Pun With Language: The Role of the Pun Throughout the History of the World
“In his protest days, Gandhi walked everywhere. From the North of India to the South, Gandhi traveled it all, all without shoes. And he didn’t brush his teeth, either, so his breath was pretty bad. Since he walked so far and did not eat much in the way of food, he got very thin and physically weak. All in all, he was a super-calloused, fragile mystic, vexed with halitosis!”
Have you heard jokes such as this before? Jokes that cause you to groan sooner than laugh, and to hurl random objects at the utterer? Perhaps you heard them at a party somewhere, or when you were with a friend. Or even in the workplace. Such jokes are everywhere, causing even the most good-humored person to groan in agony at the cheesiness of it all. Puns, the mainstream culture labels them, because to hear them is ‘pun’ishment. But how did the concept of punmanship come about? And, more importantly, why do so many people take it upon themselves to tell these ‘shaggy dog stories’ despite such negative reinforcement (i.e. groans, thrown pillows, comments such as “You are so not funny!”, etc…)? The answers may surprise you.
An acquaintance of mine once said that "A pun is a lower form of humor, just like a bun is a lower form of bread." I think this sums up nicely the general conception of puns in modern times. Instead of patting ourselves on the back for a pun well done, we footnote the glorious tidbit of humor with the ever-insidious, “No pun intended.” But good punmanship has not always found itself on the permanent hate list of joke aficionados.
As far back as Ancient Greece, and probably before, puns were made. The most famous pun from this time is the classic translation of Jesus’ statement to Peter: "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church." To an English speaking audience, this would not seem out of the ordinary at all, just another passage from the Bible without a pun in sight. But when one considers the language of one of the original translations of the Bible, Greek, the circumstances become much clearer. In Greek, the name Peter translates as ‘Petros,’ while the term rock translates as ‘petra.’ So, when those words are translated into Greek within the full context of the sentence, the sentence itself reads: “Thou art Petros and upon this petra I will build my church.
Society continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.
Due to the ethnocentrism of American culture and ideas, the tribal group known as the Taliban may seem like a sociological disgrace to law-abiding citizens of the United States. The Taliban is made up of Pakistanis and Afghans who are said to be the “Holy Warriors of Allah” and rigidly adhere to a set of standards set out by the prophet Mohammed himself. They are considered one of the most radical groups that exist in the world today and are looked upon as dishonorable and even appalling by less radical Muslims. However, the reality is that the group has its own culture, sociological structure, and interactions which are simply different than those of the United States.
Similar to many other lively pleasures, humor can only be experienced if it resonates with a person. Without some kind of comprehension, there cannot be any type of reaction. Only once an outlandish statement, inappropriate remark, or unexpected situation, is remotely understood will a person be able to label it comical or sober. Since there are billions of people worldwide with their own languages including it’s respective idioms, euphemisms, the age old saying of “there is truth in every joke” applies to each culture individually.
Raskin (1985) introduces his approach as being concerned with ‘verbal humor’, but his analyses are based on all types of humor conveyed in language, that is, our ‘verbally expressed’ humor. The widely-cited general theory of verbal humor (Attardo, 1994), which we have not space to discuss here, is about humor expressed in language, not merely humor dependent on specific language devices. To complicate matters further, Norick (2004) uses non-verbal to describe jokes which cannot be effectively conveyed in written language, since they are dependent on audible material (e.g. tone of voice) or on non-linguistic devices such as gestures; ‘verbal’ jokes would then be those which can be expressed successfully in writing. In this chapter, we will stay with the terms outlined earlier: anything conveyed in language is ‘verbally expressed humor’; ‘verbal humor’ is dependent on language-specific devices, ‘referential humor’ is based solely on meaning.
It takes a great sense of humor to appreciate a great joke. I have a good sense of humor. You see, you gotta be able to appreciate the nuances; the little pieces of the joke that make it funny, without askin’ you to laugh. If you can’t do that, then that joke is gonna fall deader than a door nail right in front of you. This is why Charlie and I were such great friends; he could tell the jokes, and I could appreciate them. That’s why I called him “Punchline”. He never fuckin’ stopped bein’ funny, like that time
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality were dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had. In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient women, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty emotionless shell. In men’s eyes this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
In almost every society women have been oppressed at some point. Although things gave gotten better on women oppression by men is still there. In American society today, women do not make as much as men in the workplace but feminists still seek to be equal to me in every way. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, both give social critiques of the male dominated society that they are living in. While their critiques have both differences and similarities, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, not only gave this critique before “ A Rose for Emily”, but more effectively as well.
