Eight Types of Puns

Eight Types of PunsAuthor(s): James BrownSource: PMLA, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Mar., 1956), pp. 14-26Published by: Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/460188 .

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EIGHT TYPES OF PUNS

By James Brown

"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

I

T HE PUN, Addison notes, is "a Sound, and nothing but a Sound." Lamb elaborates: a pun "is a pistol let off at the ear"; it has, he

says, "an ear-kissing smack with it." But the position is not entirely sound; like "The Echo," a poem which Hood rejected, it "will not answer."1 Any hearing on the pun must first admit the pun effect, which

precedes analysis and shows that we distinguish the pun semantically, not aurally. The sound is only echo to the sense, and through reflection we conclude that the pun effect is a function of multiple meaning. But even the best pun, whatever that may be, when it must be explained fails to elicit those unusual noises which are the punster's usual reward; the pun effect, it seems, results from some kind of greatly accelerated or simultaneous perception of multiple meanings. Psychology is here deep- ly involved?for any kind of meaning perception is singularly difficult to analyze?and such tangled affairs are most wisely avoided. A more reasonable approach lies in study of the conditions permitting and the

significance attending this curious and characteristic phenomenon; for the pun effect hints at larger matters.

The pun effect is a semantic achievement and derives from the symbolic nature of language, for there is no such thing as a perceptual pun (though there is, as any Gestaltist is pleased to demonstrate, perceptual ambiguity). If we see a bare-footed cowboy, who is helpless without his

boots, we may pun by pointing and uttering the one word, "Bootless." If our hearers know both 'useless' and 'without boots' as meanings for the word, it is perceived as a pun. For "bootless" here quite correctly asserts both meanings, since both apply to the situation. In the direct

naming process, then, which occurs when one points and labels with a

word, the pun may result when previous knowledge of the word is present. This previous knowledge must include at least two significantly different meanings, for when only one is present the result is recognition, not a pun.2 One necessary condition for pun perception, then, is previous

1 Spedator, No. 61; "Popular Fallacies: ix, 'That the Worst Puns are the Best' " and "Distant Correspondents" in Elia and the Last Essays of Elia; The Works of Thomas Hood, ed. by his son [Thomas Hood] (London, 1862), i, 53.

2 The intermediate situation, when multiple known meanings are not significantly different, or when significant differences are known but do not apply, is the realm of nuance. The

14



James Brown 15

knowledge of multiple and disparate meanings for the pun word; readers

lacking certain lexical experience will inevitably miss certain puns. Further, it is obvious that no pun results when the cowboy is wearing

boots. If there is no past knowledge of the word "bootless," then an un-

satisfactory meaning for the word is learned. If only the meaning 'useless' is known, the word simply applies literally as a recognized name. We do not accept contradiction in direct naming?in this at least we are con- sistent?and the meaning 'without boots,' if known, must be rejected on empirical grounds as nonsense. Thus the other necessary condition for pun perception is a context in which multiple and disparate meanings for the pun word are acceptable; the context must concern itself with certain matters if a pun is to be made on a certain word.

When the context of a pun is only direct experience, as in the pointing and naming situation, the pun meanings must be acceptable to our

knowledge of direct experience; '(to be) without boots is (to be) useless* is an identity asserted by the cowboy pun, and because both meanings are acceptable direct names, the single name is perceived as a pun. But when the context for a pun is linguistic?removed by symbolic means from the direct perception of things?the identity asserted by the pun is under no obligation to direct experience. A simple example of this is the pun riddle, in which the answer is either unassailable (if we get it) or far-fetched (if we don't). Swift relayed to Stella a pun demonstrating this; it concerned a fish dealer who paid a bill of two crowns with "a

piece of bad ling and a tench," claiming that "two crowns make tench-

ill-lingr1 Another example is more childish: "What would you do if you were out fishing and the boat sank??Oh, I'd just grab a cake of soap and wash myself ashore." Though simple, perhaps, these examples illustrate a fundamental point; the assertion of identity made by the pun arises from the nature of symbols (and contexts), not from the natureof

things. The pun makes both meanings apply; accepting the answer as

meaningful forces one to accept the assertion of identity permitted by accidents of lexical ambiguity and context, even though common sense

reality may thereby be violated. This is indeed a fundamental matter, for the pun is revealed as a

symbolic device which can force us from the pragmatic realm of direct

experience into the complex realm of abstractions, the magnincent realm of fantasy. For, when we know enough and read (or listen) care-

fully, failure to perceive a pun is impossible; we cannot wilfully suspend

sometimes "emotional" emphasis attributed to the nuance results from the latter case, it seems, when known different meanings do not apply but implicit lexical ambiguity (tanta- mount to implicit symbol ambiguity) asserts some kind of additional meaning.

