This paper reports a case study on a family of American English constructions that will be called the family of approximate comparison constructions. This family has three members, all of which follow the syntactic pattern about as X as Y with X being an adjective, but which allow three related functions: literal comparison, simile and irony. Two cognitive frameworks concern themselves with irony, the cognitive modelling approach and viewpoint approach, and the paper will show that, while the ironic approximate comparison construction calls central assumptions of the cognitive modelling approach to question, the viewpoint account can be refined to handle these cases. In doing so, it furthers our understanding of the cognitive underpinning of irony. The paper provides a corpus-based analysis on the Y slot as well as collostructional analyses on the adjectival X slot in the family of approximate comparison constructions. The results thereof suggest that the ironic approximate comparison construction, in comparison to its literal counterpart, prefers adjectives that convey positively connotated, nuanced attitudes and is formally less variable in the Y slot. The preference for particular adjectives lends further support to the assumption that hearers understand the construction as ironic or literal before speakers complete their utterance. Given that, it is argued that the ironic approximate comparison construction communicates an inherent viewpoint.

中文翻译：

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像牙线鲨一样无聊：反讽的认知解释和美式英语中的近似比较构造家族

本文报告了一个关于美国英语构造家族的案例研究，该家族被称为近似比较构造家族。这个家庭有三个成员，所有成员都遵循X像Y一样的语法模式，X是一个形容词，但是它允许三个相关的功能：字面比较，明喻和反讽。具有讽刺意味的是两个认知框架，即认知建模方法和观点视图方法，本文将表明，虽然具有讽刺意味的近似比较构造将认知建模方法的中心假设称为问题，但可以完善观点视图以处理这些情况。 。这样做可以加深我们对反讽的认知基础的理解。本文提供了基于语料库的Y字形分析，以及对形容词X字形在近似比较构造族中的共构分析。其结果表明，与它的字面对应物相比，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构更喜欢形容词，这些形容词传达肯定的，细微的态度，并且在Y字形中的形式变化较小。对特定形容词的偏爱进一步支持了这样一种假设，即听众在说话者完成话语之前先将其理解为讽刺或直译。鉴于此，有争议的是，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构传达了一种固有观点。其结果表明，与它的字面对应物相比，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构更喜欢形容词，这些形容词传达肯定的，细微的态度，并且在Y字形中的形式变化较小。对特定形容词的偏爱进一步支持了这样的假设，即听众在说话者完成说话之前就将其理解为讽刺或直译。鉴于此，有争议的是，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构传达了一种固有观点。其结果表明，与它的字面对应物相比，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构更喜欢形容词，这些形容词传达肯定的，细微的态度，并且在Y字形中的形式变化较小。对特定形容词的偏爱进一步支持了这样的假设，即听众在说话者完成说话之前就将其理解为讽刺或直译。鉴于此，有争议的是，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构传达了一种固有观点。对特定形容词的偏爱进一步支持了这样的假设，即听众在说话者完成说话之前就将其理解为讽刺或直译。鉴于此，有争议的是，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构传达了一种固有观点。对特定形容词的偏爱进一步支持了这样的假设，即听众在说话者完成说话之前就将其理解为讽刺或直译。鉴于此，有争议的是，具有讽刺意味的近似比较结构传达了一种固有观点。