The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else
ANGLOPHONE NOVELISTS describing amusement are laughing all the way to the bank. Depending on context, characters can chortle, chuckle, titter, hoot, giggle, snigger, howl or guffaw. This richness of language may suggest to some that laughter, itself, is a phenomenon of infinite variety, one that lends itself to endless subcategorisation. The joke would be on them.
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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Laughing matters”
From the November 23rd 2024 edition
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