Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Polysemy: when one lexical word ('more') has two related senses

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."

"You mean you can't take LESS," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take MORE than nothing."


-From Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, chapter 7

The effect of the above play on 'more' is a pun, but it is a pun precisely because the word has two different senses (i.e. something like 'quantity' and 'addition').

Have you used a word with two different senses to make a pun recently?

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