Pun and pun are two different figures of speech in English and Chinese. As the name implies, puns are puns. In addition to "one", puns can also use "two" or even "multiple" to pun. From the classification point of view, puns include parody pun, syllable pun, antonym pun and ambiguous pun, while Chinese puns can only correspond to the first two but not the last two. The corresponding Chinese figures of speech are "semantic change" and "ambiguity" respectively. Because of the different expressions between English and Chinese, English pun and Chinese pun often go their own way. Therefore, in bilingual conversion, pun or pun's original meaning often disappears. The author discusses several translations with examples.
Keywords: pun; ; Pun; Translation; study
Introduction:
Pun and pun are two figures of speech in English and Chinese respectively. However, it is often considered to be completely equivalent in domestic and foreign language circles. This is true of English-Chinese dictionaries or Chinese-English dictionaries, and some monographs on stylistic rhetoric are no exception. In fact, "pun" and Chinese "pun" are not only incomplete in definition, but also different in classification. They are even very different "[1] (page 34). Due to the different expressions between English and Chinese, when English puns are translated into Chinese or Chinese puns are translated into English, Chinese and foreign translators are almost stretched, and it is difficult to find an ideal translation.
First, the definition of "pun" and "pun" comparison
(A) the definition of pun and its corresponding examples
1, Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford English Dictionary. 1989. Oxford: clarendon Publishing House. VO 1。 XII.P832) gives the definition of "pun": "The use of a word reminds people of two or more meanings or different associations, or the use of two or more words with the same or similar pronunciation but different meanings to produce humorous effects." Use one word to imply two or more meanings or cause different associations, or use two or more words with the same or similar pronunciation but different meanings to produce humorous effects. )
Call me tomorrow, and you will find me a grave keeper.
Come to me tomorrow, and you will find that I am already a man in the grave.
Grave has two meanings in the sentence, which can be interpreted as serious or serious or significant.
Learn some skills when you are young, so that you can live without them when you are old.
Learn some skills while you are young, so that you can make a living without cheating when you are old.
In the sentence, the former craft means "craft" and the latter craft means "cheat", which has different forms and meanings. These two meanings are interrelated and interesting.
2. Webster's Third Edition New International Dictionary (Webster's Third Edition New International Dictionary. 198 1. Springfield, Massachusetts, USA: Webster's Dictionary Company P. 1842) defines puns as: "The humor of a word is that it implies different meanings or applications, or the pronunciation of the word is the same or nearly the same. But the meaning is different: word games. Humorous usage of words, using one word to imply different meanings or arouse different associations, or using two or more words with the same or similar pronunciation but different meanings: a word game. )
Give your son and heir more sunshine and air.
The sunshine and fresh air here are of great benefit to your son-career and property inheritance.
This is a sentence drawn in an advertisement for a bathing beach. It skillfully uses homophony (that is, homophonic pun): sun and son, air and heir. Because of its vivid humor and strong appeal, it is easy to impress parents' beloved son.
(B) the definition of pun and its corresponding examples
1, dimension (4) (1984. Beijing: Commercial Press, p. 3220) defines pun as pun, which is commonly used in folk songs of the Six Dynasties.
Example (4) Manufacture of Silk
Spring silkworms should not be old, and they often conceive silk day and night.
What a pity to be exhausted, lingering has its own time.
(Poems of Yuefu)? 49? Opera ")
In the poem, "nostalgia" and "nostalgia" are harmonious, and the "lingering" of silk means emotional lingering.
2. The definition of "pun" in Cihai (Simplified Edition) (1980). Shanghai: Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House. P.482) is one of the figures of speech in rhetoric. Using homonyms or synonyms in language and writing, one sentence links two things.
Example (5) Facing the sky, there is snow in the mountains;
I will never forget the lonely forest in the world.
(The fifth chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions)
"Snow" and "Xue" are homophonic, meaning "Xue Baochai"; The word "Lin" is Lin Daiyu's "Lin".
(3) The correspondence and non-correspondence between pun and pun definition.
Judging from the two definitions of pun in Chinese, it only means "using words or making sentences has two meanings" or "making a sentence involve two things", commonly known as "pun". However, puns in English are not only "having two meanings" or "involving two things", but "implying two or more meanings". However, the second half of the definition of pun does not correspond to pun in Chinese. Therefore, English puns can include not only Chinese puns, but also Chinese puns, that is, using "two or more words with the same or similar pronunciation but different meanings" to make a fuss.
