Chapter 6 Conclusions

Chapter 6 presents the findings of the data analysis in Chapter 5 and attempts to

vindicate the analytical approach to the study of verbal irony in discourse. The research

questions are addressed according to the major findings herein, in addition to the

contributions that the discoveries make to the fields of linguistics and literature studies.

To conclude the chapter, the limitations to the study are explicated in order to aid future

research in the study of verbal irony.

6.1 Major Findings

The presentation of the major findings is centered on the research questions, and

how the results of the data analysis support the hypotheses derived from these questions.

1. What purpose does speaker intent and hearer uptake in verbal irony serve?

The two-tiered approach of classifying verbal irony using a modified speech act

theory for verifying S intent and further identifying H uptake with echoic allusions of

disagreement, neutral, and agreement groupings is essential to analyzing the role of

verbal irony in characterization. By pairing S intent with H uptake (two sides of the same

coin), the intention for the verbal irony to perform or create a personality characteristic is

verified. These two concurrent aspects of an utterance elucidate how verbal irony is

interpreted. Speaker intent, derived from the utterance’s illocutionary act, reveals the

purpose for verbal irony. Hearer uptake identifies the perlocutionary effect intended by

the S. Verbal irony is intended by the S for the H to construe the incongruity in the

utterance. The data analysis in Chapter 5 illustrates our first hypothesis, that

characterization through verbal irony is represented via S intent and H uptake, is correct.

2. How does Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s characterization occur in the novel?

The original contribution of this paper is the discovery that characterization is

portrayed through echoic groupings. The echoic groupings are our special contribution to

the echoic theory of verbal irony, first introduced by Sperber and Wilson (see section

2.4.2 for echoic theory). The echoic groupings aid in the examination of characterization

through verbal irony by illuminating the echoic allusion within each utterance. A further

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observation is identified through multiple phases based upon these echoic groupings to

reveal Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s characterization according to the plot’s premises, which

contain conversational themes.

A significant finding of the data analysis was the connection between the number of

ironical performative speech acts within each phase and the character development that

occurs within the premises of each phase. The disagreement dominant phase holds 47

ironical performative speech acts, the majority of the 81 total throughout the novel. The

greater part of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s characterization takes place in the disagreement

dominant phase. The phase represents their interactions based on societal views, as they

draw each other out in opposition to support the underlying premises which explain the

nature of their characterization. Within the disagreement dominant phase, the most

significant thematic dialogue is Ridicule, which contains 20 ironical performative speech

acts. This dialogue illustrates that the purpose of Austen’s irony is to reveal critical views

of her society carried out through Elizabeth to ridicule others, highlighting Austen’s

alternative views on societal norms.

The neutral dominant phase includes 24 ironical performative speech acts, which

represent the progression of character development through fewer ironies, necessary to

express their individual views via echoic allusions, demonstrating their similarities in

character. Finally, the agreement dominant phase contains 10 ironical performative

speech acts to signal the end of characterization. The verbal irony consists of friendly

banter to echo the prior moments in their relationship and bring to light the divergence in

their previous oppositions and present mutual sentiments and understanding. The

significant findings are the three phases of characterization in Pride and Prejudice

between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, i.e. disagreement dominant phase, neutral dominant

phase, and agreement dominant phase. These three phases of characterization

demonstrate the course of characterization between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth.

Disagreement dominant phase presents their conflicting societal outlooks, neutral

dominant phase emphasizes their individual personalities, and the agreement dominant

phase reveals the two characters to be consonant.

3. How does verbal irony pragmatically function in characterization?

Verbal irony provides an angle for the ironist to express differing views on societal

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norms or personal judgments because of the dual meanings contended in an utterance.

The duality conceals the S’s intended meaning and provides a safe avenue for candor, and

character construction occurs through the dual layers where the truth is often hidden

behind the literal meaning of an utterance. Verbal irony offers a S a way to challenge

societal dictates or taboo subjects. For instance, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy utilized verbal

irony for covertly criticizing each other’s outlooks, providing Elizabeth with the

opportunity to alter Mr. Darcy’s proud nature regarding social norms. In addition,

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy use their verbal irony as a form of bantering in order to playfully

tease each other, expressing their mutual sentiments by echoing the course of their

characterization.

