Pun (каламбур)

The pиn is a stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or phrase. It is difficult do draw a hard and fast distinction between zeugma and the pun. The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: the pun is more independent. Like any other stylistic device, it must depend on a context. "The Importance of Being Earnest" has a pun in it, inasmuch as the name of the hero and the adjective meaning 'seriously-minded' are both present in our mind.

'"Bow to the board," said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears that were lingering in his eyes; and seeing no board but the table, fortunately bowed to that'. (Dickens)

In fact, the humorous effect is caused by the interplay not of two meanings of one word, but of two words. 'Board' as a group of officials with functions of administration and management and 'board' as a piece of furniture (a table) have become two distinct words. Puns are often used in riddles and jokes, for example, in this riddle: What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? (One trains the mind and the other minds the train.)

Vulgarism

Vulgarisms are:1) expletives and swear words: damn, bloody, to hell, goddam; 2) obscene words (four-letter words). The function of the expletives is to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like in the direct speech of the characters. This stylistically lowest group consists of words which are considered too offensive for polite usage. Objectionable words may be divided into two groups: lexical stylistic vulgarisms. To the first group belong words expressing ideas concidered unmentionable in civilized society. Quite unmentionable are so- called “four- letters words”. The second group – stylistic vulgarisms- are words and phrases the lexical meanings of which have nothing indecent or on the whole, improper about them. Their impropriety in civilized life is due solely to their stylistic value – to stylistic connotation expressing a derogatory attitude of the speaker towards the objects of speech. (old bean (old man), smeller (nose), pay dirt (money) and the like.|)

Jargonisms

Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exist in almost every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. Jargonisms stand close to slang, also being substandard, expressive and emotive, but, unlike slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally (in this case we deal with professional jargonisrns, or professionalisms}, or socially (here we deal with /argon/sins proper). In distinction from slang, jargonisrns of both types cover a narrow semantic field: in the first case it is that, connected with the technical side of some profession. So, in oil industry, e. g, for the terminological "driller" (буровик) there exist "borer", ^"digger", "wrencher", "hogger", "brake weight"; for "pipeliner" (трубопроводчик), "bender", "cat", "old cat", "collar-pecker", "hammerman"; for "geologist"-"smeller", "pebble pup", "rock hound", "witcher", etc. Jargonisrns proper are characterized by similar linguistic features, but differ in function and sphere of application. They originated from the thieves' jargon (1'argo, cant) and served to conceal the actual significance of the utterance from the uninitiated. Their major function thus was to be cryptic, secretive. This is why among them there are cases of conscious deformation of the existing words. The so-called back jargon (or back slang) can serve as an example: in their effort to conceal the machinations of dishonest card-playing, gamblers used numerals in their reversed form: "ano" for "one", "owt" for "two", "erth" for "three".

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14