Word: ironically

Category:

Description/Reason:

marks situations involving 1) failure caused by efforts towards success; or 2) success achieved by means which would normally lead to failure


Comment below with feedback and suggestions.

Responses

    1. Humor is an *effect* of irony rather than a necessary or sufficient condition of it. Our brains have evolved to reward us when we can detect the pattern that there is a disconnect between the intentions of an agent's action and the outcome of the action.

      But I want an adverb. It would be cool to have another adverb.

  1. Is this the Alannis Morrisette definition of irony? "Irony" is a very difficult concept to define, and very difficult to differentiate from mere "incongruity"—lots of native English speakers would have difficulty explaining it. Is it a concept specific to Western European culture? Would "incongrously" or "unexpectedly" serve the same purpose? How is it different from {jum} "odd, peculiar, unexpected, fishy"?

    1. The given definition above specificially describes how the target concept is different from mere Morrisettian incongruity of imagery (which might be covered by mItbe' be inappropriate or nelHa' mismatch). Only agents with means and goals partake in the above species of irony. jum falls far short of the mark.

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