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SPECIFIC FEATURES OF IRONY
Nigina Sadinova
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Philology,
Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
e-mail: niginka9090@gmail.com
Annotation:
This article tells about the history of the emergence of irony, one of the means of
expressing humor in the Uzbek language, as a means of expressing thought and its use as a
means of evaluation in fiction. In the language of a work of art, in the construction of sentences,
the meaning of linguistic units is reflected in the perception of expressive means, in specific
forms of communication between characters, as well as in the functions of linguistic units in
social activity. . Means of humorous expressiveness in our language are revealed under a number
of names, such as irony, wordplay, sarcasm, contamination, humor, satire, askiya.
Key words:
humor, irony, sarcasm, satire, wordplay, contamination, fiction, literary work,
evaluation tool paronomasia.
In Uzbek linguistics, the means of creating and expressing satire have been studied to a certain
extent [1;147]. One of the means of expressing satire in the Uzbek language is irony. As noted in
dictionaries, irony has two meanings: “1. A word or phrase used in a figurative sense other than
its original meaning for the purpose of mockery or laughter; a mocking, sarcastic, sarcastic,
sarcastic expression. 2. Stylistic means: one of the methods of denial in a work of art, consisting
of a hidden laugh at a person or thing through a mocking, sarcastic means” [2].
The history of the emergence of irony as a means of expressing thought dates back to ancient
times. Irony (from the ancient Greek εἰρωνεία “falsehood”) is a satirical method in which the
original meaning is hidden or contradicts (contrasted) with the explicit meaning; trope type:
when words are used in a speech context in a way that is opposite to their true meaning, it
expresses irony, a cunning metaphor, or mockery [3]. The word “irony” is translated from
ancient Greek as “to show oneself differently.” According to researchers, the founder of this
rhetorical method was the philosopher Socrates. His style of conducting scientific discussions
can be expressed with the phrase “to put oneself in a flower.” This is what the oldest form of
irony, namely, to show oneself differently, consisted of [4]. Existing dictionaries note the
existence of such types of ironic expression as direct irony, self-mockery - irony directed at the
individual, Socratic irony - a method of exposing the interlocutor’s ignorance, widely used in
maeutics, and post-irony - a humorous method in which sincerity is difficult to distinguish from
irony [5].
It should be noted that changes in the structure of the language, its linguistic construction,
various semantic shifts in the composition of vocabulary and phraseology, the use of irony in
expressing the attitude towards the person to whom the speech is addressed are embodied in the
speech of characters in literary texts. Of course, the skill of the characters in using language units
expressing satire and irony plays an important role in the depiction of their spiritual world and
psyche. The units expressing the ironic content used in the speech of the characters reflect their
attitude to the era in which they lived, the social system, and the specific features of the language
in use. They are expressed in the language of the work of art, in the spiritual changes of language
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units in the construction of sentences, in the perception of expressive and figurative means, in the
specific forms of communication between characters, as well as in the functions of language
units in social activity. It is known that the existence of methods in our language, which are
known under a number of names such as irony, word play, sarcasm, contamination, humor, satire,
and asceticism, indicates the breadth of possibilities for artistic expression of thoughts in literary
texts. One of the means of creating humor in the Uzbek language is contamination. “The lexical
meaning of the word contamination is mixing, merging (skrishavaniya), and linguistically it is
directly related to the creation of a new word and a new meaning.
It is known that in language, new words and new meanings are also formed by the method of
composition. However, the specific feature of contamination is that, firstly, in contamination, the
sound complex of the word does not change, that is, the external form and similarity of the word
remain the same. Secondly, in contamination, a merger occurs, as a result of which the semantic
structure of the word changes, a lexical coloring is formed. Therefore, in linguistics, the
contamination phenomenon is called lexical contamination (lexicheskaya kontaminatsiya).
Thirdly, although it is the same, the pronunciation of the word is twofold. Fourthly, in
contamination, the form of the word resembles a syntactic phenomenon such as synthetic or
analytical [6;54]. When using this method in fiction, attention is paid to a separate word in the
text and an irony is created based on its meaning. For example, in Tahir Malik's work "The
Golden Rat" there is such a passage:
The so-called "socialist competition" has also reached these
villages. At first, when the order to "play a competition" came, everyone was surprised: "We
knew the tortoise, we knew the frog. Who is Moses, what kind of frog is his frog, why do we have
to play his frog, don't we have frogs ourselves?" Later, it turned out that there was no such frog
of Moses in these areas. His name was "socialist", and he was brought from Moscow. Years
passed, and people could not live without Moses' socialist frog. One year after the war, at
someone's wedding, Salimbuq said, "Moses' frog is really turning our minds upside down. If
Jesus' frog comes, maybe we will see our grandmother?" Two days later, they took him to the
police station. His wife asked, "Where are you taking my husband?" They said, "We'll show your
husband the Jesus frog." Since he wasn't lying, they sent Salimbugaq to Siberia to see the Jesus
frog. It is unknown whether Salimbugaq was lucky enough to see the Jesus frog in the cold
forests of Siberia, but he never returned after seeing his mother.
It can be seen in the text that the author's main attention is focused on the word
"competition" and an ironic situation is created through word play. The text also hints at
exposing the system that ruled during the period. Another thing that should be noted in our
opinion. The humorous language and style are manifested in a unique way, that is, in it, Tahir
Malik does not resort to storytelling when giving details of events in the work, but rather lets the
development of events take place on his own. It is characteristic that the events in the work occur
without the participation of the author, the period in which the heroes live, who they are, and the
extent to which they participate in the system of events gradually become clear during the
reading of the book. The task of introducing them is performed by the characters. According to
Professor S. Karimov, “Irony is also a stylistic device widely used in artistic and colloquial style.
In this case, the negative attitude of the author of the speech to another person, thing, object and
event is expressed not with vulgar words in the language, such as animal, dog, ox, donkey, idiot,
dirty, naughty, but with the help of gentle, ordinary words or phrases, sayings. However, in this
case, language units are not used in their own meaning, but, if I may say so, they give a
completely opposite meaning. In such a case, the speaker attributes to the object of the speech
qualities that it does not have, sometimes it is excessively praised, and the listener or reader is
forced to laugh involuntarily because of the absence of these qualities in the depicted object.
However, irony is not always considered a means of causing laughter. Even very serious, painful
events can be presented in an ironic way in a work of art” [7;33]. The above example also
confirms the correctness of the scientist's ideas.
Used literature:
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1.
Abdurakhmanov Sh.A. Humorous linguistic means in Uzbek artistic speech. Philology.
Candidate of Sciences. Dissertation. Tashkent, 1997. 147 p.https://izoh.uz/uz/word/kinoya
2.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ирония
3.
https://www.culture.ru/s/slovo-dnya/ironiya/
4.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ирония
5.
Юсупов К. Ўзбек адабий тилида контаминация. Ўзбек тили ва адабиёти, 1985. №6.-
Б.54.
6.
Каримов С.А. Бадиий услуб ва тилнинг ифода тасвир воситалари. Ўқув қўлланмаси.
– Самарқанд: СамДУ нашриёти. 1994. Б.32-33.
