COGNITIVE AND PRAGMATIC MECHANISMS OF GENERATING SITUATIONAL AND ECHOIC IRONY (A CASE STUDY OF THACKERAY’S NOVEL THE HISTORY OF PENDENNIS: HIS FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES, HIS FRIENDS AND HIS GREATEST ENEMY)

The aim of the article is to identify the cognitive and pragmatic mechanisms of irony generation in Thackeray’s Novel, The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest En- emy, while distinguishing between situational and echoic irony regarding ostensive stimuli and collisional scripts. This goal is achieved through the application of a comprehensive methodology, including the mod- el of integrated pragmatics by O. Ducrot and the method of echoic interpretation of irony within the frame- work of relevance theory, combined with the method of inference of discursive implicatures and tools for the analysis of irony-generating metaphors and comparisons. The article arrives at the main conclusion of the commonality of cognitive and pragmatic mechanisms in generating situational and echoic irony. The cognitive mechanism is based on the incongruity and collision of scripts marked by ironic utterances, the connection between which is facilitated by ostensive stimuli. Differences between the two types of irony are identified in the types of ostensive stimuli, the specificity of actualized scripts, and the typed of the violated presuppositions underlying their collision. Ostensive stimuli in situational irony include metaphor, authorial metatext, comparison, and implicit antithesis as triggers for transitioning between scripts. Сollision scripts generating situational irony are based on “comparison samples” of similes, source and target spaces of a metaphor, or frames formed by groups of contrasting images. The transition be- tween scripts is facilitated based on common features of comparison terms, elements of the generic space of metaphor, attribution of evaluatively contrasting characteristics to one character, and referenc- es through the authorial metatext to prominent positions in the text that justify the implicit antithesis. The collision of scripts that generates situational irony is based on violations of categorical semantic and syn- tagmatic presuppositions, associated with constraints on the semantic compatibility of linguistic units, and projected onto ontological anomalies — contradictions between the general properties of realities and events, as well as violations of causal connections in the logical structure of presupposition, where the ba- sis of the inference lies in logical contradiction, which is projected onto logical-pragmatic anomalies — vio- lation of pragmatic presuppositions about natural relationships between realities or events. The ostensive stimuli of echoic irony include allusion-based comparison, allusion-based hyperbole, and allusion-based personification, marking the connection between collisional scripts that are based on the discrepancy of universal cultural scripts with “mundane” scripts. This leads to violations of normative- value presuppositions, reflecting commonly accepted standards or judgments, or violations of existential (ontological) presuppositions. In addition to ostensive stimuli — triggers for transitioning between scripts, both situational and echoic irony are supported by intensifiers — units that actualize peripheral components of scripts, which contribute to intensifying contradictions, serve as additional means of transitioning between scripts, and actualize local ironic connotations through individual stylistic devices. The general pragmatic mechanism for generating ironic meanings in situational and echoic irony in- volves the violation of the cooperative maxim of relevance – due to the collision of scripts, and quality – through the use of semasiological stylistic devices. Deviating from the maxim triggers ironic implicature and moralizing meta-implicature, establishing coherence between scripts and grounds for coherence.