In this chapter we present the results of both a theoretical and empirical study on the evaluative character of verbal irony. Our main research concern was to provide evidence as to whether all cases of verbal irony are ‘critical’ in nature or not, both by means of theoretical reflection and by presenting the results of a survey whose questions were mainly oriented toward the identification of ironical situations by English native speakers. For our analysis of the evaluative content of ironic utterances we draw on the findings of studies such as Thompson and Hunston (2000), Martin and White (2005), or Bednarek (2008a). The results of the survey show that the great majority of speakers recognized the different evaluative shades of the ironical situations presented, which gave grounds for accepting our hypothesis that the essence of verbal irony is not to be found in its possible implied criticism, but in a finer, more subtle aspect of the phenomenon which has to do with a clash or contradiction at different linguistic/discursive levels.

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This paper makes reference to Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory, and their treatment of irony as an off record strategy. These authours consider that different off record strategies viólate or flout different maxims, and "being ironic" is labelled as a strategy violating the Quality Maxim. The main aim of this paper is to discuss how, by being ironic, a speaker or writer can flout not only the Maxim of Quality but the other three Gricean Maxims as well.

En Visiones en educación sin barreras ni fronteras participaron para su elaboración más de 35 importantes y reconocidos académicos como autores provenientes de toda Iberoamérica, solo por mencionar algunas personalidades que se unieron a este libro homenaje nombraré algunos maestros como Claudio Rama, Julio Cabero, Marta Mena, Santiago Acosta, Francisco Cervantes, Magdalena Cruz, Josep Duart y Antonio Moreira y otros excelsos intelectuales iberoamericanos. Cada análisis que ellos referencian se basa en los diversos tópicos y siempre rigurosos estudios que sobre este apasionante mundo de la innovación educativa ha realizado el Dr. García Aretio y que aparecen reseñados en sus diversos libros y en particular en la insigne revista RIED que hoy él y su equipo han posicionado en lo más alto de los más reconocidos rankings de la élite académica e investigativa mundial.

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