CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1. SIMILARITIES OF THE EXPRESSIVE MEANS OF THE PUN IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
Through the ways of punning shown in items 2.2.5 and 2.2.6, we find that punning in both English and Vietnamese uses the following expressive means:
4.1.1. Expressive means based on sound
A lot of ways of punning in English and Vietnamese are based on sound aspects of the languages. Let us put sound similarity under consideration first. The words tài and tai in example 18 are just among numerous puns in Vietnamese that apply sound similarity. The book tilled
“Giải thích các từ gần âm, gần nghĩa, dễ nhầm lẫn” by Chinh, T. (1997) [6]
can illustrate this argument. In this work, Chinh listed over 1,000 Vietnamese words, about half of which are easy to be mistaken because of their sound similarity. This number, nevertheless, shows just part of the
picture because, as Chinh admitted, the list fails to cover all Vietnamese words of same meaning as well as the ones of similar sound. This is also the case for English.
Such aforementioned types of the English pun as Double-sound, Daffynition, Malapropism and Mondegreen give just a moderate illustration of immense applications of sound similarity to English punning practice.
Misusing words, verbal slips and gaffes, which relate to sound similarity, should be avoided using the language. However, when intended as puns, they can contribute to the speaker's/author's reputation for wit, or can endear the audience. The following examples will support this argument:
Examples 27 – 29:
27. "I am sorry to say, sir Anthony, that my affluence over my niece is very small" [41].
28. “You take a piece of meat with you” [50].
29. “Scuse me while I kiss this guy” [50].
The word “affluence” in example 27 is a malapropism of “influence”.
Examples 28 and 29 are mondegreens exploited in music. The real words are
“You take a piece of me with you” from the song "Everytime you go away"
by Paul Young [50] and “Scuse me while I kiss the sky” from a lyric in the song Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix [50], respectively. This phenomenon is also popular in Vietnamese music. I have ever heard my students singing the following words: “Đời sinh viên có mấy đồng đô la”. Perhaps it is not difficult for many Vietnamese people, especially young ones, to recognize that these words imitate the lyric in the song “Cây đàn sinh viên” (Students’
guitar) by Quốc An. The real words in the song are “Đời sinh viên có cây đàn ghi ta”.
Tom Swifties use sound similarity, too. “Sue sighed” in example 30 below, for instance, sounds similar to “suicide” = “to kill oneself”.
Example 30: "I'm going to end it all," Sue sighed. [41]
Intentionally incorrect transcription of foreign words is actually based on sound similarity too. Let us look at the following example:
Example 31: An American tourist is doing sightseeing in Paris, visiting all the museums... and a French friend asks him: "How do you like Toulouse- Lautrec?”. The answer from the American guy is "I don't like to lose anything!!” [46]
The sound similarity between “Toulouse” in French and “to lose” in English, which caused the American tourist’s misunderstanding, makes the story a joke pun. In Vietnamese, such funny speeches as “Bà già lui ra!”;
“Các bác ra bớt!”; “Vừa đi vừa đá vừa chen” – the sound similarities or deliberately incorrect transcriptions of the Russian words пoжáлyйcTa (please); КаК ваc зoвýT? (What’s your name?) пpeпoдaвáTeль (lecturer), respectively, used to be very popular among Vietnamese learners of Russian. Words of a foreign language, incorrectly transcribed with purpose, are still skillfully used in creating highly entertaining poems in Vietnamese like the following one:
Example 32: Lạnh lùng một mảnh sơ-mi Li-ve trằn trọc lơ-li một mình Loăng-tanh ai có thấu tình
E-mê đến nỗi thân hình biềng pan! [3, p.223]
The words printed in bold in the example above respectively come from the following French ones: chemise (shirt), l’hiver (winter), le lit (bed), lointain (distant), aimer (love) and bien pâle (very pale).
In spite of mainly serving humorous effect, sound similarity may be very sharp in irony, satire and criticism. An example is a "reproduction" of the English word “Wesmoreland” - the name of a US army general who used to get involved in the Vietnam war - is “Vét mồ lên” or “Vét mỡ lợn” in the Vietnamese language [13, p.177]. Similarly, Marcartheur and Hakin [13, p.177] are respectively made into “Mặt ác tệ” and “Hắc ín”. The folk tale hereafter will continue proving how well sound similarity is employed in Vietnamese for irony and satire: Getting well-off and “buying” a little Mandarin’s rank, a used-to-be sawer purchased a plantation on a hill where he had a pleasure-house built and then held a welcoming new house reception. Among the gifts was a laudatory writing which read: “Cao cư lư xá”. The unlearned host was very satisfied with this gift because “cao cư”
means “at the top” and “lư xá” means a little house, which sounds both proud and modest. However, he did not realize that “Cao cư lư xá” sounds similar to “kéo cưa lừa xẻ”, a very popular children’s song in Vietnamese about sawers [38]. The author of the laudatory writing here obviously made fun of the Mandarin reminding the other people of his ignorant origin. The English joke below shares the same communicative purpose.
