Abstracts
Abstract
This paper investigates the question of whether the classifications and general descriptions of irony, as true as they may seem, are plausible enough for enquiries into areas such as translation. The generic and philosophical analysis criteria provided by the literary criticism, literary theory and pragmatic approaches hover around broad interpretive models of irony. These criteria are impractical for the analysis of irony for translation purposes, although the translation of irony relies essentially on interpretation and creative reformulation. This is particularly the case when dealing with typologically distant languages, such as Arabic and English, in a specific text-type. To be able to “work” with ironic texts there is a need for a more objective and applicable approach, which considers the identification of formal and rhetorical devices of ironic texts, hence a linguistic analysis that explains the communicative function of these devices at both the utterance and discourse structure levels.
Mots-Clés/Keywords:
- irony,
- stylistics,
- discourse,
- speech acts,
- cooperative principle
Résumé
Cet article étudie pour la traduction et la traductologie l’utilité des classifications et descriptions générales de l’ironie émanant des domaines de la critique littéraire, de la théorie littéraire et de la pragmatique. L’auteur suggère que les critères philosophiques et génériques adoptés dans ces domaines ne peuvent être appliqués à l’analyse de l’ironie dans la traduction, bien que la traduction de l’ironie soit un procès d’interprétation et de reformulation créative. C’est le cas en particulier quand on essaie de rendre l’ironie dans deux langues aux typologies différentes, telles que l’anglais et l’arabe, dans un type textuel spécifique, comme le commentaire politique. La traduction de l’ironie exige une approche plus objective et appliquée susceptible d’identifier les dispositifs formels et rhétoriques de l’ironie ; elle requiert, plus exactement, une analyse linguistique à même de mettre en relief, sur le plan de la phrase comme sur le plan du discours, la fonction communicative des textes d’ironie.
Appendices
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