Irony Comprehension Under The Framework Of Graded Salience Theory

Irony is a kind of figurative language,which has been discussed together with metaphors,proverbs and idioms,in which there is always a gap between what is said and what is meant.In a psycholinguistic perspective,irony comprehension largely depends on pragmatic ability,and is constrained by various high-order cognitive abilities.So far,the graded salience theory is the most integrative model than its counterparts,due to its explanatory power and falsifiability.Based on graded salience theory,this thesis tries to integrate cognitive abilities,neural correlates and other factors into a more comprehensive framework based on the graded salience theory.Our discussion starts from two basic hypotheses of the graded salience theory.The first hypothesis is that the right hemisphere plays a dominant role in the comprehension of ironic meaning.According to the hypothesis,the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere are responsible for semantic processing and pragmatic processing respectively.The second hypothesis is the independent two-stage hypothesis.The first stage only processes semantic information and the contextual information is not involved.The second stage is for pragmatic processing and the contextual information is involved.Taken together,the two hypotheses are influenced by modular view in many aspects.Based on a meta-analysis of fMRI data,we propose that the two hypotheses are open to question.We find that both hemispheres have been activated and many areas are related to executive functions.The results also propose that we should reconsider the independent two-stage hypothesis.Therefore,we have discussed the dynamic interaction between two stages of irony comprehension based on schizophrenic patients.Besides,we come up with a more integrative framework based on the graded salience theory.In sum,this thesis has discussed the neuro-cognitive foundations of irony comprehension,and analyzed the limitation in the graded salience theory in terms of modularity.Based on our framework,we have pointed out the direction for future research on the dynamic relationship among different stages,and also discussed about how to integrate the research of clinical groups.