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Part of
The Discourse of Indirectness: Cues, voices and functions
Edited by Zohar Livnat, Pnina Shukrun-Nagar and Galia Hirsch
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 316] 2020
► pp. 17–38

Irony, humor or both?

The model revisited

| Bar-Ilan University
This contribution revisits the difference between irony and humor taking into account new approaches shedding light on the complicated relationship between irony and humor (Dynel 2013; Gibbs, Bryant & Colston 2014; Garmendia 2014; Kapogianni 2011; Piskorska 2014; Yus 2016). In previous research (Hirsch 2011a, 2011b), the differentiation between irony and humor was established based on a comparative model, which distinguished between cues for irony and cues for humor through pragmatic analysis of source texts and their translations.
In view of some of the new accounts (Dynel 2013; Kapogianni 2011; Piskorska 2014), the study purports to adapt the model, incorporating the concept of surrealistic irony and concluding that differences in the use of explicitation strategies in translation are still a decisive tool in setting the boundaries between irony and humor.
Keywords: irony, humor, translation, literature, criticism, echoic mention, non-sense
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The original model
  • 3.New research on the relationship between irony and humor
  • 4.Textual analysis
    • 4.1Macro-analysis
    • 4.2Micro-analysis: Irony
    • 4.3Micro-analysis: Humor
    • 4.4Micro-level: Surrealistic irony or absurd humor
  • 5.Concluding remarks: the model revisited
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.316.01hir
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Shukrun-Nagar, Pnina & Galia Hirsch
2023. What kind of laughter?. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) DOI logo

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