3 Journal to Stella, ed. Harold Williams (Oxford, 1948), n, 400, 402-403.



16 Eight Types of Puns

our ability to see puns. Possessing sufficient lexical knowledge, we neces-

sarily find meaningful to a significant degree whatever identity the pun asserts. Here the limitations of direct naming are transcended; inescap- able assertions impossible for direct naming can be made. Within the conditions governing its occurrence, the pun achieves what the vastly more complex symbolic instrument of syntax accomplishes freely and with great flexibility?and that is the linking of contexts.4

The significance of context-linking is worthy of attention, and an ex?

ample will prove helpful here; one aspect of a passage from Paradise Lost (v.211-215) will suffice:

On to their morning's rural work they haste, Among sweet dews and flowers; where any row Of fruit-trees overwoody reached too far Their pampered boughs, and needed hands to check Fruitless embraces.

Here a series of muted ambiguities precedes the pun on "embraces": "reached" may mean 'extended spatially' or 'stretched forth'; "boughs" may mean 'branches' or 'limbs' (thus subtly is sex introduced); "hands"

4 Perhaps some mention should be made of the "bad" pun, which is achieved by abuse or misuse of the powers and limitations here under discussion. Though the "bad" pun can be very elaborate, there are only two basic forms: the one makes use of a forced or false lexical ambiguity; the other sometimes brutally manipulates contexts so as to utilize ambiguities fetched from afar.

The most common kind of false lexical ambiguity results from forcing similarity upon symbols only approximately alike; such puns range from the gross imposition of "A mere- tricious and a happy New Year" to the malaprop pun?commonly met as the student blunder?"Brian de Bois Guilbert asked Rebecca to be his mistress, and she reclined to do so." Another kind of false lexical ambiguity can be achieved with the neologism?"The druggist is a piller of society." (The same pun can be seen as more legitimately but less effectively based upon the archaic 'pill?to plunder (pillage).') All puns using symbol distortion are more effective, probably, when the reader is forced to supply the distortion: W. R. Parker reports the pun topical, in a discussion of voodoo?"It all reminds me of fly- ing sorcerers" (PMLA, lxvii [Sept. 1952], xii).

The second form of the "bad" pun occurs when any context linking is achieved simply because an ambiguity presents itself or can be arranged for. Hamlet offers several examples in his reply to Polonius: Polonius: I did enact Julius Caesar; I was killed V the Capitol; Brutus killed me. Hamlet: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. (in.ii. 108-111) For this kind of thing, homonyms are a never-failing source-pot. A final example, and a classic of its kind, is that furtive remark attributed to one of Macbeth's guards when he saw Birnam wood advancing on Dunsinane: "Cheese it," he said, "the copse."

The difficult thing about "bad" puns, of course, is that the perceiver cannot fail to follow them out; "bad" puns are characterized by symptoms of birth which draw attention, and the perceiver's own skill in language-use is responsible for his pain. The two remedies for an attack of "bad" puns are an immediate retreat or an offensive onslaught of your own



James Brown 17

?associatively linked through 'arms* to 'limbs*?permits but does not

emphasize the ambiguity. But when "embraces" is met, the pun pre- cipitates; the word has a sexual meaning too strong to ignore in a con? text so steadily demanding it. (And, significantly, retrospection shows that "reached" is actually a pun?both meanings apply to the context.) The result of these ambiguities and puns is an expansion of the total con? text for the passage?the linking of contexts produces a new total con? text?and all elements in the passage must assume acceptable relation-

ships within that new context if the passage is to possess a meaningful unity. The effect on a reader, then, is that "trees" and "boughs" ac-

ceptably possess the mobility, the motivation, the moral responsibility of sexually driven human creatures; Adam and Eve are no longer merely garden keepers, but have become guardians of morality in a world

ominously prefiguring their own weaknesses. The meaning of a word is, fundamentally, its context, and the sig-

nificance of context-linking lies in its influence upon total context; the

pun asserts a complex, non-lexical meaning which functions to define total meaning. The context-linking achieved by the pun is an organic combination or amalgam of what we ordinarily consider to be disparate (even contradictory) meanings for a word. Perception of the pun indicates acceptance of this semantic amalgam?it indicates that we have used as an element significantly contributing to total meaning an asser? tion which, out of context, we stand a good chance to find meaningless. And we are led to perception of this non-lexical meaning through our lexical prowess and reading ability; we cannot refuse to find the disparate reconciled. This startling state of affairs is the source of the pun's power, the cause of its peculiar effect.

