Explaining irony

1. Traditional approaches to irony Here are some typical examples of verbal irony: (1) Mary (after a boring party): That was fun. (2) I left my bag in the restaurant, and someone kindly walked off with it. (3) Sue (to someone who has done her a disservice): I can't thank you enough. In each case, the point of the irony is to indicate that a proposition the speaker might otherwise be taken to endorse (that the party was fun, the person who took her bag behaved kindly, or Sue is more grateful than she can say) is ludicrously inadequate (here, because of its falsity). 1 A hearer who fails to recognise this will have misunderstood the speaker's ironical intention. A speaker who doubts her hearer's ability to recognise this intention using background knowledge alone can provide additional cues (e.g. an ironical tone