2.2.1　Irony and Indirect Speech Act

According to Amante，ironic speech acts are insincere by nature and with no exception indirect speech acts（Amante，1981，p.81）.As aforementioned，indirect speech acts are“cases in which one illocutionary act is performed indirectly by way of performing another.”“Indirectness”is the very characteristic shared by irony.Consequently，irony could also be regarded as a special kind of indirect speech act，because under given circumstances，irony is often employed so as to convey specific pragmatic implications，and to reflect the speaker's communicative intentions and strategies.