Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
A playful change of a word with the intention of causing surprise. It is a frequently used figure of speech in fashionable literature and advertising language. A play on words can come into existence (a) through the change in meaning, and therefore from homonymy and polysemy, (b) through the change of word forms and the rearranging of sound, e.g. an anagram, the rearranging of syllables or of morphemes, (c) by blend.
(
also pun, polyptoton, malapropism)
References
Chiaro, D. 1992. The language of jokes: analysing verbal play. London.
Redfern, W. 1984. Puns. Oxford.
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