Story Writing Tips: Diaphora, Puns, and Zeugma

Image via Wikipedia A figure of speech that master writers use to their advantage is the diaphora, in which a common word is used for a second time —within the same phrase, clause, or sentence— but with a different meaning or for emphasis, or clarification. When Blaise Pascal in his Pensees said: My heart has reasons of which reason knows nothing about, he was using a diaphora. The word ‘reasons’ in the front and the word ‘reason’ in the next section do not mean the same thing. While ‘reasons’ in this context means opinions, excuses, moods, or even whims, ‘reason’ refers to intelligence or logic. What Pascal was contrasting was the heart and the mind—feelings versus thinking. When a barber asks his customer: “How do you want your hair cut?” and the customer replies, “In silence;” Or, in a variation: “How do you want your hair cut?” and the customer answers. “Very carefully,” —these are simply puns and not diaphoras because there are no common words. But when we read in Hamlet: HAMLET: How came he mad? FIRST CLOWN: Very strangely, they say. HAMLET: How ‘strangely’? Now we have a diaphora since we find two common words, with the second ‘strangely’ used more for clarification than to alter the meaning of the first. A figure of speech related to diaphora is the Zeugma, which is preferred over diaphora, by contemporary master writers. A zeugma includes a word that controls at least two other words: Follow this example from Sue Grafton’s novel C is for Corpse: “After two unsuccessful marriages, I find myself keeping my guard up, along with my underpants.” The controlling word is ‘keeping,’ on which the other two (guard and underpants) depend. Quiz: When Benjamin Franklin said: We must all hang together or surely we will all hang separately—was he using a diaphora, a zeugma, or a pun? Related articles by Zemanta Pun introduced in translation? (ask.metafilter.com) Strictly English: Part Four (telegraph.co.uk) Puns and Coincidence (linusfernandes.com)

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