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62-397: A pun is a figure of speech that plays on words that are similar to each other. Pun , PUN or PuN may also refer to: Pun A pun , also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics , is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from

124-401: A Möbius strip club!" puns on the terms Möbius strip and strip club . A recursive pun is one in which the second aspect of a pun relies on the understanding of an element in the first. For example, the statement " π is only half a pie" (π radians is 180 degrees , or half a circle, and a pie is a complete circle). Another example is " Infinity is not in finity", which means infinity

186-404: A different form, in a related context. A crude example of such a rule is the pastoral idea of "verbizing one's nouns": that certain nouns, used in certain contexts, can be converted into a verb, conveying a related meaning. Another clarification of polysemy is the idea of predicate transfer —the reassignment of a property to an object that would not otherwise inherently have that property. Thus,

248-540: A grave man" in Romeo and Juliet . Shakespeare was also noted for his frequent play with less serious puns, the "quibbles" of the sort that made Samuel Johnson complain, "A quibble is to Shakespeare what luminous vapours are to the traveller! He follows it to all adventures; it is sure to lead him out of his way, sure to engulf him in the mire. It has some malignant power over his mind, and its fascinations are irresistible." Elsewhere, Johnson disparagingly referred to punning as

310-447: A moving company: "We don't charge an arm and a leg. We want your tows." Here, the familiar phrase "an arm and a leg" is paronomastically punned upon with "tows," playing on the phonetic similarity to "toes" while referring to the company's service of towing belongings. Metonymic puns exploit the metonymic relationship between words – where a word or phrase is used to represent something it's closely associated with. In such puns, one term

372-608: A new tolerance for a long-despised form of humor." It can be argued that paronomasia is common in media headlines, to draw the reader's interest. The rhetoric is important because it connects people with the topic. A notable example is the New York Post headline "Headless Body in Topless Bar". New York Post headlines for sex scandal articles have included "Cloak and Shag Her" (General Petraeus), "Obama Beats Weiner" (Congressman Weiner), and " Bezos Exposes Pecker ". Paronomasia

434-524: A particular language or its culture . Puns have a long history in writing. For example, the Roman playwright Plautus was famous for his puns and word games. A homophonic pun is one that uses word pairs which sound alike ( homophones ) but are not synonymous. Walter Redfern summarized this type with his statement, "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms ." For example, in George Carlin 's phrase "atheism

496-562: A polysemous word into separate homonyms. For example, check as in "bank check" (or Cheque ), check in chess, and check meaning "verification" are considered homonyms, while they originated as a single word derived from chess in the 14th century. Psycholinguistic experiments have shown that homonyms and polysemes are represented differently within people's mental lexicon : while the different meanings of homonyms (which are semantically unrelated) tend to interfere or compete with each other during comprehension, this does not usually occur for

558-408: A pre-existing meaning but as 'positioning subjects' within a process of semiosis —changes the whole basis of creating social meaning". Charles Fillmore and Beryl Atkins' definition stipulates three elements: (i) the various senses of a polysemous word have a central origin, (ii) the links between these senses form a network, and (iii) understanding the 'inner' one contributes to understanding of

620-462: A pun can make the speaker seem witty. Paronomasia is strong in print media and oral conversation so it can be assumed that paronomasia is strong in broadcast media as well. Examples of paronomasia in media are sound bites. They could be memorable because of the humor and rhetoric associated with paronomasia, thus making the significance of the soundbite stronger. There exist subtle differences between paronomasia and other literary techniques, such as

682-486: A pun may be based on a similarity in shape of the written character, despite a complete lack of phonetic similarity in the words punned upon. Mark Elvin describes how this "peculiarly Chinese form of visual punning involved comparing written characters to objects." Visual puns on the bearer's name are used extensively as forms of heraldic expression, they are called canting arms . They have been used for centuries across Europe and have even been used recently by members of

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744-447: A scrap of difference between them. They're the same species of Curculio ." Captain Aubrey: "If you had to choose. If you were forced to make a choice. If there were no other option." Dr. Maturin: "Well, then, if you're going to push me. I would choose the right-hand weevil. It has significant advantage in both length and breadth." Captain Aubrey: "There, I have you!...Do you not know that in

806-417: A title can immediately communicate both that what follows is a parody and also that work is about to be parodied, making any further "setup" (introductory explanation) unnecessary. Sometimes called "books never written" or "world's greatest books", these are jokes that consist of fictitious book titles with authors' names that contain a pun relating to the title. Perhaps the best-known example is: " Tragedy on

