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“Mom said it in quotation marks!” Irony comprehension and metapragmatic awareness in 8-year-olds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2023

Sarah GARFINKEL Open the ORCID record for Sarah GARFINKEL [Opens in a new window] ,
Meredith L. ROWE Open the ORCID record for Meredith L. ROWE [Opens in a new window] ,
Sandra BOSACKI Open the ORCID record for Sandra BOSACKI [Opens in a new window]  and
Natalia BANASIK-JEMIELNIAK Open the ORCID record for Natalia BANASIK-JEMIELNIAK [Opens in a new window]
Sarah GARFINKEL*
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA
Meredith L. ROWE
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA
Sandra BOSACKI
Affiliation:
Brock University, Canada
Natalia BANASIK-JEMIELNIAK
Affiliation:
The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Poland
*
Corresponding author: Sarah Garfinkel; Email: garfinkelsarahrose@gmail.com
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Abstract

This study investigated links between the development of children’s understanding of ironic comments and their metapragmatic knowledge. Forty-six 8-year-olds completed the short version of the Irony Comprehension Task, during which they were presented with ironic comments in three stories and asked to provide reasons for why the speaker in a story uttered an ironic comment. We coded their responses and compared the results to similar data collected previously with 5-year-olds. Results showed that compared to younger children, 8-year-olds frequently refer to interlocutors’ emotions, intentions, and to metapragmatics. These results support the view that comprehension of verbal irony is an emerging skill in children.

Keywords

irony comprehensionverbal ironypragmatic skills
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , May 2024 , pp. 485 - 508
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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