SARCASM AS A BREACH OF LINGUISTIC POLITENESS: SOME THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS

Abstract

The current paper is devoted to the analysis of sarcasm as a breach of principles of politeness. The aim of the paper is to elicit the peculiarities of sarcasm as an exception to the Politeness Principle suggested by G. Leech (2014) and its conversational function incorporated into the Irony Principle as mock politeness. The Politeness Principle demonstrates that sarcasm is apparently its exploitation as in the case of sarcastic utterances the illocutionary goal opposes the social goal thus providing breach in the model of politeness. The Irony Principle illustrates an explanation of polite utterances appearing as impolite arguing that polite interpretations of such utterances are unsustainable. To support the theory certain examples are analyzed retrieved from an American Depression-era author John Dos Passos’s novel “1919”. As a matter of fact, the debate is around the question whether sarcasm is an apparent exploitation of polite implicature of utterances or it is a category of impoliteness appearing as mock politeness.