868-542: A tree-surgeon in Dudley called " Special Branch ". The winning entry, selected by Lee Nelson , was a dry cleaner's in Fulham and Chelsea called "Starchy and Starchy", a pun on Saatchi & Saatchi . Paronomasia has found a strong foothold in the media. William Safire of The New York Times suggests that "the root of this pace-growing [use of paronomasia] is often a headline-writer's need for quick catchiness, and has resulted in

930-399: A word. For instance, in the sentence, "I used to be a baker, but I couldn't make enough dough," the word "dough" is used paronomastically to refer both to the substance used to make bread and to slang for money. This type of pun is frequently used in advertisements , comedy , and literature to provide a clever and memorable message. One notable example comes from an advertising slogan for

992-585: Is a non-prophet institution", the word prophet is put in place of its homophone profit , altering the common phrase " non-profit institution ". Similarly, the joke "Question: Why do we still have troops in Germany ? Answer: To keep the Russians in Czech " relies on the aural ambiguity of the homophones check and Czech . Often, puns are not strictly homophonic, but play on words of similar, not identical, sound as in

1054-536: Is a statement that contains two or more puns. In this case, the wordplay cannot go into effect by utilizing the separate words or phrases of the puns that make up the entire statement. For example, a complex statement by Richard Whately includes four puns: "Why can a man never starve in the Great Desert ? Because he can eat the sand which is there. But what brought the sandwiches there? Why, Noah sent Ham, and his descendants mustered and bred." This pun uses sand which

1116-409: Is also an example of a multilingual pun, full understanding of which requires knowledge of more than one language on the part of the listener. Names of fictional characters also often carry puns, such as Ash Ketchum , the protagonist of the anime series Pokémon , and Goku ("Kakarrot"), the protagonist of the manga series Dragon Ball . Both franchises are known for including second meanings in

1178-462: Is helpful in determining polysemy but not the only solution; as words become lost in etymology, what once was a useful distinction of meaning may no longer be so. Some seemingly unrelated words share a common historical origin, however, so etymology is not an infallible test for polysemy, and dictionary writers also often defer to speakers' intuitions to judge polysemy in cases where it contradicts etymology. English has many polysemous words. For example,

1240-781: Is not in finite range. Another example is "a Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother ". The recursive pun "Immanuel doesn't pun, he Kant " is attributed to Oscar Wilde . Visual puns are sometimes used in logos, emblems, insignia, and other graphic symbols, in which one or more of the pun aspects is replaced by a picture. In European heraldry , this technique is called canting arms . Visual and other puns and word games are also common in Dutch gable stones as well as in some cartoons , such as Lost Consonants and The Far Side . Another type of visual pun exists in languages that use non-phonetic writing. For example, in Chinese,

1302-489: Is often necessary to look at the history of the word to see whether the two meanings are historically related. Dictionary writers often list polysemes (words or phrases with different, but related, senses) in the same entry (that is, under the same headword ) and enter homonyms as separate headwords (usually with a numbering convention such as ¹bear and ²bear ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary ,

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1364-463: Is parsed as dis-tressed (having hair cut off), or in the self-referential pun "I entered ten puns in a pun competition hoping one would win, but no pun in ten did" (parsed as "no pun intended"). Puns are a common source of humour in jokes and comedy shows . They are often used in the punch line of a joke, where they typically give a humorous meaning to a rather perplexing story. These are also known as feghoots . The following example comes from

1426-481: Is prevalent orally as well. Salvatore Attardo believes that puns are verbal humor. He talks about Pepicello and Weisberg's linguistic theory of humor and believes the only form of linguistic humor is limited to puns. This is because a pun is a play on the word itself. Attardo believes that only puns are able to maintain humor and this humor has significance. It is able to help soften a situation and make it less serious, it can help make something more memorable, and using

1488-599: Is repeated with the meaning "be executed." This punning style is prevalent in both humorous and serious contexts, adding layers of complexity to the language by highlighting the multifaceted nature of words. Such puns are frequently used in literature, speeches, and advertising to deliver memorable and impactful lines. Richard J. Alexander notes two additional forms that puns may take: graphological (sometimes called visual) puns, such as concrete poetry ; and morphological puns, such as portmanteaux . Morphological puns may make use of rebracketing , where for instance distressed

1550-445: Is substituted for another term with which it's closely linked by a concept or idea. The humor or wit of the pun often comes from the unexpected yet apt connection made between the two concepts. For instance, consider a hypothetical news headline: "The White House loses its balance." In this case, "The White House" is used metonymically to represent the U.S. government , and "balance" could be interpreted both as physical stability (as if

