Study notes on Functions and Characteristics of Puns with Examples

Introduction to puns

Puns are part of the oral literature genre called short forms. Other items that are in this genre alongside puns are:

• Jokes
• Proverbs
• Riddles
• Idioms
• Tongue twisters

What are puns?

By definition, a pun is a form of wordplay whose wording contains more than one meaning. Puns achieve this by:

• Puns make use of words with more than one meaning
• Puns use words with more than one meaning
• In a nutshell, puns are statements that contain words with more than one meaning. The words may sound alike (homophones) but they have different meanings.

Characteristics of puns

Puns have the following characteristics:

• Puns are short
• They are humorous
• Puns make use of homophones

Functions of puns

Puns may be used to teach pronunciation since they contain words that sound alike.

Puns also serve as a form of entertainment. The different meanings of the puns bring out the humour and thus provide entertainment by making people laugh.

Puns are used to enhance creativity in language use. To create a pun requires wit and creativity.

Puns create humour. Since puns are often on a light note, they often end in laughter.

Examples of Puns

1. Can February March? No, April May.
2. My mathematics teacher called her average. That was so mean!
3. Rose is the flower of his life
4. He was a banker but he lost interest
5. Those stairs are up to something
6. Being two tired, his bicycle fell off
7. Though it was a good chemistry joke, no one reacted
8. The poor boy was hit on the head with a can of soda but fortunately, it was a soft drink.
9. Eating a clock is time-consuming
10. Even after pushing it hard, the envelope remained stationery.
11. He got married after he found his honey
12. Look out! (this may mean using eyes to focus on what is happening outside or being careful)

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