Journal of Speech and Hearing Research Vol.31 466-474 September 1988.
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrowCustom Print
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow My Folders
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Nippold, M. A.
Right arrow Articles by Braunbeck-Price, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Nippold, M. A.
Right arrow Articles by Braunbeck-Price, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Delicious   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Explanation of Ambiguous Advertisements

A Developmental Study with Children and Adolescents

Marilyn A. Nippold 1
Juliana S. Cuyler 1

Renee Braunbeck-Price 1
1 University of Oregon

Explanation of linguistic ambiguity occurring in a naturalistic context was examined for children and adolescents at various ages. Subjects ages 9 through 18 were asked to explain the meanings of 14 ambiguous advertisements taken from recent magazines, newspapers, and brochures. All of the ads were lexically ambiguous and contained a word or phrase that had both a physical and a psychological meaning (e.g., "Introducing the Upper Crusts. Two sensational new entrees from Stouffer's"). Results were that older subjects explained the meanings correctly more frequently than younger subjects, although adolescents who were 18-years-old did not perform perfectly. It was also found that the psychological meanings of the ads were more difficult to explain than the physical meanings. The results were interpreted in relation to previous developmental studies of ambiguity involving sentences, jokes, and riddles , and Studies of figurative language explanation.

Submitted on September 17, 1987
Accepted on January 11, 1988


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Delicious Delicious   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?