【毕业论文】Analysis of the Pun in English Literature.doc

Analysis of the Pun in English Literature Abstract: Paronomasia or pun is an important English rhetoric form.. This paper collectes several examples in English Literature .It mainly discusses different means of creating a pun and analyzes its rhetorical effect in the aspects of language,characters,story development and theme revealing in English Literature. Key words: pun; English Literature; Rhetorical effect 1.Introduction Pun originaly came from the Greek word parnomasia , meaning equal word, but in modern English dictionary,it is extended to a form of humor depending on word play, using a word having two meanings or two words with different spellings that have the same pronunciation.The similarity between the words need to be exact as long as they act suggestive”.(Bernard,1983). There are many homophones, homographs in English. This feature can easily create special rhetoric effects of pun.Actually,there are many different means of creating a pun . According to my data collection,English puns can be classified into two categories: phonetic puns and semantic puns． 2. Phonetic puns Phonetic puns are formed by the words with the same or similar prononciation.It can be divided into two categories: homophonic pun or paronomasia 2.1 Homophonic pun The large amount of homophones offers many original materials for pun..Many literary masters take advantage of this feature and create many puns.For example: ( 1) King Claudius: But now，my cousin Hamlet，and my son， … How is it that the clouds still hang on you? Hamlet: Not so，my lord; I am too much i’the sun． ( William Shakespeare，Hamlet) Here Hamlet hates Claudius,but he daren’t to show his feelings because of Claudius’s despotic power .Finally , he said “ I am too much i’the sun.”Literaly, it means he was in the sun for a long time,actually, it means he had succumbed to claudius’s son for too long,sun and son are Homophonic pun. 3.Semantic puns Semantic puns are based on polysemies or homographs.It is adopted in the sp