Showing a limited preview of this publication:
Abstract
The ironic use of excuses is in the focus of the present paper. An excuse, when used ironically, no longer works as an excuse, the speaker expresses something different. But what exactly does the speaker express? The present paper tries to answer this question by first describing the non-ironic use of excuses and then pointing out, how irony changes the pragmatic function of the excuse. It can be shown for a Russian and a Czech literary corpus, that an ironically used excuse strengthens an insult or expresses a reproach. The paper also describes on which level of the speech act the irony can be found (on the illocutionary or on the propositional level).
Published Online: 2010-05-21
Published in Print: 2010-04-01
© by Akademie Verlag, Berlin, Germany
