| Adults often use a strategy in face-to-face communication, called mode adoption (Attardo, 2002), which functions to maintain the ironic nature of a conversation. The present study sought to determine if children also respond to verbal irony by mode adopting, and if so, how their responses change across age and in response to two different types of ironic remarks: ironic criticisms (Experiment 1) and ironic compliments (Experiment 2). This study also tested the Echoic Mention Theory (Kreuz & Glucksberg, 1989) to determine if it can adequately account for how irony is used in face-to-face communication. The results showed that children do use mode adoption when faced with ironic remarks, but may not do so as often as adult speakers. In addition, some differences in the patterns of comprehension and production were seen across the two experiments. Possible reasons for the low frequency of mode adoption, and broader implications of this research, are discussed. |
