El humor en la comunicación cotidiana o cómo defendernos de la adversidad

aristóteles claimed that man is the only animal that laughes. if we relate that to chomskyan statements about language, we can add that the human being has at least two traits which are inherent to our species: language and humor. words, phrases, sayings, paired turns, comparisons, ambiguities, and many other syntactic or rhetoric figures serve, for the ordinary speaker, to mitigate differences and facilitate communication with others. so, the presence of humor in discourse acts as a pragmatic strategy that mitigates the inevitable impact of some aspects of reality, while it generates a possibility for reflection upon it. the humoristic verbal device can, therefore, become a tool that enhances the speaker-hearer？s opportunities to develop communicative competence regardless the place, situation or register with which they deal. within this referential framework, and as an additional resource that contributes to the knowledge of our national language, i describe some communicative strategies that incorporate venezuelan humor devices within everyday linguistic communication. once some theoretical premises about humor as communicative device have been narrowed down, i will approach the description, categorization and discussion of a sample of humoristic expressions of current venezuelan spanish. the data have been complied randomly from different sources, during two years (2005-2007).