Abstract:

With the global development of modern world, there are more and more cooperation between different cultures. Lots of English films and videos are appearing in China. In order to create humorous effect and make television work more interesting, the language more lively, editors choose to use puns. This paper first introduces the definition, the characteristics, and functions of puns. The writer also chooses some examples from The Big Bang Theory, Prison Break, The Lion King, Desperate Housewives and so on. From the dialogues and monologues, people can know some different cultures between different countries. After people read this essay, they will feel relaxed when they meet such figures of speech. The examples above show us that in our daily life, pun plays such an important role. Therefore, we should pay more attention to it.

Keywords: puns; humorous effect; culture

摘  要：

随着全球化进程的发展，中西方文化交流以及合作日益频繁，大量欧美影视作品涌入中国。为了使语言生动活泼，幽默诙谐，影视作品更加有趣，编剧们经常使用双关手法。本文首先介绍了双关的理论知识，包括来源、定义、特点以及其作用；其次，本文从美剧《越狱》，电影《狮子王》，情景喜剧《生活大爆炸》以及《绝望的主妇》中的例子出发，通过对这些作品中的双关用法来分析这些双关背后的隐含信息，从而了解其文化背景。读完这篇文章，当人们再次遇到这种修辞手法时，他们会感到十分轻松。这些例子表明，在我们生活中，双关扮演着如此重要的角色，无处不在。因此，我们要格外重视。

关键词：双关；幽默效果；文化

1  Introduction
With the development of our society, lots of English films and videos are appearing in our country. English pun, which is an interesting language phenomenon, belongs to figures of speech. Many authors like Shakespeare, Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe are great punsters. In addition, it is also widely used in our daily life, especially in films and television programs. Dating back to classical times, English puns have a long history. From the investigations, pun dates from the Latin word "paronomazein" which means being called by a different name. It also means "paronomasia". Besides, pun was first used by Dryden in English in 1662. Furthermore, the use of pun is thought as decadent machine. Belgium scholar Delabastita thinks English puns consist of four types, including homonymy, homophony, homography and paronymy. Meanwhile, Chinese scholar Nanfeng Zhang comments on Delabastita's views, including this translation solution. It was the White Rabbit.