March 3, 2003

Sarcasm

"Sarcasm" is the type of evidentiality that conveys that the speaker believes the proposition uttered is false ("the metamessage "I don't mean this").

Old linguistics joke:

Linguist A: "There are many languages in which two negatives make a positive. But there are no languages in which two positives make a negative."

Linguist B: "Sure, sure."

This metamessage isn't "grammaticalized", i.e. marked by words (like the modals and adverbs we discussed in relation to evidentiality) or prefixes and suffixes (like past, present and future tense). Rather, it tends to be expressed "paralinguistically" or "supersegmentally": using intonation, voice quality, facial expression etc. At least some of these devices may be universal.

Some terms:

Segmental material is the speech sounds (phonemes, or "letters") used to produce a sentence. The other material discussed here is "supersegmental".

Intonation is the "tune" used when speaking. It relates to changes in pitch.

Amplitude is loudness.

Length is the amount of time a sound takes up. Prolongation is increase in length.

Stress or accent has to do with the most "emphatic" syllable in a word. It is usually realized by a combination of intonation (high pitch), amplitude (it's louder) and/or length (it's longer).

Nasality has to do with whether air comes out the nose as well as the mouth during speech. The opposite of nasal is oral (air comes out the mouth only).

Supersegmental devices

Sneer (related to "primitive" expression of disgust)

Nasalization: "Sorry" [sã:ri:]

Suppressed laughter (realized as "aspiration", i.e. "h" sound, oral or nasal): "thanks" as "h-th-h-anks"

Inverse pitch obtrusion: "dipping" instead of "rising" intonation (pitch) on the stressed syllable:
A: I'm certainly not going to stand in the way of her career.
B: Her "career"!

Usually in "contemptuous echoes", accompanied by "prolongation" (lengthening), "amplitude" (loudness).

Sarcasm is often associated with a mismatch between intonation and message:

Exaggeration: of pitch contour (higher highs, lower lows), length, loudness. "Aw, you poor thing!" "Excuuuse me!"

Flattening: of pitch contour (more "monotonous"). "Ha ha." "Great." This works for exclamations that would ordinarily be more dynamic.

Singsong melody: "a spondee on a descending third". "Sorry."

Falsetto: "Eating between meals, tsk tsk."

Heavy sarcasm: Exaggerated, regular stress, monotonous intonation. "Big fat hairy deal!"
Pauses: "Reagan's ... freedom fighters ... need new Guccis."

Segmental devices

Hyperformality ("Clean your room now, young man")

Quotation: ("quote-unquote", finger quotes, "sic"): "Your quote-unquote principles are nothing but snobbism"

Ironic repetition of fresh talk: "Her career!"

Discourse markers:

Suspended negation:

Non-marking: Implicature

Quite frequently, sarcasm isn't explicitly marked at all; the only clue that an utterance is sarcastic comes from the fact that the literal meaning is absurd.

ROY: they're [working] on [2breed2]ing .. pre-breaded .. red snapper.
MARILYN: [2Yeah2].
@@[3@3]
ROY: [3On3] fish farms.

In writing, overt (lexical or graphological) marking of sarcasm may be necessary. Examples from message board posts:

End of the world final date(my guess): December 20, 2012. The mayans predicted this long before we thought of millenium. They predicted the fifth era would end on this date of another major disaster. Give or take a few months, its a pretty good date. Right now we've got global warming(topping the record in NYC, 90 degrees on May 2 and 3). As far as I know, a dying species tends to live longer than the predicted extinction date, namely 2000. Good luck and I hope this theory is false cause im 12 and: 12+11=23. I will onyl live about 1/5th of my life aaaaaargh. If its true im gonna party and have *** until I pop and suicide(j/k lol)

..however, in today's society, it seems that your only choice is to be good, fake good, or be locked up or killed. Dammit, it's not right. I'm going to bring a suit up against the government(of the USA, of course. Only in this country could I get away with such a
thing) and demand that my right to kill people and steal things be returned to me as a member of the oppressed minority, the "morally challenged". I'm not gonna take it anymore!

(yes, this last paragraph was satirical, as if evil actions and deeds were legalized, then they'd have no purpose for existing anymore. My entire lifestyle would be ruined! :p )

From an email (with inserted quote from an earlier email):

>Have you already made housing arrangements for the Institute?
>In case you haven't, it occurred to me that I should warn you
>that you might want to take care of that now. There's definitely
>going to be a housing crunch this summer.

>However, no doubt you already have all this well under control!

Biting sarcasm there. You know me better than that. I waited until about a week after the deadline, by which time I had missed out on the nice apartments, but have got a student dorm room (I forget which one), with
meals included. A large slab of money, but at least it's a guaranteed place to stay.