Children's Understanding of the Meaning and Functions of Verbal Irony

We investigated children's understanding of irony and sensitivity to irony's meanness and humor. In Study 1, 89 participants (5-6-year-olds, 8-9-year-olds, adults) heard ironic and literal criticisms, and literal compliments. Comprehension of irony emerged between 5 and 6 years of age. Rat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 1996-12, Vol.67 (6), p.3071-3085
Main Authors: Dews, Shelly, Winner, Ellen, Kaplan, Joan, Rosenblatt, Elizabeth, Hunt, Malia, Lim, Karen, McGovern, Angela, Qualter, Alison, Smarsh, Bonnie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Age
Age Differences
Age Factors
Age groups
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Development
Child psychology
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Cognition
Compliments
Development
Developmental psychology
Dew
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Humor
Insults
Irony
Language
Language Acquisition
Language Processing
Male
Muting
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rudeness
Speech Perception
Understanding
Wit and Humor as Topic
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We investigated children's understanding of irony and sensitivity to irony's meanness and humor. In Study 1, 89 participants (5-6-year-olds, 8-9-year-olds, adults) heard ironic and literal criticisms, and literal compliments. Comprehension of irony emerged between 5 and 6 years of age. Ratings of humor increased with age; ratings of meanness did not (showing that all ages perceived irony as more muted than literal criticism). In Study 2, results from 135 participants (6-7-year-olds, 8-9-year-olds, and adults) replicated these findings and revealed the role of form and intonation. Thus, comprehension of irony emerges between 5 and 6 years of age, and sensitivity to the muting function develops prior to sensitivity to the humor function.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.2307/1131767