TITLE:

CAN IRONY BE PHATIC? A RELEVANCE-THEORETIC PROPOSAL

Author:

Manuel Padilla Cruz

Institution:

Universidad de Sevilla

E-mail:

mpadillacruz@us.es

Within Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986/1995), irony is explained as a case of echoic interpretive (attributive) metarepresentational use of utterances with which the speaker expresses an attitude of dissociation or disapproval of a proposition. Similarly, phatic utterances have been analysed as echoic interpretive (attributive) metarepresentations, but the attitude expressed by the speaker in one of endorsement or acceptance of a proposition (Padilla Cruz, 2004, 2005).

Both types of utterances shares some features but differ as regards the expression of attitude. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to reflect on the possibility that ironic utterances be assigned a phatic interpretation from a Relevance-Theoretic (Sperber and Wilson, 1986/1995) perspective. In order to do so, I will first introduce the extant approach to irony proposed in Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986/1995). Then, I will summarise the main ideas of the current Relevance-Theoretic approach to phatic utterances (Padilla Cruz, 2004, 2005; Žegarac, 1998; Žegarac and Clark, 1999). Finally, I will discuss whether irony can be phatic and, if so, why and how that may be.