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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. 59–82

“Hero, genius, king and Messiah”

Ironic echoing in pro-ethos and anti-ethos readers’ comments on Facebook posts

| Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

This paper discusses readers’ comments on posts written by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his Facebook page in November 2017. It focuses on the use of ironic echoes (Sperber & Wilson 1981) of compliments and accusations, including multi-stage ones, to either enhance or damage Netanyahu’s ethos as a successful leader.

It is argued that Netanyahu’s supporters use ironic echoes of accusations by his critics in order to enhance his ethos, whereas his critics use ironic echoes of compliments to Netanyahu in order to damage it. Moreover, It is argued that both the construction and de-construction of Netanyahu’s ethos are intertwined with the self-enhancement of the positive face (Brown & Levinson 1987) of commenters from one political camp, alongside the threat to the positive face of their rivals.

Keywords: irony, ironic echoes/echoing, ethos, face, Facebook, multi-stage echoes, on-line readers’ comments, accusation, condemnation, compliment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ethos, face and positioning
  • 3.Netanyahu and his Facebook page
  • 4.Pro-ethos readers’ comments vs. anti-ethos readers’ comments
  • 5.Ironic echoing in reader’s comments
  • 6.Ironic echoing in comments by Netanyahu’s supporters
  • 7.Ironic echoing in comments by Netanyahu’s critics
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.316.03shu
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