Rachel Giora
Biographic Data
| ID | 981940 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel Giora |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel |
| FAMILY NAME | Giora |
| SIGNATURE | GIORA R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tel Aviv University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9628-9088 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 68 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 569 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 68 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Whether Verbal or Visual, Affirmative or Negative, Tautologies are Not Tautologies
In this paper we test the hypothesis that tautologies (An X is an X; X is X) are actually not tautologies (i.e., not repetitive). Indeed, when exploring natural language use, it seems that, having expressed such “uninformative” statements, speakers, most often, spell out their specific intended interpretation, rendering these messages informative (Section 2). Visual/pictorial tautologies are also informative; either they allow the observers to co…
Default sarcastic interpretations of attenuated and intensified similes
S/he is not the Most Sparkling Drink in the Pub Global Vs. Local Cue – Which Reigns Supreme
Within the framework of the Defaultness Hypothesis, automatic responses to “fully abstract phrasal patterns,” involving strong attenuation of highly positive concepts, are sarcastic. Such global constructional responses will be derived by default once their stimuli are free of factors known to affect processing of nonliteralness. They should, therefore, be (a) novel; (b), free of local cues such as semantic anomaly or internal incongruity; and (c…
A Linguistic or Pictorial Context: Does It Make a Difference
In two experiments this study tested the Graded Salience Hypothesis and the Defaultness Hypothesis. It weighs the effects of linguistic versus pictorial contexts in terms of activation (or suppression) of default, salient meanings when context invites nondefault, less-salient alternatives. Using a naming task, Experiments 1 and 2 looked into the processing speed of ambiguous probe words, following a linguistic or pictorial prime, supportive of th…
Introduction: Defaultness, affect, and figurative language
There has been a recent explosion of research into figurative language, with exciting new theoretical developments regarding how figurative expressions are processed, understood, and represented in
The role of defaultness and personality factors in sarcasm interpretation: Evidence from eye-tracking during reading
Theorists have debated whether our ability to understand sarcasm (pertaining here to verbal irony) is principally determined by the context or by properties of the comment itself. The current research investigated an alternative view that broadens the focus on the comment itself, suggesting that mitigating a highly positive concept by using negation generates sarcastic interpretations by default. In the current study, pretests performed on the ta…
On the superiority of defaultness: Hemispheric perspectives of processing negative and affirmative sarcasm
Defining defaultness in terms of an unconditional, automatic response to a stimulus allows the Defaultness Hypothesis to predict the speed superiority of default over nondefault counterparts. Here we examined the relative contribution of the cerebral hemispheres to the processing of default versus nondefault interpretations (of Hebrew items). Participants performed a lexical decision task on lateralized probes (messy) related to the default/nonde…
The Defaultness Hypothesis: A quantitative corpus-based study of non/default sarcasm and literalness production
The Role of Defaultness in Affecting Pleasure: The Optimal Innovation Hypothesis Revisited
The Optimal Innovation Hypothesis (Giora et al., 2004), following from the Graded Salience Hypothesis (Giora, 2003), is being reviewed and revisited. The attempt is to expand the notion of Optimal Innovation to allow it to apply to both stimuli’s coded meanings as well as their noncoded, constructed interpretations. According to the Optimal Innovation Hypothesis, Optimal Innovations, when devised (KNOW HOPE), will be more pleasing than nonoptimal…
Defaultness Reigns: The Case of Sarcasm
Findings from two experiments (run in Hebrew) argue in favor of the superiority of default, preferred interpretations over non-default less favored counterparts, outshining degree of (a) non-salience, (b) non-literalness, (c) contextual strength, and (d) negation. They show that, outside of a specific context, the default interpretation of specific negative constructions (He is not the most organized student) is a non-salient interpretation (here…
On the priority of salience-based interpretations: The case of sarcastic irony
Results from 2 experiments support the view that, regardless of strength of contextual expectation for utterance nonsalient (ironic) interpretation, (a) salience-based interpretations will not be blocked. Instead, they will be facilitated initially. And, (b) if conducive to the interpretation process, they will not be suppressed, albeit incompatible (Giora 2003; Giora and Fein 1999a; Giora and Fein 1999b; Giora et al. 2007). In Experiment 1, expe…
Under/standing cartoons: The suppression hypothesis revisited
Default Sarcastic Interpretations: On the Priority of Nonsalient Interpretations
