Like you're actually going to read this paper on computerized sarcasm analysis

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/25/like-youre-actually-going-to.html

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sigh
Literally obligatory…

Sarcasm%20Detector%2C%20Simpsons

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Even humans can’t reliably detect sarcasm. You think you have an algorithm for that?

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Well, their best F1 scores were around 0.75 which is worse than I would think is typical for a human. Their analysis of their algorithm also notes that they cannot detect sarcasm which involves shared (and not directly mentioned) knowledge. They also have no way of dealing with numbers. i.e.

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If you feel like the detection of sarcasm is a difficult problem, then you are the exact type of person whom the whole point of sarcasm is to challenge. Trying to develop an algorithm or special emoji to protect you from this confusion would an epic Busby Berkeley extravaganza of point-missing.

Sarcasm is when someone says something that you are supposed to recognise as being too ridiculous to take seriously. If you can’t see why that is the case, simply knowing that they were using sarcasm would not mean you had understood the conversation.

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In all sincerity, I believe you are mistaken…

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However you slice things, hyperbole and sarcasm (and litotes and related devices) rely on an audience that grasps the difference between the literal meaning of what was said/written and the speaker’s/writer’s intended meaning. But, yes, they’re different things.

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sarcasm

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At first I read that as “MyCrotch” Developments and was not sure if they were being serious or not.

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Nah, it’s MycroTech from Swindon.
http://www.jasperfforde.com/index.html

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Ah - thanks for reminding me. I knew I’d seen it somewhere before.
(But MyCrotch Developments has … potential?)

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The headline for this post demands a double positive response.

(As in the story about a language professor lecturing about double negatives in different languages, whch IIRC finds him saying how in some languages they can be a reinforcer of the negative, but in English they always cancel each other out to become a positive, and yet, perversely, that in English a double positive always reinforces the positive and never cancels out to be a negative. A voice from the back of the lecture hall calls out: “Yeah, right.”)

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Okay then.
Now, what about irony?

I’m SURE no one’s EVER seen THIS before:

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When you consider how many utterly ridiculous things are currently being said on the internet with no hint of irony whatsoever, this seems like an impossible task.

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Obligs:

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I believe irony was defined in the Uxbridge English Dictionary (I’m Sorry I Havent A Clue) as “a bit like an iron”, but I cannot find the episode.
And groanworthily humorous as that may be, if one looks at Dr. Johnson’s orginal English Dictionary of 1755, he defined irony as “Made of iron; partaking of iron”.
Nothing ironic (or sarcastic) there. I’m ferrous sorry.

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