Irony interpretation in Greek-speaking multilingual and bi-dialectal speakers
Κyriakos Antoniou1 & George Spanoudis2
University of Cyprus1, 2
We examined the effect of speaking more than one language (multilingualism) or two dialects (bi-dialectalism) on irony interpretation and processing in Greek-speaking young adults. To our knowledge, there has been so far no comprehensive examination of irony in multilinguals or bi-dialectals. We expected a multilingual advantage in irony interpretation because there is some evidence that multilinguals weigh pragmatic information (e.g. intonation) more heavily than linguistic cues during language acquisition and processing (Yow & Markman 2011). Bi-dialectals were tested to examine whether the close similarity between the languages spoken modulates the effect of multilingualism (if any).
Thirty-three multilinguals (in Cypriot, Standard Modern Greek and other languages), 52 bi-dialectals (in Cypriot and Standard Modern Greek) and 29 monolinguals (in Standard Modern Greek) were given:
(1) An irony test in Standard Modern Greek (SMG). We used ironic criticisms, where the speaker provided a positive reply to mean something negative, with a critical intent. Participants watched videos where one actor asked the other which of two objects s/he wanted. The second actor’s reply could be sincere (literal negative or positive) or ironic and was accompanied by different cue(s) (Context-only, Intonation-only, Intonation + Face, Context + Intonation + Face). We used different cues to determine whether multilingualism confers a global advantage in irony or whether the benefit is found only when irony is indexed by non-verbal cues (e.g. facial expression). Participants had to select the object the second person wanted (for irony, one object corresponded to the literal meaning). Accuracy and reaction times (RTs) were recorded.
(2) Mill Hill Vocabulary test (Raven et al. 1997).
(3) Matrix reasoning test for general intelligence (Wechsler 1999).
(4) Family Affluence Scale (Boyce et al. 2006) and parental education levels for socioeconomic status (SES).
There were no group differences in SES (F(2, 101)=0.016, p>.05) or general intelligence (F(2, 121)=1.511, p<.05), but multilinguals had a smaller SMG vocabulary than the other two groups (F(2, 119)=6.46, p<.05). An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) on accuracy with Group and Condition as factors indicated only a significant effect of Condition (F(2, 222)=213, p<.05). Participants were less accurate in the Ironic than the other conditions (ps<.05). A similar ANOVA on RTs showed, again, only a significant Condition effect (F(1, 80)=32, p<.05). Participants were slower in the Ironic than the other conditions (ps<.05). A further ANOVA on accuracy for the ironic items with Group and Cue as factors indicated only a significant Cue effect (F(3, 333)=29, p<.05). Participants were less accurate in the Context-only and Intonation-only conditions than the other cue conditions (ps<.05). A similar ANOVA on RTs for ironic items showed only a significant Cue effect (F(3, 129)=28, p<.05): participants were slower in the Context-only than the Intonation + Face condition (p<.05).
In general, we found some evidence that irony is more demanding than understanding literal meanings and that it is facilitated when more than one ironic markers are present. Nevertheless, there were no group differences in irony. We discuss these findings in the context of a recent proposal that multilinguals have a single, language-independent pragmatic system that develops and functions similarly to monolinguals (Antoniou 2019).
References
Antoniou, K. 2019. Multilingual pragmatics: Implicature comprehension in adult L2 learners and multilingual children. In N. Taguchi (ed.), The Routledge handbook of pragmatics and second language acquisition, 495–510. New York: Routledge.
Boyce, W, Torsheim, T., Currie, C. & A. Zambon. 2006 The family affluence scale as a measure of national wealth: validation of an adolescent self-report measure. Social indicators research 78: 473–487.
Raven, J., Raven, J. C. & J. H. Court. 1997. Raven Manual: Section 5. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Assessment.
Wechsler, D. 1999. Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Yow, W. Q. & E. M. Markman. 2011. Bilingualism and children's use of paralinguistic cues to interpret emotion in speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 14: 562–569.