Example (6) Romeo. No, believe me: you have dancing shoes with leggings; I have a lead soul. So nail me to the ground, I can't move.
(william shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
Romeo, I really can't dance. You all have light dancing shoes. Only a soul as heavy as lead nailed my body to the ground so tightly that my steps could not move. (Translated by Zhu Shenghao)
Shakespeare's pun is based on the homophonic sole and soul, which is a pun of "two" and vividly depicts Romeo's mood at that time.
In addition, according to the definition of pun, "it implies two or more meanings", so pun can be both a pun and a multi-level one.
Ex. (7)-This is everyone's right, right?
You think all your rights are right?
This is everyone's right, right?
Do you think you have the right to benefit?
The above are two people joking with puns in the conversation. The four "pairs" and * * * in the dialogue have three meanings, which are homophonic and belong to the same word "multi-vulgar".
Second, the comparison between pun and pun.
(A) the types of puns and their examples
Puns are classified in different dictionaries published in China. In this paper, we adopt the following viewpoint: "Pun includes three figures of speech: variation, irony and ambiguity" [2] (page 496). According to the characteristics of puns, this figure of speech can be divided into the following categories: 1. Homophonic pun; Second, paralinguistic aphasia (near sound pun); Third, Antanaclasis (synonymous pun), fourth, Sylleptic pun (polysemous pun); Five, Asteismus (ambiguous pun). [3] (pp. 323-326)
1, Ambiguity (Ambiguity): In a specific context, the intentional use of polysemy produces semantic differences. Ambiguity is a form of pun, but unlike pun, pun is often the speaker's subjective meaning, while ambiguity is often the speaker's subjective meaning. However, due to the fuzziness of words, pun is easy to cause objectively.
Example (8) How to be a guilty parent (new york Times)
How do parents know they are guilty?
The title of the article seems to be to persuade parents: how to be guilty parents. However, the content of the article is to ask parents to behave themselves and not to blame their children easily.
He finished the game last Friday.
The phrase "finished the game" has two meanings: "participated in the game" and "destroyed the game".
2. Antanakassis uses the ambiguity of some words to express this meaning in a certain context and link the two meanings.
We must stick together, or we will surely be hanged. (Benjamin Franklin)
We must stick together, or we will all be executed alone.
In the sentence, the former hang and together form an idiom, which means "unite as one", while the latter hang means "hang up", with the same literal meaning, different meanings, vivid language and concise words. The previous example (2) also belongs to this category.
Paronomasia consists of homophonic puns or homophonic puns.
On Sundays they praise you, and on Mondays they plunder you.
They pray for you on Sunday and blackmail you on Monday.
Use homophonic words "prayer" and "prey" to make puns and satirize the ugly faces of gentlemen, wives and ladies in western churches.
Example (12) If he really breeds, I will gild the groom's face with aluminum; Because it seems to be their sin. (william shakespeare, Macbeth)
If he is still bleeding, I will put it on the faces of two guards; Because we must let people see their sins.
Gilder and guilt are homophonic puns, and their use exposes Lady Macbeth's crime of covering her mouth and framing others.
Example (13)-When does the baker start trading?
Whenever he kneaded the dough.
When does the bakery open?
Whenever he kneaded noodles.
The answer uses two homophones, need and knead, and uses dough's ambiguity (including "unfamiliar noodles" and "money") to form two puns to form humor.
For example (14)-Which four letters in the alphabet will be scared away by hamburgers?
—O，ICU。
What four English letters will scare away thieves?
—O，ICU
This is a four-letter homophonic sentence OICU: Oh, I see you. Similarly: IOU (I owe you), which means "IOU"; OIC, foreign opticians advertise the shapes of these three letters. They are shaped like glasses and sound like oh, I see. What a coincidence!
4. Syllepic pun is also called syllepsis[4] (page 35). However, some people translate syllepsis into "a double narrative" [5](P.497) or "multiple narratives of a word" and "consideration" [6] (P.3365438+). This is a completely different figure of speech from the "polysemy pun" we will discuss. This kind of pun is similar to antanaclasis, but the difference is that in sylleptic pun, pun only appears once and can be interpreted in many ways. When it comes to puns, domestic scholars point out that "using polysemous puns is more interesting and clever than using homographs" [7](P.89).
