句末语气词和韵律在自闭症儿童理解反语时的作用

Roles of Sentence Final Particles and Prosody in Irony Comprehension of ASD Children

目的:调查"句末语气词"和"韵律"两个语言线索在普通发展儿童(TD:Typical Development)和高功能自闭症儿童(HFASD:High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder)对反语进行理解时所起的作用。方法:观察8-12岁的HFASD儿童和TD儿童各14名在面对"韵律"和"句末语气词"两个变量(四个条件:只有韵律、只有句末语气词、两者都有和两者都没有)构建的16个反语故事时,被试对反语的理解情况。结果:方差分析表明在判断讲话者信念方面,两组儿童均表现较好,但TD组的表现明显好于HFASD讲话者意图方面,两组儿童的表现具有显著差异,组别和条件具有交互效应(F(3, 112)=11.87, P<0.001),说明两组儿童对讲话者意图的判断受到语言线索的显著影响。结论:HFASD儿童和TD儿童在反语理解上具有显著差异,句末语气词在儿童普通话反语理解中发挥重要作用,通过心理理论能够解释两组儿童表现差异的原因。

Objective: This study investigates the use of prosodic cues and sentence final particles in irony comprehension in Mandarin-speaking children with and without ASD. Methods: The comprehension of irony in 28 children aged 8-12 were observed. There were two groups-HFASD(14) and TD(14) who were confronted with 16 stories including four conditions(prosody;sentence final particles;both;neither). Results: Analysis of variance showed that both groups performed better in judging the speaker’s beliefs, but the TD group performed significantly better than the HFASD group. The group had a main effect(F(1,112)=18.59, P<0.001). In judging the speaker’s intentions, there was a significant difference in the performance of two groups of children. The group and conditions had an interacting effect(F(3, 112) = 11.87, P<0.001). The two groups of children’s judgment of the speaker’s intention were significantly influenced by the language cues. Conclusion:HFASD children and TD children have significant differences in the overall understanding of irony. Sentence final particles may play an important role in the comprehension of children’s irony in Mandarin. The differences between two groups are discussed by considering the literature on theory of mind.