Children start to see the humor in sarcasm around 8 or 9 years of age. With a cabbage patch! Around 9 years of age children start to find more humor in teasing other people and also in sarcasm. In another version of our puppet show task, children tell us what they think the speaker means without having to say much at all. So, if the children choose the duck, they are showing us that they think the speaker means something nice the literal meaning.
If they choose the shark, they are showing us they think the speaker is being mean the sarcastic meaning. At the beginning of each experiment, the shark and duck are placed on the table, one to the left and one to the right of the child.
We put a video camera nearby to continuously record where the children are looking and how long they take when they are making their decisions. Studying where people are looking when they perform a task is called eye tracking. Eye tracking gives researchers clues about what is happening in the brain, because scientists have shown that people tend to look at whatever it is they are thinking about.
If children look at the shark while they are making their decision, we assume that they are thinking about the shark the sarcastic meaning. If children look at the duck while they are making their decision, we assume that they are thinking about the duck the literal meaning. After selecting the shark or the duck, children are asked two simple questions about what the speaker believed and whether the speaker was trying to be funny.
With this experiment, children can demonstrate their understanding of sarcasm without having to explain themselves. This makes this experiment a good choice for use with young children, who are just developing their language skills, and for children with an autism spectrum disorder, who tend to struggle with explaining what people mean. One theory, called the literal first account , suggests that children must first think about the literal meaning before they can figure out that the literal meaning does not fit, then they move on to the sarcastic meaning.
According to this theory, in our experiment, children would look first at the literal response object the duck before shifting gaze to the sarcastic response object the shark. According to this theory, in our experiment, children would not necessarily look at the duck first.
People with an autism spectrum disorder usually have a hard time understanding sarcasm and may take sarcastic speech literally. This makes it hard for them to understand teasing and joking. We compared the results from this group of children with the results from a group of 19 children who did not have autism spectrum disorders.
We found that the children with autism spectrum disorders were just as able to detect sarcasm as the children without these disorders.
That extra work may make our brains sharper, according to another study. The students were better able to solve problems creatively when the complaints were sarcastic as opposed to just plain angry. Sarcastic statements are sort of a true lie. This dual nature has led to contradictory theories on why we use it. Some language experts suggest sarcasm is used as a sort of gentler insult, a way to tone down criticism with indirectness and humor. But others researchers have found that the mocking, smug, superior nature of sarcasm is perceived as more hurtful than a plain-spoken criticism.
The Greek root for sarcasm, sarkazein , means to tear flesh like dogs. According to Haiman, dog-eat-dog sarcastic commentary is just part of our quest to be cool. Sarcasm is also a handy tool. Most of us go through life expecting things to turn out well, says Penny Pexman, a University of Calgary psychologist who has been studying sarcasm for more than 20 years.
Otherwise, no one would plan an outdoor wedding. When things go sour, Pexman says, a sarcastic comment is a way to simultaneously express our expectation as well as our disappointment.
But among strangers, sarcasm use soars if the conversation is via an anonymous computer chat room as opposed to face to face, according to a study by Jeffrey Hancock, a communications professor at Cornell University. In one study , 30 pairs of university students were given a list of statements to communicate, half of which were sarcastic and half of which were serious. Some students communicated their messages via e-mail and others via voice recordings. Participants who received the voice messages accurately gleaned the sarcasm or lack thereof 73 percent of the time, but those who received the statements via e-mail did so only 56 percent of the time, hardly better than chance.
By comparison, the e-mailers had anticipated that 78 percent of participants would pick up on the sarcasm inherent in their sarcastic statements. That is, they badly overestimated their ability to communicate the tenor of their sarcastic statements via e-mail. They guessed they would correctly interpret the tone of the e-mails they received about 90 percent of the time. They were considerably less overconfident about their ability to interpret voice messages. In recent research, my colleagues and I discovered an upside to this otherwise gloomy picture of sarcasm.
In one study, we assigned some participants to engage in either simulated sarcastic, sincere, or neutral dialogues by choosing from pre-written responses on a sheet of paper. Others were recipients of these different types of messages from others. Not surprisingly, the participants exposed to sarcasm reported more interpersonal conflict than those in other groups. More interestingly, those who engaged in a sarcastic conversation fared better on creativity tasks.
The processes involved in initiating and delivering a sarcastic comment improved the creativity and cognitive functioning of both the commenter and the recipient. Why might sarcasm enhance creativity?
Because the brain must think creatively to understand or convey a sarcastic comment, sarcasm may lead to clearer and more creative thinking. Sarcasm is what we refer to as a noncount noun "a noun that denotes a homogeneous substance or a concept without subdivisions and that in English is preceded in indefinite singular constructions by some rather than a or an " , and has no plural form.
Sarcasm shares some semantic territory with a number of other English words, including wit , repartee , and humor. While most of these are in some way concerned with inducing laughter, sarcasm stands alone in denoting caustic language that is designed to cut or give pain. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sarcasm. Send us feedback. See more words from the same year.
Accessed 12 Nov. More Definitions for sarcasm. Nglish: Translation of sarcasm for Spanish Speakers. Britannica English: Translation of sarcasm for Arabic Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word.
0コメント