Example (15) Scottish spirits
(Newsweek, 1983)
Scotland's wine industry is depressed.
The article is about the depression of Scottish wine industry and the closure of one winery after another. The title of the report not only includes "the decline of wine production", but also the "depression" of the relevant personnel, pun intended.
The ambassador is an honest man. He lied for the benefit of the country.
The ambassador is an honest man. He lied abroad for his own benefit.
A lie can be understood as "lying" or "being, living" in a sentence.
(B) "Pun" types and examples
Puns are classified from three aspects: sound, form and meaning in Chinese rhetoric works published in China. Although the expression is different, it is actually the same thing. Some are simply divided into homophonic pun and semantic pun [8] (p.120-1265438+. Homophonic pun, figurative pun, implied pun and mixed pun [9] (pages 66-68); And [10](P.98) is divided into two groups according to "superficial pun" and "mutual pun".
According to the definition of "pun" in Ci Hai, "using homonyms or synonyms in language and writing to make one sentence connect two things" and the discussion of "pun" in several rhetoric works, the author thinks that it will be more concise to divide "pun" into 1 and homophonic pun; 2. Puns of the same word.
However, in order to make a better comparison with puns in English, the author adopts the viewpoint of the authoritative work of rhetoric, The Origin of Rhetoric, and divides puns into two categories: superficial puns and mutual puns, which not only covers all puns in Chinese, but also makes a subtle comparison with puns in English.
1, seemingly pun: "There is a hidden meaning beyond words and expressions" [1 1] (page 98). Judging from the linguistic relationship of puns expressing ideas, including the similarity of sounds and shapes, puns are more common in folk songs.
(a) only homophonic pun:
Silkworms in spring will weave until they die, and candles will drip the wick dry every night.
(Li Shangyin's Untitled)
The exterior is silk, and the interior is thinking. Silk is actually thinking, and silk is related to the exterior.
Example (18): Musk deer is smashed into dust, but the fragrance will not die, and the lotus is hard to kill.
(Wen "Dharma Song")
"Xiang" and "Xiang" are homophonic, and "Si" and "Si" are homophonic, meaning "Acacia".
Example (19): Green water covers violet and hibiscus covers red and fresh;
There are lotus roots below and lotus roots above.
Lotus and hibiscus, lotus and accidentally, lotus and cherish are homophonic puns.
(b) Sounds and shapes are common, but the meanings of words are different, so the meanings are used as puns:
Example (20) vermicelli is not deep and uneven, and idle flowers are faint in spring.
(Zhang Xian's drunken whip)
"Spring" is a pun on "spring scenery" and "beauty" (called beauty spring scenery in the Tang Dynasty).
Example (2 1) sees that Niang likes to kiss up and is willing to marry Jin Lan;
It is difficult to find a good horse without warp and weft.
("Midnight Song")
"Horse" is a pun on "cloth" and "puppet".
Ex. (22) Since I left Belang, I have been lying on my head, unable to lift my head.
Dragonfly fell into the drugstore, and the bone is for you.
("Reading Nocturne")
"Bone" is a pun on "flying dragon bone" and "thinking woman bone".
2. Pun intended: Telling the meaning with what is in front of you, the sound, shape and meaning can be related to two things, which are more common in novels and operas in Pinghua.
People attach importance to each other in noble morality and learn from others with an open mind.
(Bamboo in Zhang Jiuling)
Kindness and modesty are the attributes of bamboo and the virtues of human beings.
Ex. (24) I stopped petitioning at Beigongmen and went to this shabby house on Zhongnanshan Mountain.
I was exiled by a wise ruler because of my mistake. I was ill for so long that I couldn't see my friends.
My white hair has accelerated my aging, just like a pale beam of light that ends the old year.
So I lay awake and meditated. At night in the moonlight, the window was empty.
The whole poem obviously seems to feel sorry for itself, but in fact it is really complaining about others. The word "empty" in the last sentence has four levels: a refers to the empty courtyard in space; B, refers to the emptiness of time in a quiet night, which is obviously like writing scenery. C, refers to career emptiness; Ding refers to the psychological emptiness of the mind, but it is actually lyrical. A and b are combined into a body, and c and d are ontologies. In fact, body and noumenon are related, that is, puns are made on each other.