Why doesn't irony translate very well in the written word....?

Question

See following for example;

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgcjmIdsAXJS2fee98hfo.A1CAx.?qid=20070302043525AATAysU

Answer 1

You can't make that assumption. Just because of the answers you got at one moment. You are making an assertion without proper backing.

Answer 2

There are different kinds of irony. For example:

Tragic (or dramatic) irony occurs when a character onstage is ignorant, but the audience watching knows his or her eventual fate, as in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet.
Socratic irony takes place when someone (classically a teacher) pretends to be foolish or ignorant, but is not (and the teaching-audience, but not the student-victim, realizes the teacher's ploy).
Cosmic irony is a sharp incongruity between our expectation of an outcome and what actually occurs.
Ironically, the majority of people will not notice this irony on a day to day basis.

Answer 3

Because a lot of irony and sarcasm relies on the inflection you put into your voice - which cannot be conveyed within a written statement. Unless you also include such comments as "he said, raising an eyebrow", or ?!? works quite well with the right question.

And yes I do get that you probably meant this as an ironic question, but I chose to treat it as a serious one - it translates both ways.

Answer 4

I think irony relies very much on the use of body language and a change of pitch in the voice. Written irony seems frank, as the clues to understand the intention are taken away

Answer 5

I've often thought that there should be some kind of grammatical "sign" or punctuation mark to denote irony or sarcasm. It would be useful.

Answer 6

because you can't see the person's face, and that can be important in communication

Answer 7

I do not know. When you find out let me know

Answer 8

I dont know, I often wonder that myself

Answer 9

Don't know but its very ironic isn't it.

Answer 10

Yeah , it's ironic that innit !!