Procesos lingüísticos inferenciales del fenómeno humorístico en la población infantil

Abstract

Humour has a triple nature, psychological, neurological and linguistic. This requires a globalizing approach that, based in a transversal point of view, conceptualizes it as an emotion (psychological), which produces a (neurophysiological) reaction of joy similar to happiness and increased by incongruence produced by the unusual; which, normally, we develop in a (social) environment; and which we produce, mainly, thanks to linguistic resources. These psychological, neurological and linguistic mechanisms allow us, onomasiologically, to carry out the linguistic production required to obtain humour in the receiver; and, semi asmologically, to activate some physiological mechanisms that make possible the humorous interpretation of the stimulus and, consequently, the cognitive understanding of the humorous sequence. In both approaches, the emotional and social character of humour enables the establishment of a series of expectations that are associated with humour processing in both the productive and understanding aspects.
In this article we intend to tackle, from this transversal point of view, those inferential processes appeared after humor comprehension, based in results obtained in Project "Metapragmatics of children's humour: acquisition, gender perspective and applications", in order to know if children's humour is different between boys and girls, the degree of incongruence understanding as an indicator element of humour perception, and if figurativeness process (irony, metaphor, hyperbole) is an indicator element of humour evolution in boys and girls aged between 8 and 12.