反语的语用理解

反语(Irony)是指说话人所说的话在字面上与他想要表达的意义恰恰相反,是一种通过正话反说或反话正说来取得讽刺、幽默等效果的修辞手法。本文借助Sperber和Wilson(1986/1995)的关联理论,指出反语理解是一个多维推理过程。反语交际发生时,听话人会结合认知环境,明显感觉到在话语和整个认知环境之间存在不匹配、有悖听话人的心理期待。在寻找最佳关联的过程中,听话人于是推测这种不匹配不是无缘无故的,而是说话人有意为之,代表说话人的某种批评性评判或评价,进而推断该话语是讽刺性话语:传递讽刺、挖苦、戏谑、诙谐、嘲弄甚或幽默等态度。其次,交际者的心态,语气、语调也能帮助听话者识别反语的真正内涵。

The Interpretation of Irony from a Pragmatic Perspective

Irony is a figure of speech that achieves emphasis(such as sarcasm,humor) by saying the opposite of what is meant,the intended meaning of the words being the opposite of their usual sense.This paper,based on Sperber & Wilson's relevance theory(1986/1995),suggests that the interpretation of irony is a multidimensional inferential process,in which the hearer puts the utterance into the cognitive environment and fails to find a good match,an obvious inconsistency with the hearer's expectation.In search of the optimal relevance,the hearer assumes that the incongruity must have an implicature,revealing the speaker's rejecting or disapproving attitude,conveying the communicative intention of sarcasm,banter or humor.What's more,the recognition of the communicators' attitudes,emotions and phonetic means may be also crucial to the interpretation process.