Intonation influences how children and adults interpret sarcasm

Abstract

Adults distinguish sarcasm from literal language according to intonation involving a reduction in fundamental frequency (F0). We examined whether children's and adults' interpretation of a sarcastic speaker's belief, attitude, and humor was affected by degree of F0 reduction by presenting five- to six-year-olds and adults with sarcastic and literal criticisms with a small, medium, or large mean F0 reduction. Children and adults were more accurate in attributing the speaker's belief and intent for sarcastic criticisms for large F0 reductions compared to small reductions. These results show that F0 reduction is a helpful cue to sarcasm interpretation for both children and adults.

Influence of Voice Intonation on Understanding Irony by Polish-Speaking Preschool Children

“…Th ese children show substantially bett er understanding of a character's ironic statements (i.e., they score higher on Irony Comprehension Task) when the stories are accompanied by a corresponding ironic voice intonation. Group diff erences were signifi cant both for the overall score and for the scores on the six stories consisting of ironic statements, and they are in line with current research (Glenwright et al, 2014;Tolmie & Ratt ray, 2008).…”

“…Regardless of the children's fi rst language (in this case Polish), the essential conclusions are consistent with fi ndings of international researchers. Studies with English-speaking children proved that voice intonation is a helpful cue for sarcasm interpretation (Glenwright et al, 2014) and for disbelieving lies or ironic jokes (Tolmie & Ratt ray, 2008).…”

“…Th e results of the experiment showed that in acquiring an ability to interpret sarcasm, children rely more on voice intonation than on verbal context provided in the stories serving as experimental stimuli. Glenwright et al (2014) proved in their study that the large reduction of fundamental frequency of voice intonation is a helpful cue for sarcasm interpretation for both adults and children. Filippova (2014) suggests that the ability to understand irony varies across social and cultural contexts.…”

“…Sarcastic comments are instances of irony that contradict the actual state of reality and are related to a mocking or scornful att itude towards the addressee (McDonald, 2000). Speakers very oft en use a special tone of voice to mark ironic comments (stress of a syllable or word, diff erent pitch), which is seen as an important clue to ironic meaning (e.g., Glenwright, Parackel, Cheung, & Nilsen, 2014).…”

Voice Changes Meaning: The Role of Gay- Versus Straight-Sounding Voices in Sentence Interpretation

“…Voice sound is associated with mental representations as shown by the fact that non-existing words said with a happy, rather than a sad tone, were more likely associated with happy than sad target pictures (Nygaard, Herold, & Namy, 2009), and ambiguous words are processed in line with the voice emotional tone (Nygaard & Lunders, 2002). Moreover, prosodic features are used to solve the inconsistencies between vocal intonation and message content (Badzinski, 1991;Bugental, 1974;Cohen, Douaire, & Elsabbagh, 2001) and to interpret ambiguous messages as either serious or sarcastic (Glenwright, Parackel, Cheung, & Nilsen, 2014).…”