IndexSummaryIntroductionMethodologyResults and discussionAnalysis of jokesMain findings:SummaryThis study attempts to investigate the age at which children interpret verbal jokes. A sample of 60 children aged between 6 and 12 years from 5 schools in Mumbai was used. The children were told 10 jokes of increasing complexity. Their laughter, no response and responses were noted. The results indicate that 39.5% of children understand verbal jokes at the age of 6-7 years and this understanding increases by 21% as they reach the age of 8-9 years. This further increases by 13% in children aged 10-12 years. An inverse pattern of nonresponse was observed. Demonstration of no response was inversely proportional to age. The lowest age group had the highest nonresponse of 45%, while the highest age group had the lowest nonresponse of 11.34%. The findings suggest that with age there is an increase in cognitive development and emotional intelligence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIntroductionJokes are short anecdotes that present a specific situation that is contrasted, through the creation of an incongruity, with another alternative situation, which creates a funny atmosphere. effect (Attardo, 2005; Attardo & Chabanne, 1992; Martin, 2007). Although there are many ways to organize a text as a joke (see, for example, Davies, 2004 and Raskin, 1985), most authors agree that the typical joke is composed of three elements: setting, dialogue and punchline (Attardo & Chabanne, 1992; The setting is the initial part of the joke and serves to create certain expectations about how to interpret the situation. The dialogue is short, generally between two characters, and is found immediately before the punchline. The punchline comes at the end of the joke and will be the element that suddenly changes the meaning, leading the individual to a second reading due to the perceived inconsistency. Verbal jokes are jokes that feature a lexical marker (generally a word or syntactic structure) that involves at least two readings. According to Attardo et al. (1994), verbal jokes based on ambiguity can be classified into two types: lexical (93%) and syntactic (5%). Lexical jokes are based on the semantic ambiguity of a word or linguistic expression.See example 1:Ek aurat dusri aurat ko Bolti hai' “mera beta bohot tez English Bolta Hai “Dusri aurat uske bete ko Bolti Hai, “bolke bata”To wo ladka Bolta Hai, “ English English English English “(a lady says to another lady, “my son speaks English fast” The other lady tells her son to speak in English so the son replies, “English English English English ”)In this joke, the word "tez" in Hindi in this context has two readings: quickly and fluently. To properly interpret the joke it is necessary to see the word fast as a lexical indicator for both meanings. In syntactic jokes, on the contrary, the ambiguity is based on the syntactic structure of a linguistic expression. See example 2A woman enters an elegant shop and asks: Do you have any crocodile bags? It depends, ma'am. Tell me how your crocodile likes them? E-JournALL 3(2) (2016), pp. 3-21Put simply, humor is the ability to appreciate the unexpected. The main element necessary for humor in children to evolve is socialization. Children need to understand who they aresharing an experience with another person before you can begin to develop a sense of humor. We usually do this by laughing and sharing our reactions together – a process that actually begins as soon as a newborn can make eye contact and smile. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky believed that humorous social interactions of this type actually facilitate a child's cognitive development. Additionally, a child must possess some basic cognitive skills to communicate jokes in the first place. The most important are imagination, the ability to take on a different perspective and language. Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage one's own emotions and those of others. Numerous studies show a positive correlation between humor and intelligence, also found in our research where some children performed better than other children of their age, probably due to greater intelligence. Furthermore, identifying emotions in verbal jokes is important to provoke the humor effect. Building on the previous assumptions, the aim of this study was to analyze at what age children begin to interpret verbal jokes and their responses to different verbal jokes. This study hypothesized: Differences will exist between age groups in the ability to reflect on verbal cues. Lexical verbal jokes will be easier to interpret and reflect on than syntactic verbal jokes because they are more frequent and less complex jokes. Data from previous research on similar topics shows the following results: 42 children and adolescents in second, fifth, and eighth grades in Querétaro, Mexico, were presented with four verbal and four non-verbal cues. Participants were asked to determine whether each text was a joke or not and to explain their reasoning. The results revealed differences by grade in students' ability to distinguish jokes from non-jokes and in the type and quantity of their reflections. (Karina Hess Zimmermann, 2016- Autonomous University of