Volume 03 Issue 09-2023
23
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
(ISSN
–
2771-2273)
VOLUME
03
ISSUE
09
P
AGES
:
23-26
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2022:
5.
445
)
(2023:
6.
555
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
ABSTRACT
In this article we provide information about the phenomenon “wordplay”. Moreover, the phonological and
graphological structure and analysis of it is presented. Wordplay can be employed among friends as well as in media.
The aim of wordplay here is to capture the reader’s or viewer’s attention via the unusual formulations used in the titles
of the newspaper articles or in the news on television.
KEYWORDS
wordplay, pun, phonological structure, humour, paronymy, homonymy.
INTRODUCTION
Wordplay is a frequent and common phenomenon and
an inseparable part of communication. Delabastita
(1997, 1-2) describes wordpl
ay as “a deliberate
communicative strategy, or the result thereof, used
with a specific semantic or pragmatic effect in mind”.
Wordplay can be employed among friends as well as in
media. The aim of wordplay here is to capture the
reader’s or viewer’s atte
ntion via the unusual
formulations used in the titles of the newspaper
articles or in the news on television.
Literature review. As mentioned above, wordplay is
often related to humour. The Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary provides the definition of
wordplay in which the aspect of humour is already
included: Wordplay - making jokes by using words in a
clever or amusing way, especially by using a word that
Research Article
WORDPLAY AND ITS PHONOLOGICAL AND GRAPHOLOGICAL
STRUCTURE
Submission Date:
September 15, 2023,
Accepted Date:
September 20, 2023,
Published Date:
September 25, 2023
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ajps/Volume03Issue09-05
Saidova Iroda Anvar Kizi
Tashkent State Named After Alisher Navoi University Of Uzbek Language And Literature Foundation Doctoral
Student, Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://theusajournals.
com/index.php/ajps
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
Volume 03 Issue 09-2023
24
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
(ISSN
–
2771-2273)
VOLUME
03
ISSUE
09
P
AGES
:
23-26
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2022:
5.
445
)
(2023:
6.
555
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
has two meanings, or different words that sound the
same Nevertheless, the success of a joke is affected by
various factors.
One of them is the environment in which it is uttered.
The joke-teller must consider the cultural, political,
social and other backgrounds of the environment in
which he/she occurs. Chiaro (1992, 15) explains: […]
not everydiv is amused by the same things, and what
is more, over and above shared knowledge of
whatever type, finding something funny relies on a
number of subjective variables. What may appear
amusing under the influence of a few drinks may not
appear quite so funny in the cold light of the morning
after. A homosexual is hardly going to enjoy being
insulted by someone’s idea of a witty remark at his or
her expense, any more than the Irish are amused by the
thousands of jokes which depict them as imbeciles.
Some people are offended by sexual innuendo, while
others by political references contained in a joke.
There are different ways to produce wordplay. Almost
every linguistic phenomenon possible is used
–
not
only lexical means such as idioms and polysemy, but
also grammar or phonetics. Delabastita (1996, 130)
suggests the following categorization, according to
the linguistic means used to achieve wordplay:
• Phonological and graphological structure
• Lexical structure (polysemy)
• Lexical structure (idiom)
• Morphol
ogical structure
• Syntactic structure
Delabastita (1996, 131) also claims that “often two or
more of the above features of language are harnessed
simultaneously in order to obtain one single pun.”
Sometimes it can be very hard to decide to which
category the given wordplay should be classified.
Phonological and graphological structure. The number
of phonemes and graphemes in a language is limited.
Moreover, each language has its rules according to
which they can be employed and so they can create
only certain combinations. Delabastita (1996, 130) uses
the term ‘sound
-
play’ which “ borders on alliteration,
assonance and consonance”. He goes on to say that “
in sound-play sound provides the basis for the verbal
association, whereas anagrammatic wordplay is based
on spelling.” As an example of sound
-play, Delabastita
provides: ( 1 ) Love at first bite. The sentence in ( 1 ) is
based on the expression love at first sight in whoch the
noun sight was replaced by its paronym, i.e. a word
whose pronunciation is very similar.
Paronymy. According to Attardo (1994, 110-
111) “two
words
are
paronyms
when
their
phonemic
representations are similar but not identical.”
