Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1Research Background
Pun is a general linguistic phenomenon in all languages that can be regarded aspeople’s general disposition and inclination to dispense with mentioning somethingthat is unspeakable or aggressive. People usually use puns to enliven the atmosphere ofenvironment, thus making human beings’ relationship increasingly harmonious. As aspecial kind of expression, puns have been used in many places and on a host ofoccasions. Many linguists maintain that people deliver useful information and conveytheir own thoughts and ideas by using languages. Meanwhile, the thoughts and ideaswill, more often than not, exert an influence on linguistic choices of the language users,and even on the understanding or value of the world of language users. All of them willinfluence or even determine both what will be said and how it can be said. Moreobviously, that influence is unconscious and even implicit. Pun, generally speaking,can be a kind of adaptation to the language user’s feelings or emotions.As the production and use of puns are closely related to such factors as society,region, culture, race, psychology, religion and so on, an all-encompassing study onpuns should not be done just within the framework of the conventional linguistictheories. By contrast, this issue should be addressed in the theoretical framework ofVerschueren’s Adaptation Theory, which will prove, and has proved, to be useful ininterpreting puns.
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1.2Aim and Significance of the Study
Pun is a figure of speech widely used in both English and Chinese. During theemployment of puns, some features in sound, form or meaning of a word, phrase orsentence are deliberately exploited to produce aesthetic sense, for they can produceparticular and remarkable rhetorical and pragmatic effects.With ever-accelerated exchanges between China and Western countries, it is ofgreater significance to understand puns retaining aesthetic sense and the effectsinvolved in them, thus exerting profound influences on target language readers’comprehension. Since English and Chinese are believed to belong to two variouslanguage families, possessing distinct pronunciations and writing systems and carryingwith them pergent cultures, it is, sometimes, difficult for readers to find in the targetlanguage an equivalent of the original pun with the three aspects–its sound, form andmeaning. All those are tremendous stumbling blocks to pun understanding andappreciation. In practice, the rhetorical effects and aesthetic beauty contained in theoriginal pun are totally lost, even if it is narrowly converted into the target language.In order to demonstrate the essence and nature of the employment andexploitation of puns, the present study would be able to offer a practical perspectiveand theoretical angle for getting a more profound understanding of puns. Verschueren’sAdaptation
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Origins of Puns
It is now known that the origin of the term “pun” can be traced back to the word“paranomazein” in Latin. “Paranomazein” means “calling by a different name” (BaiYufeng, 2011:63), and it is also termed as “paronomasia”.Puns in English have undergone a very long history. Puns can be traced back to asearly two thousand years ago. Aristotle said that the employment of puns could beaccepted in particular styles in his renewed literary work Rhetoric. Some researchersestimate that William Shakespeare exploited more than three thousand puns in hisliterary works such as eight famous dramas. During the times of William Shakespeare,pun employment was thought to be a superior and aesthetic language form, and couldbe utilized in very serious literary topics. Later, such famous writers as Bernard Shaw,Byron, Dickens, Mark Twain all made full use of puns in their literary works. But withthe development of puns, it was not regarded as a superior use of language and lost itsseriousness graceful taste in the time that followed. Pun in Chinese is also very popular and common as a figure of speech. Puns hadbeen widely utilized in poetry, prose, essays, Confucian literary works, etc. before theChinese Qing Dynasty. In the Western and Eastern Dynasties, pun was employed inhistorical documentation and poetry. The rapid development of puns took place in theWei and Jin Dynasties as can find them mostly in Han-themed prose and folk songs. Atthe time, pun was used by the average people and those from the upper class. It wasfashionable to make the best and most of puns then. All the above factors hadaccelerated the development of puns. At present, pun is ubiquitous.
