Open Access“Wonderful! We’ve just missed the bus.” – Parental use of irony and children’s irony comprehension
Author(s) -
Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak,
Sandra Bosacki,
Anna Olechowska,
Diana Wyrębek Walters,
Katarzyna Wisiecka,
Natalia Copeland,
Lara Wieland,
Ljiljana Popović,
Jovana Piper,
Aleksandra Siemieniuk
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0228538
Subject(s) - irony , comprehension , meaning (existential) , psychology , developmental psychology , linguistics , philosophy , psychotherapist
Irony is one of the linguistic means in which intended and expressed meaning diverge. It serves social-communicative functions, requires the understanding of the speaker's mental state and its comprehension takes place at an advanced stage of language acquisition. In the present study, we investigated 8-year old’s irony comprehension and social skills and asked their parents about their preferred use of irony towards their children. We then compared children with the highest scores in irony comprehension test with those with lower scores. The full sample included 46 families from Poland. Results show positive associations between children’s levels of irony comprehension and levels of mothers irony use. No such relations were found for fathers. No differences were found in ToM scores between proficient and non-proficient irony comprehenders. Our findings provide a base for future studies to study the use of irony in child-parent talk in more diverse culturally and linguistically diverse populations.