Automatic Detection of Irony

AppendixCategories of Irony Studied in Linguistic Literature

Table A.1 shows a summary of the main categories and markers of irony studied by linguists, focusing principally on textual irony. In this section, we shall begin by presenting these different markers before focusing more closely on those used for studying irony in tweets.

A.1. Contradiction/false logic

Based on the definition of verbal irony as “expressing a contradiction between the thoughts and speech of a speaker” Niogret (2004), contradiction may be considered to be one of the main markers of irony.

Ironic utterances contain two textual segments. The first contains an affirmation, and the second contains information which contradicts the first. In other words, the speaker says the opposite of what they think, but leaves a trace in the text to show that their declaration is ironic. In this way, the reader is able to identify a text as ironic/non-ironic.

In this respect, (Attardo 2000b) supports the idea expressed by Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1976) and Muecke (1978) that irony is marked by a contradiction or contrast between that which is said and that which is expected. The idea was studied in greater detail by Didio (2007), who considered that contradictions in discourse allow the listener to understand the ironic meaning of a text based on the idea that contradiction unites two utterances, which confirm and deny the same knowledge object. The author cited the following example (Didio 2007):

Table A.1. Irony markers ...