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Children’s Understanding of Social‐Cognitive and Social‐Communicative Aspects of Discourse Irony
Author(s) -
Filippova Eva,
Astington Janet Wilde
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01442.x
Subject(s) - irony , psychology , social cognition , cognition , developmental psychology , meaning (existential) , social cognitive theory , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , psychotherapist
To bridge the social‐reasoning focus of developmental research on irony understanding and the pragmatic focus of research with adult populations, this cross‐sectional study examines 5‐, 7‐, and 9‐year‐olds’ ( n = 72) developing understanding of both social‐cognitive and social‐communicative aspects of discourse irony, when compared with adults ( n = 24). Although 5‐year‐olds lag behind the other age groups in their reasoning about the speaker’s meaning, belief, intention, and motivation, adults are consistently superior to children of all ages on these social‐cognitive measures. In contrast, limited age‐related differences were found in participants’ judgment of the social‐communicative function of irony (how nice, mean, and funny irony is). The findings help to reconcile previous discrepant claims as to the age when children come to understand irony.