PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/81993 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-02 and may be subject to change. Verbal irony: Use and effects in written discourse een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied van de Letteren Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. mr. S.C.J.J. Kortmann, volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 30 september 2010 om 13.30 uur precies door Christian Frederik Burgers geboren op 8 januari 1983 te Nijmegen Promotores: prof. dr. P.J.M.C. Schellens prof. dr. M.J.P. van Mulken Manuscriptcommissie: prof. dr. J.A.L. Hoeken prof. dr. R.N.W.M. van Hout dr. J.M. Sanders prof. dr. G.J. Steen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) prof. dr. A. Verhagen (Universiteit Leiden) Printer: Ipskamp Drukkers, Enschede / Nijmegen ISBN: 9789460049996 Cover image: The cover image is a campaign advertisement used by the Conservative Party in the British General Elections of 2010. The advertisement is republished here with permission of the Conservatives. Preface When you turn towards a typical preface in a dissertation, you usually find words of praise of the PhD candidate for many people who helped him or her in preparing the dissertation. After having written a dissertation myself, I can only agree that the process of this research has not been a solitary one. However, the topic of this dissertation makes it difficult to plunge right in in acknowledging those people who helped me during this process. After all, a scholar of irony may run the risk that his kind of words of praise are interpreted as ironic. Fortunately, Peter Jan recently pointed out that - in this dissertation at least - I have added an irony marker to the repertoire discussed in chapter 4. For reader convenience, ironic utterances in this dissertation are printed in bold face. This brings me to my team of supervisors, Peter Jan Schellens and Margot van Mulken. Peter Jan, your broad knowledge, sharp analyses, constructive criticism and insightful comments have helped me enormously during this research project. Margot, your flexibility, knowledge about figurative language and enthusiasm for my project have been much appreciated. I am grateful for all you both did for me. Hans Hoeken, thank you for acting as a third supervisor during the first year of my project. I was fortunate enough to belong to both the Department of Business Communication and Dutch Language and Culture during my time as a PhD student. Both departments have a pleasant atmosphere and great colleagues. I would like to particularly acknowledge Jos Hornikx, Rob le Pair, Frank van Meurs, Lettica Hustinx, Renske van Enschot and my roommates Daniël Rovers and Joost van Driel. A special thanks is kindly extended to Rogier Crijns. It is said that taking a PhD is a lonely business. I found out that this is often not true, especially with a group of fellow PhD candidates to give support and to have lunch with. Rian Timmers, Ester Sorm, Yvette Linders, Didier Hodiamont, Annemieke Kouwenberg, Floor van Renssen, Judith Kessler, and Esther op de Beek: thank you all. During the project, several students have helped me by acting as second coders or by helping me in collecting participants for my experiments. I am particularly grateful to Marije Boer, Karin Fikkers and Bram van der Plas for their assistance. I would also like to thank the British Conservative Party for allowing me to reproduce the campaign advertisement on the cover of this dissertation. During the last semester of my time as a PhD candidate, I also started working at the Department of Communication Studies at VU University Amsterdam. I would like to thank the MT in general and Elly Konijn in particular for the warm welcome and the flexibility to allow me to combine teaching at VU University with the completion of my PhD project. In addition, I would like to thank Camiel Beukeboom with whom I have extended my research on irony, Anita van Hoof for the pleasant train rides and my roommates Bo van Grinsven and Jolanda Veldhuis. Of course, the completion of a PhD project also depends on a good home base. I am grateful to my parents Henry and Wilma and to my brother Antoine for all their support throughout the years. Finally, I want to thank Anneke; who has been my most critical reader, has always reminded me of the other things in life than a PhD project, and, above all, who is my great love. Malden, July 2010. Table of contents Introduction 9 Irony - Definition and operationalization 19 Introduction 19 Definitions of verbal