On the difficulty of automatically detecting irony: beyond a simple case of negation

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10115-013-0652-8It is well known that irony is one of the most subtle devices used to, in a refined way and without a negation marker, deny what is literally said. As such, its automatic detection would represent valuable knowledge regarding tasks as diverse as sentiment analysis, information extraction, or decision making. The research described in this article is focused on identifying key values of components to represent underlying characteristics of this linguistic phenomenon. In the absence of a negation marker, we focus on representing the core of irony by means of three conceptual layers. These layers involve 8 different textual features. By representing four available data sets with these features, we try to find hints about how to deal with this unexplored task from a computational point of view. Our findings are assessed by human annotators in two strata: isolated sentences and entire documents. The results show how complex and subjective the task of automatically detecting irony could be.The research work of Paolo Rosso was done in the framework of the European Commission WIQ-EI Web Information Quality Evaluation Initiative (IRSES grant no. 269180) project within the FP 7 Marie Curie People, the DIANA-APPLICATIONS - Finding Hidden Knowledge in Texts: Applications (TIN2012-38603-C02-01) project, and the VLC/CAMPUS Microcluster on Multimodal Interaction in Intelligent Systems.Reyes Pérez, A.; Rosso, P. (2014). On the difficulty of automatically detecting irony: beyond a simple case of negation. Knowledge and Information Systems. 40(3):595-614. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-013-0652-8S595614403Artstein R, Poesio M (2008) Inter-coder agreement for computational linguistics. Comput Linguistics 34(4):555–596Atserias J, Casas B, Comelles E, González M, Padró L, Padró M (2006) Freeling 1.3: syntactic and semantic services in an open-source nlp library. 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Linguistic-based Patterns for Figurative Language Processing: The Case of Humor Recognition and Irony Detection

El lenguaje figurado representa una de las tareas más difíciles del procesamiento del lenguaje natural. A diferencia del lenguaje literal, el lenguaje figurado hace uso de recursos lingüísticos tales como la ironía, el humor, el sarcasmo, la metáfora, la analogía, entre otros, para comunicar significados indirectos que la mayoría de las veces no son interpretables sólo en términos de información sintáctica o semántica. Por el contrario, el lenguaje figurado refleja patrones del pensamiento que adquieren significado pleno en contextos comunicativos y sociales, lo cual hace que tanto su representación lingüística, así como su procesamiento computacional, se vuelvan tareas por demás complejas. En este contexto, en esta tesis de doctorado se aborda una problemática relacionada con el procesamiento del lenguaje figurado a partir de patrones lingüísticos. En particular, nuestros esfuerzos se centran en la creación de un sistema capaz de detectar automáticamente instancias de humor e ironía en textos extraídos de medios sociales. Nuestra hipótesis principal se basa en la premisa de que el lenguaje refleja patrones de conceptualización; es decir, al estudiar el lenguaje, estudiamos tales patrones. Por tanto, al analizar estos dos dominios del lenguaje figurado, pretendemos dar argumentos respecto a cómo la gente los concibe, y sobre todo, a cómo esa concepción hace que tanto humor como ironía sean verbalizados de una forma particular en diversos medios sociales. En este contexto, uno de nuestros mayores intereses es demostrar cómo el conocimiento que proviene del análisis de diferentes niveles de estudio lingüístico puede representar un conjunto de patrones relevantes para identificar automáticamente usos figurados del lenguaje. Cabe destacar que contrario a la mayoría de aproximaciones que se han enfocado en el estudio del lenguaje figurado, en nuestra investigación no buscamos dar argumentos basados únicamente en ejemplos prototípicos, sino en textos cuyas característicasReyes Pérez, A. (2012). Linguistic-based Patterns for Figurative Language Processing: The Case of Humor Recognition and Irony Detection [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/16692Palanci

A Qualitative Investigation into the Active Level of Perception of Dissociation of Source from Content Under Narrative Conditions

