Ironie als Verführungskunst: Kommunikative Funktionen und pragmatische Effekte ironischer Äußerungen zur Schaffung von Gruppenbildung in halbstrukturierten Gesprächen

Abstract

Irony is a double-edged sword. It is a rhetorical strategy, which in spoken language is mostly used for entertainment, but can also be used as a face threatening act.

In semi-structured conversations, such as talk show rounds, the effects of irony depend on variables such as the type of TV talk shows in which the conversation develops, the participants involved and the relationships between them.

This article deals with the identification of the communicative functions of ironic utterances, how they are handled by the various parties involved (guests and TV-presenters, the public in the studio and the audience at home) and their pragmatic effects on the development of the on-going communication.

Five episodes of the NDR talk show form the corpus of this work. The observation of both linguistic and paralinguistic markers reveals irony as a rhetorical strategy which, in the context examined, has a mainly seductive function. In fact, it is used from speakers to catch the hearers’ attention, creating affiliation and alignment. This effect is realized through the management of the relationships between interlocutors who belong to different communication circles and are involved in communication in different ways.