Nevertheless, this definition is not complete. Let me
provide a more complex definition provided by Marcu
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2771-2273)
VOLUME
03
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SJIF
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(2022:
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Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
(2010, 202) who claims that “in linguistics, paronym
may refer to: a word related to another word and
derived from the same root - e.g. cognate words; this
types of paronyms often lead to confusion” or “words
almost homonyms but having slight differences in
spelling or pronunciation
–
different prefixes or
suffixes and added word syllables can change stress
and elements of pronunciation - and having different
meanings.” By way of illustration, Marcu (2010, 203)
suggests the examples of law and low or breath and
breathe.
Homonymy. Apart from ‘true homonymy’, i.e. words
whose phonological and graphological structure
match, there are two more types of homonymy to be
distinguished: homophony and homography.
Homophony is a type of homonymy in which two
words are identical in pronunciation, but different in
spelling. Meyer et al. (2005, 149) provides the example
of [θru:] signifying either through or threw.
Homography. While homophones are words with an
identical pronunciation and a different spelling,
homographs are the opposite. Peprník (2001, 33) offers
the word lead as an illustrative example. It can be
understood either as a verb meaning “to go with or in
front of a person or an animal to show the way or to
make them go in the right direction” (OALD) or “a
chemical element. Lead is a heavy soft grey metal, used
especially in the past for water pipes or to cover roofs”
(OALD). The pronunciation in the first meaning is [li:d]
whereas in the second meaning it is pronounced as
[led].
Homonymy vs. polysemy While senses of a
homonymous word are not related, in case of
polysemy, arguably, they are. Peprník (2001, 26) inserts
the distinction between polysemy and homonymy into
his definition of polysemy: Polysemy, i.e. having two or
more meanings, that is referring to two or more items
of extralinguistic reality, but at the same time sharing
at least one element of meaning
–
without this link, the
shared meaning, it would be a case of homonymy The
difference is illustrated in the following example
provided by Atkins et al. (2008, 280):
a) She gave him a punch in the stomach. (a hard blow
with the fist)
b) It lacks the emotional punch of French cinema. (a
forceful, memorable quality)
c) Glasses of punch were passed around. (an alcoholic
drink mixed from several ingredients)
Atkins et al. (2008, 280) point out that meanings of the
noun punch in ( 2a ) and ( 2b ) are more related than
the meaning expressed in ( 2c ). In ( 2b ) it can be
considered to be “a metaphorical extension of the
physical punch” expressed in (2a),
while ( 2c ) is
semantically different
–
it occupies a “different
semantic area”, despite the fact that it shares the
Volume 03 Issue 09-2023
26
American Journal Of Philological Sciences
(ISSN
–
2771-2273)
VOLUME
03
ISSUE
09
P
AGES
:
23-26
SJIF
I
MPACT
FACTOR
(2022:
5.
445
)
(2023:
6.
555
)
OCLC
–
1121105677
Publisher:
Oscar Publishing Services
Servi
orthographic quality. The meaning of punch in ( 2c ) has
the origin in the Sanskrit word panch meaning five
–
the punch drink was originally mixed from five
ingredients. To conclude, punch in ( 2a ) and ( 2b ) are
polysemous words (or ‘polysemes’) whereas punch in
( 2c ) is their homonym
CONCLUSION
According to the analysis, wordplays is mostly created
by using morphological means, especially conversion
and blending. Puns based on syntactic structure were
not recognized. As far as the translation is considered,
the most problematic cases of wordplay were based
on polysemy. In the translation, one of the meanings of
a polysemous word is often omitted. A different
language typology can be one of the reasons of
problems with the translation. On the other hand,
idiomatic expressions were, surprisingly, easier to
translate because of the existence of a equivalent. The
translation is not always identical, however the formal
and functional aspects are mostly maintained.
REFERENCES
1.
Chiaro, Delia. 1992. The Language of Jokes:
Analysing Verbal Play. New York: Routledge.
2.
Cruse, Alan. 2011. Meaning in Language: An
Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics.
New York: Oxford University Press.
3.
Delabastita, Dirk. 1997. Traductio: Essays on
Punning and Translation. Manchester: St.
Jerome Publishing
4.
Makkai, Adam. 1972. Idiom Structure in English.
The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V. Newmark, P
5.
Murphy, Lynne M. 2010. Lexical Meaning. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
