Recognizing
sarcasm without language 25
identified the attitude tokens spoken in both their native and non-native languages
significantly above chance levels in the majority of cases (
p < 0.0001); in the native
language conditions, these findings attest to the construct validity of the stimulus
materials. Identification was found to be at chance levels in only three conditions:
English listeners identified Cantonese tokens of humor and sarcasm at chance lev-
els (
p = 0.12,
p = 0.44, respectively), whereas Cantonese listeners identified English
tokens of sarcasm at chance level (
p = 0.54). An elaboration of the response pat-
terns follows.
In general, it can be seen that English listeners were quite successful at iden-
tifying sarcasm (85% correct), sincerity (91%), and neutrality (87%) expressed in
English, although recognition of humor in this condition was less precise (53%).
One-third of the humorous expressions in English were identified as sarcasm by
English listeners, indicating a degree of overlap between these two categories in
English. The identification of attitudes spoken in Cantonese by English listeners
was much less exact overall (ranging from 24% — 62%) and was notably poor
for sarcasm and humor which were, as outlined previously, identified at chance
accuracy level (24% and 29%, respectively). Interestingly, nearly one-half (45%)
of the sarcastic expressions produced in Cantonese were identified as “sincere” by
English listeners. Sentences conveying humor in Cantonese were more frequently
categorized as sarcasm (35% of all responses). English listeners were most accurate
in recognizing neutrality in Cantonese (62% correct).
For the Cantonese listeners, accuracy in the
native language tended to be low-
er overall when compared to the English listeners, although recognition of each
attitude in Cantonese was still reliable: sarcasm (46%), sincerity (63%), neutrality
(74%), and humor (40%). Of particular note here, Cantonese listeners often mis-
takenly identified sarcastic utterances as being neutral or sincere (21% and 22%
of responses to sarcasm, respectively). Humor expressions in Cantonese were also
highly confusable for Cantonese listeners, being identified as sarcasm (29%) or
sincerity (25%). When listening to English speech, Cantonese listeners were more
like the English listeners in their judgment of attitudes portrayed in the non-native
language. Correct attribution of English sarcasm by Cantonese listeners was at
chance levels (27% correct) and a plurality of responses in this condition marked
the utterances as expressing sincerity (41% of responses to English sarcasm).
While responses to English sincerity exemplars by Cantonese listeners were fairly
accurate (49% correct), many responses (28%) erroneously indicated sarcasm as
the intent. Interestingly, Cantonese listeners were
more accurate in identifying hu-
mor spoken in English than in Cantonese (52% vs. 40% correct). The most accu-
rate cross-linguistic identification of attitudes for the Cantonese listeners could be
seen for neutrality expressed in English (62% correct).