Carol K. S. TO1, Estella WOO2, Pamela, S. P. CHEUNG2,
Lorinda LAM2, Annie SHEH2, Anita WONG1 ,
Xin Xin LI1, & Ming LUI1
1The University of Hong Kong
2HKSAR Government Child Assessment Service
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention
San Diego – 17-19 November 2011
Contact: [email protected]
1


Figurative languages are languages that
always mean one thing literally but are
taken to mean something different.
Examples: metaphor, irony, lie, white lie,
persuasion, idioms, etc
2
Intention
Lie
•To
White lie
-To
Irony
-To
Metaphor
-To assist expression or understanding
Persuasion
-To direct people to certain decision or idea
have personal gain
•To avoid punishment or embarrassment
•To divert mistake
protect someone’s feeling
critically comment on others
-To amuse others
-To show superiority (Sweetser, 1988)
3

Competency of metaphorical or ironic
language emerged at about 8 years old
(Winners, 1988)

Knowledge about lies and also white lies
emerges as young as 3;0 and develop
rapidly (Talwar, Lee, Bala, & Lindsay, 2002; Talwar
and Lee, 2002)

Development of figurative language
continues afterwards (Nippold & Taylor, 1995)
4



Late development may be due to requirement
of higher cognitive functioning, theory of mind
(ToM) skills.
Difficulties in comprehending figurative
languages in ASD children may attribute to
deficit of “central coherence” in addition to the
lack of ToM (Happé, 1994).
Little attention has been put in a wider variety
of figurative forms. The relative difficulty of
figurative languages is not yet clear.
5

To compare the relative difficulty in
understanding five types of figurative
languages, namely,





lie,
white lie,
persuasion,
metaphor, and
Irony.
6
7

A total of 187 Cantonese-speaking
children recruited from mainstream
schools with no reported SEN
Age
group
mean age
(SD)
6;0
5.9 (0.4)
7;0
Grade
Female
Male
Total
23
27
50
7.0 (0.3)
Kindergarten 3
(K3)
Primary 1 (P1)
20
30
50
8;0
8.0 (0.3)
Primary 2 (P2)
18
24
42
9;0
9.2 (0.4)
Primary 3 (P3)
22
23
45
8


14 vignettes, two for each type of FL were
constructed according to the Strange Stories
developed by Happé (1994).
Each vignettes was embedded with a remark
encoding one type of figurative language. E.g.:
Lie: “David borrowed a pencil from Sam. David
accidentally broke it. When David returned the
pencil to Sam, he said, “The pencil was broken
already when you lent it to me.”
9

After each vignette, 2 questions :
1.
2.
Comprehension question
Justification question
Metaphor: When Mum is preparing the dinner,
Dad said, “I can eat three dinosaurs!”
1. Comprehension question:
“Is it true what the Dad says?”
2. Justification question:
“Why does the Dad say this?”
10
Coding for Justification Questions

Credits will be given if:


the explanation mentioned about the correct
intention, and
the responses are of mentalistic in nature (e.g.
referring to thoughts, feeling, and desire).
Physical state explanation (e.g. appearance,
or consequence of the event) will be not
credited.
11
Coding – Example 1
Persuasion: Joe really wants to go the Ocean Park.
He said to his mum, “Mum, if you go to the Ocean
Park with me this weekend, I will get 100 marks
in all of my examinations.”
Justification question:
“Why does Joe say this?”
Joe wants to convenience his mum to bring him to the Ocean
park (mental state)
 Joe wants to go to the Ocean Park (physical state)
 Joe will go when he becomes a smart boy (not relevant)
12
Coding – Example 2
White lie: Sally spent a whole day to make a chocolate
cake for her uncle. She doesn’t know that her Uncle
dislikes chocolate flavor. When she gives the cake to
the uncle, he says, “It must taste very good. I really
want to eat it now!”
Justification question:
“Why does the uncle say this?”
The uncle doesn’t want to upset Sally/ doesn’t want to hurt
Sally’s feeling (mental state)
 The uncle doesn’t want to waste the cake (physical state)
 The uncle thought that it’s a strawberry cake (mistaken)
13
Coding – Example 3
Irony: John got a present from his dad. Without
saying a word, John went back to his room. The
dad said, “You are so courteous!”
Justification question:
“Why does the dad say this?”
The dad is being ironic (mental state)
 The dad wants John to say thank you (physical state)
 The dad doesn’t want John to be upset (incorrect
intention)
 The dad didn’t listen carefully and missed that
(mistaken)
14
15
Comprehension Question

