Thursday, June 21, 2012

What is Irony?

It seems that some writers have some difficulties in expressing themselves as they try to use the word "Irony" or "Ironic" correctly. Because of a bit of difficulty I encountered in understanding what they were trying to convey to me,as a reader of their posts when the word "Irony" or Ironic" was involved in a sentence or paragraph or sigment of their posts,I felt that an attempt must be made in explaining what I understood and how I used the word "Irony" or " Ironic" in an English sentence correctly. To do that there are requirements a blogger must know in order to use these two word correctly. The main requirements are the following two points:

~ The meaning of  " Irony".
~ Why it is necessary to use it in some specific cases.

As to the meaning of "Irony",it really means the opposite of what it is used to describe or define. Examples will be given later.

As to why it is necessary to use in in some writings has to do for being the only way possible to express literally two opposing,or rather contradictary meanings by one word. Or to make easier to understand its proper use,one may consider it as the connecting word necessary to use in order to connect two opposing or contradictory meanings of a situation or a description or a case. Anyone who is familiar with the 20 Figurative Speech Words can easily understand what has been outlined in the foregoing so far. I believe Irony is number 9 nin the list of the 20 words.

Examples For Understanding The Exact Meaning Of Irony:
============================================
In the early 1960's,I worked in a research department related to my field of formal training. One of my working colleges weighed at least 400 pounds,an intelligent and nice fellow in every aspect one could wish a college to be. Just imagine how a fellow weighing 400 pounds to be. He was just too fat or if one wish to be polite one may say that he was just obese. He has areal name but no one in the department called him by his real name. Instead,his co-workers called him "Tiny",instead of calling him "Fatty".  He had no problem,at all,in responding to the call as I and other co-workers called him," Tiny". In fact,I believed that he preferred to be called "Tiny" rather than "Fatty". I worked in that department several years and I had never knew "Tiny"'s real name. Now from this description of a real situation I can write the following sentence using the word "Irony" or "Ironic":

It is an irony that a man who is so fat and big is called "Tiny".

Or

It is ironic that a coworker who weighed 400 pounds was called "Tiny" by his coworkers.

Another Example:
===============
What one may call a person who does not practice what he or she preaches?

One may call him a " HYPOCRITE",but one may use ELEQUENTLY the word,"Irony" or "Ironic" ,instead of the word,"HYPOCRITE" ,such as follows:

It is an irony that the Preacher does not practice what he preaches.

It is ironic that the Preacher does not practice what he preaches.

===================================================================

Final words: I do hope that the above outline will prove helpful to the readers of this website and to those who are interested in the topic.
    
   

3 comments:

  1. Thank you,Sodium,for making it so clear as how to use irony and ironic in English sentences. I have always had some difficulty in using such words as I wrote. Clear.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Judy,

    It is good to know that one reader has been helped.

    Thank you,Judy,for taking your time to let me know that you have been helped. Much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I share Judy's comment that "I have always had some difficulty in using such words as I wrote." It is now clear. Thanks,Sodium.

    ReplyDelete