Pun and Malapropism
Pun
A Pun is a play on words, in which the writer or speaker plays with possible meanings of a word which sounds alike, or is spelled alike. Here are some examples:
- How much does a Grecian urn? (a play on an "urn" or vase and to "earn" money)
- That bird has fowl habits! (a play on the double meaning fowl - poultry and foul - dirty)
- In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio has been fatally wounded, but he protests that it is "just a scratch". He is fooling around and no-one realises how serious his injury is. Eventually, when asked, he says that if they call on him the next day, they will find him a "grave man". Shakespeare here is playing with the double meaning of the word "grave". Mercutio will be grave (serious at last), but he will also be grave (dead).
A particular form of pun is the double entendre in which the pun involves a sexual connotation.
- "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me!" The pun involves the double meaning of "to hold against" - to resent and to place next to!
- I think the baker is cute - he has great buns! (buns can mean baked bread or buttocks!)
Exercise One
This exercise is inspired by the punning games played by Asterix, the comic book hero. The idea is to make up sentences which use puns based on a particular topic. Here is an example based on kinds of fish.
A: Am I herring you right?
B: Cod you speak up, I'm deaf!
C: This isn't the plaice for such bad puns
With your group, write a dialogue with puns based on the following topics:
- makes of motor cars
- types of animals
- colours
- your own topic
Malapropism
In Sheridan's play the Rivals, one of his characters, Mrs Malaprop, always used the wrong words, with comic effects. A Malapropism then is a sort of pun in which innapropriate words are used to comic effect. Here are some examples:
- He was bleeding profoundly from his arm! (instead of profusely.)
- She had to have a blood confusion! (instead of transfusion.)
- The doctor used her lapel! (instead of scalpel.)
The effect of a malapropism is usually humorous, but it can highlight quite profound connections between things. There are people who speak in malapropisms, quite unaware of what they are doing. This is error. But when a writer places them in the mouths of characters for effect, they become powerful figures of speech.
Exercise Two
Write a short playlet in which one of the characters speaks in malapropisms. Try to be humorous, but also to use your malapropisms as windows into the universe as it should be.
