PUN

Welcome to this lecture headed “PUN”. We will be discussing all about pun. Enjoy your lecture.

A pun is making fun on words to produce a humorous effect with the use of a word that suggests two or more meanings or by utilizing equivalent sounding words that possess divergent meanings.

Humorous effects produced by puns depend on the indistinctness of such words.

The indistinctness occurs majorly in homophones and homonyms.

For example, in a sentence “A happy life depends on a liver”, liver can mean the body organ liver or merely mean a person who lives.

In the same way, in a famous saying “Atheism is a non-prophet institution” the word “prophet” is made use of in place of “profit” to create a humorous effect.

A pun is as well referred to as paronomasia and involves word plays which propose two or more meanings, by making use of numerous meanings of words, or of related-sounding words, for a projected amusing or metaphorical effect.

Puns are constructions used in jokes and idioms whose use and meaning are completely local to a specific language and its culture.

To be comprehended, puns require a large vocabulary. Puns may be taken as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, due to the fact that their usage and meaning are completely local to a specific language and its culture.

A lot of pun depends on simple homophones (words that sound alike such as the non-prophet and [non-profit] in the example above.

Puns in literary works add so much to the manner the text may be interpreted, and highlight the ingenuity of the characters and those who wrote the characters.

Gleaming minds from Jesus to Shakespeare made use of puns to great effect, and these puns keep on resonating with new readers.

Other great men who are popular for the use of pun are Walter Redfern, Oscar Wilde and popular Roman playwright, Plautus. N addition to being amusing and entertaining, puns add deep meanings to the texts and shapes the manner in which the text is read between the lines by the readers.

By playing with the words, the writers make known the ingenuity of their characters and in extension, their own.

Apart from that, puns in a literary works function as a source of comic relief or an deliberate effort of the writer to demonstrate his or her creative aptitude in the use of language. 

Examples of Pun

Why did the bee go to the doctor? Because he had hives.

Why did the pony go to the doctor? Because she was a little horse.

Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants to the game? In case he got a hole in one.

What do you call a train that sneezes? Achoo-choo train.

It’s better to love a short girl than not a tall.

Every calendar’s days are numbered.

Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.

A backwards poet writes inverse.

What do you call an alligator in a vest? An Investigator!

I went to a seafood disco last week….and pulled a mussel.

The roundest knight at King Arthurs table was Sir Cumference. He obtained his size from far too much pi.

A chicken crossing the road is truly poultry in motion.

I’ve been to the dentist many times so I know the drill.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

A boiled egg every morning is hard to beat.

Math class is full of drama. There are so many problems to work out.

Only squares do well in geometry. It’s their area after all.

His qualifications as a math teacher didn’t add up.

Mathematicians die when their number is up.

How do you know a plant belongs to a math teacher? It has square roots.

The delicatessen is sandwiched, if you’ll pardon the pun, between two stores.

She’s a skillful pilot whose career has-no pun intended-really taken off.

Frequently used Pun Examples

In everyday life, pun examples are found deliberately or unintentionally used in jokes and humorous remarks. Such as:

The life of a patient of hypertension is always at steak.

Why do we still have troops in Germany? To keep the Russians in Czech.

A horse is a very stable animal.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

An elephant’s opinion carries a lot of weight.

What is the difference between a conductor and a teacher? The conductor minds the train and a teacher trains the mind.

Examples of Pun in Literature

In literature, puns have been used by eminent writers in their literary works.

1. In producing puns, William Shakespeare was a chief craftsman. We discover a lot of examples of puns in his plays. Let us have a look at a few of them:

“It is the unkindest tied that ever any man tied.”(Richard III)

“winter of our discontent…made glorious summer by this Son of York.”(Richard III)

Romeo: “Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead” (Romeo and Juliet)

Claudius: “…But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son…” Hamlet: [aside] “A little more than kin, and less than kind. (Kindred)” (Hamlet)

2. John Donne’s “A Hymn to God the Father” has a lot of instances of of pun. Read the following lines:

“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.”

He is playing with his name Donne and with the name of his wife Anne More.

Besides, he makes use of Son, meaning the Christ, instead of sun.

3. Oscar Wilde uses puns in his play “Importance of being Earnest”. Jack Earnest tells Aunt Augusta in Act III:

“On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest”

In the same way, in Act III we see Jack puns his family name again:

I always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn’t I? Well, it is Ernest after

“all. I mean it naturally is Ernest.”

Here Jack finds out his father name which makes him really earnest.

4. Charles Dickens plays around with words in his novel “Great Expectations”. In his opening chapter “Pip” says:

“They seemed to think the opportunity lost, if they failed to point the conversation to me, every now and then, and stick the point into me”

Observe the pun in the use of the word “point”. We see another attention-grabbing example in Chapter 2:

“Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.”

The pun is seen in the word “tickle”.

Uses of Pun

Apart from being humorous and amusing, puns incorporate deep meanings to texts and shape the way in which the text is given meaning to by the readers.

By playing with the words, the writers reveal their cleverness and the cleverness of their characters.

Besides, puns in a literary works act as a basis of comic relief or a planned of the writer to exhibit his/her imaginative ability in the use of language.

Thanks for reaching to this point marking the end of this lecture.

Your Lecture Master:

Mst. Ugonwanne Joshua