1612-404: Is the formal term for punning , playing with words to create humorous or rhetorical effect. Paronomastic puns often manipulate well-known idioms , proverbs , or phrases to deliver a punned twist. The classic structure of a joke, with a setup leading to a punchline, is a common format for paronomastic puns, where the punchline alters the expected phrase in a way that plays on multiple meanings of

1674-464: Is there/sandwiches there , Ham /ham , mustered/mustard , and bred/bread . Similarly, the phrase "piano is not my forte" links two meanings of the words forte and piano , one for the dynamic markings in music and the second for the literal meaning of the sentence, as well as alluding to "pianoforte", the older name of the instrument. Compound puns may also combine two phrases that share a word. For example, "Where do mathematicians go on weekends? To

1736-465: The British royal family , such as on the arms of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and of Princess Beatrice of York . The arms of U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower are also canting . In the context of non-phonetic texts, 4 Pics 1 Word , is an example of visual paronomasia where the players are supposed to identify the word in common from the set of four images. Paronomasia

1798-704: The O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships in Austin, Texas . In 2015 the UK Pun Champion was Leo Kearse. Other pun competitions include Minnesota’s Pundamonium, Orlando Punslingers, the Almost Annual Pun-Off in Eureka, and Brooklyn’s Punderdome, led by Jo Firestone and her father, Fred Firestone. In Away with Words: An Irreverent Tour Through the World of Pun Competitions, Joe Berkowitz deems Austin's O. Henry Pun-Off

1860-506: The double entendre . While puns are often simple wordplay for comedic or rhetorical effect, a double entendre alludes to a second meaning that is not contained within the statement or phrase itself, often one that purposefully disguises the second meaning. As both exploit the use of intentional double meanings, puns can sometimes be double entendres, and vice versa. Puns also bear similarities with paraprosdokian , syllepsis , and eggcorns . In addition, homographic puns are sometimes compared to

1922-455: The stylistic device antanaclasis , and homophonic puns to polyptoton . Puns can be used as a type of mnemonic device to enhance comprehension in an educational setting. Used discreetly, puns can effectively reinforce content and aid in the retention of material. Some linguists have encouraged the creation of neologisms to decrease the instances of confusion caused by puns. Puns were found in ancient Egypt , where they were heavily used in

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1984-528: The "Olympics" of pun competitions, and Brooklyn's Punderdome the "X Games". GQ described the crowd at Brooklyn's Punderdome as "passionate, to a level that feels dangerous". Non-humorous puns were and are a standard poetic device in English literature . Puns and other forms of wordplay have been used by many famous writers, such as Alexander Pope , James Joyce , Vladimir Nabokov , Robert Bloch , Lewis Carroll , John Donne , and William Shakespeare . In

2046-403: The 'outer' one. One group of polysemes are those in which a word meaning an activity, perhaps derived from a verb, acquires the meanings of those engaged in the activity, or perhaps the results of the activity, or the time or place in which the activity occurs or has occurred. Sometimes only one of those meanings is intended, depending on context , and sometimes multiple meanings are intended at

2108-517: The Cliff by Eileen Dover", which according to one source was devised by humourist Peter De Vries . It is common for these puns to refer to taboo subject matter, such as " What Boys Love by E. Norma Stitts". Pun competitions 2014 saw the inaugural UK Pun Championships, at the Leicester Comedy Festival , hosted by Lee Nelson . The winner was Darren Walsh. Walsh went on to take part in

2170-622: The Grapes wine and spirits, Curl Up and Dye hair salon, as do books such as Pies and Prejudice , webcomics like ( YU+ME: dream ) and feature films such as ( Good Will Hunting ). The Japanese anime Speed Racer 's original Japanese title, Mach GoGoGo! refers to the English word itself, the Japanese word for five (the Mach Five 's car number), and the name of the show's main character, Go Mifune. This

2232-500: The Service , one must always choose the lesser of the two weevils. " Not infrequently, puns are used in the titles of comedic parodies . A parody of a popular song, movie, etc., may be given a title that hints at the title of the work being parodied, replacing some of the words with ones that sound or look similar. For example, collegiate a cappella groups are often named after musical puns to attract fans through attempts at humor. Such

2294-469: The audience's background with the possibility of detracting from the intended message. Like other forms of wordplay, paronomasia is occasionally used for its attention-getting or mnemonic qualities, making it common in titles and the names of places, characters, and organizations, and in advertising and slogans. Many restaurant and shop names use puns: Cane & Able mobility healthcare, Sam & Ella 's Chicken Palace, Tiecoon tie shop, Planet of