Findings from five experiments support the view that negation generates sarcastic utterance-interpretations by default.1 1 We view “sarcasm” and “verbal irony” as interchangeable. When presented in isolation, novel negative constructions (“Punctuality is not his forte,” “Thoroughness is not her most distinctive feature”), free of semantic anomaly or internal incongruity, were interpreted sarcastically and rated as sarcastic compared to their nove…
Levels of interpretation: New tools for characterizing intended meanings
From cognitive-functional linguistics to dialogic syntax
Dialogic syntax investigates the linguistic, cognitive, and interactional processes involved when language users reproduce selected aspects of a prior utterance, and when recipients respond to the parallelisms and resonances that result, drawing inferences for situated meaning. The phenomenon typically arises when a language user constructs an utterance modeled in part on the utterance of a prior speaker or author. The result is resonance, define…
Resonating with contextually inappropriate interpretations in production: The case of irony
According to the graded salience hypothesis, salient meanings and salience-based interpretations are not only involved in language comprehension but also in language production (Giora 2003, 2011a; Giora and Gur 2003). This should be true of irony production as well. If, as predicted by the graded salience hypothesis, the ironist herself indeed activates utterance interpretations on account of their salience-based accessibility rather than solely …
On sarcasm, social awareness, and gender
Sarcastic irony, uttered in four (within and between) gender-based settings, is used here as a tool to diagnose affective attitudes toward women. The kind of sarcasm tested here is an aggressive type of humor, whereby a speaker derides another individual, turning her or him into the victim of the humorous utterance. Finding this kind of irony less or more pleasing allows indexing between- and within-group attitudes. Participants were overall nons…
Negation Generates Nonliteral Interpretations by Default
Four experiments and 2 corpus-based studies demonstrate that negation is a determinant factor affecting novel nonliteral utterance-interpretation by default. For a nonliteral utterance-interpretation to be favored by default, utterances should be potentially ambiguous between literal and nonliteral interpretations. They should therefore be (a) unfamiliar, (b) free of semantic anomaly or any kind of internal incongruity, and (c) unbiased by contex…
How speakers alert addressees to multiple meanings
Introduction: Different? Not Different
How do individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including high-functioning individuals with ASD and individuals with Asperger's syndrome (AS), differ from a comparison group without ASD? D
Salience and Context: Interpretation of Metaphorical and Literal Language by Young Adults Diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome
Asperger's Syndrome (AS) involves difficulties in social communication but no delays in language or cognitive development. According to the received view, individuals with AS are biased toward the literal and are insensitive to contextual cues. According to the graded salience hypothesis (Giora, 1997 Giora, R. 1997. Understanding figurative and literal language: The graded salience hypothesis. Cognitive Linguistics, 7(1): 183–206. [Crossref], [We…
When we say no we mean no: Interpreting negation in vision and language
Preface: Discourse negation — costs and effects
The current special issue focuses on negation and context. It studies both the processing and production of negation in various languages such as German, Hebrew, Spanish, English, and French. Exploring negation in various contexts and cultures allows testing several prevailing assumptions about its e¤ects and the contexts in which it might prevail. Although none of the papers involves a comparative approach, the overall picture that emerges sugge…
How can you compare! On negated comparisons as comparisons
Results from 3 experiments argue in favor of the view that, when relevant to contextual information, negated concepts are retained rather than suppressed (Giora 2006, 2007; Giora et al. 2007). It is this retainability of negated information that allows for negated comparisons to come across as similarly appropriate as their affirmative counterparts (Experiment 1), and be as similarly sensitive to degree of prototypicality, as found earlier for af…
Expecting Irony: Context Versus Salience-Based Effects
Results from 4 experiments support the view that, regardless of contextual information, when an end-product interpretation of an utterance does not rely on the salient (lexicalized and prominent) meanings of its components, it will not be faster than nor as fast to derive as when it does. To test this view, we looked into interpretations of salience-based (here, literal) interpretations and expectation-based (here, ironic) interpretations in cont…
Understanding figurative and literal language: The graded salience hypothesis
On the priority of salient meanings: Studies of literal and figurative language
On irony and negation
In this article, irony is viewed as a mode of indirect negation. Based on this view, interpreting irony does not involve canceling the indirectly negated message and replacing it with the implicated one (as contended by, e.g., Clark & Gerrig, 1984; Grice, 1975). Rather, irony understanding involves processing both the negated and implicated messages, so that the difference between them may be computed. This view thus differs from the view which a…