Example 33: There is a drinks-vending machine at Aston University. The original notice on it says:
"Any problems with this vending machine, please report to John Summers 0121-525-8466, not Catering Division.” But it has been altered by an angry consumer to say now:
"Many problems with this vexing machine, please report to John Summers 0121-525-8466, Not-Caring Division.” [46]
Sound similarity is especially suitable for sneering at the illiterate but often using highbrow terms when speaking. Let us read the following Vietnamese funny folk tale:
Example 34: Beating his naughty wife with a rod to educate her, a Confucian scholar said: “Sự bất đắc dĩ tôi mới đánh mình, chứ tôi cũng hiểu rằng: “Giáo đa thành oán”. An illiterate man overheard it. Then he came home and imitated the scholar’s way, beating his wife with a rod, and saying: “Sự mất bát dĩa tao mới đánh mày, chứ tao cũng biết gáo tra dài cán.”[1, p.36]
“Sự bất đắc dĩ” and “Sự mất bát dĩa” sound similar in Vietnamese, but they mean far distant things. The former means “unwillingly” while the latter means “losing bowls and dishes”. Similarly, “Giáo đa thành oán”
means “too much education causes resentfulness” while its sound-similar
“gáo tra dài cán” means “the water ladle with a long handle”. Joke puns like this one is not only full of fun but also irony, satire and criticism.
Another aspect of sound exploited for punning in both English and Vietnamese is sound repetition. This kind of wordplay is really a big fun and especially loved by children. Reading fluently a series of sentences containing every word beginning with the same consonant is indeed an exciting challenge. However, while most of Vietnamese tongue twisters require every word beginning with the same consonant as it is shown in example 35 below, which contains the consonant m used consecutively at the initial position of each word, the repetition of sound in English tongue
twisters can be irregular as shown in example 36, which contains other initial letters than s such as m (in Mr.), o (in owned), a (in and), n (in now), etc.
Examples 35 – 36:
35. Mình Mây mơn mỡn mắt mơ màng Môi mọng mũi mềm má mỏng manh
Mây mù mấp mé màn mi mảnh Man mác mấy mùa mộng mối mang... [69]
36. Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now, See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw Before Soar saw See,
Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See's saw Before See sawed Soar's seesaw,
See's saw would not have sawed Soar's seesaw.
So See's saw sawed Soar's seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore just because See's saw sawed
Soar's seesaw. [41]
Sometimes, tongue twisters in both the languages use the repetition of rhyme such as “Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew” [44] in English and “Không chồng trông lông bông" [38] in Vietnamese.
Sound interchange is what both the English pun and the Vietnamese one make use of, particularly in Spoonerism and Nói lái, to inject humor into
what one says. The transposed elements are often initial consonants such as tons of soil and sons of toil; nicking your pose and picking your nose; mad banners and bad manners; mend the sail and send the mail in English, bình định and đình bịnh; tối mơ and mối tơ in Vietnamese. Apart from doing the same in transposing initial consonants, Spoonerism and Nói lái either has its own way of interchange of sounds.
Since spoonerisms are based on phonetic transpositions, most of them are meaningful only in spoken form. As a result, it is common that a spoonerism takes the sound, not the form of the original item. This is well- demonstrated in the following examples:
Examples 37 – 39:
37. Is the bean dizzy?
38. Wave the sails.
39. Soul of ballad
Is the Dean busy? [41]
Save the whales. [41]
Bowl of salad [41]
he way Englis
In Nói lái, however, sound interchange in most of cases relates both sound and form, i.e. the transposed elements are really permuted as they are shown in 2.2.6.2., item b. However, it occasionally goes on just like t
h spoonerisms do such as đâm tí and đi tắm, lũ quỷ and lũy củ.
