The Exploration Of The Chinese Pun In Hong Lou Meng (A Dream Of Red Mansions)

Pun is one of traditional figures of speech which exists in almost all languages inthe world. As a kind of language phenomenon, pun is deep-rooted in language andculture. Since different languages bear different style and expressive means, theChinese pun, under the influences of its language, culture etc., bears the distinctcharacteristics which are different from those of the English pun and pun in otherlanguages. Pun enjoys a long history. Hence its content and form get the continuousdevelopment. The application scope of pun is also becoming wider and wider. Itsprings to the eye or ear from formal occasions to the daily usage. The longstandinghistory and wide application of pun arouse rhetoricians'and linguists'great interests.They have spared no efforts to study pun. With the language development anddeep-going research, people's understanding towards pun continuously renews. Thescope of pun is no more confined to words, but expanded to the whole text. Thecomposition of pun could not only depend on words'pronunciation, semanticmeaning, but also be formed through font, grammar, even other figures of speech. Pun,is not just the pure rhetorical method in traditional rhetoric any more. It plays a newrole and has unique effects in those relevant study fields which share the intimaterelationship with rhetoric. All these new explorations of pun which are based on theanalysis of large quantities of language materials, renovate people's realizationtowards the Chinese pun.However, towards the new expansion and features of the Chinese pun, until nowthe systematic and thorough research is very lacking. For a long time, the mention ofpun was always in the books which sum up the Chinese figures of speech. About thetreatises of pun's new research, often one aspect of pun is given particular emphasisand is specially discussed. Hence, this thesis takes Hong Lou Meng as a carrier, andtries to explore puns in it comprehensively.There exist rational reasons to choose Hong Lou Meng which was created byCao Xueqin as the carrier to study the Chinese pun. As a novelistic monument, thenovel presents a panoramic view of the social life and traditions of 18th China, andthus is called the encyclopedia of Chinese feudal society and crystallization of thebrilliant Chinese culture. As a result, the language of the novel, being extremelypolished, manifests the panoramic use of the Chinese language in variation and also...