The Interpretation of Linguistic Sarcasm

강현지

The Interpretation of Linguistic Sarcasm

The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea
Abbr : 사회언어학
2013, 21(2), pp.29-46
Publisher : The Sociolinguistic Society Of Korea
Research Area : Humanities > Linguistics

강현지 ¹

¹Kyungpook National University

Accredited

ABSTRACT

If politeness principles aim at maintaining a harmonious relationship among interlocutors, sarcasm targets the opposite end; it is designed to throw sarcastic accusation. Quite often, sarcasm is originated from Speaker. On occasions Hearer infers sarcasm out of Speaker's well-wishing utterances. In other times, Speaker's sarcasm is so blurry that Hearer cannot judge whether Speaker's utterance is sarcastic or not. This writer attempts to interpret linguistic sarcasm by illustrating different cases in which sarcasm is generated, transferred and interpreted. The first kind is Speaker-originated sarcasm. Speaker generates sarcasm and delivers it. Hearer interprets Speaker's sarcastic message as sarcasm. The second case refers to Hearer-originated sarcasm. Because of his or her own person hood or viewpoints of the world, Hearer infers sarcasm out of Speaker's innocuous utterances. The final case is the exploitation of ambiguity. Taking advantage of the linguistic ambiguity between sarcastic irony and banter, Speaker throws a punch of acerbic sarcasm. (165)

KEYWORDS

sarcasm, Speaker-originated, Hearer-originated, ambiguity, causticity

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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