2356-426: The building itself is tipping over) or fiscal balance (as in the budget), thereby creating a pun. While metonymic puns may not be as widely recognized as a specific category of pun, they represent a sophisticated linguistic tool that can bring an additional layer of nuance to wordplay. Syllepsis , or heteronymy, is a form of punning where a single word simultaneously affects the rest of the sentence, while it changes

2418-421: The children.) Notable practitioners of the sylleptic pun include authors such as P. G. Wodehouse , who once wrote, "If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled," playing on the dichotomy of "disgruntled" and "gruntled," where the latter is not typically used. Antanaclasis is a type of pun where a single word or phrase is repeated, but the meaning changes each time. The humor or wit derives from

2480-505: The development of myths and interpretation of dreams. In China , Shen Dao (ca. 300 BC) used "shi", meaning "power", and "shi", meaning "position" to say that a king has power because of his position as king. In ancient Mesopotamia around 2500 BC, punning was used by scribes to represent words in cuneiform . The Tanakh contains puns. The Maya are known for having used puns in their hieroglyphic writing , and for using them in their modern languages. In Japan, " graphomania "

2542-644: The example from the Pinky and the Brain cartoon film series: "I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the lima beans feel left out?" which plays with the similar—but not identical—sound of peas and peace in the anti-war slogan " Give Peace a Chance ". A homographic pun exploits words that are spelled the same ( homographs ) but possess different meanings and sounds. Because of their origin, they rely on sight more than hearing, contrary to homophonic puns. They are also known as heteronymic puns . Examples in which

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2604-430: The exploitation of words that are both homographs and homophones. The statement "Being in politics is just like playing golf : you are trapped in one bad lie after another" puns on the two meanings of the word lie as "a deliberate untruth" and as "the position in which something rests". An adaptation of a joke repeated by Isaac Asimov gives us "Did you hear about the little moron who strained himself while running into

2666-456: The expression " I am parked out back " conveys the meaning of "parked" from "car" to the property of "I possess a car". This avoids incorrect polysemous interpretations of "parked": that "people can be parked", or that "I am pretending to be a car", or that "I am something that can be parked". This is supported by the morphology : " We are parked out back " does not mean that there are multiple cars; rather, that there are multiple passengers (having

2728-432: The highest form of literature." Shakespeare is estimated to have used over 3,000 puns in his plays . Even though many of the puns were bawdy, Elizabethan literature considered puns and wordplay to be a "sign of literary refinement" more so than humor. This is evidenced by the deployment of puns in serious or "seemingly inappropriate" scenes, like when a dying Mercutio quips "Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me

2790-439: The homophonic qualities of tune a and tuna , as well as the homographic pun on bass , in which ambiguity is reached through the identical spellings of / b eɪ s / (a string instrument ), and / b æ s / (a kind of fish ). Homographic puns do not necessarily need to follow grammatical rules and often do not make sense when interpreted outside the context of the pun. Homonymic puns, another common type, arise from

2852-420: The intentional use of homophonic , homographic , metonymic , or figurative language . A pun differs from a malapropism in that a malapropism is an incorrect variation on a correct expression, while a pun involves expressions with multiple (correct or fairly reasonable) interpretations. Puns may be regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, especially as their usage and meaning are usually specific to

2914-436: The lowest form of humour. Puns can function as a rhetorical device , where the pun serves as a persuasive instrument for an author or speaker. Although puns are sometimes perceived as trite or silly, if used responsibly a pun "can be an effective communication tool in a variety of situations and forms". A major difficulty in using puns in this manner is that the meaning of a pun can be interpreted very differently according to

2976-581: The meaning of the idiom it is used in. This form of punning uses the word in its literal and metaphorical senses at once, creating a surprising and often humorous effect. An example of a sylleptic pun is in the sentence, "She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes and his hopes." In this case, "raising" applies in different ways to each of the items listed, creating a series of linked puns. This type of punning can often be seen in literature, particularly in works that play extensively with language. (She razed his self-esteem in how she raised

3038-470: The movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World , though the punchline stems from far older Vaudeville roots. The final line puns on the stock phrase " the lesser of two evils ". After Aubrey offers his pun (to the enjoyment of many), Dr. Maturin shows a disdain for the craft with his reply, "One who would pun would pick-a-pocket." Captain Aubrey: "Do you see those two weevils , Doctor?...Which would you choose?" Dr. Maturin: "Neither. There's not

