THE NOMINATIVE-COMMUNICATIVE FIELD OF IRONY IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK: CORE AND PERIPHERAL UNITS
Abstract
This article examines the concept of irony/sarcasm in English and Uzbek as a nominative-communicative field rather than as an isolated stylistic figure. The central assumption of the study is that irony is organized around a semantic-pragmatic contradiction between the literal expression and the implicit evaluative intention of the speaker. The research analyzes the core and peripheral layers of this field, the linguistic means that verbalize ironic meaning, and the ways in which nominative and communicative units interact in actual discourse. In English, the field is represented by such units as irony, sarcasm, mockery, ridicule and teasing, whereas in Uzbek it includes kesatiq, piching, kinoya, istehzo, masxara and qochirim. The article argues that the field structure of irony consists of a semantic core, an inner periphery of prosodic and morphological markers, a middle periphery of lexical-semantic, phraseological, syntactic and paremiological units, and an outer periphery of textual, pragmatic and paralinguistic signals. The comparative analysis reveals both universal mechanisms, such as semantic inversion and implicit evaluation, and nationally specific forms of realization shaped by communicative norms and cultural expectations.
Keywords
irony, sarcasm, mockery, kesatiq, nominative-communicative field, core, periphery, semantic inversion, implicit evaluation, English, Uzbek.
References
- Attardo, S. (2000). Irony as relevant inappropriateness. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(6), 793–826.
- Booth, W. C. (1974). A Rhetoric of Irony. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Clark, H. H., & Gerrig, R. J. (1984). On the pretense theory of irony. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113(1), 121–126.
- Gibbs, R. W. (1994). The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Giora, R. (2003). On Our Mind: Salience, Context, and Figurative Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts (pp. 41–58). New York: Academic Press.
- Hutcheon, L. (1994). Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony. London and New York: Routledge.
- Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
- Muecke, D. C. (1982). Irony and the Ironic. London: Methuen.
- Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1981). Irony and the use–mention distinction. In P. Cole (Ed.), Radical Pragmatics (pp. 295–318). New York: Academic Press.
- Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.