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“That's really clever!” Ironic hyperbole understanding in children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2017

MARC AGUERT Open the ORCID record for MARC AGUERT [Opens in a new window] ,
CORALIE LE VALLOIS ,
KARINE MARTEL  and
VIRGINIE LAVAL
MARC AGUERT
Affiliation:
Université de Caen Normandie, EA 7452, France
CORALIE LE VALLOIS
Affiliation:
Center for Early Medical and Social Action, Saint-Lô, France
KARINE MARTEL
Affiliation:
Université de Caen Normandie, EA 7452, France
VIRGINIE LAVAL
Affiliation:
Université de Poitiers, UMR 6234, France
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Abstract

Hyperbole supports irony comprehension in adults by heightening the contrast between what is said and the actual situation. Because young children do not perceive the communication situation as a whole, but rather give precedence to either the utterance or the context, we predicted that hyperbole would reduce irony comprehension in six-year-olds (n = 40) by overemphasizing what was said. By contrast, ten-year-olds (n = 40) would benefit from hyperbole in the way that adults do, as they would perceive the utterance and context as a whole, highlighted by the speaker's ironic intent. Short animated cartoons featuring ironic criticisms were shown to participants. We assessed comprehension of the speaker's belief and speaker's intent. Results supported our predictions. The development of mentalization during school years and its impact on the development of irony comprehension is discussed.

Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 260 - 272
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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