Transposing sounds in English, on the other hand, may go on within a single word form such as cerely and celery; crinimal and criminal. This feature does not go with Nói lái. Nevertheless, Nói lái is clearly classified into particular categories based on the number of related words, viz. Lái đôi presented earlier in 2.2.6.2, item b; Lái ba (the involved words are three) such as thưa cô rằng – răng cô thừa; chổi quét nhà – chả quét nhồi; Lái tư (the involved words are four) such as cây còn trăm lá – con cầy tra lắm; làm dưa cho vào – làm dao cho vừa and even Lái năm (the involved words are
five) such as Tôi là người thợ lò – Lo là người thợ tồi. Especially, in Nói lái the applied part can combine with the original one to give a funny statement such as Thầy giáo tháo giầy, lấy giáo án dán áo [3, p.239]. Thầy giáo (the teacher) is a spoonerism of tháo giầy (took off his shoes); lấy giáo án (using his lesson plans) is a spoonerism of dán áo (to stich up his shirt). So this statement means that “The teacher took off his shoes, and stitched up his shirt with his lesson plans”, which obviously laughs at the teacher’s poverty.
Occasionally, Nói lái can be done in series: the latter item is produced from the previous one so that the same words can be made into different spoonerisms. For instance, the name Bùi văn Giáng can be made into Bàng văn Giúi, Búi văn Giàng and Báng văn Giùi. This feature can not be found in English spoonerisms. Nói lái is still used to create sophisticated Vietnamese parallel sentences (Câu đối) such as “Có vài cái vò” and “Kia mấy cây mía”
versifyied as it is in the following example:
Example 40 [38]. It is even
:
Trông khống vô phòng thấy trống không, Chứa chan sầu lệ chán chưa chồng.
Dòng châu lai láng dầu chong đợi,
Bóng nhạn lưng chừng, bạn nhóng trông. [38]
These applications can not be found in English spoonerisms either.
The differences mentioned above can not, nevertheless, break the fact that both Spoonerism and Nói lái are based on transposition of sounds. They are both very interesting resulting in both witty and meaningful statements such as the ones considered so far in this part. However, meaningless spoonerisms such as hiss and lear (from listen here) in English and khiên
tồ ông cổ tá đầu rông (from không tiền vô cổng tống đầu ra) or Đuông chập (from đâm chuột) in Vietnamese are very entertaining, too.
The mentioned-above similar ways of employing sound in punning practice in both English and Vietnamese are really surprising because these languages are of different patterns of tonality. Nói lái, for instance, is inherently regarded as a “specialty” of the Vietnamese language.
Conseque ng v
ntly, to find that it has its equivalent in English, namely ietnamese learners of Englis
are, respectively, pairs of Vietnamese words and Sino- Vietnamese ones of sam
nonymy is very often found in Tom Swifties. Let us look
Examples 41 – 43
Spoonerism, must be very enjoyable and useful for V h.
4.1.2. Expressive means based on sense relations
Puns always make use of sense relations. So do the ones in English and Vietnamese. Chó and cầy in example 20, for instance, is a testimony to the relation of sameness of meaning or synonymy applied in Vietnamese punning. Câu đối (Vietnamese parallel sentences) exploit this sense relation very often. Utilizing sameness of meaning between Sino-Vietnamese words and Vietnamese ones, the punster can produce such intricate parallel sentences as “Không vô trong nội nhớ hoài” [38]; “Thủ thỉ chén đầu lợn” [3, p.255]. “Không” and “vô”, “trong” and “nội” , “nhớ” and “hoài”, “đầu lợn”
and “thủ thỉ”
eness of meaning. In other words, they are synonymous.
In English, sy at the following ones:
:
41. I want a motorized bicycle," Tom moped. [41]
42. "I'
of certain literary trends and tastes” [20, p.159]. William
Shakespeare, who oron in his
works. In Romeo and d out the following
oxymora:
n minh dã man (savage civilization) [13, p.169].
m burning aromatic substances," said Tom, incensed. [41]
43. "I presented my case to the judge," Tom said briefly. [41]
The parts printed in bold in the examples above in turn make pairs of sameness of meaning, which shows that synonymy is actually a good material for punsters to produce Tom Swifties.
