Pun in English: Towards identifying its Equivalent Device(s) in Arabic

Abstract

The term pun refers to a common rhetorical device that involves playing upon words which are similar in form but different in meaning. It seems to be a universal phenomenon since it appears in literatures of all natural languages. In Arabic, it is observed that Arab authors are at odds when they write about this device. They often differ in identifying what represents it in Arabic rhetoric to the extent that they refer to distinctly different devices as its counterparts like tawriya, jinās or sometimes both. This draws a lot of confusion and raises some inquiries: Does tawriya equate jinās? if not, which one may represent pun in English? and what are the main reasons that have often caused such confusion and mismatching? Therefore, the present paper aims at investigating the rhetorical devices which are similar in their mechanism to the phenomenon of punning in English in an attempt to figure out what represents it in Arabic. It also draws attention to the formal typology of  this device in English to illustrate the sense of  mismatching which have appeared in previous studies when referring to its counterparts in Arabic.
Key words: pun, wordplay, rhetoric, paronomasia, tawriya, jinās.