PUN: Pun

    From The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric

    التورية
    PUN: Pun
    CategoryFigurative Speech
    (‘ilm al-bayān)
    SubcategorySemantic Ambiguity
      
    Balaghascore.com
    CodeB-6
      
    BalaghaBase.org
    CodeQ62
      
    OpenAlex
    IDW4415343313
      
    Cite this page
    🔗 DOI10.64393/balagha.Q62
     Download PDF
      
    Taxonomy
    ARDTv0.1.0, v0.1.1

    Definition

    Pun (al-tawriya) is an Arabic rhetorical device where the communicator uses a single word that carries two meanings: one near (qarīb), which is apparent and springs immediately to the mind of the addressee, and one distant (baʿīd), which is the intended meaning and whose indication by the word is hidden. As a result, the addressee supposes the near meaning is intended, while the communicator in fact intends the distant one, by means of a contextual clue (qarīna) that points to it without making it apparent, concealing it from all but the perceptive.[1][2][3][4]

    The device is also called delusion (īhām), suggestion (takhyīl), directing (tawjīh) and fallacy (mughālata).[3][5][6]

    Mechanism

    • The communicator selects a single word that is genuinely polysemous (lafẓ mushtarak) - carrying two recognised meanings, such that both its near and distant meanings are legitimate.[1][2][3][6]
    • The near meaning presents itself first, but is not intended.[1][3]
    • The distant meaning is the intended one, guided by a contextual clue without explicit declaration.[1][3][4]

    Recognition

    Pun may be present when:

    • A single word carries two recognised meanings in Arabic.[1][2][3]
    • The apparent meaning presents itself first to the addressee.[1][3]
    • A contextual clue points toward the distant meaning without explicitly stating it.[1][3][4]

    Diagnostic Rhetorical Effects

    • Pun stimulates the mind and exercises the intellect in searching for the distant meaning.[1]
    • It produces intellectual exercise (riyāḍa) through interpretive effort.[1]
    • It allows concealment while maintaining formally truthful wording.[1][6]

    Applying the Recognition Framework

    The information on this page can be used to evaluate whether this device is present in a candidate lexical item using the Specific Device Recognition part of the Universal Framework for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices:

    • Use the Definition, Mechanism, and Recognition sections of this page in Step 1.
    • Apply the substitution test in Step 2.
    • Consider contextual indicators in Step 3.
    • Use the Diagnostic Rhetorical Effects section of this page in Step 4.

    Types of Pun

    The sources consistently identify four subtypes of Pun.[2][7][3]

    Type 1: Bare Pun al-tawriya al-mujarrada

    The Bare Pun is one in which neither the associates of the near meaning nor the distant meaning are mentioned.[2][3][7]

    Source Example

    وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَتَوَفَّاكُم بِاللَّيْلِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا جَرَحْتُم بِالنَّهَارِ
    Qurʾān 6:60

    "And He it is who takes your souls by night, and He knows what you have done by day."

    Explanation
    The word jaraḥtum has a near meaning of wounding and a distant intended meaning of committing sins.[1][2]
    Source Example

    يا سيدا حاز لطفاً لست أبرح من يزيد

    "O master of grace, I do not depart from Yazīd."

    Explanation
    The word yazīd may first be taken as the proper name Yazīd (near), while the intended meaning is "increase" (distant), with no associated clue for either meaning.[4]
    Constructed Example

    يا مَن يَعيشُ بَيْنَنا وَقَلْبُهُ بَعيدٌ — هَل تَعلَمُ كَم نَحْنُ في شَوْقٍ إِلَيكَ؟

    "O you who lives among us yet whose heart is distant — do you know how much we long for you?"

    Explanation
    The word baʿīd has a near meaning of physical distance (far away), and a distant intended meaning of emotional or spiritual remoteness. No associate of either meaning appears alongside it — nothing in the surrounding words primes the addressee toward one reading or the other — making this a bare pun.

    Type 2: Reinforced Pun (al-tawriya al-murashsha)

    The Reinforced Pun is one in which an associate of the near meaning is mentioned alongside it.[2][3][7]

    Source Example

    وَالسَّمَاءَ بَنَيْنَاهَا بِأَيْدٍ
    Qurʾān 51:47

    "And the heaven, We built it with power."