Taliban, a simple but harsh word to the women living in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. According to the dictionary.com, "Taliban" is a Muslim fundamentalist group that spread throughout Afghanistan and formed a government. The Taliban started abusing and killing a lot of people throughout Afghanistan just to gain control. The group started by a couple of males trying to spread the Muslim faith. They began to spread throughout Afghanistan and attracted more people to be part of their group. If people were of a different faith and did not want to change, they would get killed or severely abused. They were very sexist and abused the women a lot more then the men. Also the women had to follow a lot more rules then the men. On September 27, 1996 they took over Afghanistan's capital, Kabul's, government. The whole city was demolished and looked horrible and most of the people were living in poverty. A lot of the men had to fight the civil war against al-Qaeda, so the females did not have an income and could not feed their children. The females could not go to work or get an education after the Taliban took over. They also got severely abused if they did not follow any of the rules the Taliban set up.
The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities is truly what feminism is. A major key principle that Donald Hall utilizes in his Feminist Analysis is that “Language, institutions, and social power structures have reflected patriarchal interests throughout much of history” (202) and that “This has had a profound impact on women’s ability to express themselves and the quality of their daily lives” (202) are greatly seen in the two short stories “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and in the novel The Awakening also by Kate Chopin all written in mid-19th century. These all illustrate how women were oppressed by patriarchal power and how women rose and subverted patriarchal oppression which elucidates Hall’s theories that state women have been denied self-expression affecting their daily lives and patriarchs take power away from women.
Pun Control, this may be the most challenging obstacle discussed yet. We all know a pun consists of word play that suggests two or more meanings, but over use of puns in dramatic or serious works is not punny. The brilliant author William Shakespeare, along with other comedy writers used this strategic method and by reading their novels the overflowing joy and laughter is outstanding.
Language is our gateway to understanding the world around us, but it is always evolving; the words we use everyday are constantly changing. Since the mid 20th century, some terms common to that time have either dropped off or have evolved to mean something different than its original intent. However, language that is used for a different areas evolve in different ways. I will examine, particularly, the area of language involved with humor and jokes. If language shapes the way we perceive the world, is it necessary that the language associated with jokes and humor must always be changing in order to be funny, or has humor had a constant element that will never change regardless of the language use of that era? I will compare the various types language (slang, etc.), both spoken and written, in the most popular forms of comedy found in the 1950’s and 1960’s until now. You do not have to be a professional comedian to tell or understand a joke. Humor today commonly refers to the tendency of provoking amusement or laughter; primarily through language. Over the past 50 years comedy has played an important role in shaping and influencing our culture. But the question remains: How and why is language changing? There are many ways to go about determining the answer to this question, so to narrow it down I am only going to look at areas of humor in magazines (specifically MAD magazine) and censorship. In my research, I will uncover whether or not there has been significant language change, possible causes for the language change, and what we can expect comedy will be lik...
Every teacher has a different method of teaching. The teachers that I have had in my school career have been no exception. In this way, each teacher has set an example for me, as a future teacher, to follow or not to follow as I see fit. With the examples from my teachers and in continuing my education, I am developing my own method of teaching. I plan to use a combination of teaching methods in my own classroom. My method will be an eclectic approach because I will be using components of more than one philosophy. I will be using essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, and existentialism.
is a great aspect of humour, this is shown in two major ways. One of
Pun translation poses as one of the most challenging problem for a literary translator, due to the need of transferring the double meaning of the sentence or word. The double meaning could be a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar senses or sound of different words. Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defines pun as "an expression that achieves emphasis or humor by contriving an ambiguity, two distinct meanings being suggested either by the same word (see polysemy) or by two similar-sounding words".
An idiom is a group of words that have a meaning that is not deduced from the groups of words literally. Thus, unlike the meaning of sentences, the meaning of idioms cannot be deduced by the morpho-syntactic rules of language. It was once hypothesised that the meaning of idioms are arbitrary just like how the meaning of words are arbitrary and in order to make sense of idioms, the meaning of idioms have to be first subconsciously incorporated into memory. However, in recent years, it has been debated that the meaning of some idioms can actually be derived from the meaning of words that from up the idiom. Currently, there are 3 broad classes of idioms namely the “normally decomposable” idioms, the