VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF

AGRICULTURE
FACULTY OF ECDUCATION AND FOREIGN
LANGUAGES

ASSIGMENT

TOPIC:
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF PUN IN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE:
PUN IN RAP

Name: Vu Duy Giang

Student code: 646779
Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thuy Thuy, PhD

Hanoi, May 2021

 A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF PUN IN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE:
PUN IN RAP

I. RATIONALE
Pun is a very interesting phenomenon in linguistics, classified as a stylistic device, and
its mostly used in verbal communicative forms, or in the case of this work, rap tracks.
Based on various kinds of word playing, pun is a highly brilliant form of humour
revealing not only the user’s intelligence and sense of humour but also one’s expertise
at the language. Thus, for such reason, many great authors made great uses out of
them in their works like:
 William Shakespeare:
o Panthino:
Away, ass! You’ll lose the tide if you tarry any longer.
Launce:
It is no matter if the tied/tide were lost; for is the unkindest tied/tide that any
man tied.
Two Gentlemen of Verona
o Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun/son of York.
Richard III
 Oscar Wilde:

o I’ve realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of Being
Earnest.

The Importance of being Earnest

o Flour/flower is one thing, and friendship is another, they should not be

confused.
The Devoted Friend
Pun in English has been studied by a numerous of native speakers, especially British
and American authors. Though, pun truly became a popular phenomenon since its
presence in modern and popular way that has an easy access to people such as music,
and rap is the type of music which pun is the most employed. Artists like Eminem,
Slick Rick, Lil Wayne or Tyler, The Creator are famous pun users.
In Vietnam, since the Feudal age, pun was considered as a nobly intellectual pleasure,
became popular among the republic of letters and various strata of society in general.
Possibly say that almost any great man of letters in Vietnam ever exploits the art of
punning for different rhetorical effects. Many great names should be mentioned like
Nguyen Du, Cao Ba Quat, Ho Xuan Huong, Nguyen Khuyen, Phan Boi Chau. In the
matter of fact, nowadays, pun is considered an extremely popular phenomenon among
Vietnamese, especially the young generation. Under the impact of rap and punchline,
which is represented by the effects of Cao Viet Hung (Hung Cao or MC ILL), pun has
become so common that it is included in every aspect of life, from punchline in music
to sarcasms in daily conversations.
Pun is a versatile stylistic device, serving various communicative purposes including
irony, satire, criticism, equivocality, and innuendo. Though above all, it is the most
effective figure to express humour, hence it is highly entertaining. On top of that,
through the pun, listeners can acknowledge more about the attitudes, behaviours or
even a slice of culture of a society. Last but not least, since pun is strongly related to
word playing, which is a part of linguistic study, it brings about the most interesting
discoveries of a language.
From all the criteria mentioned above, in conclusion, pun is a “specialty” of every
language including English and Vietnamese. Therefore, taking types of pun in English
and Vietnamese into contrastive analysis to find out how frequent they are used in rap
tracks must be wonderful and useful for those who are interested in the field of
contrastive analysis and who are tempted by the fascination of pun in general.

II. AIMS & OBJECTIVES

1. AIMS OF THE STUDY
This paper is aimed to study various types of pun in English and Vietnamese and
to conduct a research of their frequencies of presence in artists’ works, then based
on the result, find out possible explanations for it.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
 Describe and compare the pun in English and Vietnamese.
 Identify the expressive means of various types of pun in rap tracks in English
and Vietnamese, and their similarities as well as differences.
 Find out possible explanations for the result.

