A PRAGMATIC STUDY OF IRONY IN SOME BRITISH AND IRAQI TV COMIC SHOWS
Hana Qaiser Hamdi
College of Education For Human Sciences University of Tikrit
Abid Hmood Ali
College of Education For Human Sciences University of Tikrit
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.1.4.6
Keywords: -irony -speech acts - pragmatic presupposition -implicature - TV comic shows - inference
Abstract
Lots of comic shows have been largely displayed on various TV
channels and social media. The presenters of such shows talk about
different issues such as political, social, economic etc. This study aims
at identifying the most common pragmatic strategies used to issue irony
in the two comic shows which are Last week tonight and Al-Basheer
are chosen. . Also, it aims at showing the differences between British
and Iraqi comic shows in these aspects. To test out the validity of these
hypothesis, eight comic videos are selected-four from each show. It is
hypothesized that: (i) the presenter of comic shows may employ
different pragmatic strategies to achieve irony; and (ii) pragmatic
aspects such as speech act, pragmatic presupposition and context have a
vital role in determining the ironic meaning in British and Iraqi comic
shows. The model adopted in this study is a pragmatic one. Its main
categories are: Grice's cooperative principle and implicature(1975),
Yule's inference (2006), Mey's pragmatic presupposition(2001), Searl's
speech act theory (1979), and Leech's (1983) maxims of politeness.
The most important conclusions the study reached at are: (i) pragmatic
aspects such as speech act, pragmatic presupposition and context have a
decisive role in determining the ironic meaning in British and Iraqi
comic shows;(ii) irony can be used as a tool of criticism in comic
shows.
