A Cognitive Semantic Analysis of Puns in English Advertisements

The use of puns reveals language wit and advertisers tend to promote their products through using them. Linguistically, puns are one of the forms of wordplay; however, some linguists regard it as a synonym of wordplay. As a rhetorical device, puns innovate the culture of language. The more languages are culturally rich and profound, the more puns are used innovatively. A pun can be regarded as a manifestation of semantic ambiguity. Advertisers prefer to use puns to create the best contextual effects and consequently obtain better economic benefit. The current study aims at, firstly, uncovering the mental processes that underlie the comprehension of puns in English advertisements. The second aim is to analyze the selected puns according to Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) as a model of cognitive semantic approach. The study has chosen 10 examples containing puns in English advertisements. The reason behind choosing these examples is to give a detailed description of how CBT can account for the complexity of puns as a witty use of language and how it can disambiguate and interpret puns in these advertisements. This study is a qualitative content analysis that investigates the usage of puns in the language of advertising. The researchers have concluded that CBT is the appropriate device that can provide a deep analysis of the various types of puns used in English advertisements.