Verbal irony in cognitive linguistics: An analysis on the stories of Nasreddin Hodja

When people communicate with each other, they aim to make sure that their message reaches the other interlocutor without any loss or damage. That's why, it is natural to expect the utterances to be in the clearest and the most understandable form. However, the use of some linguistic devices does not overlap with this expectation. The aim of this study is to explain the reasons why irony, which is one of these devices, is used from a cognitive linguistic perspective. The study has two research questions as follows: I. How is irony processed cognitively? What operations does it undergo in the way of being meaningful to interlocutors? II. What can be the useful tools to identify verbal irony? Apart from the current devices and procedures, what linguistic structures can function as a proof to the existence of verbal irony? The samples of irony, which are analyzed in this study, were compiled from Mustafa Duman's work named Nasreddin Hoca ve 1555 Fıkrası. Firstly, the selected stories were analyzed by using the Verbal Irony Procedure, which is developed by Burgers, Mulken and Schellens (2011:186-205) for the purposes of irony analysis. As a result of this analysis, it was found that there were 3639 units in 302 stories, and 148 of these units were carrying the necessary features of an ironic meaning. The units which have the ironic features were then analyzed under the Echoic Interpretation Theory by Sperber and Wilson (1981, 1992, 2012) and Cognitive-Linguistic Approach by Ruiz de Mendoza and Masegosa (2014) to illustrate why and how ironic meaning was used. In the analyzed irony samples, it has been seen that irony is used to show the intented message by means of the contrast between the expected situation and the real attitude of the speaker. While the process of activating the expected situation is done by an operation of expansion from an echoed belief, idea, expectation or a social norm, the real attitude of the speaker is created by an operation of reduction from the real situation. Finally, some research questions which might guide the further research studies in this subject were suggested for interested researchers. Keywords: Irony, Echoic Interpretation Theory, Cognitive Linguistic Approach, Verbal Irony Procedure, The Stories of Nasreddin Hodja.