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Paulina Kurzak 2nd group 15:15-16:45

Geoffrey N. Leech defines irony as a human disposition to adopt a pose or put a mask. (173). Irony is a figure of speech in which the words are used in a way that their real meaning is the opposite of the actual definition of those words. What is more, it can also be a situation that is different from what we expect. The word irony derives from the word eironeia which was first used to refer to artful double meaning in the Socratic dialogues of Plato (Colebrook 1) It is possible to distinguish between several types of irony. The first type is called verbal irony. Verbal irony is usually used during daily conversations and means that when people talk to each other one of them says something that he or she does not want a listener to take literally. That kind of irony can be divided into two types: overstatement and understatement. Overstatement means that a person is exaggerating and makes something more serious that it really is. Understatement, however, means that someone describes something in a way to make it less serious or important.