We have noted that only in a context of direct experience do pun meanings necessarily agree with empirical fact; in symbolic contexts the pun?granting at least one literal meaning?may assert even fan- tastic identities with great freedom. This scope of expression the pun shares with the sentence, which also may make literal or metaphoric assertions. Like the sentence, the pun functions to define a complex meaning; further, it is a meaning, like that of the sentence, which is in its total effect non-lexical. In these respects, then, the pun parallels the

sentence, and can be viewed as a manifestation of an implicit sentence-

making power in the pointing and naming process. But the pun in-

variably reconciles disparate meanings, and this fact characterizes the

metaphoric sentence but not the literal sentence. Thus the pun, even when all pertinent meanings are literal to the context, possesses a semi-

metaphoric status which marks it as a significant symbolic accomplishment. For, within the scope of contextual and lexical accident, the pun




permits escape from the literal directness of simple names and points toward the incredible creative freedom of assertion which marks the sentence. In the pun we find and may study those basic elementsof

structure, uncomplicated by the presence of other factors, which charac- terize literary word-use; for the pun is the first step away from the trans-

parent word, the first step toward the achievement of symbolic metaphor.

II

Most puns link only two contexts, make use of only two meanings for the pun word. The pun linking three contexts is fairly common, however,

especially in poetry, where thoughtful (and leisurely) exposure to the

printed word may be expected. But even complex literary usage does not often need to utilize in its communicative function more than three

meanings for one word; the reason is not actual inability to do so, but that the resultant complexity tends to inhibit efncient (or satisfactory) meaning perception. And the practical act of communication seems to

discourage the occurrence of those lexical and contextual coincidences

necessary for the fourfold pun; a meaning situation permitting the simultaneous application of four meanings for one word is an infrequent phenomenon in even literary language use. In general, quadruple context puns seem to require a syntactical complexity which prevents purity: an example is Cleopatra's line at the death of Antony?"The crown o' th' earth doth melt" (iv.xv.63)?where four possible meanings for "crown" can be applied, but several shifts in the meanings of "earth" and "melt" must selectively occur also.6 The complexities attending such a situation are formidable and suggest that this analysis be prin- cipally confined to the pure double context pun; brief mention will be made later, however, of some more elaborate forms of the pun.

Those of us who have appreciated ironic sentences have learned, at least implicitly, that sentences sometimes do not mean what they say. The sentence of irony is perhaps an obvious example; the distinction is deep-rooted, however, and something like "Care sat on his faded cheek" can be cited as an example of a non-ironic sentence whose total

meaning differs from its syntactical assertion. And an analysis of the

pun, which is essentially an analysis of word meaning and its occurrence, must recognize the distinction, for puns fall into two large classes or

groups, defined by the relation which holds between the syntactical

5 The presence of "melt" suggests a metal crown: 'The royal headdress (symbolizing sovereignty) which made earth kingly is dissolving., A synecdochic understanding of such a crown can apply: 'The king of the earth is dying.' Royalty leads to excellence: 'The most excellent thing in the world is disappearing.' Excellence suggests the elevation metaphor: The peak of mankind is f alling.'



James Brown 19

assertion of the sentence (which I will call its syntax) in which the pun occurs and the total meaning of that sentence (which I will call its

sense). For both groups of puns, however, there are several limiting conditions

which apply. In the first place, it is clear that the multiple meanings of the simple pun appear within one syntactical situation; the relations between and among elements of the sentence remain unchanged no matter which meaning of the pun word is used. In addition, the sense of the sentence reflects the multiple meanings of the pun word; it is

characteristically unambiguous, though characteristically complex because defined in part by all acceptable pun word meanings. Finally, since the unknowing reader can fail to perceive the pun, there must be at least one meaning for the pun word which applies literally to both the

syntax and sense of the sentence; this condition permits a reader to find the sentence meaningful even though he does not see the pun in it.

