Sign in to use this feature.

Years

Between: -

Subjects

remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline

Journals

Article Types

Countries / Regions

Search Results (6)

Search Parameters:
Keywords = verbal irony

Order results
Result details
Results per page
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
13 pages, 260 KiB  
Article
Humor Styles Predict Self-Reported Sarcasm Use in Interpersonal Communication
by Liberty McAuley and Melanie Glenwright
Behav. Sci. 2025, 15(7), 922; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15070922 - 8 Jul 2025
Viewed by 718
Abstract
We investigated how participants’ humor styles impact their sarcasm use. English-speaking participants (N = 179) completed online self-report measures of humor styles and sarcasm use. We conducted linear regressions to test whether their humor style scores could predict their sarcasm use scores. Participants [...] Read more.
We investigated how participants’ humor styles impact their sarcasm use. English-speaking participants (N = 179) completed online self-report measures of humor styles and sarcasm use. We conducted linear regressions to test whether their humor style scores could predict their sarcasm use scores. Participants with higher affiliative humor scores reported a greater tendency to use sarcasm in general and to use face-saving sarcasm to protect the social images of the speaker and addressee. People use face-saving sarcasm to enhance their relationships, to tease others, and to self-deprecate. Surprisingly, participants who scored high on aggressive humor reported using face-saving sarcasm often. We suspect this occurred because the aggressive humor and the face-saving scales contain conceptually similar items. Participants with high aggressive humor scores also reported frequently using sarcasm to diffuse frustration. Participants who scored high on self-defeating humor reported often using both face-saving sarcasm and sarcasm to diffuse embarrassment. Given that face-saving sarcasm use was uniquely predicted by affiliative humor, aggressive humor, and self-defeating humor scores, we suggest that face-saving sarcasm use has utility for people with a wide range of humor styles. Our findings highlight how an individual’s humor style shapes their flexible use of sarcasm in interpersonal relationships. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Humor Use in Interpersonal Relationships)
12 pages, 969 KiB  
Article
The Verbal Irony Questionnaire: An Initial Approach to the Conceptualization and Measurement of Verbal Irony in High Intellectual Ability
by Sylvia Sastre-Riba, Francisco J. Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando, María Luz Urraca-Martínez and Ramon Cladellas-Pros
J. Intell. 2025, 13(2), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence13020015 - 27 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1534
Abstract
Figurative language is a complex construct related to intelligence. Psychology and psycholinguistics are trying to understand it from an interdisciplinary perspective, but studies are still scarce, methodologies are heterogeneous, and results are difficult to integrate. Some studies suggest that understanding the cognitive processes [...] Read more.
Figurative language is a complex construct related to intelligence. Psychology and psycholinguistics are trying to understand it from an interdisciplinary perspective, but studies are still scarce, methodologies are heterogeneous, and results are difficult to integrate. Some studies suggest that understanding the cognitive processes underlying figurative language and its forms could provide a new approach to understanding intellectual differences, such as high intellectual ability (HIA), and new instruments to assess it. The language of HIA children develops earlier and includes the use of irony, which involves metalinguistic skills. In this context, the present study aims to offer an instrument, called the verbal irony questionnaire (or VIrQ), to test the comprehension of verbal irony in students with HIA. A convenience sample of n = 169 students with HIA, aged between 7 and 15 years, responded to the VIrQ. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted. The results revealed that 33 items were retained and categorized into four factors. F1, ironic dissociation (14 items); F2, ironic attitude (8 items); F3, ironic constructions (7 items); and F4, reinforced irony echo (4 items). All factors have adequate reliability indices above 0.70 and below 0.95. Finally, new perspectives are also discussed. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

