TYPES OF PUNS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Аннотация

This article focuses on the analysis of pun as one of the categories of wordplay. The author discusses the meaning of the term “pun” and analyzes different types of puns. On the basis of various classifications created by different scholars and according to the research material, a new classification of pun as one of the types of wordplay is introduced and defined. Keywords: word play, pun, linguistic features, classification, typology. Аннотация. В данной статье рассматривается анализ каламбура как одной из категорий игры слов. Автор рассматривает значение термина « каламбур» и анализирует различные виды каламбура. На основе различных классификаций, созданных разными учёными, и на основе материала исследования вводится и определяется новая классификация каламбура как одного из видов игры слов. Ключевые слова. игра слов, каламбур, языковые особенности, классификация, типология. One kind of word play is English language puns, which we might humorously dub “pun play.” The pun is a widely used vehicle for English language humor. Puns hinge on a double meaning of some kind. They arise from the multiple spellings, pronunciations, and meanings that can occur within and across English words [7]. Pun humor is language specific, unlike more visual humor based on actions, such as sight gags or pratfalls found on TV or in the movies. As it is known, there is not a consensus among scholars on the difference between a wordplay and a pun. Some scholars consider these two terms mostly interchangeable and synonymous elements [2], [4]. I do not follow their opinions and consider pun as one of the types of wordplay, whereas wordplay is classed as an umbrella term denoting all the subclasses, such as spoonerism, malapropism, wellerism, onomatopoeia, palindrome and other linguistic units. As a result of the different perceptions of the pun there are also various approaches as to how it should be classified. Regarding to the various classifications created by different scholars and discussed in our research, I formulate and introduce my own classification of pun as well as discuss its 36 THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES International scientific-online conference linguistic ambiguity and characteristic features on the basis of research material. Delabastita defines wordplay (a term which he uses interchangeably with pun) as: “Wordplay is the general name for the various textual phenomenon in which structural features of the language(s) used are exploited in order to bring about a communicatively significant confrontation of two (or more) linguistics structures with more or less similar forms and more or less different meanings.” [6]. According to Delabastita pun is divided into four categories [2]: 1. Homonymy (identical sounds and spelling); 2. Homophony (identical sounds but different spellings); 3. Homography (different sounds but identical spelling); 4. Paronymy (there are slight differences in both spelling and sound). Gottlieb considers wordplay and pun as synonymous linguistic units. His classification of a pun is the similar to Delabastita’s one. He only adds and singles out three subcategories of homonymy: 1. Lexical homonymy (the central feature is single-word ambiguity); 2. Collocational homonymy ( the word-in-context ambiguity is the central feature); 3. Phrasal homonymy (the clause ambiguity is the central feature). The classification of pun worked out by the Chinese scholar Yuan Chuandao is different. He claims that the creation of pun is connected not only to the meaning and the homophony of a word, but also to the context, manner of speech and logic. So he singles out the following types of pun: 1. Homonymic pun (identical sounds and spelling); 2. Lexical meaning pun (polysemantic words); 3. Understanding pun (through the particular context implied meaning of a sentence is revealed. 4. Figurative pun (a simile or a metaphor as its surface meaning and the figurative meaning as its deep meaning). 5. Logic pun (a rhetorical device, a kind of implication in a particular context). As research revealed a pun is one of the most important types of wordplay. There are several subcategories of pun and consequently its various classifications and types are formulated by different scholars. On the basis of the mentioned types and various classifications of pun and the analysis of the empirical material examples in the article, a new classification form of pun including all the main types of pun is introduced below: 1. Lexical-Semantic Pun; 37 THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES International scientific-online conference 2. Structural-Syntactic Pun; 3. Structural-Semantic Pun. As pointed out by Raskin, pun (one of the forms of wordplay) could be considered as one of the varieties of a joke (anecdote), as its semantic structure is characterized by juxtaposition of two similar but opposite scripts. [8]. As a feature of language, ambiguity occurs when a word or phrase has more