| This research investigates if and how the cognitive processing of verbally ironic statements depends on how a speaker's attitude is presented in a given context. The processing of attitudes in discourse is assumed to occur in parallel with, or through semi-independent interactions with, language processing. The hypotheses considered were whether the processing of ironic statements is affected by the obviousness or transparency of a speaker's attitude, and whether processing depends on if the speaker's attitude is intentionally presented or unintentionally revealed (e.g. "leaked"). A series of 4 studies demonstrated (1) that these two dimensions are recognized by experimental participants, (2) hearers are less certain about a speaker's motives when exposed to contradictory evidence of a speaker's attitude, (3) ironic statements are seen as more interchangeable with non-ironic statements when there is clear outside evidence of a speaker's motives, and (4) jocular ironic statements in friendly contexts evoke a more negative emotional reaction in hearers than do literal positive statements, presumably because the speaker's words and emotional tone provide contradictory evidence. The obtained data were consistent with predictions and consistent across studies, although some expected differences failed to reach statistical significance. |