Queretaro) An experimental study conducted with children aged between 6 and 11 years has shown that even young children are able to appreciate the inconsistencies contained in the first part of the story. Older children direct their attention to identifying the inconsistency located in the ending. However, their understanding is not always complete. The progressive adjustment between understanding and appreciation can be explained, at least in part, by the internalization of the specific narrative structure of the jokes to the extent that this internalization determines the child's comprehension strategy and therefore his appreciation of the story. (Bernard Lefort, 1992). This study investigated whether younger children might show early understanding when ironic expressions are performed in familiar communicative situations and investigated the relationships between irony understanding, language, and theory of mind abilities. A group of 100 children aged 3.0 to 6.5 years were presented with four types of puppet scenarios describing different communicative interactions: control, joke, contingent irony, and stories with background irony. The results suggested that (a) even the youngest children understand jokes easily and can sometimes understand ironies; (b) children's understanding of irony continues to develop throughout early childhood; and (c) receptive vocabulary scores had simultaneous effects on irony comprehension and ToM performance. (Romina Angeleri and Gabriella Airenti - Center for Cognitive Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Turin (Italy) examine two verbal forms of taking intodeception and deception; jokes and lies aim to show how children's understanding of lying is related to their developing understanding of people's intentions and beliefs focus primarily on the child's understanding of jokes and lies because the distinction between these two acts seems be based on the distinction of intentions and higher order beliefs (i.e. what A wants B to believe (Susan R Leekam (1988). ) - Cardiff University School of Psychology) Methodology Participants: 70 participants, 32 boys and 38 girls from aged between 6 and 12 years, participated in the study. They were from 5 different schools in Mumbai, from grade 1 to grade 7. Five children were chosen from each grade. All the children came from middle-class schools. 10 jokes of increasing complexity were selected based on their popularity among children of the same age group other than the sample population. Procedure -Data was collected individually from participants by the researcher. The researcher sat with each student individually for approximately 15 minutes, of which 3–4 minutes were spent making the participant comfortable. Responses were scored by asking the student whether or not he understood the joke and why. Participants' responses were analyzed in two ways. The first correct interpretations of the joke were scored. Second, their response was rated in three categories: smile, laugh, and no response. Results and discussion Joke analysis Joke 1 - the plot is complex but it is an easy joke that most children aged 6-9 years old did not understand. The hardest part is when the husband yells at the wife for her mistake. Joke 2- The plot of the joke was simple and easy to understand among the groups and the salient feature is that the man applies shampoo on his shoulder because his name says Head and Shoulder. Joke 3- It is a student-teacher joke with a simple plot. The tricky part is that the child asks the teacher to wash his hands because he misinterprets the Hindi word "khana" which in this context meant to eat. Joke 4- This joke has a complex plot but it is easy to understand where in a the child calls his teacher chicken because she always gives him zeros. The word used is 'anda' which has two meanings; one egg and zero. Prank 5- This prank has the most complex plot but is simple to understand in which when a kindergarten student is asked where is GOD? He responds by saying that he was in his bathroom when he heard his father say slam the bathroom door: "oh God! Are you still inside" (translated from Hindi) Joke 6- This joke has a simple plot but is difficult to understand in which when a father tells his son that his face looks like a donkey, the son replies that his mother said his face looks like his father. Joke 7 – This joke has a complex plot but is easy to understand. The difficult part is when the doctor tells the relative that he should have brought the patient an hour ago and the relative responds by saying that the accident happened only half an hour ago. Joke 8 – It's simple to understand with a simple plot. The funniest part of the prank is when a child asks the shopkeeper for a nice and cute product and when the shopkeeper expects the child to buy it, he tells the shopkeeper to apply it himself because of the color of his skin. Joke 9 – It's a simple joke with a simple plot where when a teacher asks if an apple comes from A or B the child replies that it comes from money. Joke 10 - is the simplest joke with a simple plot where a lady praises her son by saying that he speaks English very fast and then when the other lady tells the child to demonstrate it, the child responds by saying:.