An ironic discourse

Hi,

Which do you prefer:

1. I will talk about the development of sarcasm as ironic discourse unfolds.

2. I will talk about the development of sarasm as an ironic discourse unfolds.?

I guess both are correct.

If you remove the word 'unfolds' from these sentences, they seem to make more sense. They both sound like a lecturer announcing his subjec

Dear Clive,

I use 'unfold' as meaning 'emerge' or 'come into existence'. Here I want to emphasize the PROCESS leading to the emergence of ironic implicature in conversation. I have met things like 'as conversation unfolds' (meaning 'in the process of/during the conversation') in technical writing. This is the structure I was trying to adopt in my original sentence.

So do you thi

Hi,

OK, I guess 'unfolds' is OK.

But I assume you realize that sarcasm and irony are not the same thing?

So your idea is, very crudely put by me, that people are speaking ironically and in the course of this they start to speak sarcastically?

Bet wishes again, Clive

No, no.

My original sentence would be:

"Figure 1 above then represents a schema that will help me demonstrate the temporal distribution of mental spaces as ironic discourse unfolds"



How do you see now:



1. 'unfold' as meaning 'emerge'

2. 'discourse' as meaning 'conversation'

3. the use of the article ('an' iron

Sorry, but the more you explain, the more confusing this is getting! "Temporal distribution of mental spaces"?? I have no idea what this means.

Are you somehow trying to describe what happens in a person's brain as they speak ironically? Where does sarcasm come in?

Yes, I examine mental time travel. Sarcasm does not matter here. It is really the structure (the grammar) that I am interested in:

as ironic conversation develops/as an ironic conversation develops?

Palinkasocsi

Okay, trying to ignore everything else (what is "implicature," anyway?) and just concentrating on these two phrases:

as ironic conversation develops/as an ironic conversation develops?

I would interpret the phrase with "an" to mean a specific conversation between two people. The phrase without "an" suggests the possibility of overlapping conversations, or convers

Hi,

I agree with all that Khoff has said.

What type of people are your words intended for? I assume they will be already familiar with both your field and your terminology.

Clive

Thanks for your replies.

Khoff: 'implicature' means 'the implied message'

Palinkasocsi

Okay, I'll add that to the list of the things I've learned on English Forums. Thanks!