| dc.description.abstract | This study seeks to explain how irony is detected and understood in Gikuyu verbal
utterances. Of concern in this study is to explain how a hearer successfully interprets the
speakers intended meaning in an ironical verbal utterance. The Relevance Theory has
been used to explain how this happens.
The researcher obtained data by listening to and watching videotapes by three Gĩkũyu
comedians namely: Kĩhenjũ, Gĩthingia and Machan’gi. Data was also obtained from
reading three Gĩkũyũ narratives namely: Rũgano rwa Wacici, Rũgano rwa Wagaciairi and
Ciana ciatigwo Iganjo, all as narrated by Kabebe and Kabera 1983.
Two post Gricean accounts of irony have been used to explain the irony in these
utterances. These are the echoic and the pretence accounts. In an echoic account, the
speaker does not express her own thoughts but echoes a thought that he/she attributes to
someone else, and simultaneously expresses her mocking sceptical or contemptuous
attitude to the thought. According to the pretence accounts, the speaker of an ironical
utterance is not performing a genuine speech act but pretending to perform one, while
expecting her audience to see through the pretence and recognise the sceptical, mocking
or contemptuous attitude behind it.
The researcher groups data according to the source of echo. Four main sources of echoes
were identified. These are: echoes of stereotypes, echoes of societal norms and values,
echoes of societal expectations on an individual and echoes of the immediate context
(what has been said earlier in context). Since different accounts of irony have different
ways of bringing out the ironic effect in utterances, the researcher explores how each
account treats the various utterances. Some irony is clearer when treated as a case of
pretence while another comes out better when treated as a echoic. The echoic account is
for example better suited for echoes of stereotypes, societal norms and values as well as
echoes of societal expectations on an individual. The pretence account is best suited for
echoes of what has been said earlier, in a given context. | en_US |
