Abstract
According to the Presupposition-Denial Account, complement set reference arises when focus is on the shortfall between the amount conveyed by a natural language quantifier and a larger, expected amount. Negative quantifiers imply a shortfall, through the denial of a presupposition, whereas positive quantifiers do not. An exception may be provided by irony. One function of irony is to highlight, through indirect negation, the shortfall between what is expected/desired, and what is observed. Thus, a positive quantifier used ironically should also lead to a shortfall and license complement set reference. Using ERPs, we examined whether reference to the complement set is more felicitous following a positive quantifier used ironically than one used non-ironically. ERPs during reading showed a smaller N400 for complement set reference following an ironic compared to a non-ironic context. The shortfall generated thorough irony is sufficient to allow focus on the complement set, supporting the Presupposition-Denial Account.
Highlights
It has been claimed that irony serves to highlight the gap between what is expected or desirable in a situation, and what is observed (Giora, 1995; see Martin, 1992)
We report an event-related brain potential (ERP) study, in which we use this property of irony in order to test the predictions of the Presupposition-Denial Account
Previous ERP studies investigating the comprehension of irony have principally concentrated on what happens during processing of the ironic phrase itself (e.g., Cornejo et al, 2007; Filik et al, 2014; Katz et al, 2004; Regel et al, 2010, 2011; 2014, but see Thompson et al, 2021), whereas here we focus on the influence of irony on the processing of subsequent text
Summary
It has been claimed that irony serves to highlight the gap between what is expected or desirable in a situation, and what is observed (Giora, 1995; see Martin, 1992). By saying “What a lovely party” in the middle of a terrible party, the speaker points out that the party is far from being lovely by drawing attention to the gap between the expected or desired situation expressed by the literal meaning of the utterance, and reality. In this respect, irony functions in a similar manner to the purported role of negative quantifiers proposed by Moxey (2006) and Sanford et al (2007), in the. We report an event-related brain potential (ERP) study, in which we use this property of irony in order to test the predictions of the Presupposition-Denial Account
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