This thesis explores what media users perceive about the authors and creators of narrative media based solely on the content of that media itself. It contrasts traditional notions of source credibility (established via rhetoric or debate) versus models of media effects which exert themselves through mere exposure to message, and where a direct evaluation of the message source may be neither salient nor possible. A sample of nine undergraduates were individually interviewed in order to investigate the thematic trends associated with the perceptions of credibility and of authorial source while exposed to narrative. The interviews gave rise to the notion that narratives are subject to credibility judgments based on the emotional salience of the characters\u27 responses plot elements, rather than on the factuality of the material, or rather than upon any perceptions of authorial expertise with regards to the subjects broached by the narrativ

A Qualitative Investigation into the Active Level of Perception of Dissociation of Source from Content Under Narrative Conditions

This thesis explores what media users perceive about the authors and creators of narrative media based solely on the content of that media itself. It contrasts traditional notions of source credibility (established via rhetoric or debate) versus models of media effects which exert themselves through mere exposure to message, and where a direct evaluation of the message source may be neither salient nor possible. A sample of nine undergraduates were individually interviewed in order to investigate the thematic trends associated with the perceptions of credibility and of authorial source while exposed to narrative. The interviews gave rise to the notion that narratives are subject to credibility judgments based on the emotional salience of the characters\u27 responses plot elements, rather than on the factuality of the material, or rather than upon any perceptions of authorial expertise with regards to the subjects broached by the narrativ

An Eye for the Invisible: Exploring the Role of Image-Making in Science

This thesis tracks the evolution of filmed and photographed depictions of science, emphasizing in particular their dual existence as empirical research tools and stunning works of art

Standard Deviations: Genre, Gender, and the Cartographical Imagination in Popular British Literature, 1830-1880

While cartography is understood to undergird the spatial interventions integral to Victorian reform in areas such as sewerage and housing, little critical attention has been paid to the influence of cartographical discourse in itself, rather than through its concrete products, as a force that fundamentally altered nineteenth-century conceptions of self, other, and environment. Standard Deviations fills that gap, studying the changing parameters of spatial epistemology by monitoring expanding and contracting definitions of bodily deviance across four generic modes historically associated with the nineteenth century: detective, sensation, and domestic fiction, and the household management guide. Altered perceptions of spatial reality and possibility result in altered definitions of deviance, and those definitions in turn manifest in generic innovations. The texts considered here outline a dilemma: the tension between scientific and personal, imaginative mapping practices. As Chapter One shows, Martin Chuzzlewit delineates Charles Dickens\u27s engagement with the issue of accurate spatial perception, particularly in the urban milieu. For Dickens, mapping is freighted with ethical cargo, so that accuracy of vision is equated with moral sight - the science of cartography - and imaginative modes of mapping suggest ambiguity. Dickens employs detective fiction to discipline his imaginative; thus cartographical discourse and generic conventions develop symbiotically. Chapter Two continues the exploration of deviance within the urban context in Wilkie Collins\u27s The Woman in White, a meditation on the over-determined status of middle-class female bodies. Collins\u27s streetwalking character is illegible because she harbors too many possible identities (wife, servant, prostitute, criminal, victim). Chapters three and four demonstrate the influence of cartographic discourse on the domestic, an area coded by the Victorians as separate, yet highly permeable. Household management guides were verbal maps that employed cartographical strategies in order to subject domestic space to discipline and regulation. Such texts and domestic fiction show the development of a semiotic system based on spatial integrity - a place for everything, and everything in its place - that led to cultural obsession with a particular type of deviance: bad housekeeping

The Witcraft of Seeing Things Differently : Hyperdetermined Humor, Unusual Viewpoints, and Narrative Rhetoric in Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels

