英语双关语及其翻译 [3]
论文作者:潘燕琼论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-10编辑:黄丽樱点击率:14267
论文字数:6989论文编号:org200904102255414518语种:英语 English地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:English punclassificationcharacteristicsfunctiontranslation英语双关语分类本质特点作用翻译
tegories of puns [8] : homophonic pun,
paronomasia, antalaclasis, Sylletic pun and asteimus.
However, according to Li Xinhua, in his work, “A Detailed Study of Figures of
Speech in English”, he points that those five categories classified by Prof. Wenjun are clear but over-elaborate. In summary, it is clearer to divide into these two types: one is homophonic pun, the other is homographic pun. He also points out that, in those five categories, No1 and No2 belong to the homophonic pun; the others belong to the homographic pun, which is the way to bring complication into simplicity. And it is easier to master the characteristics of figure of speech. However, as Lv Xu states in “Practical English Rhetoric”, according to the characteristics and functions of their formation, puns can be divided into three types[9]: homophonic puns, homographic puns, puns on both pronunciation and meaning.
2.2.1 Homophonic puns
It is the use of words with the same or similar pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. It also called phonetic puns, and phonetic pun is the basic form of English pun. In our daily communication, phonetic is the carrier of transferring information. According to psycholinguistics, speech communication is a process of psychological activities from encoding to decoding. When speakers employ the order of ‘thinking-meaning-voice’ to transmit outside, it is called encoding; when listeners employ the order of ‘voice-meaning-thinking’ to process and try to understand, it is called decoding. The inter-processing only relies on hearing, lacking visual sense, and it will cause ambiguity in understanding.
For example:
(15) “How is bread made?”
“I know that!” Alice cried eagerly. “You take some flour…”
“Where do you pick the flower?” The white Queen asked. “In a garden or in the hedges?”
“Well, it isn’t picked at all.” Alice explained. “It’s ground…”
“How many acres of ground?” said the white Queen.[10]
(Lewis Carrol: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
In this example, “flower” and “flour” have the same pronunciation but quite different in meaning. The adoption of the homophonic pun makes the dialogue more vivid, humorous. Moreover, “ground” can be understood as “solid surface of the earth”, and also can be understood as “the past of grind”.
(16) Drunk drivers often put the quart before the hearse.
Here, “quart” is similar to “cart” in sound, while “hearse” is similar to “horse”. This sentence can construct homophonic pun by borrowing from the idiom “put the cart before the horse”, which means “put or say things in the wrong order”. This pun is driving at warning the addicting drivers that driving after drink is a kind of suicide.
(17) “Waiter, there’s a hair in my soup.”
“So sorry, sir. Did you order it without?”
“Hair” here means “one of the fine thread-like strands that grow from the skin of people and animals”, while the waiter understand it on purpose as “hare”. “Hare” means “an animal cooked as ordered food”. The customer is complaining about the bad condition of the restaurant, but by using the homophonic pun, the waiter is being humorous to ease away the complaint.
2.2.2 Homographic puns
It is the crafty use of the features of homonyms or polysemy to express the double meanings. Take the following as an example,
(18)– Some boys think I’m pretty and some boys think I’m ugly. What do you think, Tom?
- A bit of both.
- What do you mean?
- Pretty ugly
As an adjective, “pretty” means “pleasing and attra
本论文由英语论文网提供整理,提供论文代写,英语论文代写,代写论文,代写英语论文,代写留学生论文,代写英文论文,留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。