irony 19 2.2.1 (Neo-)Gricean definitions of irony 21 2.2.2 Irony as indirect negation 23 2.2.3 Irony and Relevance Theory 25 2.2.4 Irony as pretense 28 2.2.5 Irony, mental spaces and domains of discourse 30 2.2.6 The definition of irony used in this research 32 Previous operationalizations of verbal irony 36 Operationalization of verbal irony 39 2.4.1 Unit of analysis 39 2.4.2 The Verbal Irony Procedure (VIP) 41 2.4.3 Sample analysis 45 Conclusion and discussion 51 Irony factors 53 Introduction 53 Irony factors and their sublevels 55 3.2.1 Evaluativeness: Explicitly and implicitly evaluative irony 55 3.2.2 Incongruence: Incongruence in the co- or context 57 3.2.3 Targets: Sender, receiver or third party 59 3.2.4 Reversal of valence: Ironic praise and ironic blame 61 3.2.5 Relevance: Directly and indirectly relevant irony 62 Method 64 3.3.1 Material 64 3.3.2 Procedure and reliability 67 Results and implications: Quantitative and qualitative 70 3.4.1 Evaluativeness 70 3.4.2 Incongruence 74 3.4.3 Targets 79 3.4.4 Reversal of valence 84 3.4.5: Relevance 87 Conclusion and discussion 90 Irony markers in the ironic utterance 95 Introduction 95 Irony markers in Dutch, written discourse 97 4.2.1 Tropes as irony markers 99 4.2.2 Schematic irony markers 103 4.2.3 Morpho-syntactic irony markers 106 4.2.4 Typographic irony markers 111 Method 115 4.3.1 Material 115 4.3.2 Procedure and reliability 115 Results 118 Conclusion and discussion 127 Irony markers in the verbal co-text 131 Introduction 131 Method 134 5.2.1 Material 134 5.2.2 Procedure and reliability 134 Results 136 Conclusion and discussion 144 Verbal irony and visuals 147 Introduction 147 Method 154 6.2.1 Material 154 6.2.2 Procedure and reliability 155 Results 158 Conclusion and discussion 160 The relation between irony factors and markers and the perceived 163 complexity of irony Introduction 163 Method 166 7.2.1 Material 166 7.2.2 Perceived complexity 167 7.2.3 Data analysis 167 Results 168 Conclusion and discussion 171 The influence of irony factors and markers on irony 175 comprehension and appreciation Introduction 175 Experiment 1 178 8.2.1 Method 178 Materials 178 Instrumentation 181 Design 182 Respondents 183 Data analysis 183 8.2.2 Results 187 8.2.3 Conclusion and discussion 190 Experiment 2 193 8.3.1 Method 193 Materials 193 Instrumentation 195 Design 195 Respondents 195 Data analysis 195 8.3.2 Results 196 8.3.3 Conclusion and discussion 200 General conclusion and discussion 202 Conclusion and discussion 205 Conclusion and implications 205 9.1.1 Textual features of irony 206 9.1.2 Irony and genre 208 9.1.3 Effects of irony 211 9.1.4 Implications for irony processing models 214 Limitations and recommendations for further research 218 9.2.1 The use of irony 218 9.2.2 Effects of irony 221 225 241 Appendices 255 I Overview of advertisements in corpus 256 II Overview of opinionative texts in corpus 264 III Coding instruction irony factors 267 IV Coding instruction irony markers 276 V Coding instruction irony factors and markers - second round 284 VI Coding instruction co-textual markers of irony 285 VII Coding instruction co-textual markers of irony - second round 289 VIII Coding instruction verbal irony and visuals 291 IX Coding instruction verbal irony and visuals - second round 302 X Coding instruction for perceived complexity of irony 303 XI Stimuli experiment 1 306 XII Sources of stimuli of experiments 1 and 2 318 XIII Stimuli experiment 2 320 Summary in Dutch 329 Curriculum Vitae 342 Chapter 1 : Introduction “Lotto: the greatest risk of becoming a millionaire.” “Autodrop: so tasty, it should be banned." Various Dutch brands position themselves with the use of an ironic slogan. The Dutch lottery Lotto advertises the chances of winning the jackpot in an ironic way. In this advertisement, winning the Lotto jackpot is literally portrayed as something negative, because contestants literally run a risk. For Dutch people who participate in the Lotto, winning the jackpot is of course something positive. Another Dutch company, Autodrop (car-shaped licorice), literally claims that its product is too tasty and that it should be banned. Of course, Autodrop wants to convey the opposite; consumers should go to the supermarket and purchase the product. Both the Lotto and the Autodrop commercials use the rhetorical strategy of verbal irony to persuade their customers to buy their products. The use of irony is not explicitly announced in the Lotto and Autodrop commercials; it is possible that addressees do not pick up on the irony and interpret the slogans literally.