ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop some criteria for the analysis of irony in discourse, because this important pragmatic device has a profound influence on the way texts are both understood and intended to be understood. Irony is most commonly and straightforwardly defined as a form of language that means the opposite of what is asserted. This conception of irony is certainly a useful start, but it falls short in a number of respects given the broad range of strategies available for communicating irony in discourse. Core definitionIrony is the perception of a conceptual paradox, planned or un-planned, between two dimensions of the one type of the discursive event. The discourse of ‘new lad’ masculinity is ambivalent and inscrutable, Benwell suggests, because the ironic framework through which it is mediated allows a deferral of both authority and attribution.
