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16 Lexical Stylistic devices based on polysemantic effect. Zeugma , Pun.
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent
[ə'ʤeɪs(ə)nt]
words in the context, the semantic relations being literal and transferred. Zeugma always creates a humorous effect. Have a Coke and a smile! “Have” is realized in two different meanings: in the word combination “have a Coke” its direct (literal), in “have a smile” its transferred. Functioning as a verb, zeugma serves as a grammatical cord, trussing together the parts of a sentence. This part of figurative language helps in making the literary works and conversation more efficacious. Besides, it serves to embellish and emphasize a sentence, thereby escalating its beauty to greater heights. It also makes the sentence unique and delivers the actual idea in a very pictorial and impressive style. The frequent use of zeugma can be well perceived in the literary works of the 17th century. The writers and poets exploited this rhetorical device to add simplicity or vividness to a long passage, to build up the plot in a precise manner or to indicate connections between the elements used in the plot. Scroll down this write-up to explore the examples of zeugma.
Pun it has a humorous effect which may be based on misinterpretation of the speakers utterance by the other or by the result of the speakers intended violation of the listeners expectation. When are true words sweet words? When they are candid. Pun is also a play on words of the same sound, it may be based on homonymy, polysemy.
Examples of zeugma:
She opened the door and her heart to the orphan.
She exhausted both her audience and her repertoire, by Anonymous.
To wage war and peace.
"You held your breath and the door for me."
The addict kicked the habit and then the bucket.
The pun is another 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: zeugma is the realization of two meanings with the help of a verb which is made to refer to different subjects or objects (direct or indirect). The pun is more independent. There need not necessarily be a word in the sentence to which the pun-word refers. This does not mean, however, that the pun is entirely free. Like any other stylistic device, it must depend on a context. But the context may be of a more expanded character, sometimes even as large as a whole work of emotive prose. Thus the title of one of Oscar Wilde's plays, "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. Here is another example of a pun where a larger context for its realization is used: "'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.) Devices of simultaneously realizing the various meanings of words, which are of a more subtle character than those embodied in puns and zeugma, are to be found in poetry and poetical descriptions and in spe- , culations in emotive prose. Men-of-letters are especially sensitive to the nuances of meaning embodied in almost every common word, and to make these words live with their multifarious semantic aspects is the task of a good writer. Those who can do it easily are said to have talent. In this respect it is worth subjecting to stylistic analysis words ordinarily perceived in their primary meaning but which in poetic diction begin to acquire some additional, contextual meaning. This latter meaning sometimes overshadows the primary meaning and it may, in the course of time, cease to denote the primary meaning, the derived mean-ing establishing itself as t:he most recognizable one