A Comparison between Kenayeh" And Irony

"Kenayeh" is one of the most important devices for transferring meaning and concepts in persian language which has a crucial tou in rhetoric.Irony as well, in English language and in western rhetoric enjoys a special position to convey the message.In dictionaries of literary terms,"kenayeh" has been referred to as a synonym for irony; evidence shows that what westerners call irony is much different from Persian kenayeh though similarities can be seen between these two words. Persian "kenayeh" is usually categorized as adjective "kenayeh", substantive"kenayeh", verb" kenayeh" as well as near or remote "kenayeh". Or it has been divided to "eama, talvih, ramz and tariz" and this categorization is often used in short phrases of statements. While irony is mostly categorized with respect to the structure and content and concerns generalities such as verbal irony, structural irony, dramatic irony, Socratic irony, cosmic irony etc. In this paper similarities and dissimilarities of these two concepts will be briefly discussed.