Throughout the three phases of characterization, Elizabeth’s ironical performative

speech acts are working to construct Mr. Darcy’s and her own character. Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy’s characterization ranges from the disagreement dominant phase depicted by

critical irony, the neutral dominant phase shown through civil banter, and the agreement

dominant phase comprised of friendly irony. Elizabeth defines herself through her

feminist views prominent within her ironical utterances, and attempts to sway Mr. Darcy

to assume these more egalitarian views as his own. Elizabeth’s exceptional character

represented through her ironical performative speech acts is an ideal example of Butler’s

concept of character construction via performative speech acts, where she argues that the

performative speech acts show gender and identity formation. This research tested the

application of Butler’s performative speech acts to verbal irony, discovering that ironical

performative speech acts are sufficient to construct character identity. Elizabeth

constructs her feminist identity echoing her views on gender norms, especially marriage,

within Regency-era England. In other words, these views are an expression of hoping to

correct the unequal status of women. For instance, the fact that the women in the novel

are not afforded with equal education, or that it is considered improper for women to

exercise, yet Elizabeth takes no qualms to the contrary. Elizabeth mainly employs

oppositional irony entailing her higher moral standards to achieve her goals of

constructing Mr. Darcy’s character (see section 2.5 for the functions of verbal irony). In

this case the main objective of the verbal irony is to correct Mr. Darcy’s narrow

worldview. Elizabeth’s unconventional character does not change throughout the novel,

although she realizes her prejudiced inspections of Mr. Darcy and abandons these views

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at the end.

4. What is the essential link between characterization and verbal irony?

The data analysis of ironical performative speech acts shows how these ironical

performative speech acts are employed by Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth to construct each

other’s character. As such, we conclude that in Pride and Prejudice, ironical performative

utterances are used to develop the characterization of our two protagonists through the

echoic groupings, laid out as echoic grouping dominance phases in the story plot. In

Figure 4.2 we depicted the frequency and distribution of ironical performative speech

acts throughout our sample of ironical utterances between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth in

their conversations. From Figure 5.1, we made a conjecture that the frequency of all 157

ironical speech acts shown through echoic grouping dominance indicates their role in

characterization. The data analysis offered an in-depth examination of each echoic

grouping dominance phase, where major premises provide a sound base for Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy’s thematic ironical dialogues.

To supplement the evidence from the graph in Figure 4.2, we testified for a

correlation between the three echoic groupings of verbal irony that show characterization

using the Pearson’s Chi-squared test. As explained in the test results (see section 4.3 for

the Pearson’s Chi-squared test results), the one speech act classification shown to have a

correlation with echoic groupings was ironical performative speech acts. The results

solidify our argument and prove the second hypothesis put forth is accurate: that echoic

groupings depict characterization when utterances are comprised of disagreement,

neutral, and agreement groupings. The logical steps of our argument, that echoic

groupings demonstrate characterization through verbal irony, stem from the three steps.

In Step 1, the study utilizes Butler’s theory that performative speech acts construct

identity (refer to section 3.1.1 for character construction). In Step 2, the Pearson’s Chi-

squared test results concluded that ironical performative speech acts have a correlation

with the echoic groupings (see section 4.3 for the test results). Therefore, Step 3 is that

echoic groupings illustrate the characterization through ironical performative speech acts,

meaning the characterization occurs through verbal irony according to echoic grouping

dominance phases (refer to Figure 5.1).

Thus, we affirm the successful execution of data analysis to render our hypotheses

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correct in regards to these research questions. Figure 4.2 shows the frequency of ironical

performative speech acts throughout the ironical exchange between Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth, which is further supported by the Pearson’s Chi-squared test results, showing a

correlation between ironical performative speech acts and echoic groupings

(disagreement, neutral, agreement). The statistical test complements the text analysis of

the ironical utterances. Although, it is necessary to note that the test results are not

definitely conclusive, and we did not employ inferential statistics so no future predictions

can be made about the relationship between performative speech acts and echoic

groupings, but we do know from this research that a correlation does in fact exist between

the two variables. The results support Butler’s claim that performative speech acts create

and construct character identity. Furthermore, an original contribution implicated from

the results is that the character construction through verbal irony is revealed through the

echoic groupings. Therefore, this study establishes the significance of echoic groupings to

depict characterization through ironical performative speech acts. The echoic groupings,

based upon the echoic allusion of each individual utterance, provide a way to approach

the study of verbal irony in characterization.

