Verbal irony and the Maxims of Grice's cooperative principle

Is Verbal Irony Special?

The way we speak can reveal much about what we intend to communicate, but the words we use often only indirectly relate to the meanings we wish to convey. Verbal irony is a commonly studied form of indirect speech in which a speaker produces an explicit evaluative utterance that implicates an unstated, opposing evaluation. Producing and understanding ironic language, as well as many other types...

Asymmetries in the Use of Verbal Irony

the effects of cooperative versus individual directed reading thinking activities on students inferential and referential questions

two groups of students were assigned as experimental and control ones, and were given instruction on directed reading-thinking activities and after some treatment, they were post-tested. although the initial pre-test did not show any significant differences, the final post-test result revealed that the cooperative reading comprehension helped the experimental group. the cooperative students’...

Where is the humor in verbal irony?

Irony is often related to humor, both in spoken and written language. One possibility is that humor arises once people reconcile the incongruity between what speakers say and imply when using irony. Humor automatically emerges in these cases given the release of tension following a momentary sense of disparity. Our claim is that this proposal does not capture many of the dynamic complexities in...

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. Ratings of humor increased with age; ratings of meanness did not (showing that all ages perceived irony as mor...