Re: [ADS-L] "ironical ly" again

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/4/06 12:18:41 PM, wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM writes:


>   And Larry, if "ironically" has been dragooned into all-purpose adverbial 
> transitionality, the questions remain:
> 
>   Why "ironically" ?  And what does it mean in such contexts ?
> 
>   JL
> 
> 
See NOAD2: "used to denote a paradoxical, unexpected, or coincidental 
sitation." It seems "coincidental" that the man was filming a story about dangerous 
sea critters and a sea critter accidentally killed him--not to mention 
unexpected. And if PARADOXICAL is taken in the sense of "seemingly absurd," one might 
see the death by sting ray an the context of the filming as "paradoxical" as 
well. For that matter, if one is setting out to make a movie about dangerous 
creatures, one does not really expect to be killed, so the sense of irony in 
which things turn out to be the opposite of what one might expect also works 
here.

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