Contextual Integration and Utterance Interpretation: The Ability of Children and Adults to Interpret Sarcastic Utterances

Abstract

ACKERMAN, BRIAN P. Contextual Integration and Utterance Interpretation: The Ability of Children and Adults to Interpret Sarcastic Utterances. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 1075-1083. To understand a sarcastic utterance, a listener has to note the contradiction between the utterance and the contextual information, infer that the speaker is aware of this contradiction in using the utterance, and integrate the contextual and utterance information. This study examined whether young children and adults are able to interpret sarcastic utterances and whether placements of contextual information before or after the utterance, and adjacent to or separated from the utterance, differentially affect utterance interpretation. Firstand third-grade children and college adults were read short paragraphs containing an utterance and contextual information designed to bias either a sarcastic or a literal interpretation of the utterance. In experiment 1, the subjects' interpretations of the information were examined by means of question probes. In experiment 2, the subjects' memory for the utterance information was examined by means of a falserecognition task. The results suggest that different placements of contextual information affect utterance interpretation. Moreover, while third graders and adults generally made more correct interpretations of the sarcastic utterances, first graders do comprehend these utterances in conditions that facilitate the integration of contextual and utterance information.