Within the framework of a theory of predictive relationship between perceptual contrast effects and the pragmatic functions of verbal irony, this study investigates whether the broader family of perceptual and cognitive biasing effects influences language comprehension, how such an influence would operate, and whether this account holds for dissociations found on the pragmatic functions of ironic tropes. The findings reveal that the pattern of contrast versus assimilation effects allow prediction of the pragmatic functions interpreted from a speaker's use of figurative language.