bryan rasmussen wrote: > On 10/10/06, Steve Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>bryan rasmussen wrote: >> >>>>>>E. g. [in Java there is] no operator overloading, but "+" >>>>>>concatenation of strings. What if you'd like to implement your own >>>>>>string-derived class? Ah, never mind. Operator overloading is >>>>>>bad(tm) ;) <= Irony, definitely >>>>> >>>>>Definitely? That one strikes me more as sarcasm. >>>> >>>Well irony originally started out as a very specific concept of the >>>Ancient Greek drama, this is what we nowadays refer to as Dramatic >>>Irony but it is the original irony. Irony then became a literary >>>concept for plot elements similar to Dramatic irony in books, or a >>>weaker type of the Dramatic irony found in the plays of Shakespeare. >>>People then noticed that life was at times ironic in the literary >>>manner. Nowadays the use of the word irony has degenerated to by >>>pretty much synonymous with sarcasm. >>> >> >>... in America. It's well-known among Brits that Americans don't >>understand irony. They can be pretty oblique when it come to sarcasms >>too, for that matter. > > > is that '....in America' meant to be an addendum to what I said, as in > this is the situation in America and not elsewhere? If so I should > probably point out that I am writing from Denmark and was thinking > specifically of a situation where a dane told me they were being > 'ironic' (when what they meant, obviously, was that they were being > ironical), when I asked what they meant by that they said "saying the > opposite of what I mean" I responded: "so, in other words, what you > mean by irony is 'sarcasm'" She responded "yes, that's what it means" > Well, my assertion about America clearly doesn't preclude to possibility of confusion on the part of the Danish too :-). You are right about the general degradation of the (understanding of the) meaning of irony. People are just too damned sloppy with language nowadays.
> She had a degree in communications. I also know a few number of brits. > The quality of their wit is not as yet so rarified that I must strain > after its meaning. > A degree in communications sadly does not necessarily require complete terminological exactitude. There's nothing wrong with being funny but obvious <0.8 wink> regards Steve -- Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list