Re: Ironic Use of Attitudinals

[And Rosta <a.rosta@UCLAN.AC.UK>]

Ashley Yakeley <AshleyB@HALCYON.COM>
> At 1997-11-07 13:03, Logical Language Group wrote:
>
> >Since the attitudinals are intended to be expressions of internal states
> >rather than statements about those internal states, a fluent speaker
> >should not use attitudinals ironically.
>
> Doesn't follow. Consider ironic use of the English humour-attitudinal 'ha
> ha', or perhaps the Yiddish attitudinal 'oy'.

Or Wow! Phew! Cor! Ouch! etc.

You are right that it is perfectly normal to use attitudinals
ironically. Indeed, as with the literal/figurative dichotomy,
the literal/ironic dichotomy can get pretty hard to make out.

However, the usual way of signalling irony in English is
through punctuation or intonation. Lojban (as one of its
design goals) explicitly wants to avoid reliance on either;
it certainly wants to avoid there being any systematic,
conventional use of intonation.

Therefore it would follow that attitudinals should only be used
ironically if the irony does not need to be signalled in any
particular way. And to be on the safe side, ironic use should
be avoided altogether.

That was a good question.

--And