Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Linguistics

First Advisor

Amit Almor

Abstract

This study investigates how representations of personal common ground (PCG; viz., close relationships vs. strangers) and informational common ground (ICG; viz., shared world knowledge) interact in shaping a reader’s comprehension of verbal irony in fictional narratives. While previous research has shown that greater familiarity among story characters enhances readers’ comprehension of ironic statements made by the characters (Gibbs, 2000; Kreuz et al., 1999; Kreuz & Link, 2001; Pexman & Zvaigzne, 2004), the interplay between representations of PCG and ICG remains understudied. In this study, we assumed that ICG takes precedence over PCG. Accordingly, we predicted that irony comprehension would be facilitated when ICG was high, even if PCG was low, resulting in faster RTs. Conversely, we expected comprehension to be impeded when ICG was low, even if PCG was high, leading to slower RTs. A main effect of ICG was also expected regardless of PCG, along with an interaction between ICG and PCG across rating measures that would further support irony comprehension. Counter to our predictions, results from two experiments showed that, overall, ironic stories were read faster when PCG was high and ICG was low. In contrast, ironic stories were read more slowly than literal stories when both PCG and ICG were low in experiment 1, and when both were high in experiment 2.

Rights

© 2025, Ruhan Çoban

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