Request complexity is no more a problem when the requests are ironic

Abstract

Although the topic has been extensively studied, many issues about understanding of indirect requests in children are still unsolved. Our contribution is to distinguish genuine and ironic hints, focusing on the latter. We examined the understanding of ironic hints and ironic imperatives in 5- to 9-year-old children and in adults, in various situational contexts (neutral or ironic). The main result of this study was that ironic hints were more difficult to understand than ironic imperatives only when the context was neutral. When the context was ironic, there was no significant difference. Discussion highlights how context enables young children to understand very indirect requests like ironic hints.