The first group of pun types occurs in sentences in which the syntax is identical to (literal to) the sense. Since at least one meaning of the

pun word is literal to both the syntax of the sentence and its sense, it follows that distinctions among puns of this group will be defined by the relations which the remaining, or variable, meaning of the pun word may have to the syntax and sense of the sentence. A word meaning can be only literal or metaphoric (if it is meaningful at all); thus there are four possible sets of relations which the variable pun meaning may exhibit in this situation: it may be literal to both syntax and sense, metaphoric to both, literal to the syntax and metaphoric to the sense, or metaphoric to syntax and literal to sense. There are, then, four types of puns in the first group.

The first kind of pun?the simplest pure pun and probably by far the most common of all?is that in which the variable pun meaning is literal to both the syntax and sense of the sentence. This situation is characterized by a peculiar, experientially recognized aptness for the

pun word deriving from the literal application of two different meanings in a single context. The "bootless" cowboy pun is an example, but one more legitimate, perhaps, because occurring in a linguistic context, comes from "Mac Flecknoe":

Besides, his goodly fabric fills the eye And seems designed for thoughtless majesty. (25-26)

At least two literal meanings for "thoughtless" apply here, and Shad- well is qualified to be the 'unselfconscious' monarch of 'stupidity.' Be? cause of its frequent occurrence, we collect this kind of pun not for itself but for its setting; in proper context it shines forth brilliantly. Cotton




Mather's neatly turned observation is an example: "After all, Every Man will have his own Style, which will distinguish him as much as his Gate" [Manuductio ad Ministerium, ?8).

When the variable meaning of the pun word is literal to the syntax and metaphoric to the sense of the sentence, a pun of the second type occurs. This might be called the allegorical pun, for it requires the establishment of a conceit upon?or metaphorical restatement of?a literal meaning of the pun word. The peculiar aptness of the first type is

retained, however, since both meanings of the pun word are literal to the syntax. Falstaff's "There's that will sack a city" (/ Henry IV

v.iii.50) is an example, for drunkenness in a city supplied with sack is an allegorical destruction of that city. When Beatrice tells Hero, "The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed in good time"

(Much Ado About Nothing n.i.72-73), the meaning 'at the proper time' for the phrase "in good time" is a metaphoric restatement of the mean?

ing 'in proper tempo,' which literally applies. In the third kind of pun, the variable meaning of the pun word is

metaphoric to the syntax and literal to the sense of the sentence. The

peculiar aptness of the first two types disappears under these condi-

tions, since one meaning is literal and the other metaphoric to the syn? tax, but it is replaced by an empirical effect perhaps best characterized as contradictory, or "shocking"; many "bad" puns are of this type, because the conditions call for the literal acceptance of two meanings which are incompatible, either logically or empirically. Swift's "tench-

ill-ling" pun offers an example. In the implied assertion of this one?

'tench-ill-ling are ten shilling'?the fish are literally presented as ten

shillings; after perceiving this?in short, after being taken in?we react, usually adversely. Another example of this occurs in "A Fable for Critics": of Bryant, "as quiet, as cool, and as dignified, / As a smooth, silent iceberg," Lowell comments, "There's no doubt that he stands in

supreme ice-olation." A less spectacular example, perhaps because con-

siderably more subtle, is found in Romeo and Juliet, when Juliet says (m.ii.12), "And learn me how to lose a winning match." The meaning 'victorious' for "winning" must be metaphoric to the syntax, for one does not lose a victorious match; but the meaning 'appealing' is quite literal. And both meanings are literal to the sense of the sentence.

If an additional metaphoric factor is added to the pun of the third

type, the scope and contrast of the contradictory effect are increased; the fourth kind of pun, which occurs when the variable pun meaning is

metaphoric to both the syntax and sense of the sentence, ranges from the restrained to the spectacular in its effect. In Tennyson's "The