Sir Terry Pratchettin maineikasta ja menestynyttä Discworld-romaanisarjaa luonnehditaan yleensä koomiseksi fantasiaksi, ja vaikka sitä on aiemmin tutkittu etupäässä fantasiakirjallisuutena, niin fantasiamiljöön lisäksi toinen näiden kirjojen silmiinpistävä piirre on huumorin ylenpalttinen runsaus. Tässä väitöskirjassa olen valinnut harvinaisemman lähestymistavan tutkiessani Discworld-romaaneja ensisijaisesti humoristisena kirjallisuutena, ja sen mukaisesti väitöskirjani keskeisimpänä tavoitteena on tutkia Terry Pratchettin huumorin poetiikkaa. Tarkemmin sanottuna olen asettanut tässä väitöskirjassa tehtäväkseni kartoittaa Terry Pratchettin huumorille ominaisimmat komiikan keinot ja tutkia, mikä tekee Discworld-romaaneista hauskoja. Discworld-romaaneille ominainen huumorin runsaus koostuu humorististen kuvausten ja koomisten kohtausten tiheän esiintymisen lisäksi komiikan keinojen laajasta valikoimasta. Tässä väitöskirjassa väitän, että Terry Pratchettin huumori on hyperdeterminoitua, mikä tarkoittaa, että hän yhdistelee erilaisia komiikan keinoja samassa kuvauksessa tai kohtauksessa. Siksi Pratchettin huumorin poetiikkaa käsittelevä väitöskirjani on samalla myös tutkimus hyperdeterminoidun huumorin rakentumisesta. Selkeyttääkseni huumorin hyperdeterminaation rakentumista jaottelen komiikan keinot neljään kategoriaan: tilanteellisiin, kontekstuaalisiin, rakenteellisiin ja tyylillisiin. Sovellan tätä jaottelua väittämällä, että humoristista kuvausta tai koomista kohtausta voidaan perustellusti sanoa hyperdeterminoiduksi silloin, kun siinä yhdistellään komiikan keinoja useammasta kuin yhdestä kategoriasta. Pidän Pratchettin huumorille ominaisten komiikan keinojen kartoittamista yhtenä tämän väitöskirjan keskeisimmistä kontribuutioista kirjallisen huumorin tutkimukselle. Tilanteellisista komiikan keinoista tarkastelen Discworld-romaaneista löytämiäni esimerkkejä draamallisesta ironiasta ja absurdista logiikasta. Kontekstuaalisista komiikan keinoista käsittelen Pratchettin parodiaa ja satiiria, kun taas rakenteellisista komiikan keinoista tutkin, kuinka Pratchett käyttää paraprosdokiania, bathosta, toistuvia piloja (”figgin”) ja koomisia alaviitteitä. Tyylillisistä komiikan keinoista tutkailen Pratchettin koomisia kielikuvia (hyperbolia, metaforia, vertauksia ja personifikaatioita), hänen sanaleikkejään (paronomasia, antanaklasis, sanataskut ja kaksikieliset sanaleikit) sekä Pratchettin koomisia eufemismeja. Lisäksi osoitan väitöskirjassani, että Terry Pratchettin huumorille on ominaista kulttuuristen kliseiden (eli tuttujen kulttuuri-ilmiöiden, totunnaisten ajattelutapojen ja vakiintuneiden esittämisen konventioiden) esittäminen humoristisen epätavallisista näkökulmista käsin. Discworld-romaaneissa Pratchett siirtää erilaisia oman maailmamme kulttuuri-ilmiöitä Discworld-nimiseen (suom. Kiekkomaailma) fantasiamaailmaansa, ja tämän maailmojen törmäyttämisen seurauksena kulttuuriset kliseet näyttäytyvät lukijalle samanaikaisesti tuttuina ja koomisen outoina. Tällaiset humoristiset näkökulmat vahvistavat osaltaan huumorin hyperdeterminaatiota. Samalla kun fantasiamiljöö mahdollistaa kahden maailman koomisen törmäyttämisen ja oman maailmamme kulttuuristen kliseiden peilaamisen toisen maailman avulla, huumori toisaalta mahdollistaa Kiekkomaailmassa normaalia fantasiaa vapaamman mielikuvituksen lennon, eikä monia Discworld-romaaneissa kuvattuja asioita, tapahtumia ja ilmiöitä voisi esiintyä maailmoissa, jotka eivät rakennu absurdin logiikan, kulttuurisilla kliseillä leikittelyn ja koomisen liioittelun kaltaisten todellisuuta vääristävien periaatteiden luoman ”taikuuden” varaan. Komiikan keinojen moninaisuuden, hyperdeterminoidun huumorin ja epätavallisten näkökulmien lisäksi tutkin väitöskirjassani sitä, millaisia arvottavia asenteita kertojan humoristiset näkökulmat ja humoristisiin kuvauksiin sisältyvät henkilöhahmojen tunnereaktiot paljastavat. Tulkitsen tällaisen arvottavan huumorin kirjalliseksi retorisen vaikuttamisen keinoksi, jonka avulla kirjailija pyrkii ohjailemaan lukijansa hyväksyviä ja paheksuvia asenteita. Useimmiten Pratchettin huumori on kulttuurikriittistä, eli parodista ja satiirista, mutta toisinaan humoristiset näkökulmat esittävät todellisen maailman kulttuuri-ilmiöitä myönteisinä ja ihailtavina. Väitän tutkimuksessani, että kirjallisuuden retoriikka perustuu tällaisten kielteisten ja myönteisten asenteiden esittämiselle ja että huumori on yksi