Grice cited by Garmendia on "Irony"

Abstract:

"The traditional pragmatic accounts avoid using

the term "saying" when explaining irony. That is

not a mere coincidence: a fundamental characteristic of irony is hidden behind that avoidance strategy. That's what I call irony's "what is said issue": it really seems that nothing is said in irony. Here, I shall first analyze the Gricean solution for this issue: Grice (1967a/1989) states that the ironic speaker makes as if to say. When analyzing the Gricean approach, its main drawbacks will be displayed. I shall then propose an alternative theory to explain irony, following the pathway opened by Korta & Perry (2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2007a, 2007b, 2008) in their critical pragmatics. In fact, the problem of what is said does not belong exclusively to ironic utterances, but comes from the existing confusion within general pragmatics. We shall see that the critical pragmatic approach clears up this general mess, and so can help us solve irony's specific problem. Summing up, I shall maintain that this way of approaching irony allows us dissolving the "what is said issue"."

--- Garmendia cites Korta & Perry referred in this club by L. J. Kramer.