Word play or wordplay is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, double entendres, and telling character names. Word play is quite common in oral cultures as a method of reinforcing meaning. Examples of text-based word play are found in languages with or without alphabet-based scripts, such as homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese.
Techniques
Some techniques often used in word play include interpreting idioms literally and creating contradictions and redundancies, as in Tom Swifties: Linguistic fossils and set phrases are often manipulated for word play, as in Wellerisms: Another use of fossils is in using antonyms of unpaired words – "I was well-coiffed and sheveled,".
Examples
Most writers engage in word play to some extent, but certain writers are particularly committed to, or adept at, word play as a major feature of their work. Shakespeare's "quibbles" have made him a noted punster. Similarly, P.G. Wodehouse was hailed by The Times as a "comic genius recognized in his lifetime as a classic and an old master of farce" for his own acclaimed wordplay. James Joyce, author of Ulysses, is another noted word-player. For example, in his Finnegans Wake Joyce's phrase "they were yung and easily freudened" clearly implies the more conventional "they were young and easily frightened"; however, the former also makes an aptpun on the names of two famous psychoanalysts, Jung and Freud. An epitaph, probably unassigned to any grave, demonstrates use in rhyme. Crossword puzzles often employ wordplay to challenge solvers. Cryptic crosswords especially are based on elaborate systems of wordplay. An example of modern word play can be found on line 103 of Childish Gambino's "III. Life: The Biggest Troll".
Young Thug used a play on words in his verse on "Sacrifices" by Drake featuring 2 Chainz and Young Thug.
Related phenomena
Word play can enter common usage as neologisms. Word play is closely related to word games; that is, games in which the point is manipulating words. See alsolanguage game for a linguist's variation. Word play can cause problems for translators: e.g. in the book Winnie-the-Pooh a character mistakes the word "issue" for the noise of a sneeze, a resemblance which disappears when the word "issue" is translated into another language.
