OT: Sarcasm and irony

[mensanator at aol.com]

Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2006-10-10, Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
>
> >> probably point out that I am writing from Denmark and was thinking
> >> specifically of a situation where a dane told me they were being
> >> 'ironic' (when what they meant, obviously, was that they were being
> >> ironical), when I asked what they meant by that they said "saying the
> >> opposite of what I mean" I responded: "so, in other words, what you
> >> mean by irony is 'sarcasm'" She responded "yes, that's what it means"
>
> And she was pretty much right.  Sarcasm is by far the most
> common form of irony.
>
> > Well, my assertion about America clearly doesn't preclude to
> > possibility of confusion on the part of the Danish too :-).
> > You are right about the general degradation of the
> > (understanding of the) meaning of irony.  People are just too
> > damned sloppy with language nowadays.
>
> Sarcasm is a form of irony.  Irony is when what is meant is
> different from the obvious literal meaning of the statement.
>
> >> She had a degree in communications.
>
> Which may explain why she knew what irony was when so few
> people seem to.
>
> Like Alanis Morisette said about the song "Isn't it Ironic":
> What's ironic about the song is that it doesn't actually
> contain any irony.

Any? Don't people plan June weddings thinking the weather
will be nice? And isn't one of the defintions of irony when
things turn out the opposite of what you expect?

>
> --
> Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  While I'm in
>                                   at               LEVITTOWN I thought I'd
>                                visi.com            like to see the NUCLEAR
>                                                    FAMILY!!