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2.2 Definition of Puns
Pun is a kind of roundabout and indirect mode of expression that people employ to achieve desirable goals of communication. (Feng Li, 2009:29) Pun is defined as “thehumorous use of a word, or of words which are formed or sounded alike but havedifferent meanings, in such a way as to play on two or more of the possibleapplications; a play on words.” (Li Xinhua, 2000:189)Pun is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploitingmultiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorousor rhetorical effect. (Wikipedia) A pun (or paronomasia) is a phrase that purposefullyemploys confusion between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effects.A pun may also cause confusion between two senses of the same written or spokenword. Puns are employed to produce humor and sometimes require a large vocabularyto understand.However, Joel Sherzer holds that “A pun is a form of speech play in which a wordor phrase unexpectedly and simultaneously combines two unrelated meanings.” (Zhou2005:66).
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Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework ..... 13
3.1 Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory..... 13
3.2 Verschueren’s Three Key Notions of Language Use..... 15
3.2.1 Variability ...... 16
3.2.2 Negotiability ........ 16
3.2.3 Adaptability ......... 16
3.3 Verschueren’s Four Angles of Adaptability ....... 17
Chapter 4 Analysis of Linguistic Adaptability in Puns......... 21
4.1 Adaptation to the Physical World .... 21
4.2 Adaptation to the Social World........ 26
4.2.1 Introduction ......... 27
4.2.2 Adaptation to Social Conventions ..... 27
4.2.3 Adaptation to Culture....... 28
4.2.4 Summary........ 30
4.3 Adaptation to the Mental World ...... 30
Chapter 5 Pragmatic Functions of Puns ........ 34
5.1 Refuting Decently or Euphemistically ........ 34
5.2 Producing Humorous and Satiric Effects .... 35
5.3 Changing Subjects Tactfully...... 37
5.4 Attracting Attention ....... 38
5.5 Forming Riddles ...... 40
Chapter 5 Pragmatic Functions of Puns
5.1 Refuting Decently or Euphemistically
The result of the word-internal semantic structure is the organization of the lexicalmeaning on comparatively clear models. In terms of the general semantic structure,there is a long-noted belief that it has been hierarchically organized and that not eachlayer of the so-called hierarchy is the same salient. Considering a pragmaticunderstanding of the lexical meaning, and given the notions of variability andnegotiability pertaining to word-internal semantic structures and also the semanticrelations amongst various words, the functions of puns together with a variety ofrelated semantic aspects will have to be systematically checked to decide the word’s lexical meaning.Pun is often employed to refute someone decently or euphemistically. Oneexample goes like this -- A professor tapped on his desk and shouted: “Gentlemen --Order!” The entire class yelled: “Beer”! The whole class did not directly refute theteacher’s requirement of keeping quiet and orderly, but answered with a “beer” tocreate a sense of humor by taking advantage of the homonym “order” which bears boththe meaning of “the state of being orderly” and “to order (beer)”. This example vividlymakes the language more vivid, humorous and impressive, while decently andcourteously refuting the professor’s requirement.From an overall perspective, pun has been frequently employed to refuteappropriately and indirectly. The prevailing use of puns for refusing or rebuttingsomeone politely and courteously is a value function and a common linguisticphenomenon.
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Conclusion
Pun is regarded as a linguistic phenomenon, and has long been used in all humansocieties as a common way of interaction. The employment of puns can be seen as aproactive pragmatic technique that language users use in a certain time and on a givenoccasion. And the present study is concerning the pragmatic analysis of puns from theangle of Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory, which combines a mixed range of linguistic,societal and cognitive factors. From the point of view of Verschueren, human beingscontinuously and constantly make language choices. These choices range from thechoices of language or language variety, language structures, language elements andcommunicative strategies (Verschueren, 1999:23). All kinds of the proper linguisticchoices can be able to lead to the smooth interaction.As is discussed from the above chapters, pun employment is dynamic and itsvariation depends largely on the course of the times. This is the so-called dynamics ofadaptability. On top of that, there is also an imbalance in human beings’ consciousnessof the employment of all puns, both in generation or interpretation, and this is called adegree of salience.
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