III. Literature review

1. Definitions
1.1 Stylistics
I.R.Galperin defined Stylistics as a branch of General Linguistics which studies the
nature, functions and structure of stylistic devices and their aim, characteristic
features, effects as well as their interrelation with other styles of language (1971 :
20)
1.2 Stylistic device
A stylistic device is “a conscious and intentional literary use of some of the facts
of the language (including expressive means) in which the most essential features
(both structural and semantic) of the language forms are raised to a generalized
level and thereby present a generative model” (Galperin, 1971: 26).
Most of stylistic devices are based on the interaction of kinds of lexical meanings;
and the pun is based on the mechanism of the interplay between two meanings:
literal and derivative meanings.
1.3 Literal meaning (Primary logical meaning):
Galperin stated the primary logical meaning is “the precise naming of a feature of
the idea, phenomenon or object, the name by which we recognize the whole of the
concept” (1971: 56). As in the definition of ‘home’ is ‘the house, or apartment, etc.
where you live’.
1.4 Derivative logical meaning
Derivative logical meaning is the meaning that was born in the context. It is more
obscure than the primary logical meaning, though still retains “some semantic ties
with the primary meaning” and is “strongly associated with it” (Galperin, 1971:
145). The word ‘home’ as mentioned, can also be perceived as “a place or
someone that a person has the most emotional feelings toward” as in: “When she
left, this place no longer feels like home”.
1.5 Pun
Linguists and scholars often define the pun form two aspects of polysemous and
homonymous words. For instance, Galperin defined the term “pun” as a stylistic
device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or phrase:
primary and derivative logical meaning (1971: 146). Longman shared quite a
similar idea that pun is an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meanings,
or of words having the same sound but different meanings. Yuan Chuandao gave a
specific definition of the pun which consists of:
A pun is a clever use of polysemous word or a homonym, a
rhetorical way of expression in which people use, subjectively or
objectively, the polysemous homonymous and logical relations of
the language to cause a word, a sentence, or a discourse to involve
two things or two meanings in transmitting messages.
The writer does not reject all the definitions mentioned above, though in fact,
throughout the process of collecting and examining the data, it seemed pun may
have more than two meanings; and pun users do not pun based only on the
meaning, but also the sound and even the spelling of a word, phrase, or sentence.
Hence, the writer would like to present a broad definition of pun, which covers all
the pun types presented in this paper: The pun is a form of wordplay based on
the meaning, sound, or a spelling of a word, phrase, or sentence, in order to
create rhetorical effects; a pun is usually consisted of two meanings, though
there are cases of three or more, depends on the expertise of language of pun
user.
1.6 Rhetorical effect
Rhetorical effect are stylistic effects. The purpose is to elicit a responsive motion
from the perceiver throughout speaking and writing elegantly and effectively.
1.7 Polysemy
Polysemy is the phenomenon which describes a word having several closely
related senses (Galperin, 1971: 123). Ăn mày/bám is a case of polysemy. The two
meanings in this example are somewhat related by the concept of highly depending
on others to make a living out of them.
1.8 Homonymy
A case of homonymy is one of an ambiguous word, whose different senses are far
apart from each other and not obviously related to each other in any way
(Galperin, 1971: 123). Hold (the act of keeping something – the act of arranging or
taking part in) is an example of homonymy. In Vietnamese, the word “tử” is also
an example as it suggests both “death” and “son”.
1.9 Homophony
Galperin stated that homophony is the case where words which sound the same but
are written differently and often have different meanings. As in: flower/flour,
sun/son.
1.10 Synonymy
Synonymy is the relation of equivalence of meaning. As in: buy/purchase, thủ/đầu.
1.11 Antonymy
Antonymy is the relation of opposite meanings. As in: hot/cold, high/low, khó/dễ,
trong/ngoài.
1.12 Ambiguity occurs when a word or phrase has two or more synonyms that are
not themselves synonyms of each other (Galperin, 1971, 122). The word “hold” is
synonymous with “grip” and “arrange”, though these two are not synonymous of
each other, hence the word “hold” is ambiguous.

