| 词组 | ironically |
| 释义 | ironically Bremner 1980 advises us to let the reader decide whether something we write is ironic or not, and not to preface the remark with ironically—and especially not with ironically enough. Bremner is objecting to ironically as a sentence adverb, but he has missed an important point. Ironically as a sentence adverb is what some grammarians call a disjunct; disjuncts tell you what the writer or speaker thinks about a statement, not what the reader or hearer is supposed to think. Bremner is the only American usage writer we have found who mentions this primarily British issue. The British commentators—Howard 1978, Burchfield 1981, Longman 1984, and Robert F. Ilson in The English Language Today (1985)—base their objections on semantic grounds. Howard may speak for the group: Ironically is a powerful and explicit word. It is being weakened by use as an all-purpose introductory word to draw attention to every trivial oddity, and often to no oddity at all. Howard's summary fits the objections of the other British commentators reasonably well. A couple of American academics have taken up the same line: Wayne C. Booth—who is not disinterested, having written a book on irony—in Harper's (May 1984), and Hugh Kenner in the Times Literary Supplement (17 Oct. 1986). Part of the fun of this line of criticism is trying to think up plausible substitutes for ironically. Oddly, embarrassingly, incongruously, paradoxically, strangely, even sadly and tragically have been suggested. The usage itself has been a long time coming to light. It is about as old as sentence-adverbial hopefully (half a century or so), but is only now being discovered. Here are some examples from over the years: • Ironically enough, it was Boston and Cambridge that grew to seem provincial —Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England, 1815-1865, rev. ed., 1946 • Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Hawthorne, Cooper, Bul-wer-Lytton, and George Eliot were most in demand, and with the passing of instruction in Greek and Latin literature, these novelists were, ironically, called 'classics.' —James D. Hart, The Popular Book: A History of America's Literary Taste, 1950 • Ironically, the President found himself agreeing with the same companies his administration had just indicted ... as a wicked oil cartel —Time, 8 Sept. 1952 • ... laid the foundations of his fortune with a novel called, ironically enough, The Light that Failed — Maurice Cranston, London Calling, 19 Aug. 1954 • Ironically, one's first impression of Melville Cane, unless one chances on him while he is already laughing, is that of melancholy —Hiram Haydn, American Scholar, Summer 1964 • Ironically the bombing of London was a blessing to the youthful generations that followed —Iona & Peter Opie, Children's Games in Street and Playground, 1969 • ... decline from their former economic strength (which has, ironically, been accompanied by an upsurge in appreciation in the intellectual community) —Richard Schickel, Harper's, October 1970 • The good weather, ironically, was in part responsible for this perhaps record toll —Jeremy Bernstein, New Yorker, 30 Oct. 1971 • Ironically, the most likely source of hidden value lies in the company's older properties —Frederick Rose, quoted in Wall Street Jour., 23 May 1980 These should be enough to give you a good idea of the standardness of their usage. It has been waiting to be discovered for some time, and no doubt commentators in this country will eventually recognize the potential it offers as a target for criticism. The older use of ironically, incidentally, seems to be moving right along unaffected by the newer use. |
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