资源描述：
《英语本科毕业论文-The Rhetorical Means and Functions of Puns in English Literature》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。
1、第15页TheRhetoricalMeansandFunctionsofPunsinEnglishLiteratureI.IntroductionLanguage,theshipofideology,isatoolforhumancommunication,onwhichpeoplerelyandenrichbycreativenessduringtheirsocialactivities.Paronomasia,orjustcallitpuninaninformalway,innature,aworld-play.Accordingt
2、otheOxfordEnglishDictionary,theword‘pun’didnotappearinEnglishlanguageuntil1662withDryden;yetthisword-playasapracticehasbeenfoundinEnglishliteraturesinceearliesttimes.InEnglishlanguage,therearemanywordsthatarepronouncedalikeorspeltalike,orboth.Apun,inessence,isanambiguity
3、.Apuninvolvestheuseofapolysemouswordtosuggesttwoormoremeanings,commonlyliteralmeaningversusfigurativemeaning,orinvolvestheuseofhomonyms,i.e.differentwordswhichlookorsoundthesamebuthavedifferentmeanings.Thewholepointofapunistheuser’sintenttoproduceahumorousorwittyeffectfr
4、omthejuxtapositionofmeanings.Asauniquephenomenonoflanguageusing,punsarerhetoricalmeansofusingwordsandphraseswhichcontaintwodifferentideas,conceptions,thingsoremotionsatthesametime,makingthesentenceincludedifferentmeanings.ThereisafamousexamplefromtheLinguisticsMasterNoam
5、Chomsky:Flyingplanescanbedangerous.a.Sentence=NounPhrase(Someonefliesplanes)+VerbPhrase(canbedangerous)b.Sentence=NounPhrase(Planesfly)+VerbPhrase(canbedangerous)InEnglish,theveryconcentrateoccasionofpunsisintheliterature.Itisveryearlythatpunshowsup,whenitturnstotheShake
6、speare’sera,theusingofthisphraseologyinliteraturehasinitsperiodofgreatprosperity.Accordingtoastatistics,punsinhisworkshavereachedanamountof3000.Manywritersliketouseit,treatitasaserious,graceful,high-rankingartwithplentyoflingeringcharm.InWebster’sNewWorldDictionary,punis
7、definedas:Thehumoroususeofaword,orofwordswhichareformedorsoundedalikebuthavedifferentmeanings,insuchawayastoplayontwoormoreofthepossibleapplications.Wecanseethatwordswiththesameorsimilarsoundandwordswithmorethanonemeaningsorotherformsoflanguagematerialsinvariousinterpret
8、ationswidelyexistinhuman’slanguage,第15页theyaretheprerequisiteofpunsthatcouldbetenable.Asauniquephenomen
