Euphemistic dysphemisms and dysphemistic euphemisms as means to convey irony and banter

Abstract

This article aims to determine whether euphemistic dysphemisms and dysphemistic euphemisms, two concepts defined by Allan and Burridge (1991, 2006), can convey irony and banter, which are defined, among other linguists, by Leech (1983, 2014\). He argues that irony and banter are ‘second-order strategies rooted in violations of the CP [Cooperative Principle] or the PP Politeness Principle], and working in contrary directions’ (Leech, 2014: 100). There are many similarities in the definitions of X-phemisms and those of irony and banter: in the cases of irony and euphemistic dysphemisms, an apparently polite utterance is not interpreted as such, whereas in the cases of banter and dysphemistic euphemisms, an apparently impolite utterance is not. I use examples from American TV shows (House, M.D., Sex and the City, How I met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy) to describe the underlying mechanisms of the functioning of these four devices. The results of the study show that dysphemistic euphemisms can convey banter but that euphemistic dysphemisms cannot convey irony, though they can sometimes convey banter.