Illocutionary Competence in Irony Comprehension: Insights from Empirical Studies on ASD. Analiza i Egzystencja, 72, 2025, 5–37.

Abstract

In this paper, we offer a pragmatic analysis of utterances used in empirical studies on irony comprehension in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Specifically, we focus on three studies that examine the understanding of ironic compliments and criticisms. Our central argument is that interpreting these utterances requires substantial illocutionary competence, alongside mindreading abilities, both of which are essential for social cognition and interaction. After exploring how different types of compliments and criticisms are performed and comprehended, we argue that irony functions as an illocutionary negation, transforming the literal force of an utterance (it would have, if taken literally) into its opposite. Our key conclusion underscores the importance of interpreting empirical findings on irony comprehension through the lens of potential differences in illocutionary competence among participants and the ability to interpret the echoic and meta-illocutionary functions of irony.