Salting a wound or sugaring a pill
The pragmatic functions of ironic criticism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11273666 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Herbert L Colston (0000-0003-1256-0892, University of California, Santa Cruz, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 25-45 |
| Publication date | 1997-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discourse Processes (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0163-853X • E-ISSN: 1532-6950 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01638539709544980 |
| OpenAlex | W1995701568 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 75 |
| References cited | 17 |
Recent investigations of the pragmatic functions of ironic criticism (e.g., saying “Nice shot” to condemn a fellow player for missing a free throw and losing a basketball game) have argued that ironic criticism is used to dilute condemnation. Dews and Winner (1995) and Dews, Kaplan, and Winner (1995) showed that, relative to literal criticism (e.g., Terrible shot”), ironic criticism expresses less condemnation. This article reports the results of four experiments to show that ironic criticism in many cases is used for just the opposite reason—to enhance rather than to dilute condemnation. These findings have significant implications for both pragmatic and processing theories of verbal irony
Art · Criticism · Epistemology · Irony · Linguistics · Literature · Rhetoric · Rhetorical criticism · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology
Introduction to the Special Issue
Irony in Talk Among Friends
Moment-By-Moment Reading of Proverbs in Literal and Nonliteral Contexts
Indexing membership via responses to irony
“Unicorn humour isn’t very subtle.” Graphic novels and comics as a potential didactic tool for teaching irony to children
Context and working memory capacity affect the processing of written irony in chinese
Judging emoji by occupation
Examining the emotional impact of sarcasm using a virtual environment
Theoretically on Mock Politeness in English and Italian
The role of verbal irony in conflict talk among relatives and friends in an Argentinian community
It’s (More Than) Personal
On the relation of irony, understatement, and litotes
Two layers of overt untruthfulness
Request complexity is no more a problem when the requests are ironic
When language bites
The role of defaultness and personality factors in sarcasm interpretation
Irony in Talk Among Friends
Individual Differences in Verbal Irony Use
Moment-By-Moment Reading of Proverbs in Literal and Nonliteral Contexts
Does Irony Go Better With Friends
Politeness and the Perception of Irony
Gender Differences in Verbal Irony Use
Analogy and Irony
Introduction to the Special Issue
Development of children's ability to distinguish sarcasm and verbal irony
Contextual Factors That Trigger Sarcasm
Discursive practices of blame during the Covid-19 pandemic on Chinese Weibo
On-line commenting on opinion editorials
Who is the victim? When the addresser of the echoed utterance and the target of the irony differ
A New Test for Irony Detection
When children acquire irony
Irony from a neo-Gricean perspective
Understanding ironic utterances
Neo-Gricean perspective on irony, deception, and humor vs. some insights from experimental studies
Understanding Irony in Literary Texts
The Virtue of Encompassing the Contrary
Moral irony
Resonating with contextually inappropriate interpretations in production
Interpreting verbal irony in Mandarin Chinese
Humorous and ironic readers' comments to a politician's post on Facebook
The ironical Chinese bei-construction and its accessibility to English speakers
Identifying irony in news interviews
Ironic Message Production
Whose side are we on
The role of social status in sarcasm interpretation
Sarcasm Across Time and Space
Irony, Prosody, and Social Impressions of Affective Stance
Ironic Expression Can Simultaneously Enhance and Dilute Perception of Criticism
Contrast of Kind Versus Contrast of Magnitude
On Negation as Mitigation
Wolves, Confederates, and the Happy Few
The Roles of Politeness and Humor in the Asymmetry of Affect in Verbal Irony
An Acquired Taste
When Sarcasm Stings
Does Sarcasm Always Sting? Investigating the Impact of Ironic Insults and Ironic Compliments
Children's Perceptions of the Social Functions of Verbal Irony
Sarcasm Use in Polish and Turkish
Voice Modulations in German Ironic Speech
No, No One Had Fun. Individual Differences in Nonliteral Language Perception
Comprehending Speaker Intent in Rebuttal Analogy Use
Conveying indirect reservations through discursive redundancy
On the uses of sarcastic irony
Beyond a Joke
How Korean EFL learners understand sarcasm in L2 English
The act of complaining in Brunei-Then and now
Is Verbal Irony Special
Contrast and pragmatics in figurative language
Contrast and assimilation in verbal irony
Irony comprehension
Irony and reversal of evaluation
Individual Differences in Irony Use Depend on Context
Should Be Fun-Not
Understanding Irony
Dewey Defeats Truman
How Sports Fans Forge Intergroup Competition Through Language
On the pretense theory of irony.
On the psycholinguistics of sarcasm.
Why Do People Use Figurative Language?
How about another piece of pie
How to be sarcastic
Logic and Conversation
"I've Never Seen Anything Like It"
Muting the Meaning A Social Function of Irony
On Being Ironic
Two Cues for Verbal Irony
Why not say it directly? The social functions of irony
The language-as-fixed-effect fallacy
You'll Never Believe This
Politeness
Psychological aspects of irony understanding
| Unique citing works | 75 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,68 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2026 (29) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 72 |