Editing Pun (section)

== Types of puns ==

===Homophonic===
{{See also|Homophonic puns in Standard Chinese}}
[[File:BAABAAA black Jeep in Oakland, April 2021.jpg|thumb|right|A black Jeep with license plate BAABAAA – a pun on "[[Baa, Baa, Black Sheep]]"]]
A homophonic pun is one that uses word pairs which sound alike ([[homophones]]) but are not synonymous.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.elc.edu/how-very-pun-ny-of-you/|title=English Grammar Lesson – How very pun-ny of you! – ELC|date=2 August 2016|work=ELC – English Language Center|access-date=31 August 2017}}</ref> Walter Redfern summarized this type with his statement, "To pun is to treat homonyms as [[synonyms]]."<ref>''Puns'', Blackwell, London, 1984</ref> For example, in [[George Carlin]]'s phrase "atheism is a non-prophet institution", the word ''[[prophet]]'' is put in place of its homophone ''[[wikt:profit|profit]]'', altering the common phrase "[[non-profit organization|non-profit institution]]". Similarly, the joke "Question: Why do we still [[United States Army Europe#Cold War|have troops in Germany]]? Answer: To keep the [[Warsaw Pact|Russians]] in [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czech]]" relies on the aural ambiguity of the homophones ''[[wikt:check|check]]'' and ''[[wikt:Czech|Czech]]''. Often, puns are not strictly homophonic, but play on words of similar, not identical, sound as in the example from the ''[[Pinky and the Brain]]'' cartoon film series: "I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the lima beans feel left out?" which plays with the similar—but not identical—sound of ''peas'' and ''peace'' in the anti-war slogan "[[Give Peace a Chance]]".<ref>[[q:Pinky and the Brain|''See the citation on Wikiquote'']]</ref>

===Homographic===
A ''homographic'' pun exploits words that are spelled the same ([[homograph]]s) but possess different meanings and sounds. Because of their origin, they rely on sight more than hearing, contrary to homophonic puns. They are also known as ''heteronymic puns''. Examples in which the punned words typically exist in two different [[parts of speech]] often rely on unusual sentence construction, as in the anecdote: "When asked to explain his large number of children, the pig answered simply: 'The wild oats of my sow gave us many piglets.{{'"}} An example that combines homophonic and homographic punning is [[Douglas Adams]]'s line "You can tune a guitar, but you can't [[tuna]] fish. Unless of course, you play [[bass (fish)|bass]]." The phrase uses the homophonic qualities of ''tune a'' and ''tuna'', as well as the homographic pun on ''bass'', in which ambiguity is reached through the identical spellings of {{IPAc-en|b|eɪ|s}} (a [[Bass guitar|string instrument]]), and {{IPAc-en|b|æ|s}} (a [[Bass (fish)|kind of fish]]). Homographic puns do not necessarily need to follow grammatical rules and often do not make sense when interpreted outside the context of the pun.

===Homonymic===

[[File:Evolution of a pitcher LCCN2008677254.jpg|thumb|400px|This cartoon makes fun of how the word "pitcher" means both a vessel and a baseball player by [[morphing]] one into the other.]]
''Homonymic'' puns, another common type, arise from the exploitation of words that are both homographs and homophones. The statement "Being in [[politics]] is just like playing [[golf]]: you are trapped in one bad lie after another" puns on the two meanings of the word ''lie'' as "a deliberate untruth" and as "the position in which something rests". An adaptation of a joke repeated by [[Isaac Asimov]] gives us "Did you hear about the little moron who strained himself while running into the screen door?" playing on ''strained'' as "to give much effort" and "to filter".<ref>Asimov, Isaac. [https://archive.org/details/isaacasimovstrea00asim/page/174 <!-- quote=little moron. --> ''Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor''], p. 175, § 252. 1971. Houghton Mifflin. New York.</ref> A homonymic pun may also be [[polysemic]], in which the words must be homonymic and also possess related meanings, a condition that is often subjective. However, lexicographers define [[polysemes]] as listed under a single dictionary [[Lemma (morphology)|lemma]] (a unique numbered meaning) while homonyms are treated in separate lemmata.