3100-496: The names of characters. A recurring motif in the Austin Powers films repeatedly puns on names that suggest male genitalia. In the science fiction television series Star Trek , " B-4 " is used as the name of one of four androids models constructed "before" the android Data , a main character. A librarian in another Star Trek episode was named "Mr. Atoz" (A to Z). The parallel sequel The Lion King 1½ advertised with

3162-411: The original sense of a word is used figuratively to provide a different way of looking at the new subject. Alan Cruse identifies three types of non-linear polysemy: There are several tests for polysemy, but one of them is zeugma : if one word seems to exhibit zeugma when applied in different contexts , it is probable that the contexts bring out different polysemes of the same word. If the two senses of

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3224-557: The phrase "You haven't seen the 1/2 of it!". Wyborowa Vodka employed the slogan "Enjoyed for centuries straight", while Northern Telecom used "Technology the world calls on." On 1 June 2015 the BBC Radio 4 You and Yours included a feature on "Puntastic Shop Titles". Entries included a Chinese Takeaway in Ayr town centre called " Ayr's Wok ", a kebab shop in Ireland called " Abra Kebabra " and

3286-649: The poem A Hymn to God the Father , John Donne , whose wife's name was Anne More, puns repeatedly: "Son/sun" in the second quoted line, and two compound puns on "Done/done" and "More/more". All three are homophonic, with the puns on "more" being both homographic and capitonymic . The ambiguities introduce several possible meanings into the verses. "When Thou hast done , Thou hast not done / For I have more . that at my death Thy Son / Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore And having done that, Thou hast done ; / I fear no more ." Alfred Hitchcock stated, "Puns are

3348-419: The polysemes that have semantically related meanings. Results for this contention, however, have been mixed. For Dick Hebdige , polysemy means that, "each text is seen to generate a potentially infinite range of meanings," making, according to Richard Middleton , "any homology, out of the most heterogeneous materials, possible. The idea of signifying practice —texts not as communicating or expressing

3410-450: The punned words typically exist in two different parts of speech often rely on unusual sentence construction, as in the anecdote: "When asked to explain his large number of children, the pig answered simply: 'The wild oats of my sow gave us many piglets. ' " An example that combines homophonic and homographic punning is Douglas Adams 's line "You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass ." The phrase uses

3472-415: The same time. Other types are derivations from one of the other meanings that leads to a verb or activity. This example shows the specific polysemy where the same word is used at different levels of a taxonomy . A lexical conception of polysemy was developed by B. T. S. Atkins , in the form of lexical implication rules. These are rules that describe how words, in one lexical context, can then be used, in

3534-493: The same word do not seem to fit, yet seem related, then it is probable that they are polysemous. This test again depends on speakers' judgments about relatedness, which means that it is not infallible, but merely a helpful conceptual aid. The difference between homonyms and polysemes is subtle. Lexicographers define polysemes within a single dictionary lemma , while homonyms are treated in separate entries, numbering different meanings (or lemmata). Semantic shift can separate

3596-413: The screen door?" playing on strained as "to give much effort" and "to filter". A homonymic pun may also be polysemic , in which the words must be homonymic and also possess related meanings, a condition that is often subjective. However, lexicographers define polysemes as listed under a single dictionary lemma (a unique numbered meaning) while homonyms are treated in separate lemmata. A compound pun

3658-466: The surprising shift in meaning of a familiar word or phrase. This form of punning often relies on homophones, homonyms, or simply the contextual flexibility of a word or phrase. A classic example is Benjamin Franklin 's statement, "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." In this quote, the word "hang" is first used to mean "stay" or "work together," but then, it

3720-409: The three most polysemous words in English are run , put , and set , in that order. A polyseme is a word or phrase with different, but related, senses . Since the test for polysemy is the vague concept of the relatedness, judgments of polysemy can be difficult to make. Because applying pre-existing words to new situations is a natural process of language change, looking at words' etymology

3782-418: The verb "to get " can mean "procure" ( I'll get the drinks ), "become" ( she got scared ), "understand" ( I get it ) etc. In linear or vertical polysemy, one sense of a word is a subset of the other. These are examples of hyponymy and hypernymy , and are sometimes called autohyponyms. For example, 'dog' can be used for 'male dog'. Alan Cruse identifies four types of linear polysemy: In non-linear polysemy,

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3844-424: Was one type of pun. More commonly, wordplay in modern Japan is known as dajare . Polysemic Polysemy is distinct from homonymy —or homophony —which is an accidental similarity between two or more words (such as bear the animal, and the verb bear ); whereas homonymy is a mere linguistic coincidence, polysemy is not. In discerning whether a given set of meanings represent polysemy or homonymy, it

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