Modal particles in ironic utterances

Abstract

This study contributes to theorizing about the semantic characteristics of verbal irony. Specifically, we investigate the function of the modal particles ja (lit. ‘yes’) and aber (lit. ‘but’) that often occur in ironic utterances in German, cf. Das war aber ein aufregender Film (‘That was prt a thrilling movie’). Our main claim is that modal particles are used in ironic utterances to reflect the speaker’s intention to pretend surprise and produce a mockery effect by manifesting the utterance as an echo. Modal particles require some mutual knowledge to be contained in the common ground, and we link this notion to the interplay between echoic mention and pretense in interpreting an utterance as ironic. In an empirical approach to our claim, we report on results from an online questionnaire study, in which we test whether the presence of a modal particle leads to a higher perception of pretense in ironic reactions. While the data generally confirm our prediction, we found that only aber affects pretense perception but not ja, which can be explained by the former’s contrastive nature. The view we pursue implies that attitudinal content is a graded feature and that such a notion is applicable to surprise and pretense involved in verbal irony.