===Compounded===
A compound pun is a statement that contains two or more puns. In this case, the wordplay cannot go into effect by utilizing the separate words or phrases of the puns that make up the entire statement. For example, a complex statement by [[Richard Whately]] includes four puns: "Why can a man never starve in the [[Sahara|Great Desert]]? Because he can eat the sand which is there. But what brought the sandwiches there? Why, [[Noah]] sent Ham, and his descendants mustered and bred."<ref name="ages">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/opinion/28Tartakovsky.html | work=The New York Times | title=Pun for the Ages | first=Joseph | last=Tartakovsky | date=28 March 2009}}</ref> This pun uses ''sand which is there/sandwiches there'', ''[[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]]/ham'', ''mustered/mustard'', and ''bred/bread''. Similarly, the phrase "piano is not my forte" links two meanings of the words ''forte'' and ''piano'', one for the dynamic markings in music and the second for the literal meaning of the sentence, as well as alluding to "pianoforte", the older name of the instrument. Compound puns may also combine two phrases that share a word. For example, "Where do [[mathematician]]s go on weekends? To a Möbius strip club!" puns on the terms ''[[Möbius strip]]'' and ''[[strip club]]''.

===Recursive===
A recursive pun is one in which the second aspect of a pun relies on the understanding of an element in the first. For example, the statement "[[Pi|π]] is only half a pie" (π [[radian]]s is 180 [[degree (angle)|degrees]], or half a circle, and a [[pie]] is a complete circle). Another example is "[[Infinity]] is not in finity", which means infinity is not in [[Finite set|finite]] range. Another example is "a [[Freudian slip]] is when you say one thing but mean [[Oedipus complex|your mother]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/puns.html |title=PUNS |website=Tnellen.com |access-date=20 December 2011}}</ref> The recursive pun "Immanuel doesn't pun, he [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]" is attributed to [[Oscar Wilde]].<ref name="Pollack2011"/>

===Visual===
[[File:148FS USAF emblem.png|thumb|[[148th Fighter Squadron]] emblem, a [[visual pun]] in which the squadron's motto, "Kickin' Ass", is depicted literally as an [[Donkey|ass]] in the act of kicking even though "kicking ass" is a colloquial expression for winning decisively or being impressive.|alt=]]

[[Visual pun]]s are sometimes used in logos, emblems, insignia, and other graphic symbols, in which one or more of the pun aspects is replaced by a picture. In European [[heraldry]], this technique is called [[canting arms]]. Visual and other puns<ref name="Puns">{{cite web |last1=Zack |first1=Hart |title=Best Puns So Far |url=http://punsclick.com/ |website=Punsclick |access-date=7 May 2025}}</ref> and word games are also common in Dutch [[gable stone]]s as well as in some [[cartoon]]s, such as ''[[Lost Consonants]]'' and ''[[The Far Side]]''. Another type of visual pun exists in languages that use non-phonetic writing. For example, in Chinese, a pun may be based on a similarity in shape of the written character, despite a complete lack of phonetic similarity in the words punned upon.<ref>Attardo, Salvatore. [https://books.google.com/books?id=hE_ex4MZKIEC&dq=%22Chinese+puns%22&pg=PA109 ''Linguistic Theories of Humor''], p.109. Walter de Gruyter, 1994. Alleton, V.: ''L'écriture chinoise''. Paris, 1970.</ref> [[Mark Elvin]] describes how this "peculiarly Chinese form of visual punning involved comparing written characters to objects."<ref>Elvin, Mark, [https://books.google.com/books?id=o-dQeGeuQNAC&pg=PA113 "The Spectrum of Accessibility: Types of Humor in ''The Destinies of the Flowers in the Mirror''"], p. 113. In: [[Roger T. Ames]] (et al.): ''Interpreting Culture through Translation: a Festschrift for D. C. Lau''. 1991, pp. 101–118.</ref>

Visual puns on the bearer's name are used extensively as forms of heraldic expression, they are called [[canting arms]]. They have been used for centuries across Europe and have even been used recently by members of the [[British royal family]], such as on the arms of [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother]] and of [[Princess Beatrice of York]]. The arms of U.S. Presidents [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] are also [[Canting arms|canting]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} In the context of non-phonetic texts, [[4 Pics 1 Word]], is an example of visual paronomasia where the players are supposed to identify the word in common from the set of four images.<ref>{{Cite web|date=10 March 2014|title=Paronomasia - Definition and Examples of Paronomasia|url=https://literarydevices.net/paronomasia/|access-date=2 June 2021|website=Literary Devices|language=en-US}}</ref>

