An honest attempt to grasp and possibly tame the wild animal of punning taxonomy

english

2012

Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, Znanstvena založba
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

The paper addresses the issue of the English pun and its successful evasion of taxonomic organization throughout the literature. Many linguists have tried to ground this subject, some going about it with more or less attention to detail, others by dodging the matter altogether. How does one specify and categorize such a phenomenon that spreads its tentacles through so many fields of a language (or even more than one language)? Puns tend to overlap in structure and are therefore almost impossible to divide clearly, by means of providing an untainted example, without interferences of other possible categories. Therefore, some previous approaches to the matter will be presented, followed by an attempt to create a clear categorization of English puns on the basis of various sources and fundamental criteria, recognising a variety of mechanisms that are present in each assigned category. For a better taxonomical comprehension a visual depiction of the tree structure is added. Additionally, unintentional punning and a short circuit in discourse, or the misinterpretation of puns, will be presented and briefly discussed.

24.11.2015