How nice does it sound? An argumentative approach to the affective aspects of irony production

The chapter presents irony as a form of the reductio ad absurdum argument having a specific emotional charge, which cannot be found either in literal arguments or in other arguments containing figurative language. The claim of the chapter is that irony production depends on the ironist’s ability to convey the emotional charge together with the point she invites the addressee(s) to infer. An empirical study is presented aiming (1) to understand whether and when participants produce (non-sarcastic/sarcastic) ironic vs. literal arguments having a positive vs. negative emotional charge and (2) to check whether and when participants revise their own (non-sarcastic/sarcastic) ironic vs. literal arguments when they are at the addressee’s side, in both critical and praise irony conditions.