Abstract: English figures of speech are a very popular field for linguistic study. English pun is a figure of speech that uses a word that has more than one meaning, or words that have different meanings. By using English puns English learners are able to express ideas appropriately. But before they are able to do so, they should have a good comprehension of English puns first. This research investigated English major’s comprehension of English puns. Through a test and an interview, English majors’ ability to comprehend puns is analyzed. Results show that English majors have difficulties in understanding English puns. Some suggestions of expanding English majors’ comprehension of English puns are put forward.
Key words: English puns; comprehension; problems; suggestions

摘 要：英语修辞在语言学研究领域中一直非常热门。英语双关语是英语修辞手法中的一种,它是一种利用一个单词含有多种含义或者几个有不用含义却听起来一样的单词的一种修辞。国内外许多学者对于双关语的理解和翻译做了许多研究。英语双关语可以帮助英语专业学生的语言学习和语言输出的地道性。但前提是英语专业学生对英语双关语有个良好的理解。本研究旨在探讨英语专业学生对于双关语的理解情况。通过一份调查问卷以及采访，本研究分析了英语专业学生对双关语的理解现状。并且分析了导致此现状的一些可能的原因。研究结果显示英语专业学生对于英语双关语的理解有困难。并且本文给出了一些提高双关语理解的建议。
关键词：英语双关语；理解；问题

This thesis is a study on English Majors’ comprehension of English puns. Puns are an important part of figures of speech in English. It uses homophony, paronyms, polysemy, etc. to create semantic ambiguity. It is widely used in literature, advertisements, and some idiomatic expressions, even in daily communication between people. English majors have come across a large quantity of English puns during their four years’ study. In my English study, I find it is difficult to understand English puns. Sometimes, I cannot even identify there is a pun in a sentence. So I decide to do the research to find out the situation of the English majors’ comprehension of English puns. Through analyzing data from a test of English puns, the paper shows the situation of English majors’ ability to understand English puns. Then the paper analyzes English majors’ comprehension progress based on the Relevance Principal proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1986). Finally, results of an interview are analyzed to find out factors that affect the learning of puns for English majors.