Eagle" a muted pun of type four occurs: "The wrinkled sea beneath



James Brown 21

him crawls." Here "wrinkled" utilizes the meaning 'furrowed,' or 'creased in permanent ridges/ but this is metaphoric to the meaning 'creased in ever-changing ridges/ which literally applies. The result is a legitimate pun, however, for both meanings are resolved in the sense of the sentence?it is an ancient sea (wrinkled with age) which is creased with moving waves. At the other extreme of effect, perhaps, is this pun from Milton's second Hobson poem: "Too long vacation hastned on his term." This might well be analyzed as an example of syntactical ambiguity, but the contradictory meanings for "term" allow us to see it as a pun of the fourth type; both 'the beginning of labor' and 'the

ending of labor' apply here for the word. The second group of pun types is more complex, empirically, than

the first group. In some real sense, puns of this group cause us to react more sharply than do those of the first group, and this arises from the fact that an additional metaphoric factor is present?for these puns occur in sentences whose syntax is metaphoric to their sense, sentences whose total meanings differ from their syntactical assertions. Pun types are determined, as in the first group, by the relation of the variable pun meaning to the syntax and to the sense of the sentence in which the

pun occurs. There are, then, four members in this group, also, and their structure parallels that of the types found in the first group.

The simplest example of this pun group is that in which both meanings for the pun word are literal to the syntax and to the sense of the sentence. This is a pun which rings with that peculiar aptness characterizing the first two pun types, but its central effect is not one of cumulative literal

iteration; this kind of pun?the fifth type?lends itself instead to the achievement of irony. Satan's expression of willingness to arbitrate offers several examples:

Vanguard, to Right and Left the Front unfould, That all may see who hate us, how we seek Peace and composure, and with open brest Stand readie to receive them, if they like Our overtures, and turn not back perverse; But that I doubt, however witness Heaven, Heav'n witness thou anon, while we discharge Freely our part: (Paradise Lost vi.558-565)

The pun required a certain amount of preparation, as the context quoted shows, but once achieved it was too good to abandon:

Ye who appointed stand Do as you have in charge, and briefly touch What we propound, and ioud that all may hear. (565-567)




A word like "discharge" here carries two meanings?'perform' or 'ac-

complish' and 'fire a cannon.' Both are literal in what Satan says and in what he ironically (metaphorically) means. An example utilizing paradox instead of irony has been quoted previously; Juliet's plea, "And learn me how to lose a winning match," contains a pun of the fifth type on "match." Both 'wedding' and 'game' apply literally in the

syntax and in the sense of the sentence. And the "medieval grace of iron clothing," whose loss Miniver Cheevy deplored, contains a pun of this type on "medieval," for both the pejorative meaning of 'archaic' and the chronological meaning of 'concerned with the middle ages' apply literally in a sentence whose syntax is metaphoric to its sense.

The second term in the phrase "medieval grace" demonstrates a pun of the sixth type, which requires that the variable pun meaning be literal to the syntax and metaphoric to the sense of the sentence. When

meaning 'blessing,' the word "grace" is literal to the syntax and to the sense of the sentence; when meaning 'graceful in appearance,' it becomes

metaphoric to the sense. Another example may be found in the words of the wrathful Prince to the quarreling Capulets and Montagues (i.i.94): "Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground." The mean?

ing 'poor quality' for "mistempered" is literal to the syntax but meta?

phoric to the sense; the meaning 'used in an unsuitable fit of temper' is literal to both factors. And Prufrock's characterization of himself? "no doubt, an easy tool"?contains a pun on "easy" which is probably of this type. The meanings of 'comfortable' and 'easily used' seem to be, respectively, metaphoric and literal to the sense of the sentence.

The seventh type of pun requires that the variable meaning of the

pun word be literal to the sense and metaphoric to the syntax in which it occurs; this complex situation is similar to that of the third type, and shares with it the assertion of some kind of logical or empirical contradiction. Henry IV uses a pun of this type (/ Henry IV i.i.22-23):

Forthwith a power of English shall we levy Whose arms were molded in their mothers' wombs . . .

In the meaning 'limbs,' the word "arms" is literal to the syntax, but the meaning 'weapons' is here metaphoric, for weapons are not formed in mothers' wombs; both meanings, however, are literal to the sense of the sentence. Another example comes from the justly famous song in Cymbeline (iv.ii.262-264):

Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney sweepers, come to dust.

