Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
Why sarcasm is a tone on top of a sentence
Sarcasm leaves the sentence standing and lays a scornful tone across it.
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From the opening
Sarcasm is a cutting attitude laid over a sentence whose words are often milder, kinder, or more polite than the attitude itself. The sentence can remain grammatical and even straightforward in its parts, while the tone does the extra work of contempt or mock praise. The opening covers how tone carries the bite, why irony is not sarcasm, and what writing uses instead of voice.
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Inside
- How tone carries the bite
- Why irony is not sarcasm
- What writing uses instead of voice
- When a true sentence still sneers
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Sarcasm as a hostile tone on an utterance
- The split between sarcastic bite and ironic gap