More than 96% of the children correctly
responded to the comprehension question.
16
Lie
6;0
White lie
7;0
8;0
9;0
6;0
7;0
8;0
9;0
17
Persuasion
Persuasion
6;0
7;0
8;0
9;0
Irony
6;0
7;0
8;0
9;0
18
Metaphor
6;0
7;0
8;0
9;0
19
6;0
7;0
8;0
9;0
20
Relative Difficulty

Descriptive statistics:
lie >white lie>persuasion >irony >/~ metaphor
21
ANOVA trend analysis

ANOVA with trend
analysis shows
that there was a
difference among
the group means,
F(4, 492) =32.46,
p< .001, MSe =
1099.99.

There was a linear
trend to the data,
F(1,123) = 105.92,
p<.001, MSe =
1170.73.
22


Qualitatively, children’s responses were
further analyzed according to the type of
figurative language encoded.
Collapsing all age groups
23
Target
Realization
Lie
White
lie
Persuasion
Irony
Metaphor
Lie
82%
12%
8.5%
13%
13%
White Lie
-
45%
0.5%
32%
-
Persuasion
-
-
26%
-
-
Irony
-
-
-
12%
-
Metaphor
-
-
-
-
7%
Physical
10%
23%
47%
5.5%
30%
Mistaken
1.5%
11%
3.0%
12%
12%
-
5.5%
9.0%
11%
6%
Irrelevant
5.0%
2.0%
5.5%
10%
22%
Others
1.5%
1.5%
0.5%
4.5%
10%
NR
24
Discussion


Small number of young children
commented that the speaker was saying
something true.
They explained that the speaker made a
mistake
25

“Mistaken” interpretation: Children only
compared the remark and the contextual
information from the vignette without considering
anyone’s belief.
The hearer believes that
the uncle will not eat the cake.
It must taste very
good. I really
want to eat it
now!
26

“Lying” Interpretation: Children attribute a
false-belief to the (character) speaker.
The hear believes that
The speaker believes that
The pencil was not broken initially.
The pencil was
broken already when
you lent it to me.
27
 “Persuasion” interpretation: children not only
represent the beliefs of the speaker, but also the
beliefs of the speaker about the beliefs of the hearer.
The hearer believes that
The speaker believes that
The hearer believes that
Joe will not get 100 marks in all the exams.
I will get 100
marks in all the
exams.
28
“Irony” interpretation: Children have to represent the
speaker’s belief about the hearer’s belief on the speakers’
belief.
The hearer believes that
The speaker believes that
The hearer believes that
The speaker believes that
John is rude.
You are so
courteous!!
29

Interpretation of white lies requires similar
level of representation as lies but children
should have pro-social consideration in the
white lies.
30

Interpretation of metaphor may involve anther
dimension of processing: drawing the relationship
between the target referent and the description.
Metaphor: When Mum is preparing the dinner,
Dad said, “I can eat three dinosaurs!”
Appetite
Size of the
dinosaurs
31
Relative difficulty
“Lie → White lie → Persuasion → Irony ~
Metaphor”
Future directions

This sequence provides a basis for
evaluating individuals with ASD who may
show various levels of difficulty in
representing people’s belief and sociocognitive skills.
33
Selected references

Curcó, C. (2007). Irony: Negation, echo, and
metarepresentation. In R. W. Gibbs & H. L. Colston, (Eds.).
Irony in language and thought: A cognitive sciences reader.
New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
 Happé, F. G. E. (1994). An advance test of theory of mind:
Understanding of story characters’ thoughts and feelings by
able autistic, mentally handicapped, and normal children and
adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24,
129-154.
Acknowledgments
We are thankful to all the schools and
children who participated in our project.
The study was supported by the General
Research Fund 2009, Hong Kong Research
Grant Council.