Pun

Maqamat-e Hamidi (by Hamid al-Din Abu-Bakr Balkhi, died in 1164) is the first Persian Maqam. Although it has adopted the manner of Maqamat-e Badiʾ al-Zaman Hamedani and Maqamat-e Hariri it has gotten a special position in the history of Maqamas. One of the important properties of Maqama is its musical and harmonic tone. This article tries to analyze pun, as one of the basic literary industries which make the speech musical in the texts like Maqamat-e Hamidi. So, after a brief introduction on the technique of pun, we concentrate on its different types in Maqamat-e Hamidi and the way Hamid al-Din Balkhi used it to process the musical tune of his work.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

The riddle is one of the least studied genres of oral literature and with this book I bring to your desk a recording of riddle act with active audiences. By focusing on the performer of the riddle, this study departs from earlier studies that presented riddles as short alphabetized lists of questions-and-answers.

This article documents some foregrounding devices that the media use to attract readers’ attention to linguistic forms, all identified in sports reports relating to the Euro 2004 Football Championship published in various British newspapers. A functional explanation is offered in terms of the poetic and interactive character of such devices and their role in simulating friendship and encouraging ‘bonding’ between the writers and
readers (phaticity). Their omnipresence in the British media is linked with structural characteristics of the English language, the readiness of the British to tolerate manipulation of linguistic forms, and the general trend towards ‘infotainment’ in the media.