Ironic Expressions: Echo or Relevant Inappropriateness ?

This research adresses the pragmatic phenomenon of irony in the light of two post-Gricean theories,Echoic-Mention Theory and Relevant Inappropriateness Theory.According to the first theory,it is essential,for the identification of irony,to find the echoic quality of the utterance and the speaker s attitude of dissociation towards this utterance.The second theory considers irony as an ironical utterance which is both inappropriate and relevant to its context.It is Gricean at the core,but includes some departures from Grice s own model.It is argued,in this research,that echoic use of language is essential to standard cases of verbal irony while relevant inappropriateness is not