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A pun (also known as '''paronomasia''') is a Figure Of Speech , or Word Play which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar Word s within a phrase or Phrase s for Rhetoric al effect, whether humorous or serious. A pun can rely on the assumed equivalency of multiple similar words ( Homonym y), of different shades of meaning of one word ( Polysemy ), or of a literal meaning with a Metaphor . Walter Redfern (in ''Puns'', Blackwell, London, s as Synonym s." For example, a pun is used in the sentence "There is nothing punny about bad puns." The pun takes place in the deliberate confusion of the implied word "funny" by the substitution of the word "punny", a Heterophone of "funny". A pun using Heterophones , words with similar but inexact sounds, is called an imperfect pun. When a character or person does this unintentionally it is called a Malapropism . An example of this is saying "the world is perspiring against me," as opposed to "the world is conspiring against me." Bad puns are sometimes called " Cheesy ". In order to be able to pun effectively it is necessary that a Language must include homonyms which may readily be misrepresented as synonyms. Languages with complex gender or case structures tend not to facilitate this, although puns can be constructed in all languages with varying degrees of difficulty; that is, puns are said to be easy to construct in languages such as Chinese or English, but rarer in Russian. ETYMOLOGY The word ''pun'' itself is thought to be originally a contraction of the (now archaic) ''pundigrion''. This latter term is thought to have originated from ''punctilious'', which itself derived from the Italian ''puntiglio'' (originally meaning "a fine point"), diminutive of ''punto'', "point", from the Latin ''punctus'', past participle of ''pungere'', "to prick." These etymological sources are reported in the '' Oxford English Dictionary '', which labels them "conjecture." (There is no creditable documentation for the notion that the word is a Backronym for "play upon names"Revision as of 01:09, 28 January 2007 by 200.44.6.188 (Talk).) Perhaps the oldest puns are those used by the culture of the Hebrews and Jews, some found in the Bible and some still in modern use as insults or to ridicule to those seen as enemy to the tribe or religion. For example see Yeshu . Puns on the names of pharaohs of Egypt such as during the reign of Solomon, have been shown to provide dates of pharaoh reign or a time line to the stories. TYPOLOGY Puns can be subdivided into several varieties:
Homographic puns are sometimes compared to the Stylistic Device Antanaclasis ; Homophonic puns, to Polyptoton ; but they are not identical. The compound pun is one in which multiple puns are colocated for additional and amplified effect. Examples of this are the following: :Cornell linguist Charles Hockett told a story of a man who bought a cattle ranch for his sons and named it the "Focus Ranch" because it was where the sons raise meat (sun's rays meet). :A sign in a golf-cart shop reads "When drinking, don't drive. Don't even putt." (The puns are on "driving" and "putting" a golf ball, vs. "driving" a car or "putting" around in a golf cart.) :The last exchange of a Knock Knock Joke runs: Q: "Eskimo Christians Italian who?" A: "Eskimo Christians Italian no lies." (The pun, involving an indeterminate number of sub-puns, is on the phrase "Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies".) Extended puns occur when multiple puns referring to one general idea are used throughout a longer utterance. An example of this is the following story about a fight, with extended puns about cookery: :A fight broke out in a kitchen. ''Egged'' on by the waiters, two cooks ''peppered'' each other with punches. One man, a ''greasy'' foie gras specialist, ''ducked'' the first blows, but his ''goose was cooked'' when the other ''cold-cocked'' him. The man who ''beet'' him, a ''weedy'' salad expert with big ''cauliflower ears'', tried to flee the scene, but was ''corn''ered in the ''maize'' of tables by a ''husky'' off-duty ''cob''. He was charged with ''a salt'' and ''batter''y. He claims to look forward to the suit, as he's always wanted to be a ''sous-chef.'' Or this one about various lower life forms: :I ''moss'' say I'm taking a ''lichen'' to that ''fun-gi'', even though his jokes are in ''spore'' taste. ''Algae'' the first to say that they ''mushroom'' out of control. USAGE Humor is the most common intent of puns in recent times. It is a form particularly admired in Britain, and forms a core element of the British cult comedy show I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue and in times past My Word . The late Richard Whiteley was famed for his dextrous use of puns as host of the UK words and numbers game show '' Countdown ''. While generally eschewed in more formal settings, puns of greater or lesser subtlety are employed to good effect by many popular artists and writers. For example, names based on puns (such as calling a character who is always almost late ''Justin Thyme'') can be found in Piers Anthony 's Xanth novels, '' The Eyre Affair '', '' Asterix '', Hamlet , '' The Simpsons '', the Carmen Sandiego Computer Game s, and many works of Spider Robinson , including the '' Callahan's Crosstime Saloon '' series. This is known as a Gag Name . In music, puns often find their way into Hip Hop/rap Music as Clever delivery of Punchline s. For example, those who Diss Rapper 50 Cent often use a play of words on his Stage Name . Chino XL is often regarded as an expert when it comes to delivering such puns, often in an Aphoristic manner: ". . . My dreams--I still leave none (nun) dead like Mother Theresa / Trekked to be a star (Star Trek), show no emotion like data. . . " Literary puns In addition to works of popular culture, puns are also found in serious literature. See Alexander Pope , James Joyce , Vladimir Nabokov , Robert Bloch , and others discussed under Word Play . In the past, the serious pun was an important and standard rhetorical or poetic device, as in Shakespeare 's '' Richard III '': "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York" (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."Samuel Johnson, ''Preface to Shakespeare''.) John Donne is another who used serious puns in his work. For instance, he puns repeatedly on his own name (which is pronounced "Dun") in his poem "A Hymn to God the Father." Twice after imploring God to forgive certain kinds of sins and weaknesses, he ends a stanza by saying ::"When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done/ Additionally, John Donne was married to Anne More: :::"For I have more." One interpretation could be that Donne is saying, "God, when you have forgiven me this much, you are not done (finished)/you do not have John Donne (safe yet), for I have more sins to confess." In the third stanza, having received assurance, counteracting his fears, :"that at my death Thy Son ::"Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore" (another ''Son/sun'' pun), he ends the poem ::"And having done that, Thou hast done; :::I fear no more." A Biblical pun of serious intent is found in ''Matthew'' 16.18: "Thou art Peter" European Heraldry contains the technique of Canting Arms , that can be considered punning. Visual Pun s, in which the image is at odds with the inscription, are also common in Dutch Gable Stone s as well as in Cartoon s such as ''Lost Consonants'' or '' The Far Side ''. Official puns Official puns are rare, but there are a few, some of them intentional:
Formats for punning There are numerous pun formats:
Science The term ''punning'' is sometimes used to describe either unintentional muddled thinking or intentional deception where the same word (such as a homographic pun) is used with two subtly different meanings. For example, in statistics the word ''significant'' is usually assumed to be a shortened form of " Statistically Significant ", with the associated precisely defined meaning. It is punning to use ''significant'' with the meaning "of practical significance" in contexts where "statistically significant" would be plausible interpretation. Computer science See Also: Type punning A programming technique that subverts or circumvents the Type System of a Programming Language in order to achieve an effect that would be difficult or impossible to achieve within the bounds of the formal language is commonly known as "type punning" in Computer Science . QUOTATIONS
Captain Aubrey: "Do you see those two weevils, Doctor?...Which would you choose?" Dr. Maturin: "Neither. There's no difference between them. They're the same species of curculio." Captain Aubrey: "If you had to choose." Dr. Maturin: "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 the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils?" Dr. Maturin: "He who would pun would pick a pocket." SEE ALSO
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