THE PLACE OF THE PHENOMENON OF IRONY IN LINGUISTICS: BASIC APPROACHES AND LEVELS OF ANALYSIS

Abstract

The research is focused on the study of the linguistic specificity and status of irony, the identification of its ontological features, the peculiarities of the generation and interpretation of ironic meaning from the point of view of rhetorical-stylistic, structural-semantic, pragmatic and cognitive approaches. From the structural-semantic perspective, irony is examined within the meaning of a separate lexical unit or within the structure of a separate sentence based on objective dictionary definitions or an associative complex structured by stereotypical knowledge. Despite the conceptually new level of interpretation of irony, the pragmatic theory studies irony at the level of an utterance in direct correlation with the communication situation. Within the cognitive paradigm, irony is considered as an element of a person’s conceptual system. A cognitive view of irony provides an opportunity to resolve issues that were neglected by previous linguistic theories, to consider the deep mechanisms of understanding irony at the level of discourse taking into account all pragmatic, sociocultural, and psychological characteristics. It is proved that despite the fundamental differences underlying the rhetoricalstylistic, structural-semantic, pragmatic and cognitive approaches, they cannot be considered conceptually direct opposites. Each of these approaches, using its scientific set of methods, deals with a certain facet of irony, leaving out other aspects of it. At the same time, it is emphasized that the whole variety of considered theories from the right angle can form a comprehensive and effective model for understanding irony. The comparison and critical analysis of rhetorical-stylistic, structural-semantic, pragmatic and cognitive approaches made it possible to reveal their common ground, namely the interpretation of irony as a single phenomenon with two forms of manifestation: ideal (an element of world perception) and material (an element of language). Those different approaches share the understanding of the main feature of irony – the presence of expressed and hidden meanings connected by relations of opposition or negation, and the distinction of its basic function – the expression of a subjective, emotionally charged attitude to reality.