(Image: Michael Heissner/Getty Images)
Sarcasm may be called the lowest form of wit, but it still exercises psychologists, linguists and computer scientists hoping to build automatic irony detectors
IT WAS a classic case of mistaken identity. At the start of his first year at university, Oren Tsur got an unexpected email. It asked if he might consider chairing a prestigious event based on his contribution the year before. Tsur can't remember his exact reply. "I answered jokily," he says – in a way he was sure would make it clear they had the wrong guy.
Only the organisers didn't get the joke. And they remained undeterred, despite Tsur's increasingly sarcastic replies. Finally they asked what new research he might share at the upcoming event. Still baffled, he deliberated before finally writing: "I'm working on detecting sarcasm and irony in written text."
As a computer scientist who studies language ...