【正文】 n irony. But irony has bee more and more active in English news headline actually. It is necessary to have some study on irony. Irony, as a widely used rhetorical means, has unique language features. The paper analyzes irony in detail with the help of pragmatic theories. From a pragmatic point of view, no matter which pragmatic function the irony is used, a correct understanding of the irony plays a very important role. Otherwise, irony will cause a deviation of understanding so that cannot achieve the desired purpose. As a municative strategy, irony will get a better understanding in the future research. It will help to improve municative skills. As stated, the characteristics and the functions of the irony in English civic news headline have been clearly clarified above. Creating ironically humorous atmosphere to catch readers? eyes 。s usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. On this aspect, The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) also says: A condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected。 of the outsiders39。 shall not understand, amp。s meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of the truth, denies the contrary of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.” (Muecke 80) Henry Watson Fowler, in The King39。 功能 Contents Ⅰ . Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2 Ⅱ .The Relationship between Irony and English News Headline ........................................... ...2 Definition of Irony ........................................................................................................ 3 The Role of Irony in English News Headline..............................................................4 Ⅲ . The Characteristics of Irony in English Civic News Headline ............................................. 4 Criticize Civic Problems with Ironic Humor................................................................ 5 Express the Civic Situation Impressively ................................................................... 6 Describe the Civic Events Obligingly .......................................................................... 7 Ⅳ . The Functions of Irony in English Civic News Headline ..................................................... 9 4. 1Dispense the Inherent Vapidity ................................................................................. 13 Ironically Highlight the Prevalent People?s True Feelings ......................................... 14 V. Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 15 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 17 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 19 廣師天河學(xué)院本科畢業(yè)論文 1 I. Introduction News headline is one of the most important parts of the news. It is eyecatching highlight which attracts readers? attention and previews the whole news. Compared with other English news, English civic news is ignored by scholars. The same as the English civic news, irony is not taken seriously by scholars pared with other English rhetoric devices. When people want to know more about irony, and they search the information of English rhetoric devices, the first thing which shows up is always not irony. In order to find out what is really needed, digging harder for irony is always the important thing. At the end of it, frustration shows up after finding out the truly situation about irony. Although irony is monly used in our daily life, but it seems that people don?t really care about it. Such being the case, paying more attention to irony and English civic news is extremely necessary, because they are mon in daily life and are very important. This paper is going to study on the irony in English civic news headline. The definition of irony in Webster?s New World Dictionary is “a method of humorous or subtly sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning if the words used is the direct opposite of their usual sense.”(Michael E. Agnes 284). Actually, irony is monly used in the English civic news headline. Irony in English civic news headline seemed quite immaterial to scholars so that people started to neglect the importance of irony. Therefore, it is high time to pay attention to it for its development. This paper works on analyzing the characteristics and functions of irony in English civic news headline. Meanwhile, this paper will provide some unique characteristics and functions on irony in English civic news headline to serve the readers and provide some information to figure out the significance of irony in English civic news headline. The characteristics will help to criticize civic problems with ironic humor, express the civic situation impressively and describe the civic events obligingly. And the functions dispense the inherent vapidity, ironically highlight the prevalent people?s true feelings and trenchantly expose the civic problems. II. The Relationship between Irony and English News Headline With the high speed development of the Inter, people gather information more easily. Living in an era full of all kinds of information, people need to get valuable information through all sorts of media. And as the widespread information resource media, news is one of the most popular sources for people gathering information. In one hand, as