===Paronomastic===
[[Paronomasia]] is the formal term for [[Pun|punning]], playing with words to create humorous or rhetorical effect. Paronomastic puns often manipulate well-known [[Idiom|idioms]], [[Proverb|proverbs]], or phrases to deliver a punned twist. The classic structure of a joke, with a setup leading to a punchline, is a common format for paronomastic puns, where the punchline alters the expected phrase in a way that plays on multiple meanings of a word. For instance, in the sentence, "I used to be a baker, but I couldn't make enough dough," the word "dough" is used paronomastically to refer both to the substance used to make bread and to slang for money.

This type of pun is frequently used in [[Advertising|advertisements]], [[comedy]], and [[literature]] to provide a clever and memorable message. One notable example comes from an advertising slogan for a moving company: "We don't charge an arm and a leg. We want your tows." Here, the familiar phrase "an arm and a leg" is paronomastically punned upon with "tows," playing on the phonetic similarity to "toes" while referring to the company's service of towing belongings.

===Metonymic===
Metonymic puns exploit the [[Metonymy|metonymic]] relationship between words – where a word or phrase is used to represent something it's closely associated with. In such puns, one term is substituted for another term with which it's closely linked by a concept or idea. The humor or wit of the pun often comes from the unexpected yet apt connection made between the two concepts.

For instance, consider a hypothetical news headline: "The White House loses its balance." In this case, "The White House" is used metonymically to represent the [[Government of the United States|U.S. government]], and "balance" could be interpreted both as physical stability (as if the building itself is tipping over) or fiscal balance (as in the budget), thereby creating a pun.

While metonymic puns may not be as widely recognized as a specific category of pun, they represent a sophisticated linguistic tool that can bring an additional layer of nuance to wordplay.

===Sylleptic/heteronymic===
[[Syllepsis]], or heteronymy, is a form of punning where a single word simultaneously affects the rest of the sentence, while it changes the meaning of the idiom it is used in. This form of punning uses the word in its literal and metaphorical senses at once, creating a surprising and often humorous effect.

An example of a sylleptic pun is in the sentence, "She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes and his hopes." In this case, "raising" applies in different ways to each of the items listed, creating a series of linked puns. This type of punning can often be seen in literature, particularly in works that play extensively with language. (She razed his self-esteem in how she raised the children.)

Notable practitioners of the sylleptic pun include authors such as [[P. G. Wodehouse]], who once wrote, "If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled," playing on the [[dichotomy]] of "disgruntled" and "gruntled," where the latter is not typically used.

===Antanaclasistic===
[[Antanaclasis]] is a type of pun where a single word or phrase is repeated, but the meaning changes each time. The humor or wit derives from the surprising shift in meaning of a familiar word or phrase. This form of punning often relies on homophones, homonyms, or simply the contextual flexibility of a word or phrase.

A classic example is [[Benjamin Franklin]]'s statement, "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."<ref>Reportedly said on the eve of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the exact origins remain uncertain as it was first reported in print in 1840, long after Franklin's death.</ref> In this quote, the word "hang" is first used to mean "stay" or "work together," but then, it is repeated with the meaning "be executed."

This punning style is prevalent in both humorous and serious contexts, adding layers of complexity to the language by highlighting the multifaceted nature of words. Such puns are frequently used in literature, speeches, and advertising to deliver memorable and impactful lines.

===Other===
Richard J. Alexander notes two additional forms that puns may take: graphological (sometimes called visual) puns, such as [[concrete poetry]]; and [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] puns, such as [[portmanteau]]x.<ref name = Alexander>{{cite book |last=Alexander |first=Richard J. |url=https://archive.org/details/aspectsofverbalh00alex |url-access=registration |title=Aspects of Verbal Humour in English |publisher=Gunter Narr Verlag |year=1997 |location=Narr, Tübingen |isbn=978-3-823-34936-5|pages=21–41}}</ref> Morphological puns may make use of [[rebracketing]], where for instance ''distressed'' is parsed as ''dis-tressed'' (having hair cut off), <ref name = Alexander/> or in the [[self-reference|self-referential]] pun "I entered ten puns in a pun competition hoping one would win, but no pun in ten did" (parsed as "no pun intended").