6.2 Contributions

6.2.1 Linguistics Studies

This study has focused on utilizing linguistic theories for identifying ironical

formations within performative speech acts, which depict the characterization of Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. The pragmatic analyses of discourse

exhibiting verbal irony as a linguistic device could be admissibly used to facilitate further

discussion in other corpuses where verbal irony is felt but not explicated. Furthermore,

discourse involving personal conflict will benefit from the resourcefulness of ironical

performative speech acts as methods for stimulating resolution between characters

because verbal irony provides an avenue for people to innocuously convey their

judgments. In addition to the practical implications of the research, the results also have

theoretical contributions to the field of linguistics.

The major contribution of this study for future research in linguistics is the

modification to Searle’s (2001b) [1979] speech act theory. The modification of Searle’s

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speech act taxonomy to include Butler’s (2002) [1990] performative speech act provides

future researchers a bridge to close the gap between Searle’s taxonomy and identity

construction. The gap between Searle’s taxonomy and identity construction is the

utterances which lack an authoritative backing and are therefore difficult to include in the

taxonomy (see section 3.1.1 for the discussion of performative speech acts). Searle’s

declaration classification was rigid and unable to accommodate Mr. Darcy’s and

Elizabeth’s altering identities, in that it did not account for the performativity of an

utterance lacking a proper institutional authoritative backing (i.e. the performative

utterances were not always official proclamations of identity from a figure such as a

judge in a court). Performative speech acts illustrate that institutional authority is

unnecessary, because they account for character construction when the utterance is

ironical and allow for a character’s identity to alter. The methodology which led to the

dominant phases of echoic groupings provides evidence that a character’s identity is not

static. The utterances which belong to a single echoic grouping are not found to be

consecutive; one dialogue may include utterances from one, two or even all three of the

echoic groupings.

This finding supports the modification of Searle’s (2001b) [1979] speech act theory

to replace declarations with Butler’s (2002) [1990] performative speech acts, as character

identity has fluidity and may alter gradually or immediately, with the performative speech

acts oscillating between echoic groupings. Without the incorporation of performative

speech acts, the verbal ironies would be impossible to classify and a large portion of the

utterances which depict characterization would be mistakenly excluded from the analysis.

This research offers an adaptable approach to analyzing the creation of character identity

which entails verbal irony. Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s character constructions do not

appear as one identity consecutively replacing another through their ironical interactions.

Their characterization is fully developed at the end of the novel after the ironical

performative utterances have unveiled their true characters piece by piece throughout

their conversations.

The emphasis on both S intent and H uptake in classification and analysis is a central

attribute of this study. The necessity of including both aspects of the ironical utterance

vindicates the analytical approach of utilizing multiple theories in combination. Speech

act theory, in stressing literal meaning, provides the basis for understanding the dual

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layers of verbal irony. Our modified speech act theory addresses the S’s intent through

highlighting the illocutionary act, yet additional support is needed for analyzing the S’s

intention for the H’s uptake. Echoic allusions lend strength for classification from the

effect of the perlocutionary act. In addition, the incongruity and superiority theories

function to explicate the verbal irony found within the perlocutionary act of an utterance.

The multi-faceted approach offers an addendum to speech act theory for its utilization in

the interpretation of verbal irony.

This analytical framework further expands the study of verbal irony through our

original contribution of echoic groupings to explain characterization (see section 3.1.2 for

echoic groupings). Because this research defines verbal irony utilizing the concept of the

echoic allusion, the incorporation of echoic groupings to explicate characterization is

applicable to research on character identity when verbal irony is present. Echoic

groupings allow the verbal irony to have greater explanatory power in the analysis of

characterization, for the echoic allusions found within each ironical utterance are

necessary to determine the progression of character construction.

Each subsequent utterance within a dialogue adds to the discourse, and echoic

allusions are necessary to provide a foundation for the echoic grouping of each utterance.

As a result, the echoic grouping of each ironical utterance is vital for determining

characterization according to the echoic grouping dominance phases. The theoretical

construct of echoic groupings can be useful for verbal irony or other types of figurative

language, although in other literary and non-literary works the three phases may not be in

the same order as they are found within Pride and Prejudice. Also, other works may have

fewer echoic groupings than we identified in this study; the characterization may differ

for various works depending on the presentation of discourse.

6.2.2 Literature Studies

Butler’s (1997) notion of subjection (see section 3.1.1 for Butler’s subjection) holds

weight for explicating Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s character constructions with

performative speech acts, for subjection is the performative process by which identities

are formed through linguistic means. Subjection is essential to provide the rationale

behind performative speech acts in order to address the issue of institutional authority

with declarations. Subjection is eloquently illustrated in the interactions between Mr.

