• BillyClark@piefed.social
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    4 hours ago

    I’ve done a little bit of language studying and one thing I heard about repeatedly is that people tend to mistakenly believe in their own exceptionalism.

    Like, their own native language has idioms, and they just assumed that other languages didn’t have idioms.

    But we are all humans and languages are all going to exist in support of human communication. Therefore, you should assume that all languages have all major features of expression, including idioms and sarcasm.

    Similarly, cultures are made from humans and to facilitate human interaction, so you should expect that things like sarcasm will exist in every culture.

    • ZiggyTheZygote@lemmy.caOP
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      3 hours ago

      So sarcasm would exist but not the way we understand it, does it mean that sarcasm is an intrinsic part of human nature?

      • dariusj18@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        A basic building block to humor is a subversion of expectations. Sarcasm is just stating things as the opposite of the intended meaning. Sarcasm is, in essence, the base level that most humor is built upon, and because of that is looked down on because it is “easy mode.”