This sentence asserts that all mortals, fortunate or otherwise, must become dust, and this is a literal assertion. Further, the word "dust" can be taken metonymically and applied, by analogy to the literal assertion,



James Brown 23

to both chimney sweepers and golden people: 'Chimney sweepers must become dust, and golden people must become dust; chimney sweepers must soil themselves in the world, and golden people must soil themselves in the world.' Both sets of assertions are literal to the sense of the

sentence, which may be crudely paraphrased into something like, 'The

high and the low must live in this sordid world and must die and cor-

rupt.' The eighth type of pun adds metaphoric complexity, for in it the

variable pun meaning is metaphoric to both the syntax and the sense of the sentence it occurs in. This kind of thing can happen when the

meaning has been correctly prepared for?when it can be used because its metaphoric status has been adequately justified. In "The Hasty Pudding" (Canto i.67) Barlow capitalizes upon lexical history to make a pun of this type: "London is lost in smoke and steeped in tea." The pun develops through its literal use of a dead metaphor (the meaning 'thor-

oughly familiar' for "steeped") and its metaphoric use of a literal mean?

ing ('soaked'). Another example, perhaps more to the point because

preparation for it is directly visible, occurs in that fruitful carrier of com?

plex puns, Milton's second Hobson poem:

Obedient to the Moon he spent his date In cours reciprocal, and had his fate Linkt to the mutual flowing of the Seas, Yet (strange to think) his wain was his increase.

In the pun on "cours reciprocal"?which compares Hobson's trips to London and back (or vice versa) to the waxing and waning of the moon ?the meaning 'wane' is equated to one phase of Hobson's professional activity and the pun on "wain" prepared for. The sentence "his wain was his increase" is metaphoric to the sense, which is something like 'his trips to the Bull with his wagon were the source of his money and satisfaction in life.' The meaning 'wagon' for "wain" is literal to the

syntax, but the meaning 'wane' is metaphoric for'trips to (orfrom) Lon? don.' This kind of pun is as complex as a pure double context pun can be.

III

Analysis of the triple context pun proceeds exactly as does the anal-

ysis of the double context pun, under the same limiting conditions. I do not propose to exemplify the thirty-two kinds of triple context puns which must exist, but some attention to the typical complexity of such puns seems desirable. An exploded example is found in / Henry IV, when Falstaff overtly introduces the second and third contexts for the pun word:




Falstaff: And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art King, as, God save thy Grace?Majesty, I should say, for grace thou wilt have none?

Prince: What, none? Falstaff: No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg

and butter. (i.ii. 18-24)

A more subtle example, depending not upon overt statement of the

necessary context but instead upon the contextual suitability of the three meanings, occurs in "An Essay on Criticism":

Pulpits their sacred satire learned to spare, And Vice admired to find a flatter'r there! Encouraged thus, Wit's Titans braved the skies, And the press groaned with licensed blasphemies. (550-553)

The last line contains two triple context puns, each functioning inde-

pendently. The "licensed blasphemies" may be lewd (frowned upon by the sacerdotal authorities), accepted (permitted by those authorities), or approved (permitted by legal authorities); the "press" may be the

printing press itself, the institution which used the printing press, or, through shift in sense for "groaned"?from 'creaked' to 'moaned'?the

general public. Any and all of these pun meanings lead us to a public saddled with human follies which certain institutions support?an understanding of the matter which, presumably, Pope would have endorsed.

The triple context pun begins to reveal its possible complexity with another example which utilizes metaphoric equivalence between two

meanings to achieve its effect. Romeo, bewailing the pacifism which led to the fatal wounding of Mercutio, says,

O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, And in my temper soften'd valour's steel. (m.i. 118-120)

The immediate dichotomy between 'anger' and 'state of being' (i.e., composition or constitution?in this case, "effeminate") as meanings for "temper" is expanded by the metaphorical restatement of the latter

meaning; "soften'd valour's steel" is a repetition of "hath made me

effeminate," and forces the meaning 'hardness' upon the word "temper." Double and triple context puns occur within a fixed frame, and their

occurrence is limited by the accidents of lexical ambiguity and context

suitability. But syntax can function to elaborate the pun, in a very simple manner, once the fundamental conditions for pun occurrence have been met. When two puns occur in close syntactical relation?as in subject-verb or adjective-noun?the pun phrase results. In the sim-

plest case the puns involved are double context puns; each possesses two

acceptable meanings in context and both meanings apply within the



James Brown 25

syntactical relation. The result is that the meanings cross link within the

phrase, and four meanings for the phrase are defined. The reader will find such a situation to be quite complex, of course; the pun phrase is revealed as a rich store of sometimes startlingly elusive meanings when one attempts to paraphrase it. Several examples of such phrases have been quoted in the preceding pages?"winning match," "medieval

grace," "arms were molded"?but their analysis will be left to the reader; a consideration of the Miltonic pun on "fruitless embraces" (also quoted earlier) will suffice to show the way.

