ABSTRACT
Evaluative at t i tudes are often related with rhetorical devices. Indignat ion expresses i tself through exclamation and rhetorical questions, deference through specific markers of enunciation, scepticism or contempt through irony. The treatment of these rhetorical devices is among the most difficult problems faced by natural language processing (NLP). From a linguistic point of view, a normal statement does not differ from an ironical statement. In order to determine whether a statement is ironical there seems to be no solution other than to examine the truth, or at least the plausibility of this statement. However, if irony is subtle (and it often is), both ironical and non-ironical readings are plausible. Moreover, NLP systems usually do not possess the knowledge which would be necessary to decide whether a statement is true or false, plausible or not.
