A Multi-Aspect Evaluation Framework for Synthetic Data: Case Study on Irony and Sarcasm

Laura Majer, Ana Barić, Florijan Sandalj, Ivan Unković, Bojan Puvača, Jan Šnajder


Abstract
Data augmentation (DA) using large language models (LLMs) is a cost-effective method for generating synthetic data, particularly for tasks with scarce datasets. However, its potential remains largely underexplored, both in terms of augmentation configuration and evaluation of synthetic data. This paper investigates LLM-based synthetic data generation for irony and sarcasm, two subjective and context-dependent forms of figurative language. We propose a multi-aspect evaluation framework assessing synthetic data’s utility-plausibility and extrinsic-intrinsic dimensions through four aspects: predictive performance, sample diversity, linguistic properties, and human judgment. Our findings indicate that other aspects of evaluation, like diversity and linguistic features, do not necessarily correlate with an increase in predictive performance, underscoring the importance of multi-faceted evaluation. This work highlights the potential of LLM-based DA for irony and sarcasm detection, offering insights into the linguistic competence of LLMs. As synthetic data becomes increasingly prevalent, our framework offers a broadly applicable and crucial evaluation method, particularly for linguistically complex tasks.
Anthology ID:
2026.wassa-1.23
Volume:
The Proceedings for the 15th Workshop on Computational Approaches to Subjectivity, Sentiment Social Media Analysis (WASSA 2026)
Month:
March
Year:
2026
Address:
Rabat, Morocco
Editors:
Jeremy Barnes, Valentin Barriere, Orphée De Clercq, Roman Klinger, Célia Nouri, Debora Nozza, Pranaydeep Singh
Venues:
WASSA | WS
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Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
305–323
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URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-eacl/2026.wassa-1.23/
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Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Laura Majer, Ana Barić, Florijan Sandalj, Ivan Unković, Bojan Puvača, and Jan Šnajder. 2026. A Multi-Aspect Evaluation Framework for Synthetic Data: Case Study on Irony and Sarcasm. In The Proceedings for the 15th Workshop on Computational Approaches to Subjectivity, Sentiment Social Media Analysis (WASSA 2026), pages 305–323, Rabat, Morocco. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
A Multi-Aspect Evaluation Framework for Synthetic Data: Case Study on Irony and Sarcasm (Majer et al., WASSA 2026)
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https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-eacl/2026.wassa-1.23.pdf