Abstract
?That’s great! You have tidied up! ?, says mum to Emil as she enters his messy room. She stands with her arms at her sides and looks unhappy.
Research has shown that neurotypical children interpret ironic utterances, like the one above, literally until the age of six. However, a recent eye tracking study has potentially provided some evidence for an earlier implicit understanding when the ironic utterance is delivered in a parodic tone of voice. These findings may have theoretical implications, as they could offer support for the hypothesis that children’s growing sensitivity to sense conventions interferes with comprehension of non-literal language in the preschool years. Alternatively, it might be something about the parodic tone of voice that facilitates irony comprehension. Specifically, this tone of voice involves pretense, a concept children engage in from early childhood. This might make it easier for them to recognize when a speaker is distancing themselves from the literal speech act they are performing. In this talk I present eye-tracking and picture-selection data from an ongoing study on neurotypical children aged 4-7, exploring these hypotheses.
About the speaker
Rebecca is a postdoctoral follow on the FINNUT project, Creativity and Convention in Pragmatic Development. This is a project that investigates the use and understanding of non-literal language in Norwegian-speaking children. Within this topic, I’m particularly interested in irony development in neurotypical children and children with autistic spectrum disorder.
The talk is open to everyone, no registration needed.