Representation Pretence: The effect of props and players on the development of imaginative play..Kazimierz Naturalism Workshop (KNEW) 2013. Accessed at: https://www.academia.edu/4745397/Towards_Non-Representational_Pretence_the_Effect_of_Props_and_Players_on_the_Development_of_Imaginative_Play (24th January 2014)

Clark, H and Gerrig, R. (1984). On the Pretense Theory of Irony.Journal of Experimental Psychology. 113 (1), 121-126

Wilson, D. (2006). The pragmatics of verbal irony: echo or pretence?.Lingua. 116 (1), 1722-1743.