The functions of sarcastic irony in speech

Abstract Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory of politeness, while partly supported by empirical studies, may not accommodate a number of relevant social and psychological variables. Accordingly, Kasper (1990) suggests investigating the ‘forms and meanings of politeness’ in a variety of discourse and social contexts. Since Brown and Levinson contend that irony may be used for face-saving, and Sperber and Wilson (1981) explain why irony is especially suitable for remarking on the failure of an expectation, the face-saving function of sarcastic irony in American discourse is the focus of this paper. The first study shows that sarcastic irony is typically used to complain to or criticize intimates, who are usually hearers of the remarks. Hearers' reactions to both sarcastic and directly stated remarks with comparable content were explored, and remarks expressing trivial and serious complaints, occurring in conversations between same-sex best friends, were compared. Overall, the results show that sarcasm can serve a face-saving function, making the speaker appear less rude and unfair, particularly when expressing a trivial criticism; humor contributes little to this face-saving. These results raise problems for Brown and Levinson's formula for degree of face-threat, which is discussed, along with explanations for sarcasm's face-saving properties.

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