humor (was Re: SPUD acroetymythology (1927))

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 8, 2005, at 8:36 AM, Peter A. McGraw wrote:

> Such incidents are not unknown to ADS-L, either.  After a couple of
> experiences of my own, I usually remember to add ":)" when I'm
> TRYING TO BE
> FUNNY DAMMIT, no matter how obvious the irony seems to me, and even
> though
> I see it as the e-mail equivalent of the elbow jab to the ribs of the
> listener to indicate a joke.

yeah.  i hope to avoid doing that.

> Apparently we depend more than we realize on
> tone of voice, facial expression and body language to convey and
> comprehend
> irony.

so the common wisdom goes.  to what extent do we know this is so?
(this is a *very* hard question to examine systematically.)

arnold