Editorial
An edited version of this article was published in Voices, no. 198, September-October 2007

Sticky Wordplay: Puns and Metaphors

Monica Hoogstad, UK

Monica Hoogstad is a freelance Business English and Legal English teacher, and a teacher trainer with eighteen years experience in ELT. She has worked in England, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Romania. Her current interests are NLP and Multiple Intelligences, the cognitive function of metaphor, teaching while having fun (and the other way around). E-mail: MonicaHoogstad@yahoo.co.uk

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Introduction
Activities
Key
References

Introduction

I’m quite fascinated by puns because they’re used ad nauseam in Britain, in spite of always eliciting groans from the audience (they’re also called ‘groaners’) and profuse apologies from the ‘punner’. Although they are deemed a lesser form of wit – that invariably causes otherwise polite people to shake their heads, roll their eyes and tut-tut – they seem to be a national obsession. Take a quick squint at a few corny puns found in Christmas crackers and cereal boxes, and you’ll understand some people’s acquired phobia.

Q: Where do tadpoles change into frogs? A: In the croakroom.
Q: Q: How do you address a female health inspector? A: Hi, Jean!
Q: What is the colour of the wind? A: Blew.

All newspapers and TV programmes employ a plethora of puns in their captions and adverts. If you want to learn how to play the violin, go ahead, but no strings attached, mate! If you buy a Noritake vase at a boot sale and think it’s a bargain, it might turn out to be rather Nori-tacky indeed. If you’re interested in pet insurance, they’ll offer you something you’d be barking mad to refuse or even sniff at. And don’t be a turkey – do your Christmas shopping in our store!

But there’s a bright side to punning – homographs and homophones, which can be easier recognised, remembered and recycled by learners of English if they are presented in the shape of clever puns or brainteasers. Consider the puns below; some are quite punny (oh, sorry about that!):

Q: What do trains and trees have in common?
A: Trains leave sheds and trees shed leaves.

Q: What is the difference between unlawful and illegal?
A: The first is against the law, the second is a sick bird.

Q: What is the difference between a mirror and a man?
A: One reflects without speaking, the other speaks without reflecting.

Q: Why is 6 afraid of 7?
A: Because 7 8 9.

Q: Why is the Panama Canal like the first U in ‘cucumber’?
A: Because it’s between two Cs.

The following activities invite learners of English to take a joyride through the English language and culture. The hunt for double meanings, ambiguities, on-purpose misspellings, spoonerisms, etc. in Activities 1 and 2 is bound to make the students relax, and hence become more playful and creative with the language they’re learning. Activity 3 uses metaphors and puns to stimulate the student’s imagination, to increase their capacity of absorbing and recycling new lexis. ‘Punny’ teaching brings together the best of the two worlds: the humanistic and the pragmatic aspects of language learning.

Activities

Activity 1

English is a crazy language indeed. If you’ve ever wondered why phonetic is not spelled the way it sounds; or if singers sing, how come that fingers don’t fing; or if the plural of tooth is teeth, how come that the plural of booth is not beeth; or why enough, cough and through don’t sound alike, you’ll surely enjoy this challenge.

Fill in the blanks with a ‘hinge’ word that completes both sentences in a pair, following the model.

I wasn’t aware she was such an avid collector of glassware, earthenware and china.
China has become one of the world’s emerging markets almost overnight.

1. I’m not so sure whether they’re going to find the idea … .
   … some money to set up a research department.
2. I thought he had a good solution to the problem, but hers was even … .
   … yourself and your career will improve in leaps and bounds.
3. The forensic squad scoured the place where the victim … .
   … the table before the guests arrive, will you?
4. When the situation turned nasty, we all expected the manager to take the … .
   … , a heavy metal highly resistant to corrosion, is used in many alloys.
5. That man is an accident waiting to happen; he simply can’t do anything … .
   … , I can see the advantages, but we shouldn’t overlook the downsides.
6. Every time they try to reach a decision, the directors end up having a … .
   … the boat carefully when you pass through the straights.
7. It was a miracle Henman managed to get to the end of the second … .
   … a realistic goal first and then make sure you attain it within a short period of time.
8. It was his devious character I really couldn’t … .
   … cramps and headache are the main symptoms of this type of flu.
9. Everybody was sure she’d be devastated to hear the news, but she didn’t shed a … .
   … that paper before anyone sees it! Phew, that was a close shave!
10. After a couple of months of draught, the Met Office have finally announced wet … .
    … this period of crisis and you’ll have proven you’re a reliable businessman.

Over to you: Now it’s your turn to come up with a few examples of ‘hinging’ sentences. Try your hand with the ‘hinge’ words in the box.

Activity 2

‘Daffynitions’ are short puns based on the concept of a dictionary definition. Only it’s not the correct one; it’s a wordplay. For instance, a warehouse (i.e., based on the word werewolf) is a building that grows fangs and fur every full moon, and bites people; and a horoscope (i.e., horror + scope) is a device for measuring how scary something is. Got the point? If you did, try your hand and match the words below with their daffynitions. Apart from putting a smile on your face, this activity attempts to develop your divergent thinking and enrich your vocab, so feel free to consult a monolingual dictionary whenever you find it necessary.

Over to you: Test your out-of-the-box thinking and come up with the daffynitions of the words in the box.

Activity 3

This is an activity attempting to develop creative writing skills through wordplay.

• Announce that you are going to play a game involving creative writing.
• Split the group into two or three teams that are going to compete against each other.
• Copy and distribute the text below to the teams. Then discuss and explain the wordplay, underlining the power of puns and metaphors.

• Invite each team to choose a theme (wordplay unintended) from the table below: sailing, horse racing or health, and to write a story following the model you’ve just discussed and using the expressions in the box. They can write an advert for their company, an article for their company’s newsletter, the introduction to a presentation on a new product their company is launching soon.
• The team that use metaphors and puns most creatively are the winners.

Key

Activity 1

1. appropriate, 2. better, 3. lay, 4. lead, 5. right, 6. row, 7. set, 8. stomach, 9. tear, 10. weather

Activity 2

1b, 2g, 3h, 4c, 5j, 6d, 7a, 8f, 9e, 10i

Over to you:

References

Lederer, R., 1989, Crazy English. The ultimate joy ride through our language, New York: Pocket Books.

Further examples of puns at www.verbivore.com, www.funny2.com and www.sk8stuff.com
Further examples of daffynitions at www.daffynitions.com and www.badpuns.com

Please check the Fun, Laughter and Learning course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.