IRONY IN CONTEXT -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1. An Invitation to Irony -- Some ideas on language -- The speaker/hearer dilemma -- A preliminary characterization of irony -- Some final remarks -- Chapter outline -- Chapter 2. "But that's not ironic!" -- "Now, what is ironic?" -- Interpretation of ironic instances: Difference -- Interpretation of ironic instances: Literalness -- Sarcasm -- Final thoughts -- Chapter 3. Linguistic Approaches to Irony -- Conversational examples of irony -- Irony and linguistics -- Grice -- Cutler -- Myers Roy -- Sperber & Wilson -- Clark & Gerrig -- Comparison: Mention Theory and Pretense Theory -- What do we have so far? -- Speech Act Theory -- Psycholinguistic Approaches -- Discussion-The interpretation of Grice -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4. Traditional and Literary Approaches to Irony -- What is traditional irony? -- Criticism of traditional accounts -- Non-linguistic contemporary approaches to irony -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5. Irony: Taking Stock -- Approaching irony -- Medium -- Scope -- Signals -- Context -- Discernabletypes and forms of irony -- Purpose -- Participant constellation -- Summary -- Understanding is search -- Metaphors -- Dichotomies -- Politeness and irony -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6. Irony and Jokes -- Political jokes in oppressed systems -- Criticism -- Avoidance of punishment: First Prize-15 years -- Solidarity -- Relief -- Discussion -- The role of irony in interpersonal joking relationships -- Conversational joking -- How to tell a joke or an irony -- Conclusion -- Chapter 7. Irony and Lies -- What is a lie? What is lying? -- Critique of the definitions -- The connection between irony and lies -- Signals -- Purpose -- Politeness -- Is it irony or is it a lie?-Some examples -- Conclusion: Irony, lies, jokes.

Excursus: to lie, to joke, ?to ironize -- Chapter 8. Explicit Irony -- "Isn't it ironic that ..." -- Letters to the Editor as sources for explicit irony -- Explicit irony as critical evaluation-some examples -- Conflicting actions by one participant -- Conflicting actions by different participants: Coincidence -- Discussion -- Summary -- Conclusion: Implicit and explicit irony -- Chapter 9. The Translation of Irony -- Irony in translation -- Instances of translation -- Nonce irony -- Common irony -- Nonce irony and common irony-some further thoughts -- Ironically, we cannot (yet) translate "ironically" -- The development of "ironically" in German-some further observations -- Translation from German to English -- Strategies for the translation of irony -- Revisiting dichotomies-free and literal translation -- Final thoughts -- Chapter 10. Epilogue -- Are we living in an ironic age? -- How to be ironic -- Notes -- References -- Index -- Subject Index -- Name Index.