Abstract
This study investigates the acoustic features of sarcasm and disentangles the interplay between the propensity of an utterance being used sarcastically and the presence of prosodic cues signaling sarcasm. Using a dataset of sarcastic utterances compiled from television shows, we analyze the prosodic features within utterances and key phrases belonging to three distinct sarcasm categories (embedded, propositional, and illocutionary), which vary in the degree of semantic cues present, and compare them to neutral expressions. Results show that in phrases where the sarcastic meaning is salient from the semantics, the prosodic cues are less relevant than when the sarcastic meaning is not evident from the semantics, suggesting a trade-off between prosodic and semantic cues of sarcasm at the phrase level. These findings highlight a lessened reliance on prosodic modulation in semantically dense sarcastic expressions and a nuanced interaction that shapes the communication of sarcastic intent.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of Interspeech 2024 |
Publisher | ISCA |
Pages | 1070-1074 |
Number of pages | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1-Sept-2024 |
Event | Interspeech 2024 - Kos, Greece Duration: 1-Sept-2024 → 5-Sept-2024 |
Conference
Conference | Interspeech 2024 |
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Country/Territory | Greece |
City | Kos |
Period | 01/09/2024 → 05/09/2024 |
Keywords
- sarcasm
- speech acoustics