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Darcy and Elizabeth, for Elizabeth the iconic feminist figure has a profound impact upon

Mr. Darcy’s character. Mr. Darcy was essentially subjected to the power of Elizabeth’s

discourse, forming his identity as a subject. His struggle against Elizabeth’s conception of

his identity throughout their ironical exchange molded his characterization, altering his

moral character by the end of the novel. It is Elizabeth’s feminist nature which impacts

Mr. Darcy and eventually influences him to alter his moral character. Throughout the

novel Mr. Darcy is subjected to Elizabeth’s feminist views, her primary source of power

through discourse, and with this power she essentially creates Mr. Darcy as a subject by

constructing his identity through her verbal irony. This discovery of subjection’s

usefulness in analyzing characters within a novel is valuable for understanding character

development. Specifically, subjection is influential in analyzing the power struggle

between a novel’s protagonists, and possibly antagonists.

Additionally, using the concept of subjection for analysis may not only be limited to

the literary world. Subjection offers valuable insight into the power of language to

construct identities of various entities. Thus it follows that our method of analyzing

ironical performative speech acts through echoic groupings of characterization is not

limited to analyzing fictional characters. Furthermore, the approach of this study is not

excluded to the bounds of one historical context; the analytical framework may be

applied to works from any historical era. In essence, the approach for analyzing verbal

irony through performative speech acts which construct character identity can be

considered both horizontal and vertical as it breaches the confines of social and period

relativity to incorporate a variety of contexts. For example, the same approach may be

applied to both an ancient Chinese text and a novel set in modern-day England, which

exist in drastically different contexts.

6.3 Limitations and Suggestions

Limitations in our study include but are not restricted to the divergent perceptions in

classifying ironical utterances in speech act theory. The intricacy inherent in figurative

language renders some of these speech acts difficult to distinguish. Classifying speech

acts, especially using the new category of performative speech acts, can be an intricate

task because contextual clues necessary for classification can be equivocal. For example,

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the category of performative speech acts has fluid boundaries. In some instances,

directive speech acts are in essence performatives according to their illocutionary points

that entail the process of identity construction (for example, asking an individual “Aren’t

you a happy person?”). However, we classify these types of speech acts as directives

because they are presented in the form of a request/question for the H to do something

(propose to the world according to the word’s design), according to Searle’s speech act

taxonomy’s directional fit (see section 2.2.2 for directional fit). The directional fit of

directives is opposed to that of performative speech acts, which simultaneously bring

something into existence as they are spoken (see section 3.1.1 for performative speech

acts). Because other branches of classification come into purview when using the

modified speech act taxonomy, explained in the example of directives above, alternate

approaches of classification should be considered to lend support in this area, such as

semantic and cognitive aspects of the utterance.

We recognize a limit to the research on ironical performative speech acts by

exclusively analyzing utterances that allude to people and, hence elucidate their

identities. It is imperative to understand that although the scope of this paper is limited to

humans, performative speech acts are also useful for explaining the construction of

tangible objects, or abstract concepts such as organizational and national identity. Due to

the in-depth nature of our study, take note that we did not make full use of other

disciplinary procedures that can provide information in the examination of

characterization through ironical performative speech acts and the other topics touched

upon in our study. A further limitation to studying verbal irony and irony in general is the

uncertainty of defining irony. We find that verifying what verbal irony is and is not

proves to be difficult, especially considering utterances may be interpreted differently

depending upon the context in which the utterance takes place. Future studies should take

these limitations into account when attempting to advance the research on the role of

verbal irony in characterization. We suggest that future researchers apply this approach to

other types of figurative language besides verbal irony, such as verbal humor, to further

attest to its validity in analyzing character construction. In addition, we urge future

researchers to explore alternative quantitative methods to supplement the analysis of

character construction through figurative language.

The strength of our approach renders it applicable to copious literary works,

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originating from many socio-cultural regions from various time periods. The findings

encourage the application of this research to future studies in order to enhance the

discovery of the link between performative speech acts and characterization, specifically

in the ability of performative speech acts to explain characterization through verbal irony.

Verbal irony, frequently used for indirect communication, is a common type of figurative

language, yet its enigmatic nature proves it a complex subject for analysis. The

introduction of performative speech acts has significance due to its general applicability

for illustrating characterization; in turn the explication of characterization is further

enhanced through echoic groupings when verbal irony is present. This research has

offered an innovative approach to deciphering verbal irony in its relation to

characterization, and has set the groundwork for future studies of figurative language.

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