Low-level puns

We call these low-level because they are not very sophisticated, there is nothing really special about them. For example, if you change cat food to rat food, or coffee mug to coffee bug, you make a change that does not add anything to the meaning of the expression, as opposed to puns that we call labels (see below). There is perhaps one possible use of these low-level puns, and that is making language learners realize what effect their spelling mistakes may have on a native reader. Try and translate these low-level puns to see how twisted the images are that they imply, or go the other way round and use Hungarian ones such as békatárgyalás, elvonószerelő or ragbaszakadt and translate these back to English.

Labels

However, it is possible to make similar changes to words and expressions so that they make some more sense than just a joke. It all depends on the original expression that you hide behind puns. We chose a few expressions that are themselves labels of current or recent issues in what may be called culture, for convenience's sake. Changing these labels, we get completely different angles of the same issues, which may be a source of humour, but at the same time they are food for thought. Basically, we had English classroom conversations in mind, but anybody who reads city walls and newspaper headlines can entertain themselves with this kind of game. With the help of such puns, learners' awareness on the complexity of word meaning can be further elaborated.

We have designed this page just to show how working with such puns could be started. For a sample collection of puns and possible issues behind them, click here. We decided not to provide visitors with a lot of examples: it is worth trying to make your own labels covering issues of your own interest; there are thousands of words at your disposal.

We would be glad to read some feedback on whether you succeeded in using your own puns as sources of classroom discussion or perhaps in some kind of vocabulary activity. So, please mail a few lines to:

Kovács Attila at Karinthy Frigyes Dual Language School, Budapest

or

Hornyák Zsolt at Berzsenyi Dániel High School, Budapest

.