Past research has highlighted some differences in how sarcasm is interpreted by different groups of individuals as well as biases in individuals' expectations regarding who is more likely to use it (e.g., occupation, gender). However, examinations of patterns of sarcasm production have been much less frequent. The current research extends past…

This study examined children's understanding of irony when a difference existed between a speaker's intended meaning and a listener's interpretation of the meaning. Three irony contexts were presented to 87 7/8-year-olds (second graders), 90 11/12-year-olds (sixth graders), and 103 adults. In the normal irony context, the speaker intended to…

The aim of this study is to examine the views of students at different education levels on the concept of distance education through metaphors. In this study, the phenomenological design was used in accordance with the nature of qualitative research. The participants of the study, for whom the ethical rules were taken into account, consisted of 63…

The competence in identifying and comprehending the meaning of idiomatic expressions developed at an early age. However, second language learners reach the comprehension skill differently within the age and at pace. There are many unresolved questions regarding the age which children start to comprehend L2 idioms. The objective of this study was…

Metaphor development in conjunction with verbal intelligence and linguistic competence in middle childhood and at the transition to early adolescence was investigated. 298 individuals between seven and ten years (chronological age) who attended grades two-four (mental age) were tested for metaphor processing by the Metaphoric Triads Task, for…

The purpose of this study is the exploration of pitch-height mapping via invented notations rendered by schoolchildren and adults with and without formal musical training, while they listen to a classical composition, characterised by pitch-height polarity. Subjects (N = 108) include first-graders, fourth-graders, undergraduate and graduate…

We explored the vocabulary and metaphor comprehension of learners of English as an additional language (EAL) in the first two years of UK primary school. EAL vocabulary knowledge is believed to be a crucial predictor of (reading) comprehension and educational attainment (Murphy, 2018). The vocabulary of five- to seven-year-old children with EAL…

This article reports a study in which good and poor comprehenders (in 2 age groups: 8- and 10-year-olds) read short passages containing phrases that could be interpreted as idiomatic or not, depending on the context. Familiarity was manipulated by including real (English) idioms and novel (translations of Italian) idioms. Reading times for the…

This study compared younger (M = 53 months) and older (M = 90 months) children's use of linguistic referential devices to make a positive identification. Children were shown a 4-minute video that concluded with a wrongful act. They were interviewed 24 hours later and asked to identify the perpetrator of the wrongful act with open-ended and…

The purpose of this study is to reveal the metaphors of primary school students (n = 362) relating to the concept of global warming. Data collected by completing the expression of "global warming is like..., because..." of the students were analysed by use of qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. According to findings of…

The aim of this research is to determine the computer self-efficacy perception of second grade primary school students and their opinions regarding computer ownership through metaphors. The research applied the scanning model and was conducted during the 2011-2012 academic year among seven primary schools of the Ministry of National Education in…

The aim of this study is to investigate metaphors that elementary school 5th and 8th grade students (N = 567) use in order to describe the term "teacher". The data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions, and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques. Content analysis technique was…

Incongruity between a positive statement and a negative context is a cue to verbal irony. Two studies examined whether school-age children and adults recognized that listeners require knowledge of context to detect irony. Specifically, the studies investigated whether participants could inhibit their own context knowledge to appropriately gauge…

Previous research has found a link between theory of mind and cooperation. The aim of this study is to deepen into this relationship, to identify which theory of mind skills are more related to the cooperative ability on a referential communication task. A total of 50 children from first and fifth grade completed a battery of theory of mind tasks,…