2. Theoretical background
2.1 Pun and stylistics
One of the aspects that stylistics thoroughly studies is types of lexical meaning
because a number of stylistic devices are based on the peculiar use of the types of
meaning that words may have. Among the types of lexical meaning that
I.R.Galperin distinguished are primary and derivative logical meanings, the
interaction of which, according to him, results in the pun. Derivative logical
meanings have a peculiar property, viz. they always retain some semantic ties with
the primary meaning and are strongly associated with it (1971: 145). He cited the
following example to show how the same word form is intentionally made to
reveal both the primary and derivative logical meanings:
Massachusetts was hostile to the American flag, and she would not allow it to be
hoisted on her State House
(1971: 145)
The word “flag” is, Galperin said, used in its primary meaning when it appears in
combination with the verb "to hoist" and in its derivative meaning in the
combination “was hostile to” (1971: 145).
L.G.Heller also referred to the same question but considered it in a different way.
He stated that in the pun a single manifesting mark signals more than one
conceptual function, and he took the following (rather archaic) verse which ends
with a pun as example:
The doctor fell into the well
And broke his collar bone.
He should have tended to the sick
And left the well alone.
(1971: 271).
The word "well" - a single manifesting mark - in this verse stands simultaneously
for two distant concepts: (1) "a place for collecting water" and (2) "people who are
healthy". In this study, however, the writer agrees to Galperin's usage of the terms
as well as his view of the relation between the pun and stylistics. Like other
stylistic devices, the pun must depend on a context which may even be as large as
a whole work of emotive prose.
Take "The Importance of Being Earnest" (the title of one of Oscar Wilde's plays)
into account – another example also cited by Galperin (1971: 146). The word
"Earnest" here has a pun in it. The name of the hero and the adjective meaning
"seriously-minded" are both present in our mind. To illustrate the interplay of
primary and derivative logical meanings, Galperin took a few examples from
poetical works, among which is Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening". In this poem the poet, taking delight in watching the snow fall
on the woods, concluded his poem in the following words:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
(1971: 147)
The word "promises" here is made to signify two concepts, namely, (1) a previous
engagement to be fulfilled and (2) moral or legal obligation (1971: 147). However,
based on the whole context of the poem as well as the plural form of the word,
Galperin concluded that “the second of the two meanings is the main one”,
although when combined with the verb “to keep” (to keep a promise), “the first
meaning is more predictable” (1971: 147). Another point which Galperin
emphasized is that “it is very important to be able to follow the author's intention
from his manner of expressing nuances of meaning which are potentially present in
the semantic structure of existing words” (1971: 148). A pun is only valid when
the listener/reader does realize what the author implies in it.
2.2 Pun and ambiguity
Caused by the perceiver’s limitation of knowledge if syntax and lexicology or a
lack of context, a great deal of confusion is considered an undesirable linguistics
phenomenon. For instance:
Mary had a little lamb.
Without a specific context, the mentioned example may be confused whether Mary
owned a little lamb or Mary ate a little lamb, hence the example is ambiguous and
of course, it is undesirable. Though ambiguity can be used actively and
intentionally to create high rhetorical effects. In the pun, ambiguity is thoroughly
exploited and becomes one of major means of constructing jokes or criticism.
There are two types of ambiguity, lexical and structural. Any ambiguity resulting
from the ambiguity of a word is a lexical one. As in:
Cười cho nhân cách lũ người lớn,
 Chúng mày chỉ là loại LỪA phản bội, nên cái THÂN mày tao vẫn để YÊN.
MC ILL – RVP Cypher (2015)
Take the above lyric as an example, the artist used three puns based on lexical
ambiguity in the second sentence. “Lừa” means both “cheaters” and “donkey”,
“thân” represents for “body” and a metonymy meaning as “people”, and “yên”
means “ignore” and “saddle”. Hence, the meaning of the whole sentence can be
perceived as:
You people are just a bunch of cheaters, so I leave you all behind.
(Ignorance and forgiveness)
And the derivative logical meaning:
You people are a bunch of cheating donkeys, so I keep saddles on your bodies.
(Asserting the higher position upon others)
Structural ambiguity occurs when words in a phrase or sentence relate to each
other in different ways, even though none of the individual words are ambiguous.
As in:
I don’t want to go on a date with a baby
This is a transparent example of structural ambiguity:
1. The woman is pregnant, and she does not want to go on a date.
2. The woman considers the man only a baby, who is not worth having a date
with.
As a pun, the second meaning is predictable because it consists of wit and satire.
3. English pun types
Based on the traditional definition of pun, it is classified into two types:
 Homographic puns
 Homophonic puns
Though in order to conduct the later process of contrasting more conveniently and
due to the fact that English puns get involved in a large number of wordplays, the
classification of English pun types is divided into two groups:
 Group 1: Basic English pun types.
 Group 2: Variations of the English puns.
3.1 Basic English pun types
a. Homographic puns:
Puns exploiting multiple meanings from a single word form.
As in:
Cause’ I’m about to set trip, vacation plans
Eminem – Godzilla (2020)
Pun on the term of “set trip”, which literal meaning is to “planning a trip”,
collocating with the posterior, “vacation plans”; and the other meaning is a slang,
“set trip” means to start trouble within one’s own organization or party.
b. Homophonic puns:
Puns exploiting words which sound alike but have different spellings and
meanings.
For instance:
The wedding was so emotional that even the was in tiers
The pun is set on the identical pronunciation of “tiers” and “tears”, which creates
an emotional atmosphere of a wedding with “layers of emotions”.
3.2 Variations of the English pun
a. Anagram:
An anagram is the rearrangement of letters in a word, phrase, or sentence to create
a new one often related in some way to the original one, using all the original
letters once.
For example:
 My mother-in-law is a Hitler woman.
 I never have the intention to sign up for a debit card, it seems like bad credit.
 “I am Lord Voldemort” – “Tom Marvolo Riddle”.
b. Double-sound:
Double-sound is a kind of pun where words which sound similar are intentionally
used.
For instance:
What did the 31st Covid patience in Korean say when she refused to isolate?
A Seoul for a soul.
The pun is conducted on the similar between “Seoul” and “soul”, and the idiom “A
soul for a soul” to express satire toward the selfish patience, who caused a whole
city locked down.
c. Oxymoron:
Oxymoron is a figure in which an epithet of a contrary signification is added to a
word. In other words, oxymoron is a combination of contradictory incongruous
words, being opposite in sense (Galperin, 1971, 158).
As in:
This was a minor crisis, and the only choice was to drop the product line.
d. Palindrome:
Palindrome refers to a word, phrase, or sentence that is the same when read
backwards or forwards.
As in:
What is the fear of palindromes called?
Aibohphobia.
e. Spoonerism:
Spoonerism is a play on words or phrases which letters or syllables get swapped.
This type of wordplay is named after R.W.A. Spooner (1844-1930), Warden of
New college, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency.
For example:
 A well-boiled icicle – A well-oiled bicycle.
 Under the affluence of incohol – Under the influence of alcohol.
f. Tongue – twister:
A tongue – twister is a sequence of words which are made difficult to pronounce
without blundering by combining the effects of alliteration, particularly of similar
but not identical sounds.
For instance:
 Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did
Peter Piper pick?
 Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
 Clean clams crammed in clean cans.
g. Tom Swifty:

A Tom Swifty is a kind of wordplay relying for its humour on a punning

relationship between the way and adverb describes the mode of action of the verb
and at the same time refers significantly to the import of the speaker’s statement.

As in:

 "I'm no good at playing darts," Tom said aimlessly.

 "Let's get married," Tom said engagingly.

The name “Tom Swifty” originally comes from a series of stories by American
writer Edward L. Stratemeyer, which featured a character named Tom Swift, a
young adventure hero who rarely passed a remark without a qualifying adverb such
as "Tom added eagerly" or "Tom said jokingly" [65]. In this form it was not
wordplay, but simply the author's laboured avoidance of repeating the simple word
"said" so many times. Later, the idea was taken up and satirized, and in a clever
parody of the original stories, it was made into a unique form of wordplay known
as Tom Swifty.

4. Puns in Vietnamese
4.1 Classification of the Vietnamese pun

Based on Lac’s work (1999: 176), Vietnamese puns are classified into the
following types:

a. Puns based on sound:

Sound is an expressive means widely used in the Vietnamese puns. For instance:

Giữ tiền sáu tháng chưa làm từ thiện, nên người ta cứ nhắc hoài Linh

In the above example, the pun is conducted on the word “hoài”, the first meaning
is “constantly”, and the second one is a part of the artist’s name himself, “Hoài
Linh”.

Lúa nếp là lúa nếp làng, lúa lên lớp lớp lòng nàng lâng lâng.

This example shows a kind of pun relying on the repetition of sounds, in such case,
is the repetition of /l/ and /n/, the two sounds which are often misused in
Vietnamese, and it is also considered as a tongue-twister challenge.

Chữ tài liền với chữ tai một vần.

tài and tai are similar in sound, the only difference is their tone. Though they are
distinctively different in meaning, tài means talent, while tai means misfortune.
The pun was created by Vietnamese great poet Nguyen Du, implied that
misfortune would accompany the talented.

b. Puns based on meaning:

A great number of Vietnamese puns are based on meaning relations. As in:

Đi tu phật bắt ăn chay

Thịt chó ăn được thịt cầy thì không.