On the cognitive aspects of the joke
Anything negatives can do affirmatives can do just as well, except for some metaphors
On understanding familiar and less-familiar figurative language
On the informativeness requirement
Concepts and conceptual development
Rethinking language and gender research: Theory and practice
Literal vs. figurative language: Different or equal
Discourse coherence and theory of relevance: Stumbling blocks in search of a unified theory
Notes towards a Theory of Text Coherence
It is widely acknowledged in the field of text linguistics that for a text or a text segment (e.g., a paragraph) to be pragmatically wellformed, it must meet the requirement of cohesion. Of the many recent studies concerned with connectedness as a textual phenomenom that has a linguistic manifestation such as: Bellert (1970), Vuchinich (1977), Daneg (1974), Enkvist (1978), Gutwinski (1976), Halliday and Hasan (1976) Reinhart (1980) is the most co…
On Negation as Mitigation: The Case of Negative Irony
Four experiments support the view of negation as mitigation (Giora, Balaban, Fein, & Alkabets, 2004). They show that when irony involves some sizable gap between what is said and what is criticized (He is exceptionally bright said of an idiot), it is rated as highly ironic (Giora, 1995). A negated version of that overstatement (He is not exceptionally bright), is also rated as ironic, albeit to a lesser extent. Indeed, rather than eliminating the…
Levels of interpretation: New tools for characterizing intended meanings
From cognitive-functional linguistics to dialogic syntax
Dialogic syntax investigates the linguistic, cognitive, and interactional processes involved when language users reproduce selected aspects of a prior utterance, and when recipients respond to the parallelisms and resonances that result, drawing inferences for situated meaning. The phenomenon typically arises when a language user constructs an utterance modeled in part on the utterance of a prior speaker or author. The result is resonance, define…
Negation in Context: A Functional Approach to Suppression
Three experiments show that, contrary to the current view, comprehenders do not unconditionally deactivate information marked by negation. Instead, they discard negated information when it is functionally motivated. In Experiment 1, comprehenders discarded negated concepts when cued by a topic shift to dampen recently processed information. However, in the presence of a global cue suggesting topic continuity, they retained it, despite a local neg…
On the priority of salience-based interpretations: The case of sarcastic irony
Results from 2 experiments support the view that, regardless of strength of contextual expectation for utterance nonsalient (ironic) interpretation, (a) salience-based interpretations will not be blocked. Instead, they will be facilitated initially. And, (b) if conducive to the interpretation process, they will not be suppressed, albeit incompatible (Giora 2003; Giora and Fein 1999a; Giora and Fein 1999b; Giora et al. 2007). In Experiment 1, expe…
Irony comprehension: The graded salience hypothesis
Discourse coherence is an independent notion: A reply to Deirdre Wilson
Segmentation and segment cohesion: On the thematic organization of the text
Most linguists concerned with cohesion have focused on the linear relations between sentences. This study is an attempt to extend the notion of cohesion beyond the sentence level, by viewing it as a requirement of the text for connectedness between segments larger than a sentence, such as paragraphs or whole chapters. Of the various concatenation devices listed in Danes( 1974), the most elementary one is the presentation of a given theme in a pre…
When we say no we mean no: Interpreting negation in vision and language
Degrees of narrativity and strategies of semantic reduction
Default Sarcastic Interpretations: On the Priority of Nonsalient Interpretations
Findings from five experiments support the view that negation generates sarcastic utterance-interpretations by default.1 1 We view “sarcasm” and “verbal irony” as interchangeable. When presented in isolation, novel negative constructions (“Punctuality is not his forte,” “Thoroughness is not her most distinctive feature”), free of semantic anomaly or internal incongruity, were interpreted sarcastically and rated as sarcastic compared to their nove…
Irony aptness
In this paper, we test the hypothesis that irony aptness is sensitive to both ironiness and sophistication. In a previous study, we established irony gradedness as a function of narrowing the gap between what is said and what is referred to (Giora et al. 2005b). Experiments 1A and 1B show that the higher the ironiness of a target, the more apt it is. This has been replicated for echoic ironies (Sperber and Wilson 1986) as well. Indeed, in Experim…
A self versus other point of view in language: Redefining Femininity and Masculinity
Article A self versus other point of view in language: redefining femininity and masculinity was published on January 1, 1998 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1998, issue 129)
Segmentation and segment cohesion: On the thematic organization of the text