    Explanation
    The word aydin carries a near meaning of hands, reinforced by the act of building, while the intended meaning is power.[2][3]

    Constructed Example

    بنيتُ مجدي بيدي

    "I built my glory with my hand."

    Explanation
    The word yad first suggests the physical hand (near), reinforced by the act of building, while the intended meaning is power or capability (distant).

    Type 3: Elucidated Pun (al-tawriya al-mubayyana)

    The elucidated pun is one in which an associate of the distant meaning is mentioned alongside it.[2][3][7]

    Source Example

    فَأَظْهَرْتَ ذَاكَ الفَرْضَ مِن ذَلِكَ النَّدْبِ

    "And you revealed that obligation from that recommendation."

    Explanation
    The words farḍ and nadb each carry a near meaning on the surface — the two legal categories of obligatory and recommended acts — but their intended distant meanings are "gift" (farḍ) and "a man swift in fulfilling needs" (nadb). These distant meanings are elucidated by the prior mention of sunna, which belongs to the domain of those distant meanings. Without sunna preceding them, the pun would not take shape.[7][2]
    Constructed Example

    لمَّا سَمِعْتُ صَوْتَهُ الشَّجِيَّ تَذَكَّرْتُ الحَمَامَ

    "When I heard his mournful voice, I remembered the hamām."

    Explanation
    The word ḥamām has a near meaning of "bathhouse" and a distant intended meaning of "dove." The prior mention of a mournful voice (ṣawt al-shajī) is an associate of the dove — doves are conventionally associated with mournful cooing — and thus belongs to the domain of the distant meaning, elucidating it. No associate of the near meaning (bathhouse) appears.

    Type 4: Prepared Pun (al-tawriya al-muhayyaʾa)

    The Prepared Pun is one in which a neighbouring word prepares the ambiguity and makes the tawriya possible.[2][3][7]

    Source Example

    إِنَّهُ كَانَ يُحَرِّكُ الشِّمَالَ بِاليَمِينِ

    "He used to stir the left with the right."

    Explanation
    The word shamāl is prepared by yamīn, making the near meaning available while concealing the distant one.[2]
    Constructed Example

    بلدي شامٌ وقلبي يَمَانِي

    "My homeland is Syria, and my heart is yamānī."

    Explanation
    The word yamānī has a near meaning of "from Yemen" (prepared by the preceding word shām, Syria, which primes the addressee to read it as a geographical contrast), while the distant intended meaning is "of the sword," since yamānī is one of the names of the sword in Arabic. Without shām preceding it, the addressee would not be led to the near geographical meaning, and the tawriya would not take shape.

    Different From

    • PARONOM: Complete Paronomasia - two words, identical in form, each used with a different meaning. Whereas Pun is one word with different possible meanings.[1]
    • DELIBAM: Deliberate Ambiguity - operates at the sentence level, with different meanings, which remain unresolved by design. Whereas Pun is a single word where one meaning is intended and the other is a decoy.[7]

    See Also

    Notes

    • The Arabic root of tawriya means concealment, which motivates the technical sense.[1][3]
    • The alternative name īhām reflects the misleading effect on the addressee.[1][3][5]
    • Later rhetoricians expanded its use extensively in poetry and prose.[7][3]

    References

    1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Ayman Amin Abd Al-Ghani, Al-Kāfī fī al-Balāgha: Al-Bayān, wa al-Badiʿ wa al-Maʿānī (Cairo: Dār al-Tawfīqiyya lil-Turāth, 2011), 275–290.
    2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Aḥmad al-Hāshimī, Jawāhir al-Balāgha fī al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Windsor: Hindāwī Foundation, 2019), 363–364, ISBN 9781527316386.
    3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Atīq, ʿIlm al-Badīʿ (Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2002), 122–134.
    4. ↑ a b c d Ḥafnī Nāṣif, Muḥammad Diyāb, Sultan Muḥammad and Muṣṭafā Ṭammām, [ Durūs al-Balāgha] (Beirut: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 2012), 105, ISBN 9786144162798.
    5. ↑ a b W. P. Heinrichs, ‘Rhetorical Figures’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), 660, ISBN 0415068088. DOI: 10.4324/9780203020425
    6. ↑ a b c Faḍl Ḥasan ʿAbbās, Al-Balāgha: Funūnuhā wa-Afnānuhā - ʿIlm al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ (Amman: Dār al-Furqān lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2007), 284–286.
    7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 444–450.



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