O kalamburach w arcydramacie Mickiewicza
On puns in Mickiewicz’s archdrama

Author(s): Jerzy Paszek
Subject(s): Polish Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: This text is a continuation of my considerations included in the essay “Puns in Pan Tadeusz” (jubilee book dedicated to Prof. Ireneusz Opacki entitled Fabric. Studies, sketches, interpretations, Katowice 2003). I describe not only the puns directly referenced by Senator Novosilcov, but also a variety of stylistic games, including chiasms, poetic etymologizing, homophones (such as “wietrzna” vs. “wieczna”), zeugmas, syllepses, polyptotons, onomatopoeic words (“brdem,” “dbrum,” etc.), alliterations, gigantism (the clash between the microcosm and the macrocosm), polysemous games based on French, German and Polish words, orthographic puns (like “nie ma” vs. “niema”), polysyllabic sound correspondences in rhyme (“from an open watering can” + “from an open pan”), homonyms (pary z kominów + domy szykowane w pary), rhyming parallelisms (“ciągano,” “trzepano,” “spadano,” “winszowano”). In short: I show a range of linguistic tricks belonging to phoneme-based games (i.e. phonostylistics).

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