A Multi-dimensional Deductive Research On Pun

Pun is an old English rhetorical device in English language, commonly defined as humorous uses of a word with many senses or words alike in sound. As a typical comprehensive rhetorical device, pun itself embodies elements of many disciplines such as semantics, aesthetics, sociology, psychology, logics and semiotics. As a traditional approach to produce special effect in human communication, pun has attracted the attention of researchers all the time. Yet they usually study pun in terms of semantics with the method of induction.This paper concerns with a multi-dimensional deductive study of pun. By multi-dimensional study it means the study is mainly carried out in terms of semiotics, diachronic linguistics, pragmatics, second language acquisition and foreign language learning. By a deductive study it means in a sense the deductive method rather than the inductive method plays a more important role in the research although both of them are used here. Moreover, the study here is qualitative.Five hypotheses are proposed and tested in the paper, respectively on the nature, range, formation, comprehension, function and application of pun. Abundant examples of pun, either in the form of spoken English or of written English, are employed in the paper, serving to test those hypotheses and reach conclusions finally.It is concluded in the paper as the following:1) As a double-meaning ended rhetorical device in most cases, pun produces a special effect of pragmatic ambiguity rather than semantic ambiguity.2) Pun exists in all the linguistic levels of English language and can be classified into morpheme pun, word pun, phrase pun, sentence pun, sentence group pun, paragraph pun and discourse pun in terms of its hinge.3) The formation of pun in English language is mainly responsible for the design features of language, the mixing characteristic of English language, the relevant pragmatic rhetoric principles in language use and the preference of individuals in using English.4) In terms of Relevance Theory, pun receivers usually employ their cognitiveenvironment to comprehend pun. And their comprehension of pun usually includes the inference of explicit meaning of punning language and then the implicit meaning of punning language. The effort spent on the inference of implicit meaning of pun is usually greater than that on the explicit meaning. 5) Pun may serve as a useful tool to help English as LI & L2 learners and English as foreign language learners to master homophones, homographs, and idioms in English language due to the functions and special compositions of pun.. Last but not lest, a multi-dimensional research on other English figures of speechis encouraged so as to promote the development of modem rhetoric and make figuresof speech a subject of multiple disciplines.