LINGUIST List 17.3524
Wed Nov 29 2006
Diss: Discourse Analysis/Socioling: Christodoulidou: 'Ironic Respon...'
Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales
<hannahlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Maria
Christodoulidou,
Ironic Responses in Cypriot Greek Talk-In-Interaction
Message 1: Ironic Responses in Cypriot Greek Talk-In-Interaction
Date: 29-Nov-2006
From: Maria Christodoulidou <pre.mcfit.ac.cy>
Subject: Ironic Responses in Cypriot Greek Talk-In-Interaction
Institution: University of Essex
Program: Department of Language and Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2006
Author: Maria Christodoulidou
Dissertation Title: Ironic Responses in Cypriot Greek Talk-In-Interaction
Linguistic Field(s):
Discourse Analysis
Sociolinguistics
Dissertation Director:
Rebecca Clift
Dissertation Abstract:
My thesis is a study of two levels of ironic responses in Cypriot Greektalk-in-interaction, both conventionalised irony and irony in casualeveryday conversations. The first form of response refers to the use of aconventionalised ironic marker, the lexical item 'siga', which translatesvariously as 'like hell', 'yeah right', 'big deal'. The second formof response refers to the use of ironic assessments. This researchilluminates some of the unsolved questions about irony and grounds some ofthe puzzles in interactional data. To begin with, it offers a summary andassessment of previous literature and a definition of irony. But mostimportantly, the motivation of this research is to shift the focus from thestudy of irony in experiments and the study of self-contained irony to thestudy of irony in talk-in-interaction. The method of analysis of theconversations under study relies on the theories established withinConversation Analysis. Specifically, for the analysis of the ironic marker'siga', this study relied on the insights offered by the theory ofgrammar and interaction. For the identification and analysis of ironicassesments, this study relied on the theory of framing and footing. In thecase of 'siga' the focus is on revealing its meaning in interaction andthe different actions accomplished by the different positions it occupiesin a turn. Ironic assessments are examined in context, that is, in thestorytelling sequences in which they occur. Focusing on irony inconversational sequences enables us to expose the fundamental concerns ofthe participants involved: how tellers use irony and how recipientsunderstand what is said as ironic and the ways they negotiate meaning.
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