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1、OntheEnglishVerbalIronyI.IntroductionMyparticularinterestinironywastriggeredbyanoversimplificationthatischaracteristicofalltheenergyexpendedathomebymanyastudentintheEnglishrhetoricfieldintryingtopresentuswithanadequateaccountoftheEnglishirony.Whilequiteafewoftheseendeavorsturn
2、edoutbutamanifestationofacombinationofamoreorlessidiosyncratictaxonomyofironywiththefewmuch-too-repeated,hencetriteexamples,mostoftheendeavor-makerssavedthemselvestroubleenoughbyidentifyingandequatingtheEnglishironywiththeChineseironywithoutanysignificantdistinctionsmadebetwee
3、nthem.Consequently,weareverylikelytobebiasedtowardsthinkingofthetwoasoneandthesame,notwithstandingweareconfrontedwiththevariousChineseterminologies(eg.fanyu,fanfeng,jifeng,fengcietc.)bywhichtheChinesescholarschoosetocall“irony”.“TheEnglishironyandtheChineseironyaresimilartoeac
4、hotherintermsofeithertypeorfunctionoruse.Withrecoursetoanantitheticaluseoflexicalmeaning,bothofthemsaythecontraryofwhatonethinksorofwhatonewouldhaveone’sinterlocutorthink”.(胡曙中1992:353)HoweverthetraditionalanalysisofEnglishironyasliterallysayingonethingandfigurativelymeaningth
5、eoppositehaslongbeforebeenchallengedbymanyWesternscholars,andifthenotionofironyinEnglishwereofthatuniformity,theChineseironywouldconformtoitsEnglishcounterpartperfectlywellandallthetheoreticalcontentionsonironywouldhavemadenosenseatall.J.A.Cuddon(1997),inhisDictionaryofLiterar
6、yTerms,devotedmuchspacetoirony’shistoricalevolutionfromasimplerhetoricaltropetothepresentnotionofapromiscuouslycomplexcharacter,andtheconclusionhereachedis,“[b]utitseemstobetheessentialnatureofirony(theneedtousetheword‘seems’ratherthan‘itis’isaproductoftheinherentambiguousness
7、ofthewholeconcept)thatiteludesdefinition.”(Cuddon,1997:338).Yetinspiteofthedifficultythatalmosteveryresearcherofironywillcertainlyencounterinattemptingorbeingtemptedtodefineironyinsucha48waythatthedefinitionwouldencompassalltheinstancesofirony,andthatbyitironywouldbeclearlydis
8、tinguishedfromnon-irony,itisstillpossibletocharacterizebyoneo
