Definition Of Pun Translation

Chapter II
Literature Review
2.1. Introduction Evaluating translation needs in depth knowledge about lexical, syntactic and semantic problems which have been discussed by translators and linguistics' theorists. This chapter provides background of the current study. This chapter discussed many issues concerning pun translation assessment. The researcher in the first part clarifies the definition of pun in literary texts presented in this paper with a further comparison between puns and jokes, and pun types . The second part offers a brief information about the debated history of pun (un) translatability, with an approve of pun translatability using the Relevance Theory.

2.2. The Definition of Pun 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 phrase 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".

2.2.1. Pun Verses Joke Pun and jokes are not synonymous. Pun is a word play, unlike jokes that might have or have not wordplay. Also, puns can be used for rhetorical effect not only humorous effect.
2.2.2. Types of Puns

In principle it is, therefore, comparable to quoting or speech-reporting in intra-linguistic use. One of its primary distinctions setting it off from intra-lingual quoting or reporting is that original text and translation belong to different languages (Gutt, 1998,