Chó and cầy in example are synonyms. So are thịt chó and thịt cầy (both denote
“dog meat”). Consequently, the idea that eating thịt chó is acceptable while eating
thịt cầy is not allowed sounds peculiarly funny.

Còn trời còn nước còn non

Còn cô bán rượu anh còn say sưa.

The folk song is an example of puns based on polysemy in Vietnamese. “Say sưa”
is a polysemous word showing two related meanings: “drunk” (literal meaning)
and “passionate” (figurative meaning). These meanings share the concept of being
in such a charmed mind that getting hard to conceal and control one’s behaviour
and feeling. So, what the man wants to state here is that he is “drunk” not only by
the alcohol but also by the girl selling it.

c. Puns based on word separation and combination

This kind of pun is based on the separation and combination of double-form

words. For example:

Hoài Linh muốn Yên lặng nhưng đó không phải điều Hằng mong.

In this case, the puns are conducted on “Yên lặng” (peaceful) and “Hằng mong”
(longing), though if these words are separated, each of the first phoneme is the
name of a person, and the rest is a verb. Hence, the sentence can be interpreted as:

1. Hoai Linh wants to live peacefully but that’s not what he longs for.
2. Hoai Linh wants Yen to be silent but that’s not what Hang wants.

d. Puns based on the interchange of the position of concepts in the same

statement:

This type of pun often relates to proverbs. The position of concepts in a proverb is
permuted in order to create a new one containing a new moral lesson.

Tốt sơn hơn tốt gỗ

The pun is the adapted version of the proverb “tốt gỗ hơn tốt nước sơn” (beauty is
only skin-deep) which advises people not to value something based only on the
surface content. Nevertheless, the adapted version implies the irony and criticism
of formalism.

4.2 Some outstanding types of Vietnamese pun

a. Câu đối (Parallel sentence):
Câu đối or Vietnamese parallel sentences, which probably found their root in
Chinese literature, are a distinguished form of wordplay in the Vietnamese
language. Scholars of Confucian culture were especially experts in this type of
pun. The sentences are formed by two parts that are called upper part (vế trên) or
given statement (vế ra) and lower part (vế dưới) or cross statement (vế đối). The
two parts are often made by two verses with the same number of words. The words
of the verses, in successive corresponding pairs, are based on prosodic rules
established essentially on the alternation of equal (or bằng) and oblique (or trắc)
tones, and the content of one verse is the contrary, the reply or the repartee of the
context of the other. The form must also be respected, viz. respect of placement
order of nouns, adjectives and verbs, observance of opposition rules and registered
sounds “bằng” and “trắc” (Quynh, 1994: 132).

For instance:

Cổ nguyệt chiếu sơn hà

Sĩ tâm quang nhật nguyệt.

As seen from the example, there is a same number of words used in each part of
the parallel sentence. At the position of the bằng tone (tâm) in the lower verse we
find the trắc tone (nguyệt) at the same place in the upper verse. Likewise, nhật
nguyệt, the remaining trắc tones in the lower verse are respectively crossed by the
two bằng tones sơn hà in the upper verse.

b. Nói lái – Đảo vần (Vietnamese spoonerism):

Nói lái is a form of wordplay involving exchanging the initial consonants and the
syllables of words to create new words from the original ones. Based on the
number of the involved words, Nói lái is classified into Lái đôi (the involved
words are two), Lái ba (the involved words are three), Lái tư (the involved words
are four) and Lái năm (the involved words are five), among which Lái đôi is the
most popular, which is divided into 4 types:

 the initial consonants remain while the syllables are exchanged (the tone still
remains with its syllable) such as đổ rau – đau rổ, tiền lính – tính liền.
 the initial consonants remain while the syllables and the tones are exchanged
such as con ngựa – cưa ngọn, thầy tu – thù tây.
 the initial consonants and the syllables remain while the tones are exchanged
such as tượng lo – lọ tương; đầu tiên - tiền đâu.
 the initial consonants are exchanged while the syllables with the tones remain
such as bình định – đình bịnh.
c. Đố chữ (word-puzzles):
 Since Chinese was the official language in Vietnam for a long time, a lot of
Vietnamese word-puzzles are based on Sino-Vietnamese writing. Hereafter is
such a word-puzzle:
“Bấy lâu em vắng đi đâu,
Bây giờ thiên đã mọc đầu ra chưa?”
The verses in this example are what the man asked his old girlfriend after a
long time apart. The word “thiên” in Sino-Vietnamese, when added a stroke on
it, just looks like growing a head (mọc đầu), and becomes the word “phu”
meaning “husband”. Consequently, the man’s question can be interpreted as
follows in English: “Where have you been for so long? Are you married?”.
Thanks to the word-puzzle, these very personal questions are expressed
subtlety and delicately. There are also numerous word-puzzles employing
Vietnamese writing. The following is one of them:
Đờ đứng bên ao
Huyền vào mới đẹp
Đờ is the pronoụnced sound of letter đ in Vietnamese and ao is a syllable in
this language. “Đờ đứng bên ao” (Đờ stands by ao) implies the word “đao”,
which just “gets pretty” when added with the low falling tone huyền (Huyền
vào mới đẹp) because if so, it will become the word “đào” (peach) – beautiful
flowers of spring in Vietnam.

To sum up, puns in both English and Vietnamese can be classified into two
groups, one is basic types of the pun and the other represents the outstanding
ones. In addition, the concept of the pun should be considered in the relations
with stylistics and ambiguity in order to gain a comprehensive view of this
interesting stylistic device.

IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The corpora used for this study is taken from lyrics of English rap artists (Eminem,
Slick Rick, Tyler – The Creator, Cardi B, etc.) and Vietnamese ones (MC ILL,
Phuc Du, Slick, Fishy, Hazel, etc.) in total of 500 occurrences each. Through the
ways of punning shown in items III.3 and III.4, and the process of classification
the corpora pool into their expressive means in English and Vietnamese.

The result is as follow:

1. Relative frequency of the common expressive means of the rap pun in English
and Vietnamese:

Expressive means In the English pun In the Vietnamese pun

Number Frequency Number Frequency
Based on sound 130 26% 135 27%
Based on sense relations 64 12.8% 124 24.8%
 Based on splitting words 4 0.8% 10 2%
Based on reversible units 42 8.4% 30 6%
Based on combining different 152 30.4% 99 19.8%
expressive means
Total 392 78.4% 398 79.6%

2. Relative frequency of the expressive means unshared by the rap pun in English
and Vietnamese:

Expressive means In the English pun In the Vietnamese pun

Number Frequency Number Frequency
Based on homophonous 80 16% 0 0%
words
Based on words of the same 3 0.6% 0 0%
root and the inflectional forms
of a word
Based on rearranging letters 25 5% 0 0%
of a word, phrase, or sentence
Based on diacritics 0 0% 27 5.4%
Based on ideogram 0 0% 47 9,4%
Based on separation and 0 0% 28 5.6%
combination of double-form
words
108 21.6% 102 20.4%

The above statistical results prove that the majority of the samples share the same
expressive means (78.4% for the English pun and 79.6% for the Vietnamese one),
since this is the most common wordplay technique among general pun users and
artists, and it is one of the basic stylistic devices to form a rhyme scheme for a rap
song. Punning based on the combination of different expressive means is the most
popular in English (30.4%) while sense relations are chosen most by Vietnamese
artists (24.8%). Sound takes the second rank of popularity level among the expressive
means of the pun in the two languages, because both English and Vietnamese consists
of various sound system, which is convenient for artists to exploit. Puns based on
splitting words and reversible units in the two languages occur in the same ranks of
popularity level and they are rather similar in frequency as this is a technique which is
hard conduct in both languages.

The other statistical list shows the fact that the expressive means based on
homophonous words, words of the same root, the inflectional forms of a word and on
rearranging letters of a word, phrase and sentence are “specialty” of the English pun
that cannot be found in the Vietnamese one. Meanwhile, the other expressive means
mentioned in the list, which rely on various tones (6 tonnes), ideogram, separation,
and combination of double-form words, are the distinctions of the Vietnamese pun. In
the matter of fact, Vietnamese artists usually avoid using diacritic similarities in their
songs to make the most clear and effective lyric. These dissimilarities are considerable
when we refer to the total number of categories of expressive means applied in the
pun of both the languages. However, they are not so big when we consider their
relative differences of the expressive means of Tom Swifties, which mainly exploit
morphology, do not have their frequency in the two languages (21.6% in English and
20.4% in Vietnamese). To know the similarities and the pun in English and
Vietnamese is interesting and useful, but to find out the causes of these things is surely
equally necessary because such knowledge, on one hand, gives us a deeper sight into
the nature of the two languages; on the other, helps to answer certain questions
relating to the field of contrastive study between the two languages.

