The use of co-textual irony markers in written discourse

Christian Burgers; Margot van Mulken; Peter Jan Schellens

doi:10.1515/humor-2013-0004

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The use of co-textual irony markers in written discourse

Christian Burgers , Margot van Mulken and Peter Jan Schellens

Published/Copyright: January 31, 2013

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From the journal Humor Volume 26 Issue 1

Abstract

Authors of written texts may mark the use of verbal irony in a variety of ways. One possibility for doing so is the use of so-called co-textual markers of irony (i.e., support strategies that open up a non-serious frame). This study aims to classify and categorize these co-textual irony markers. A content analysis of 2,042 co-textual utterances of irony across four text genres (advertisements, newspaper columns, book and film reviews, and letters to the editor) shows that three categories of support strategies could be identified: other ironic utterances, tropes and mood markers. The use of irony support strategies was positively related to the genre of newspaper columns: columns used more ironic utterances and tropes as irony support strategies than the other genres in the corpus.

Keywords: verbal irony; natural discourse; irony support strategies; co-textual markers

(PhD 2010, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands) is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Science at VU University Amsterdam

Published Online: 2013-01-31

Published in Print: 2013-02-22

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2013-0004

Keywords for this article

verbal irony; natural discourse; irony support strategies; co-textual markers