The next sense relation found in both the English pun and the Vietnamese one is antonymy. In “Be true to your teeth, or they will be false to you” [42], for instance, the antonyms “true” and “false” make the statement really a joke pun. Oxymora mainly rely on this sense relation. In living dead, same difference, alone together, for instance, we recognize opposite meanings between the two words in each case. Since they can create new nuances of meaning by joining together words of contraditory meaning, oxymoron is a pun type widely used in literary works for dramatic effect. According to Galperin, sometimes “the tendency to use oxymoron is the mark
loved to play on words, ever exploited oxym Juliet, Act 1, scene 1, we can fin
“Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O heavy lightness, serious vanity;
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!” [47]
This sense relation also occurs in a similar way of punning in Vietnamese such as hạnh phúc đớn đau (sorrowful happiness), tình yêu hận thù (hateful love), vă
Sometimes, based on antonymy, words of contradictory meaning are
tied together to verses in the
following example:
Example 44
create very comical puns like the oxymoronic
:
One b ight,
Drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
d man — He saw it too! [47]
Such comical verses are ese, too. Let us consider the following Vietnamese folk so lar for children in the south of Vietnam where I
Example 45
right morning, in the middle of the n Two dead soldiers got up to fight.
Back to back, they faced each other,
And came and shot those two dead boys.
If you don't believe this tale is true, just ask the blin
found in Vietnam ng that is very popu spent my childhood:
:
Ng ờ
Có chú nhà giàu, thiếu trước hụt sau.
Nghe vẻ nghe ve Nghe vè nói ngược
ựa đua dưới nước, tàu chạy trên b Lên núi đặt lờ, xuống sông bửa củi
Gà cồ hay ủi, heo nái hay bươi Nước kém ba mươi, mùng mười nước nhảy
Ghe sâu thì đẩy, ghe cạn thì chèo Có chú nhà nghèo, cho vay nặng lãi
Just like the case in example 44, this folk song is full of opposite images: Horses race in the water (Ngựa đua dưới nước), but ships move on
iver (xuống sông bửa củi); Big cocks bulldoze (Gà cồ ) and so on.
Just like mo uitable for
irony
the road (tàu chạy trên bờ); Catch fish in the mountain (Lên núi đặt lờ) but collect wood in the r
hay ủi), but female pigs scratch up (heo nái hay bươi
st of other sense relations, antonymy is very s and criticism.
Example 46: Đàn ông nông nổi giếng khơi
Đàn bà sâu sắc như cơi đựng trầu. [13, p.166]
Giếng khơi (a well), as we know, is something very deep, and cơi đựng trầu (a betel-tray) is something very shallow. Men are superficial but compared with a well (Đàn ông nông nổi giếng khơi) while women are profound but compared with a betel-tray (Đàn bà sâu sắc như cơi đựng trầu). Nông nổi (superficial) and sâu sắc (profound) are antonyms. Giếng khơi and cơi đựng trầu also arouse very contrastive images. So, this folk song aims at sneering at superficiality of women. During the war which the American army made in Vietnam, based on antonymy, President Ho Chi Minh made a well-known pun about America, viz. “Mỹ mà xấu”. The word
“Mỹ” here suggests two meanings in Vietnamese: (1) “nước Mỹ” (America) and (2) “đẹp” (nice). “Xấu” means “bad”. Then, this statement implies
satiric sts, but it is actually
g the war in Vietnam. This statement is both witty and a sharp
puns, of course.
Examp
ally that America should be nice as its name sugge so bad makin
accusation of the invaders.
Oxymorons are suitable for joke le 47:
Mary: John says I'm pretty. Andy says I'm ugly. What do you think, Peter?
Peter: I think you're pretty ugly.[46]
Polysemy – a single form but suggesting related meanings – is another expressive means that both of the languages apply in punning. Say sưa in
found in a great number of funny lowing one as example:
example 21 is, for instance, one of Vietnamese polysemous words. In English, the pun based on polysemy can be
jokes. Let us take the fol
Example 48: "Just fancy the check of that critic! He dared to say I sang like a siren!" Said the indignant prima donna.
"So what?"
"What do you mean by so what? Isn't it insolent of him to compare my voice with the whistle of a steamboat?" [12, p.36]
In the joke above the word siren suggests two meanings: (1) a person of beautiful voice and (2) the whistle of a steamboat. They both share the
misun is an
examp
concept of sound. We are not sure if the critic praised or criticized the prima donna's voice, but to compare her voice with the whistle of a steamboat is really funny.
Because of its multiple meaning, polysemy is a cause of derstanding, which is well exploited in joke puns. Here below
le to illustrate this fact:
Example 49: - Well, Charlie, did you get a better place at school this week?
- Oh yes, grandfather, I sit near the stove now. [12, p.40]
The boy in this joke pun misunderstood his grandfather’s question just because the word “place” suggests two meanings, viz. (1) rank and (2) site,
ntricacy of the language.
both of which contain the notion of position. While the grandfather aimed at meaning (1), the answer from the boy did at meaning (2). The purpose of the author of this story is, of course, to pun on i