To the status of interlingual puns

The paper examines the structural characteristics of bilingual puns, a specific type of wordplay. Internet memes, containing bilingual puns as part of the verbal component from 9gag.com were studied. The authors provide an overview of works dedicated to bilingual puns. It was found that foreign researchers use the term “bilingual pun” more often than “interlingual puns.” However, the presence of puns, with the wordplay based on homonymic lexemes taken from three or more languages, makes a case for using the term “interlingual pun.” A number of scholars, including the Russian ones, do not differentiate interlingual puns from interlingual paronomasia or faux amis and pseudo-international words although the latter three are means of creating an interlingual pun, a complex configuration, deciphering and analyzing of which requires certain cognitive efforts. The research aims at examining the structural features of interlingual puns due to their interlingual origin. In order to fulfil this task, the authors utilize V. P. Moskvin’s classification based on strategies and tactics used in making puns. The following characteristics, not taken into account in Moskvin’s system, were found: base language, the linguistic marker, graphical diamorph, phonetic diamorph, the number of languages used in wordplay, mixed graphics, blends and pure puns. To conclude, the interlingual puns are a separate type of wordplay, possessing several features contingent on their interlingual origin. Since these puns use multilevel elements of two or more languages within one syntagmatic entity, the interlingual puns are found to be a unique type of wordplay. Thus, the authors suggest that it is necessary to create a classification model that could take into account all the features discussed.

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