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Stenka25 Posted 9 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation
Pun?
Pun?
The passage below comes from a book, Naked Economics.
If you are comparing two jobs—teaching junior high school math or marketing Camel cigarettes—the latter job would almost certainly pay more while the former job would offer greater “psychic benefits,” which is a fancy way of saying that at the end of the day you would feel better about what you do. That is a perfectly legitimate benefit to be compared against the cost of a smaller paycheck. In the end, some people choose to teach math and some people choose to market cigarettes. Similarly, the concept of cost is far richer (pardon the pun) than the dollars and cents you hand over at the cash register.
In this passage the author ask readers to pardon 'the pun', but I don't see any pun in the sentence.
Can you tell me what it is in the passage?
Regards.
The passage below comes from a book, Naked Economics.
If you are comparing two jobs—teaching junior high school math or marketing Camel cigarettes—the latter job would almost certainly pay more while the former job would offer greater “psychic benefits,” which is a fancy way of saying that at the end of the day you would feel better about what you do. That is a perfectly legitimate benefit to be compared against the cost of a smaller paycheck. In the end, some people choose to teach math and some people choose to market cigarettes. Similarly, the concept of cost is far richer (pardon the pun) than the dollars and cents you hand over at the cash register.
In this passage the author ask readers to pardon 'the pun', but I don't see any pun in the sentence.
Can you tell me what it is in the passage?
Regards.
Top answer
Stenka25 I don't see any pun in the sentence. It is not a good one; it just plays on two meanings of 'richer'. rich: owning a lot of money, property, or valuable possessions rich: having high value or quality
- Stenka25 I don't see any pun in the sentence.
- It is not a good one; it just plays on two meanings of 'richer'.
- rich: owning a lot of money, property, or valuable possessions rich: having high value or quality
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4 Answers
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Stenka25 I don't see any pun in the sentence.It is not a good one; it just plays on two meanings of 'richer'.
rich: owning a lot of money, property, or valuable possessions
rich: having high value or quality
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rich = wealthy in terms of money/material value.
rich = wealthy in terms of having plenty of qualities or being multi-faceted
rich = wealthy in terms of having plenty of qualities or being multi-faceted
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Stenka25In this passage the author ask readers to pardon 'the pun', but I don't see any pun in the sentence.You don't see a pun because there isn't one. What you see is a metaphor. Technically, it should be "pardon the metaphor" because "rich" is not used literally in that last sentence. While it is common to say "pardon the pun", nobody says "pardon the m
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The word "richer" here means "more involved" or "more complicated" or "more multifaceted." That is, the cost of something is measured not just in dollars and cents, but also in terms of its social, psychological, and aesthetic value. A cigarette exec would make much more than a jr. high math teacher, but the non-monetary aspects of his job are not as satisfying as those of the teacher. Since th
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