irony

[Csika]

Hi,

Look at this ironic sentence:

My mother-in-law is a brilliant woman.

I wonder why the speaker said this in spite of the literal 'My ... is bossy, etc.'

I know an answer could be 'to criticise'. Anything else apart from that?

Thank you very much.

Csika

 

[5jj]

We would need far more context to comment. On its own, the sentence 'My mother-in-law is a brilliant woman' is not ironic.

 

[Csika]

Ok. Two friends are talking. One of them got married last Saturday. His friend asks:

How about your mother-in-law? What is she like?

As a reply the other says in an ironic tone of voice:

She is brilliant.

Why do you think he said that in an ironic tone of voice?

 

[5jj]

Ok. Two friends are talking. One of them got married last Saturday. His friend asks:

How about your mother-in-law? What is she like?

As a reply the other says in an ironic tone of voice:

She is brilliant.

Why do you think he said that in an ironic tone of voice?

Presumably he was intending to be sarcastic.

 

[Csika]

Hm. I thought irony and sarcasm were the same thing.

Csika

 

[emsr2d2]

Hm. I thought irony and sarcasm were the same thing.

Csika

They're not. Look at the lyrics of "Ironic" by Alannis Morissette here for plenty of examples of irony.

 

[Van Veen]

Sarcasm is a subset of irony. I will now proceed to write an ironic sentence:

"Alanis Morisette is an expert on the subject of irony."

 

[emsr2d2]

Is there any difference[STRIKE]s[/STRIKE] between irony and sarcasm?

irony - definition of irony by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.
sarcasm - definition of sarcasm by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.