On 05/12/2007, Marc Riddell michaeldavid86@comcast.net wrote:
on 12/4/07 6:27 PM, Thomas Dalton at thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
No, factual. In my experience, Americans have great difficulty recognising sarcasm (in general, of course). It's just a cultural thing. I have great difficultly understanding baseball and American football metaphors, while most Americans seem to be able to use them fluently - it's much the same thing.
Not really, Thomas. Metaphors are grasped cognitively; while sarcasm relies more on the emotions.
Yes, but the reason I'm good at understanding sarcasm is because I'm frequently exposed to it due to it's common place in my culture. The reason Americans are good are understanding sports metaphors is because they are frequently exposed to them due to their common place in their culture. Also, while sarcasm is emotional, it is usually expressed without emotion ("dead pan"), which is what makes it difficult to recognise for the uninitiated.
This is rather off-topic, though... Shall we call it a day on this analysis of a throw-away comment?