CHILDRENS UNDERSTANDING OF LINGUISTIC HUMOR - AN ASPECT OF METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

The appreciation of linguistic humour is related to social, cognitive, and linguistic development, and requires metalinguistic abilities. Th e current study was designed to test the understanding and appreciatio n of linguistic humour in Hebrew, a language rich in morphological str uctures. One hundred and twenty one native speakers of Hebrew in six a ge groups (first grade to adults) were asked to explain jokes and ridd les requiring phonological, morphological, orthographic, and syntactic awareness. Subjects' responses were analyzed in terms of (a) linguist ic understanding, and (b) non-linguistic humour appreciation. A clear developmental trend was found in subjects' ability to understand and e xplain the linguistic sources of the jokes and riddles, reflecting a c hange in metalinguistic abilities and insight with increasing age, in which linguistic knowledge becomes progressively more explicit.