On the priority of salience-based interpretations

The case of sarcastic irony

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12859637
AutoresOfer Fein (0000-0003-3877-4143, Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo, autor correspondente), Menahem Yeari (0000-0003-2242-6160, Bar-Ilan University), Rachel Giora (0000-0001-9628-9088, Tel Aviv University)
Ano2015
Volume12
Fascículo1
Páginas1-32
Data de publicação2015-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoIntercultural Pragmatics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1612-295X • E-ISSN: 1613-365X
EditoraDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ip-2015-0001
OpenAlexW2330380008
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas49
Referências citadas31

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, expectancy for an ironic utterance was manipulated by introducing an ironic speaker, whose ironic utterances were prefaced by overt ironic cues, making explicit the speaker's ironic intent. In Experiment 2, expectancy strongly biased via repeated exposure to ironic utterances, was further strengthened by informing participants that the experiment was testing sarcasm interpretation. Long processing times were allowed so as to tap later (suppression) processes. Results from reading times and lexical decisions support the temporal priority of salience-based interpretations, while arguing against both, the contextualist views (Gibbs 2002; Katz 2009) and the Gricean suppression hypothesis (Grice 1975)

Cognitive psychology · Expectancy theory · Grice · Interpretation (philosophy · Irony · Linguistics · Pragmatics · Salience (neuroscience · Sarcasm · Utterance · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Topic Modeling