Re: CHAT: various infotaining natlang tidbits

Nik Taylor wrote:

>Kristian Jensen wrote:
>> There's that stereotyping thing again ruining the intended humour.
>> All stereotyping aside, you have to admit that homophony of grass
>> and hair in TokPisin is funny.
>
>Not homophony at all, polysemy.
What's the difference?

> Besides, it's not really all that
>funny, IMO, no funnier than our usage of the same word for a flying
>mammal and for a piece of equipment used in Baseball.  Besides, at least
>grass and hair have a resemblance, the two kinds of bats look nothing
>alike!  :-)
That's the catch! The resemblance is what's funny. The same cannot be
said for "bat". No resemblance, no funny. Get it? Aaaaaaaargh..... I
give up! Its sooo frustrating when people don't have the same sense
of humour as one does. I feel like I'm on stage as a comedian in front
of a bunch of overly serious nerds who have to dissect everything
mentioned: "I don't get! That's not funny, that's normal! Everyone
does that! I do that! WE ALL DO THAT! etc. etc. etc."

-kristian- 8Þ