Verbal Irony in Informal Speech

Verbal irony is a constant companion to informal speech. People in their daily conversations resort to using ironic utterances quite too frequently for the purposes of invoking humor, criticism, ridicule and sometimes even harsh sarcasm. Ironic utterances appear in many different forms ranging from explicit to implicit irony; from truth-telling to counterfactual irony (ironic complements and ironic criticism); from ironic rhetorical questions to ironic offers, orders, promises, gratitude and apologies. The study at hand puts TV talk shows in its focus as they clearly resemble people’s everyday informal conversations in so many respects. Bearing in mind that the primary aim of talk shows is to inform and entertain viewers, both hosts and guests, in a quite relaxed atmosphere, engage in informal speech filled with a light conversational tone and a lot of laughter most of the time. The aim of this study is to look deeper into the various ways in which verbal irony is actually materialized in informal speech and to determine the frequency with which various types of ironic utterances are employed by the ironists and their interlocutors. The study is conducted in two completely distinct and unrelated languages, Macedonian and English, the aim being to ascertain similar or dissimilar tendencies in both languages in that respec