Most linguists concerned with cohesion have focused on the linear relations between sentences. This study is an attempt to extend the notion of cohesion beyond the sentence level, by viewing it as a requirement of the text for connectedness between segments larger than a sentence, such as paragraphs or whole chapters. Of the various concatenation devices listed in Danes( 1974), the most elementary one is the presentation of a given theme in a pre…
A Text-Based Analysis of Non-Narrative Texts
A Text-Based Analysis of Non-Narrative Texts
Most linguistic theories are concerned with the rendering explicit of what ordinary speakers find intuitively acceptable. Specifically, a linguistic theor~ is to provide rules for sentence well-formedness. A step forward is taken by recent researchers into text well-formedness. The conditions for text well-formedness can be viewed as requirements on either the surface structure or the semantic organization of the text. This study is a research in…
Notes towards a Theory of Text Coherence
It is widely acknowledged in the field of text linguistics that for a text or a text segment (e.g., a paragraph) to be pragmatically wellformed, it must meet the requirement of cohesion. Of the many recent studies concerned with connectedness as a textual phenomenom that has a linguistic manifestation such as: Bellert (1970), Vuchinich (1977), Daneg (1974), Enkvist (1978), Gutwinski (1976), Halliday and Hasan (1976) Reinhart (1980) is the most co…
Principles of segmentation in the literary text. The case of the formally unsegmented text
This article explores the relationship that exists between the formal and functional units of a text, and attempts to show that some strategy of text segmentation can function as a device of text progression as it enables the concatenation of new segments. Within the framework of information structuring text segmentation is motivated by the need to change ‘Discourse Topics’ (DTs). If segmentation occurs where a new DT is presented to the text, th…
On the informativeness requirement
Concepts and conceptual development
A Probabilistic View of Language
On the cognitive aspects of the joke
On the function of analogies in informative texts
Following a previous research into the role of digressive material in informative texts (Giora, 1990), the present study concentrates on the contribution of analogies to text comprehension. In this study, analogy is taken to be a piece of new information which constitutes a topic change, and is consequently marked as a digression by an explicit semantic connector. This new information functions as an example from a distant domain and requires a b…
Degrees of narrativity and strategies of semantic reduction
On irony and negation
In this article, irony is viewed as a mode of indirect negation. Based on this view, interpreting irony does not involve canceling the indirectly negated message and replacing it with the implicated one (as contended by, e.g., Clark & Gerrig, 1984; Grice, 1975). Rather, irony understanding involves processing both the negated and implicated messages, so that the difference between them may be computed. This view thus differs from the view which a…
Cognitive aspects of cinematic and visual discourse: Introduction to the special issue
Talking difference: On gender and language
Language comprehension as structure building
Categorical organization in the narrative discourse: A semantic analysis of Il conformista
Identification of written discourse topics by structure coherence and analogy strategies: General aspects and individual differences
Understanding figurative and literal language: The graded salience hypothesis
Women talk
Discourse coherence and theory of relevance: Stumbling blocks in search of a unified theory
Irony: Grade Salience and Indirect Negation
According to the graded salience hypothesis, salient (e.g., conventional, frequent, familiar) meanings should be activated before less salient meanings are retrieved (R. Giora, 1997). The graded salience hypothesis thus predicts that irony should take longer to understand than non-ironic language, because its comprehension should involve activation of the salient, literal meaning initially, before the less salient ironic meaning is derived. Accor…
Discourse coherence is an independent notion: A reply to Deirdre Wilson
When is relevance? On the role of salience in utterance interpretation
Relevance Theory assumes different processing models for similar utterances without motivating the discrepancy (see Giora, 1998). On some occasions (e.g., Sperber and Wilson, 1986/95: 237), it seems to assume a direct access model upon which the contextually appropriate interpretation (e.g., the figurative interpretation of metaphor) is accessed directly without having to process a contextually inappropriate interpretation, (e.g., the literal mea…
A self versus other point of view in language: Redefining Femininity and Masculinity
Article A self versus other point of view in language: redefining femininity and masculinity was published on January 1, 1998 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1998, issue 129)
Rethinking language and gender research: Theory and practice
Linguistics (56 works) · Psychology (56 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (52 works) · Philosophy (50 works) · Computer Science (38 works) · Cognitive psychology (35 works) · Philosophy (30 works) · Artificial Intelligence (22 works) · Irony (18 works) · Social Psychology (17 works)