tc dokuz eylül university institute of social sciences translation and ...

hair, hare (Webster's). This is a second major type of wordplay. The formal similarity
is weaker than in homonymy but still strong enough for the two words to be related
to each other in the mind of the listener or reader (de Vries & Verheij, 1997; 76).
The last form is polysemy which refers to different but related senses for one
word. It is generally agreed that in each case only one word is being discussed, not
two that happen to have the same form (to which the name homonym is given).
Senses of the same word are seldom ambiguous in context, but the less specific the
context, the greater the possibility of ambiguity. From a theoretical perspective, the
distinction between homonymy and polysemy (the repetition of the same word in
different meanings) is in many cases difficult to make. “There is an extensive grey
area between the concepts of polysemy and homonymy. A word like walk is
polysemous (went walking, went for a walk, walk the dog, Meadow Walk Drive),
while a word like bank is homonymous between at least bank for money and bank of
a river” (ww.wordfiles.info). “Only if the words concerned show some semantic
overlap will there be a pun, as wordplay in these cases hinged on the interaction
between similarity and difference. To the extent that words in the translation show
comparable overlap, there will be a pun-to-pun rendering” (de Vries & Verheij,
1997; 72).
Along with the forms listed above, the other two literary forms can also be
considered as they have to do with a play on words. One of these is malapropism -
substitution of "fancy" or "pompous" words, often opposite to the intended meanings
or meaningless, for a correct word, a malapropism (from French mal à propos, "ill to
purpose") is an incorrect usage of a word, usually with comic effect. The term
malapropism comes from the name of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard
Brinsley Sheridan's comedy, The Rivals, whose name was in turn derived from the
existing English word malapropos, meaning 'inappropriately'. Malapropism is
demonstrated in the following examples: "He's as headstrong as an allegory on the
banks of the Nile (i.e., alligator), "He is the very pineapple of politeness". (i.e.,
pinnacle) (www.malapropism.co.uk).
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