ERIC Number: EJ1077853
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Nov
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
Exploring the Role of Conventionality in Children's Interpretation of Ironic Remarks
Burnett, Debra L.
Journal of Child Language, v42 n6 p1267-1288 Nov 2015
Irony comprehension in seven- and eight-year-old children with typically developing language skills was explored under the framework of the graded salience hypothesis. Target ironic remarks, either conventional or novel/situation-specific, were presented following brief story contexts. Children's responses to comprehension questions were used to determine their understanding of the components of irony: speaker meaning, speaker attitude, and speaker intent. It was hypothesized that conventional remarks would be easier to comprehend than novel/situation-specific remarks because they are more likely to be familiar to the children. Results indicated that children demonstrated better comprehension of speaker meaning for conventional remarks than for novel/situation-specific remarks but no significant differences were found for inferring speaker attitude or speaker intent.
Descriptors: Child Language, Young Children, Figurative Language, Comprehension, Discourse Analysis, Semantics, Task Analysis, Experiments, Oral Language, English, Statistical Analysis, Cues, Suprasegmentals, Inferences, Cognitive Ability, Language Acquisition, Language Tests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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