摘　要

英语的双关作为一种语言艺术被广泛的运用在英语作为母语的国家里，由于双关单词意思的多样性，给英语学习者带来了很多困扰。这篇论文从定义开始，让英语学习者了解美国幽默和双关的定义以及其历史发展，阐述了一些经典双关用法的例子，比如在政治辩论中，广告运用中，经典幽默中。美国幽默文化，作为一个很好的双关载体，在这篇论文中，将会有所探析，帮助英语学习者从源头上理解美式幽默，从而更好的感受双关在美式幽默中的运用。在美国文化横扫全球的今日，双关也是越来越在生活中普遍，双关的作用也是本篇论文一个关注点。

关键词：双关；例子；美式幽默；双关的作用

Abstract

English pun, a kind of language art, is widely used in English as a native language due to the diversity of meaning, which has brought about many problems to English learners. This paper starts from the definition so that English learners can understand the definition of American humor and pun, and its historical development. Besides, this paper expounds the classic example of pun usage, such as in the political debate, advertising use of classical humor. In this paper, relevant issues with regard to the source of English language and American humor culture will be analyzed to help English learners understand American humor, and hopefully pun will be better used in American humor. In addition, the functions of English pun humor is a challenge for many Chinese learners. In American culture across the world today, pun is also becoming more and more popular in our daily life and it’s also the main concern of the paper.

Key words: pun; classic examples; American humor; functions of pun;

1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction to English pun culture
Language is a mirror that has "faithfully reflected a nation's history, culture, entertainments, beliefs and discriminations." Pun as an essential part of English shows the smart and flexible side of English culture. Despite the conventional academic avoidance of such a domain, pun enables people to express more complicated emotions with a more vivid approach. However, being a reflection of culture, social mentality and traditional customs, pun often confuses second language learners with its complex meanings derived from a mixture of denotation, connotation, social context and humour communication . More often than not, pun offers much more information than it seems to have, therefore is difficult to comprehend and translate.