Els relats humorístics d’arrel lingüísticaconsideracions a propòsit del tipus ATU 1699 («Malentesos entre parlants de diferents llengües»)

Abstract

If we care to look behind a laugh or smile there is always a tragedy. In fact, humour is based in failure and is a strategy particular to humans for overcoming or sublimating life’s inclemencies. Thus we invent and tell jokes that betray the weakness of political and religious institutions that are supposed to confer us a certain social dignity; we laugh at the vulnerability of the human body, we make fun of things that remind us that we are after all just animals, and mortal ones at that. Indeed, we only have to think of the inexhaustible mine of scatological and sexual stories, of the amusing things that bring out anthropomorphic gestures in animals, of the black humour surrounding the circumstances and rituals of death, of the instinctive laughter caused by watching an accident that has been caught on video camera, etc. Naturally, languages are also a source of laughter and calamities; when language stumbles, that is, when words fail, it not only draws attention to the presumptuous dignity of humans, but also highlights the dramatic limitations that restrict the way we communicate and perceive the world. In the final analysis, the failure of language is the failure of the human soul, naked, orphaned, isolated and terribly alone in the face of the complexities of existence. In this paper we offer some analytical reflections regarding the underlying humour in different popular stories that have traditionally been catalogued as type ATU 1699 (Misunderstanding Because of Ignorance of a Foreign Language) to see if we can distinguish certain subtypes among them.