In this phrase, the word "fruitless" bears two meanings?'fruit-less' and 'ineffectual.' The word "embraces" also bears two meanings? 'entwinings' and 'claspings to bosom.' Because of the syntactical linking, these meanings combine to define four phrases, each legitimately present in the context and each contributing to the total meaning of the sentence:

1. 'fruit-less entwinings'?entwinings of fruit-trees which do not produce fruit. 2. 'ineffectual entwinings'?entwinings of fruit-trees which try but fail to pro?

duce fruit. 3. 'fruit-less claspings to bosom'?sexual embraces which do not produce issue. 4. 'ineffectual claspings to bosom'?sexual embraces which do not produce satis-

faction.

The power of the pun phrase lies in the simultaneous assertion of all its

meanings; to a reader the phrase echoes and re-echoes with meaning, as well it might. In the "fruitless embraces" pun, for instance, we meet connotations of a failure of purpose in nature (phrases one and two) and a hint of the practical and moral perversity of the situation (phrases three and four). The pun phrase, like the pun, results in an expanded total context for the meanings in the passage.

When the syntactical frame within which words appear is itself am-

biguous, then another kind of pun elaboration can occur. Ambiguous syntax increases the possible application of lexical ambiguity, for two or more situations are made available within which meanings can apply to define the pun. Lexical ambiguity?the punster's almost inviolable final limitation?reduces to symbol similarity and ambiguous syntax; the syntactically ambiguous pun is often characterized by specious or

outrageous meaning linkings?we recognize it as a favorite medium for the "bad" pun. A simple example is this riddle: "Why is an onion like a piano??Because it smell odious (it's melodious)." Swift's "tench-ill-

ling" pun is syntactically ambiguous, for it links a noun-adjective-noun unit through sound similarity to an adjective-noun unit. And Hood's

head, in "The Angler's Farewell," spawned this:

Not a Trout can there be in the place, Not a Grayling or Rud worth the mention,




And though at my hook With attention I look

I can ne'er see my hook with a Tench ont

Hood also reported being bothered by an undertaker who wanted to "urn a lively Hood." And Cotton Mather exhibits commendable skill with this technique?in Magnalia Christi Americana, "A General Intro-

duction," ?6?when he foresees "our Church-History vexed with Anie- mad-versions of Calumnious Writers."

But the syntactically ambiguous pun does not require such strained lexical equivalences; it is possibly at its most spectacular when making use of more usual ambiguities, especially homonymic ambiguities. A well- known example concerns the woman who names her sons' cattle ranch

"Focus," because that was where the sons raise meat (sun's rays meet). Another effective note was struck by Jekyll, whose friend Garrow, a

lawyer, was attempting to establish through the testimony of a lying old woman that a tender of money had been made: "Garrow, forbear; that

tough old jade / Will never prove a tender made." This context brings us to a final example, where idiom is responsible for the syntactical ambigu? ity. An old-fashioned gentleman with an eye for the ladies was inspecting a house for rent and noticed an attractive maid. "Well, my dear," he

said, "are you to be let with the establishment?" To this she replied, "Oh, no, sir, I am to be let alone."

In general, further analysis of the pun leads into more and more

complicated aspects of language-use, aspects pointing emphatically, for

instance, toward the analogue metaphor ("A is B," when A is not B), which seems to function like the pun, though freed by the power of syn? tax from the constraining requirement of lexical ambiguity (symbol similarity) for the meanings it links. In addition, the pun seems to be

organically related to other sound-sense phenomena of literature; in it, for example, one may find perfect and total rhyme compressed into a

single symbol occurrence. And as other factors of symbol use begin to

appear, the basic empirical effect of the pun is modified into complex literary experience?the simple form of the pun becomes the complicated form of literature. But the fundamental accomplishment of the pun? the definition of context-linking and the resultant expansion of the total context?is visible in all pun occurrences, is perhaps to be found in all

literary language-use. This achievement marks the pun as an important symbolic phenomenon, identifies it as a fundamental structured symbol form possessing literary power and significance.

North Texas State College Denton



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Eight Types of Puns

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