31 pages, 3738 KiB  
Article
Acoustic Correlates of Subtypes of Irony in Chilean Spanish
by Mariška Bolyanatz, Abril Jiménez and Isabella Silva DePue
Languages 2024, 9(1), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9010022 - 10 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2516
Abstract
Utterances containing verbal irony display prosodic particularities that distinguish them from non-ironic speech. While some prosodic features of irony have been identified in Spanish, previous studies have not accounted for different subtypes, nor have they examined this phenomenon in Chilean Spanish despite the [...] Read more.
Utterances containing verbal irony display prosodic particularities that distinguish them from non-ironic speech. While some prosodic features of irony have been identified in Spanish, previous studies have not accounted for different subtypes, nor have they examined this phenomenon in Chilean Spanish despite the unique intonation patterns in this dialect. This study examined the acoustic and prosodic correlates of five subtypes of irony (jocularity, rhetorical questions, understatements, hyperbole, and sarcasm) spontaneously occurring in the casual speech of sociolinguistic interviews with fifteen Chilean women. We segmented 3907 syllable nuclei from 197 spontaneously occurring instances of irony and compared the syllables within the ironic utterances to those in the pre-ironic utterances, along seven acoustic and prosodic variables: pitch range, duration, F0, F1, F2, H1*–H2*, and HNR. The results showed that the speakers favored jocularity and did not produce sarcasm or understatements, and that jocularity, hyperbole, and rhetorical questions significantly differed from the baseline utterances along a variety of acoustic and prosodic measures. We argue that these cues contributed to marking the ironic utterances as salient, allowing these women to talk about difficult real-life events with a touch of humor. Our study provides additional evidence for the connection between prosody and pragmatics in Chilean Spanish and lays the groundwork for further examination of irony and prosody in this and other Spanish dialects. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 685 KiB  
Article
RDVI: A Retrieval–Detection Framework for Verbal Irony Detection
by Zhiyuan Wen, Rui Wang, Shiwei Chen, Qianlong Wang, Keyang Ding, Bin Liang and Ruifeng Xu
Electronics 2023, 12(12), 2673; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12122673 - 14 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2181
Abstract
Verbal irony is a common form of expression used in daily communication, where the intended meaning is often opposite to the literal meaning. Accurately recognizing verbal irony is essential for any NLP application for which the understanding of the true user intentions is [...] Read more.
Verbal irony is a common form of expression used in daily communication, where the intended meaning is often opposite to the literal meaning. Accurately recognizing verbal irony is essential for any NLP application for which the understanding of the true user intentions is key to performing the underlying tasks. While existing research has made progress in this area, verbal irony often involves connotative knowledge that cannot be directly inferred from the text or its context, which limits the detection model’s ability to recognize and comprehend verbal irony. To address this issue, we propose a Retrieval–Detection method for Verbal Irony (RDVI). This approach improves the detection model’s ability to recognize and comprehend verbal irony by retrieving the connotative knowledge from the open domain and incorporating it into the model using prompt learning. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval)
Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 4208 KiB  
Article
Mixed Methods in Analysis of Aggressiveness and Attractiveness: Understanding PE Class Social Networks with Content Analysis
by Maria Litsa and Alexandra Bekiari
Educ. Sci. 2022, 12(5), 348; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12050348 - 17 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2381
Abstract
The aim of this study is to detect and analyze the relationship between verbal aggressiveness and interpersonal attractiveness using four secondary-school PE classes in central Greece (88 nodes). Content analysis of open-ended questions, social network analysis, Spearman test and PCA have been implemented. [...] Read more.
The aim of this study is to detect and analyze the relationship between verbal aggressiveness and interpersonal attractiveness using four secondary-school PE classes in central Greece (88 nodes). Content analysis of open-ended questions, social network analysis, Spearman test and PCA have been implemented. Main results: scientific and social attractiveness are interrelated with a subsequent emergence of power structures and negatively related to verbal aggressiveness. Targets of verbal aggressiveness receive aggressiveness consisting of hurt, irony, rudeness and threat. The general grade and students’ tendency for distinction are positively related to attractiveness and negatively related to verbal aggressiveness. Types of targets of interpersonal attractiveness are proposed (“the untargeted powerful” and “the targeted powerful”). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mixed-Methods Perspectives on Social Networks in Education Research)
Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 428 KiB  
Review
Addressing the Challenge of Verbal Irony: Getting Serious about Sarcasm Training
by Penny Pexman, Lorraine Reggin and Kate Lee
Languages 2019, 4(2), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4020023 - 11 Apr 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 9600
Abstract
In verbal irony, the speaker’s intended meaning can be counterfactual to the literal meaning of their words. This form of figurative language can help speakers achieve a number of communicative aims, but also presents an interpretive challenge for some listeners. There is debate [...] Read more.
In verbal irony, the speaker’s intended meaning can be counterfactual to the literal meaning of their words. This form of figurative language can help speakers achieve a number of communicative aims, but also presents an interpretive challenge for some listeners. There is debate about the skills that support the acquisition of irony comprehension in typical development, and about why verbal irony presents a challenge for many individuals, including children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders and second-language learners. Researchers have explored teaching verbal irony in a very small number of training studies in disparate fields. We bring together and review this limited research. We argue that a focus on training studies in future research could address a number of theoretical questions about irony comprehension and could help refine interventions for individuals who struggle with this form of social language. Full article
Back to TopTop