"Nicola McLelland, German linguistics professor at the UK’s University of Nottingham, believes that the way different languages are constructed can affect the way various cultures deliver and perceive jokes.
"It’s harder to pun in German when the grammar makes things so much less ambiguous
"She explained that humour commonly uses ambiguity in word interpretation and sentence construction to create alternative meanings, which can add comical elements to a situation. For exampl...e, the phrase ‘we saw her duck’ has a dual meaning: either that we saw a duck that belonged to her, or we saw her in the act of ducking away from harm.
"It’s harder to pun in German when the grammar makes things so much less ambiguous
"She explained that humour commonly uses ambiguity in word interpretation and sentence construction to create alternative meanings, which can add comical elements to a situation. For exampl...e, the phrase ‘we saw her duck’ has a dual meaning: either that we saw a duck that belonged to her, or we saw her in the act of ducking away from harm.
"However, German’s language construct can be very different. Nouns can have three different genders and four different cases. Verbs also have a lot of different forms. The exact meaning of a sentence relies on the correct use of gender and case pertained to the eventual meaning, affecting how humour can be delivered. Basically, it’s harder to pun in German when the grammar makes things so much less ambiguous.
"But what the German language does have, however, is the ability to create compounds.
"German is one of the few languages where the use of compound words – words made up of multiple individual words, such as schadenfreude, which puts together schaden (harm) and freude (pleasure) – is common. Compound words often can’t be directly translated into other languages, so jokes made with compound words simply won’t be funny to non-German speakers.
"Professor McLelland explained this to me with an example:
"Jokes made with compound words simply won’t be funny to non-German speakers
"“Why can’t you pick up your watch if you’ve dropped it? Because no Urheberrecht.”
"She explained that Urheberrecht means ‘copyright’, but is also a compound word with a literal meaning of ‘watch-pickup-right’.
"See how this joke just doesn’t work in English? In fact, this ability of the German language to be extremely concise perhaps explains why even a good German speaker of English might sound a bit overly precise in English – which can add to the impression that Germans are more earnest than funny."
Ver mais"But what the German language does have, however, is the ability to create compounds.
"German is one of the few languages where the use of compound words – words made up of multiple individual words, such as schadenfreude, which puts together schaden (harm) and freude (pleasure) – is common. Compound words often can’t be directly translated into other languages, so jokes made with compound words simply won’t be funny to non-German speakers.
"Professor McLelland explained this to me with an example:
"Jokes made with compound words simply won’t be funny to non-German speakers
"“Why can’t you pick up your watch if you’ve dropped it? Because no Urheberrecht.”
"She explained that Urheberrecht means ‘copyright’, but is also a compound word with a literal meaning of ‘watch-pickup-right’.
"See how this joke just doesn’t work in English? In fact, this ability of the German language to be extremely concise perhaps explains why even a good German speaker of English might sound a bit overly precise in English – which can add to the impression that Germans are more earnest than funny."
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