Second-order empathy, pragmatic ambiguity, and irony
-
Dirk Geeraerts
Abstract
If first-order empathy is the ability of Self to take into account Other’s point of view, second-order empathy may be defined as the ability of Self to take into account Other’s point of view as including a view of Self. The paper argues that the possibility for the hearer to choose between a first-order empathic and a second-order empathic interpretation of speaker utterances introduces a principled and pervasive indeterminacy in speaker-hearer interactions, illustrated with examples of referential ambiguity, speech-act-related ambiguity, and sociocommunicative ambiguity. With representative speech acts, the interaction of degree of empathy and convergence/divergence of beliefs yields six interpretative configurations: assertion, mistake, agreement, disagreement, irony, deception. Thus, irony finds a systematic position within a broader calculus of intersubjective interaction.
Abstract
If first-order empathy is the ability of Self to take into account Other’s point of view, second-order empathy may be defined as the ability of Self to take into account Other’s point of view as including a view of Self. The paper argues that the possibility for the hearer to choose between a first-order empathic and a second-order empathic interpretation of speaker utterances introduces a principled and pervasive indeterminacy in speaker-hearer interactions, illustrated with examples of referential ambiguity, speech-act-related ambiguity, and sociocommunicative ambiguity. With representative speech acts, the interaction of degree of empathy and convergence/divergence of beliefs yields six interpretative configurations: assertion, mistake, agreement, disagreement, irony, deception. Thus, irony finds a systematic position within a broader calculus of intersubjective interaction.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction. Figurative language 1
-
Part I. Intersubjectivity and interaction
- Second-order empathy, pragmatic ambiguity, and irony 19
- Desiderata for metaphor theory, the Motivation & Sedimentation Model and motion-emotion metaphoremes 41
- Evaluating metaphor accounts via their pragmatic effects 75
- The multimodal negotiation of irony and humor in interaction 109
-
Part II. Mechanisms and processes
- Metaphor and irony 139
- Metonymic indeterminacy and metalepsis 175
- On verbal and situational irony 213
- On figurative ambiguity, marking, and low-salience meanings 241
-
Part III. Usage and variation
- Metaphor, metonymy and polysemy 287
- Psycholinguistic approaches to figuration 307
- The fabric of metaphor in discourse 339
- Sources of verbal humor in the lexicon 357
- Measuring the impact of (non)figurativity in the cultural conceptualization of emotions in the two main national varieties of Portuguese 387
- Index 439
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction. Figurative language 1
-
Part I. Intersubjectivity and interaction
- Second-order empathy, pragmatic ambiguity, and irony 19
- Desiderata for metaphor theory, the Motivation & Sedimentation Model and motion-emotion metaphoremes 41
- Evaluating metaphor accounts via their pragmatic effects 75
- The multimodal negotiation of irony and humor in interaction 109
-
Part II. Mechanisms and processes
- Metaphor and irony 139
- Metonymic indeterminacy and metalepsis 175
- On verbal and situational irony 213
- On figurative ambiguity, marking, and low-salience meanings 241
-
Part III. Usage and variation
- Metaphor, metonymy and polysemy 287
- Psycholinguistic approaches to figuration 307
- The fabric of metaphor in discourse 339
- Sources of verbal humor in the lexicon 357
- Measuring the impact of (non)figurativity in the cultural conceptualization of emotions in the two main national varieties of Portuguese 387
- Index 439
