Cover; Half-title page; Series page; Title page; Copyright page; Dedication; Contents; List of Figures; Acknowledgements; 1 Introduction; 1.1 Types of Irony; 1.1.1 Situational Irony; 1.1.2 Dramatic Irony; 1.1.3 Verbal Irony; 1.2 Irony's Siblings; 1.3 Irony and Rhetoric; 1.4 Irony and Pragmatics; 1.5 Suggested Reading; 1.5.1 Overviews on Irony; 1.5.2 Situational Irony; 1.5.3 Pragmatics; 2 Irony as Opposition; 2.1 Grice; 2.2 Problems; 2.2.1 To Make as if to Say; 2.2.2 Irony with No Flouting; 2.2.3 Non-Declarative Irony; 2.2.4 The Point of Irony; 2.3 Some Developments; 2.3.1 Speech Act Theory.

2.3.2 The Asif-Theory; 2.3.3 Irony as Indirect Negation; 2.4 Summary; 2.5 Suggested Reading; 2.5.1 Grice; 2.5.2 Grice's Problems; 2.5.3 Some Developments; 3 Irony as Echo; 3.1 The Echoic Account; 3.2 Problems; 3.2.1 Echo; 3.2.2 Dissociation; 3.3 Some Developments; 3.3.1 Echoic Reminder Theory; 3.3.2 Curcó's Proposal; 3.4 Summary; 3.5 Suggested Reading; 3.5.1 Sperber and Wilson; 3.5.2 Criticisms of the Echoic Account; 3.5.3 Some Developments; 4 Irony as Pretence; 4.1 The Pretence Theory; 4.2 Problems; 4.3 Pretence versus Echo; 4.3.1 In Favour of Pretence; 4.3.2 In Favour of Echo.

4.3.3 Types of Irony4.3.4 Types of Victims; 4.3.5 The Speaker's Tone of Voice; 4.4 Some Developments; 4.4.1 Walton, Recanati and Currie; 4.4.2 The Allusional Pretence Theory; 4.5 Summary; 4.6 Suggested Reading; 4.6.1 Clark and Gerrig's Pretence Theory; 4.6.2 Criticisms of the Pretence Theory; 4.6.3 Some Developments; 5 Attitude Expression in Irony; 5.1 Irony Is Sometimes Positive: The Asymmetry Issue; 5.2 Irony Is Always Negative; 5.2.1 False Positives; 5.2.2 Controversial Cases; 5.3 The Tinge Hypothesis; 5.4 Suggested Reading; 5.4.1 The Attitude in Irony; 5.4.2 Irony Is Negative.

5.4.3 The Tinge Hypothesis6 Clues of Irony; 6.1 The Risks of Irony; 6.2 Traditional Clues; 6.3 Opposition, Echo and Pretence; 6.3.1 Opposition; 6.3.2 Echo; 6.3.3 Pretence; 6.4 A Minimal Account of Irony; 6.5 Suggested Reading; 6.5.1 Risks and Benefits of Irony; 6.5.2 Traditional Clues; 6.5.3 A Minimal Account of Irony; 7 Sarcasm and Humour; 7.1 Irony and Sarcasm; 7.1.1 Victims; 7.1.2 Aggressiveness; 7.1.3 Clarity; 7.1.4 Summary; 7.2 Irony and Humour; 7.2.1 Superiority Theories of Humour; 7.2.2 Incongruity Theories of Humour; 7.2.3 Summary; 7.3 Suggested Reading; 7.3.1 Sarcasm; 7.3.2 Humour.

Examples Used in TextGlossary; Bibliography; Index.