kertomuksen retoriikan vaikutuskeinoista.Sir Terry Pratchett’s bestselling Discworld series of novels has been commonly described as comic fantasy, and although it has been previously studied mainly as fantasy literature, another conspicuous feature in these novels, in addition to the fantasy milieu, is their rich and abundant humor. In this study, I have chosen the road less travelled by approaching the Discworld novels as humorous literature, and, consequently, my main goal here is to study the poetics of Terry Pratchett’s humor— his “witcraft”. To be more precise, in this dissertation I have set myself the task of mapping out the comic devices that are most characteristic for Terry Pratchett’s witcraft and investigating what makes the Discworld novels funny. The richness of humor that is characteristic for the Discworld novels consists partly of the frequent occurrences of humorous descriptions and comic scenes, but also of the numerous comic devices that Pratchett deploys. In this dissertation, I argue that Terry Pratchett’s humor is hyperdetermined, which means that he tends to combine numerous comic devices in the same description or scene. Consequently, this study on the poetics of Terry Pratchett’s humor is at the same time a study on the construction of hyperdetermined humor. To better understand how hyperdetermined humor is constructed, I have devised a taxonomy that divides comic devices into four categories: situational, contextual, structural, and stylistic. Based on this taxonomy, I argue that the humor of a humorous description or a comic scene can be said to be truly hyperdetermined whenever it combines comic devices from more than one of these categories. I consider mapping out the comic devices that are most characteristic for Terry Pratchett’s witcraft to be one of the major contributions of this dissertation to the academic study of humor in literature. Of situational comic devices, I discuss and analyze examples of dramatic irony and absurd logic that I have detected in the Discworld novels. Of contextual comic devices, I discuss Pratchett’s parody and satire; of structural comic devices, I study Pratchett’s use of paraprosdokian, bathos, figgins (or running gags), and comic footnotes. Of stylistic comic devices, I investigate Pratchett’s comic imagery (hyperboles, metaphors, similes, and personifications), his puns (paronomasia, antanaclasis, portmanteaux, and bilingual puns), as well as Pratchett’s comic euphemisms. In this dissertation, I also demonstrate that representing cultural clichés (i.e., familiar cultural phenomena, customary ways of thinking, and conventional ways of representing) from humorously unusual viewpoints is characteristic for Terry Pratchett’s witcraft. In the Discworld novels, Pratchett transfers various cultural phenomena from the real world, our “Roundworld”, to a fantasy world called the Discworld, and as a result of this interworldly resonance, the cultural clichés of our Roundworld appear to the reader simultaneously as familiar and comically strange. These humorous viewpoints can be viewed as an additional constituent of hyperdetermined humor. While the fantasy setting of the Discworld novels allows Pratchett to set up comic resonance between the worlds, Pratchett’s humor also makes the Discworld a more imaginative and fantastic place than typical fantasy worlds. Many events and phenomena that are represented in the Discworld novels can only exist in a world where reality is distorted and enhanced by the special “magic” of comically absurd logic, playing with cultural clichés, and humorous exaggerations. In addition to the abundance of comic devices, hyperdetermined humor, and humorously unusual viewpoints, I also study in this dissertation what kinds of evaluative attitudes the narrator’s humorous viewpoints and the characters’ emotional reactions reveal. According to my interpretation, such evaluative attitudes are means of narrative rhetoric, where the author attempts to guide the reader’s attitudes of approval or disapproval. Pratchett’s humor is often critical—parodical or satirical—although occasionally the narrator’s humorous viewpoints represent the cultural phenomena of our Roundworld in a positive light, as something admirable. In this dissertation, I argue that narrative rhetoric is based on representing negative and positive attitudes, and that humor is one possible means of narrative rhetoric