| dc.contributor.author | Hancock, Jeffrey Todd. | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-10-21T12:37:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2002 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2002 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | AAINQ75719 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10222/55871 | |
| dc.description | One of the interesting phenomena to emerge from contemporary research on the comprehension of ironic statements has been called the asymmetry of affect. Essentially, data from a substantial number of studies suggest that we find ironic criticisms easier to comprehend than ironic compliments. For example, a typical listener finds it easier to detect the ironic intent of a speaker who refers to a terrible meal as "wonderful food" than a speaker who refers to a delicious meal as "disgusting food." Various theories have assumed that the listener's expectations play an important role in this asymmetry and in the comprehension of irony in general. The present research extends this body of data by exploring these theoretical accounts of the asymmetry of affect in the context of spontaneous irony production. The empirical goals of the research were to determine if a similar asymmetry occurs when individuals spontaneously produce ironic statements, and to identify the conditions under which an asymmetry in production is most likely to be observed. | en_US |
| dc.description | In Experiment 1 a novel procedure assessed whether the same asymmetry emerges in spontaneous irony production when speakers have equal opportunities to produce ironic criticisms and compliments. The results revealed a robust asymmetry consistent with the existing comprehension data. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the role of specific expectations on spontaneous irony production in dyadic conversations when the speakers' expectations were either violated or confirmed. In Experiment 2 the dyads were strangers, and in Experiment 3 they were friends. In both experiments, more ironic criticisms were generated, confirming the asymmetry of affect across the various experimental conditions. However, the violation of speaker expectations facilitated irony production only in Experiment 3, suggesting that some degree of acquaintance may be necessary for the expectation manipulations to have the predicted effect. Experiment 4 employed a novel forced irony procedure in order to control contextual factors such as speaker expectations and verbal politeness objectives, and explore the potential role of differential cognitive constraints (i.e., the difficulties associated with negating negations) on the verbal production of positive and negative forms of irony. Under these conditions, forced irony production was symmetrical across positive and negative forms suggesting that differential cognitive constraints are not a likely explanation for the asymmetry of affect in production. | en_US |
| dc.description | Considered together, this research suggests that speakers are more likely to produce irony spontaneously when (1) the context or situation is negative, (2) the speaker's specific expectations have been violated (i.e. primed by a prediction or engendered by the context), and (3) the speaker is acquainted with their conversational partner. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for traditional theoretical accounts of irony comprehension, generally described as "echoic" theories, and for more general pragmatic aspects of language use, such as verbal politeness objectives and common ground effects. | en_US |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 2002. | en_US |
| dc.language | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Dalhousie University | en_US |
| dc.publisher | | en_US |
| dc.subject | Psychology, Cognitive. | en_US |
| dc.title | The production and use of verbal irony: An examination of expectations and the asymmetry of affect. | en_US |
| dc.type | text | en_US |
| dc.contributor.degree | Ph.D. | en_US |