3. Possible explanation:
 In Vietnamese, there are no suffixes. All words are invariable in form. That is
why the Vietnamese pun does not have such categories based on words of the
same root or the inflectional forms of a word. Tom Swifties, which mainly
exploit morphology, do not have their equivalents in the Vietnamese pun for
the same reason.
 Meanwhile, Vietnamese, as an isolating language in which each form consists
of a single morpheme that very often corresponds to a single concept, and two
forms can cooperate to create a concept as well, is very suitable for such kinds
of wordplay based on word separation and combination.
 Since the way to pronounce a word is closely fixed by its spelling, there is
hardly homophony in the Vietnamese language. On the contrary, a large
number of puns in English – a language which almost has no fixed spelling
rules – rely on this linguistics phenomenon.
 Though in the case of word-puzzle and câu đối, they are extremely
sophisticated forms of wordplay that requires nearly all the linguistic skills as
well as a sharp mind from the punster, it is impossible to exploit them in a
piece of music like rap.
V. Conclusion
Based on the related theoretical preliminaries, in this study I have examined
different types of the English pun and the Vietnamese one to recognize their
expressive means. The investigation was conducted on 500 puns in English and
500 ones in Vietnamese collected from related literary works and corpora on the
Internet. The descriptions of the expressive means of the pun in the two languages
in combination with the statistical results show that there is a high frequency of
similarities among puns in English and Vietnamese (over 78%). Although the
ways of applying these expressive means, which may belong to sound aspects such
as similarity of sound, repetition of sound and interchange of sound; sense
relations such as synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, homonymy, and intentional
ambiguity; or word forms such as splitting, combining, and reversing them, may
be sometimes relatively different between the pun in English and Vietnamese, they
are generally most widely used expressive means of puns in the two languages.
Among these common expressive means the ones based on sense relations share
the most characteristics. Almost any kind of sense relation found in the pun of
either of the languages has its counterpart in the pun of the other. However, a great
 number of puns in both the languages are produced not simply by this or that
expressive means but rather by the combination of different ways of punning. All
these similarities together will facilitate Vietnamese learners’ acquisition of the
English pun. Nevertheless, the differences themselves make the pun in either of the
languages distinguished.

Last but not least, I would like to assert that the pun is an open topic, so this study
is not intended to be conclusive but rather, suggestive. I also would like to
emphasize that carrying out this study, my biggest ambition is just to put a starting
point, mainly for myself, for further research into the English pun and my passion
for rap, which I am attached to so much.

REFERENCES

In Vietnamese:

 Trương Chính, 1997, Giải thích các từ gần âm, gần nghĩa, dễ nhầm lẫn,
NXB Giáo Dục.
 Đinh Trọng Lạc (1999), 99 phương tiện và biện pháp tu từ tiếng Việt, NXB
Giáo Dục.
 Đinh Trọng Lạc, Nguyễn Thái Hoà (2004), Phong cách học tiếng Việt,
NXB Giáo Dục.
 Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh (1994), Tiếng Việt hiện đại (Ngữ âm, ngữ pháp, phong
cách), Trung tâm biên soạn từ điển bách khoa Việt Nam.

In English:

 Galperin, I.R. (1971), Stylistics, Higher School Publishing House,

Moscow.
 Heller, L.G. (1974), Towards a General Typology of the Pun, Language
and Style, vol.7, pages 271-282.
 Redfern, W.D. (1984), Puns, Blackwell, Oxford UK.

OCCURRENCES

 Kimmese, Classx, Mood, Lil Wind, MC ILL (2015) – RVP Cypher.

 Puns from the members of Păn-lai ở đây cực mẹnk (since April 3rd, 2019).
 Eminem (2020) – Music to Be Murdered By: Side B.
 Eminem (2020) – Music to Be Murdered By.
 Eminem (2013) – The Marshall Mathers LP2.
 Eminem (2010) – Recovery.
 Eminem (2009) – Relapse.
 Eminem (2004) – Encore.
 Eminem (2003) – The Singles.
 Eminem (2003) – Straight from the Lab.