Word play
Word play -- A literary technique in which the nature of the words used themselves become part of the subject of the work. Puns, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play.All writers engage in word play to some extent, but certain writers are particularly adept or committed to word play. Foremost of these is James Joyce, whose Ulysses, and even more so, his Finnegans Wake, are filled with brilliant writing and brilliant word play. For example, Joyce's phrase "they were yung and easily freudened" clearly conveys the meaning "young and easily frightened", but it also makes puns on the names of two famous psychoanalysts, Jung and Freud.
Other writers closely identified with word play include:
- Lewis Carroll
- Vladimir Nabokov
- George Bernard Shaw. The well-known spelling of "fish" as "ghoti" comes from Shaw, "gh as in tough, o as in women, ti as in station".
Word play is closely related to word games, that is, games in which the point is manipulating words.
The
Wilton carpets; embroidered comets and woven gold from Japan
stuff-curtain; a strange medley of sketches, paintings, fans,
against the wall; finally the domestic altarpiece, the mystical Corot
all was over. The setting sun streamed softly in at the windows,
mistress.
"I think.html">think it will do now, Sybil," said she, surveying the scene.
"It must," replied Sybil. "You haven't a plate or a fan or coloured
negro-women.html">women's bandannas if you are going to cover anything else.
will like it? They will think you demented."
"There is such a thing as self-respect," replied her sister.html">sister, calmly.
Sybil--Miss Sybil Ross--was Madeleine Lee's sister. The keenest
they had in common, and for that reason.html">reason they were devoted
indescribable; Sybil was transparent. Madeleine was of medium
golden-brown hair to frame a face full of varying expression. Her
were more often blue than grey. People who envied her smile said
Perhaps they were right; but there was no doubt that her habit of
she had known that her hands were not only beautiful but
growing older she began to show symptoms of dangerous
her countrywomen who blindly fell down before the golden calf of
while it lasted, with one of her best-dressed friends who had been
secret was that Mrs. Lee had artistic tendencies, and unless they
consequence. But as yet they had done no harm; indeed, they
only to certain women; as indescribable as the afterglow; as
people who feel rather than reason. Sybil had none of.
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