Controversy over the Concept of Irony (=Al-Mophareqeh) from Sarcasm to Contradiction; A Linguistic and Semantic Approach

The origin of irony is not only from Greek philosophy but also, it is a modern literary approach. Irony has enterd and expanded in Arabic literature. Irony includes many meanings and in science of rhetoric similar to verbal sharing and in cultural and social communication near to literary critisim. We have found the role of semantic in this discourse is noticable, and it emerges as a semantic method in rhetoric and literary criticism. So, we tried to uncover the semantic dimension of the concept of irony, and to reveal the contradiction of meaning and verbal sharing. However, it seems that irony is the same as common arts in rhetoric such as meaning, eloquence and exquisite. There are many difrences between irony and rhetorical methods. The authors, using new ideas by an analytical method, interpreted examples of irony. The conclusion of this research is that the term irony -from a semantic point of view- is a verbal sharing that cinsists of sarcasim and paradox. In orther to use verbal or situational sarcasim, speakers redicule the person and say the meaning different to what speakers say.