Presupposition and the Implicit Display Theory

Abstract

Presupposition is one way of expressing irony which is a communicative behavior in that the literal meaning and background assumptions associated with an utterance differ in systematic ways from the reality as assumed by the interlocutors. Typically, the intended meaning of ironical utterances is the opposite of the literal meaning. Irony is perceived through a complex interaction between an utterance and its context and sense many social functions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the presupposition role in the recognition of irony in Middleton (1989) cynical tragedy. The issue of controversy in irony research depends on what features of irony people endorse. Thus, a more comprehensive view of irony, the implicit display theory of verbal irony is herewith proposed. Discussion of the findings suggests that implicit display theory and the tool of presupposition can account for indirect effects on the degree of irony.

Critical Discourse Analysis of Various Perspectives of Season of Migration to the North

“…What makes it critical and different from other types of DA analysis approach? According to Schiffrin et al (2015) there are three main definitions of DA: "(1) anything beyond the sentence, (2) language use, and (3) a broader range of social practice that includes non-linguistic and non-specific instances of language" (1). There are various DA approaches that differ in their origins, goals, types of data, and methods of analyses, but we will be utilizing the CDA approach for this research to study the relationship between language and power (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997) and how it will be able to help the researcher better understand and interpret a certain context or discourse.…”