I'm sometimes amazed how both Irony and Sarcasm can completely go over some people's heads. Now, I know that I didn't always understand those two but no matter what I try I'm unable to explain it to a few of my friends.
On another note. I actually think that Irony by Alanis Morissette is ironic. It is a song about Irony filled with things that aren't ironic at all. This has to be some sort of (meta)irony.
Unfortunately, the word 'ironic' means whatever people want it to mean when they use it. That's how words are; we can't use the dictionary as a sort of rulebook and demand that people follow every definition carefully. Language changes, it shifts, and those shifts are dictated by usage, not by some immanent set of required forms.
I confess that I've had to admit this to myself with some reluctance. Those of us who are technically inclined, and who value precision and accuracy, can never really get used to the fact that language is a muddy and changing thing, and that there are no real 'rules' of usage; people can use words however they'd like. Like a lot of geeks, I've always had a bad habit of constantly stopping people when they use phrases like 'it begs the question...' or 'it's ironic...' in nonstandard ways. However, linguistic prescriptivism isn't really coherent as an approach to the world, I think, and life is smoother when I just let go and accept that I'll generally understand what people mean even when they say that it's 'ironic' that they've missed the train three days in a row.
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[ 5.5 ms ] story [ 23.8 ms ] thread"" My friends said I don't understand irony, which was in itself ironic, as we were waiting for a bus. ""
On another note. I actually think that Irony by Alanis Morissette is ironic. It is a song about Irony filled with things that aren't ironic at all. This has to be some sort of (meta)irony.
I confess that I've had to admit this to myself with some reluctance. Those of us who are technically inclined, and who value precision and accuracy, can never really get used to the fact that language is a muddy and changing thing, and that there are no real 'rules' of usage; people can use words however they'd like. Like a lot of geeks, I've always had a bad habit of constantly stopping people when they use phrases like 'it begs the question...' or 'it's ironic...' in nonstandard ways. However, linguistic prescriptivism isn't really coherent as an approach to the world, I think, and life is smoother when I just let go and accept that I'll generally understand what people mean even when they say that it's 'ironic' that they've missed the train three days in a row.