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Why English is such a great language for puns

economist.com

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Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#11

Post by TrashMacNugget »

tzs wrote: post #8
alphydan wrote: post #2

The article provides no evidence about why English, specifically, is great for puns. >> . It has a large vocabulary and a rich stock of homophones from which puns can be made Ok. What about the other 6000 languages? Do they have more/less homophones. French sure has a ton of them. >> It is constantly evolving, with new words being invented and old ones given fresh meanings Yes, like any other language. >> And it is m…

I can't read the article because I'm at my limit for free Economist articles this week. Does the article assert that English is the only language that is great with puns or is noticeably better than other languages at puns? That's what your points are addressing. The title only implies that English is great for puns, saying nothing about whether or not others are too.

Here's a Google webcache.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#12

Post by dmoy »

jasonjei wrote: post #6
alphydan wrote: post #2

The article provides no evidence about why English, specifically, is great for puns. >> . It has a large vocabulary and a rich stock of homophones from which puns can be made Ok. What about the other 6000 languages? Do they have more/less homophones. French sure has a ton of them. >> It is constantly evolving, with new words being invented and old ones given fresh meanings Yes, like any other language. >> And it is m…

Chinese also is a great language for puns. I was in Taipei a few weeks ago and saw a restaurant named 糖朝 ( tangchao , Sugar Dynasty), when most people would expect to see 唐朝 ( tangchao , Tang Dynasty). In addition, many cultural sayings are based off "puns." For example, 年年有餘 ( nian nian you yu , year after year there will be a surplus) is a common saying during the Chinese New Year. However, many families eat fish (…

There's an entire type of Chinese comedy which is roughly translatable as homophone puns (相声). Few non native speakers ever get good enough to do it.

In fact when I was watching the CCTV New year broadcast in English 7 or so years back, the translation and subtitles basically just gave up for all of the crosstalk segments. They just put a banner underneath saying basically "this is crosstalk now, sorry we can't translate it because it's too hard".

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#13

Post by koala_man »

alphydan wrote: post #2

The article provides no evidence about why English, specifically, is great for puns. >> . It has a large vocabulary and a rich stock of homophones from which puns can be made Ok. What about the other 6000 languages? Do they have more/less homophones. French sure has a ton of them. >> It is constantly evolving, with new words being invented and old ones given fresh meanings Yes, like any other language. >> And it is m…

>You would think languages with lots of declinations allow for smart puns too, right?

The article doesn't try to argue that richer declensions make puns impossible, just that it makes it harder. I would definitely agree with that.

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#14

Post by jcoffland »

The pun is the lowest form of humor. There is a tendency, especially among educated males of a certain age, to start to feel themselves quite clever. These fellows, in order to demonstrate their cleverness to the world, being to subject their friends and family with an onslaught of puns. If you know such a punner, and you probably do, don't encourage them by saying things like, "I just love how your mind works" or "I never would have thought of that." Such encouragement can lead to years of future punning. These men need your help. I recommend a good hard slap.

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#15

Post by Supremacist »

jcoffland wrote: post #14

The pun is the lowest form of humor. There is a tendency, especially among educated males of a certain age, to start to feel themselves quite clever. These fellows, in order to demonstrate their cleverness to the world, being to subject their friends and family with an onslaught of puns. If you know such a punner, and you probably do, don't encourage them by saying things like, "I just love how your mind works" or "I…

This is what's wrong with Reddit in a nutshell. When I joined 8 years ago, it was actually full of intelligent discussion. Now I have to scroll through 40 comments of puns and the same old tired jokes.

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#16

Post by steadicat »

As an Italian native speaker I wholeheartedly agree. It's one of the reasons I love English more.

Not only does English have many more homophones, and nouns can be used as verbs and vice versa, but English also has a much higher “word density” (for lack of a better term). The vocabulary is larger, and words tend to be shorter. The combination of the two means that you can take any short word, and odds are many other words with completely different meanings are just one letter-change away. On top of that, pronunciation is very inexact, which means many vowels and consonants sound alike.

These things make English pretty bad for oral comprehension, but great for puns.

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#17

Post by ajross »

jcoffland wrote: post #14

The pun is the lowest form of humor. There is a tendency, especially among educated males of a certain age, to start to feel themselves quite clever. These fellows, in order to demonstrate their cleverness to the world, being to subject their friends and family with an onslaught of puns. If you know such a punner, and you probably do, don't encourage them by saying things like, "I just love how your mind works" or "I…

> There is a tendency, especially among educated males of a certain age, to start to feel themselves quite clever.

Once they learn a bit more, they start in with unintentionally ironic wordcraft on Hacker News.

Sorry, for us in the, um, third tier of humor evolution, that is one of the most cringeworthy sentences imaginable.

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#18

Post by johan_larson »

jcoffland wrote: post #14

The pun is the lowest form of humor. There is a tendency, especially among educated males of a certain age, to start to feel themselves quite clever. These fellows, in order to demonstrate their cleverness to the world, being to subject their friends and family with an onslaught of puns. If you know such a punner, and you probably do, don't encourage them by saying things like, "I just love how your mind works" or "I…

I seem to recall that young children of a certain age delight in puns, but eventually grow out of it as they find other parts of life and language more fascinating. Perhaps it would accordingly be apt to tell adult pun-slingers to find more age-appropriate humour, as one might point an adult devotee of nursery-rhymes toward more adult poetry.

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#19

Post by acomjean »

jcoffland wrote: post #14

The pun is the lowest form of humor. There is a tendency, especially among educated males of a certain age, to start to feel themselves quite clever. These fellows, in order to demonstrate their cleverness to the world, being to subject their friends and family with an onslaught of puns. If you know such a punner, and you probably do, don't encourage them by saying things like, "I just love how your mind works" or "I…

Baa, Yewe are no fun.

Used in moderation prevents it from being too terrible.

Re: Why English is such a great language for puns

#20

Post by aa1234 »

acomjean wrote: post #19
jcoffland wrote: post #14

The pun is the lowest form of humor. There is a tendency, especially among educated males of a certain age, to start to feel themselves quite clever. These fellows, in order to demonstrate their cleverness to the world, being to subject their friends and family with an onslaught of puns. If you know such a punner, and you probably do, don't encourage them by saying things like, "I just love how your mind works" or "I…

Baa, Yewe are no fun. Used in moderation prevents it from being too terrible.

Awesome!
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