A friend of mine whatsapped me this humorous instruction: “Don’t drink water while studying because chemistry says that concentration decreases on adding water.” I enjoyed the pun on the word concentration and whatsapped the same to some of my friends. It resulted in the exchange of a series of puns. A pun is a play on words that suggests multiple meanings. It is also the humorous use of words that are alike in sound but different in meaning. The word ‘concentration’ has multiple meanings. One of the meanings is ‘an act of focusing one’s attention on something’, but in chemistry it refers to ‘the amount of solute that is dissolved in a solvent’.
Why is ‘pun’ important? “The pun is mightier than the sword.” Puns break monotony and add humour to one’s speech and writings. Everyone enjoys good puns. Proficient users of any language are good at using puns in their written as well as oral communication. One has to be sharp enough to understand puns. Here is a pun on the word ‘period’:
Why did the run-on sentence think it was pregnant? Because its period was late.
There are many different types of puns such as homophonic puns and homographic puns.
A homophonic pun is created by substituting one word for a similar-sounding word. This type of puns is used in conversations or in any other form of oral communication. Look at this conversation between Jenny and Madhu:
Jenny: How many hours a day did you do lessons? Madhu: Ten hours on the first day, nine on the second day, and so on.
Jenny: What a curious plan!
Madhu: That’s the reason they’re called lessons because they lessen from day to day.
In the example above, adapted from Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland, lesson and lessen are homophones (words that are pronounced alike) but they have different meanings.
Here is another example of homophonic pun:
The wedding was so emotional that even the cake was in tiers.
The phrase ‘in tears’ and ‘in tiers’ are homophonic but their meanings are different. ‘Tier’ means a series of levels of a structure placed one above the other.
A homographic pun uses the words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently. This type of puns is used mainly in written communication. Look at these examples:
A: What happened when Past, Present and Future walked into a bar?
B: It was tense.
American humourist and social commentator Will Rogers once said, “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts”. This is what our Indian comedian and political satirist Cyrus Broacha does.
Dr Albert P’ Rayan is an ELT Resource Person and Professor of English.
He can be contacted at rayanal@yahoo.co.uk