humor (was Re: SPUD acroetymythology (1927))

[Peter A. McGraw]

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

Peter

--On Thursday, September 08, 2005 7:43 AM -0700 "Arnold M. Zwicky"
<zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:

> on a number of occasions, readers of the Language Log have mistaken
> the intentions of the contributors; parody and irony are especially
> likely to be missed.    in some cases, the contributors have felt
> obliged to add explanations to their postings, to avoid overly
> literal-minded interpretations.



***************************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ****************************