In rhetoric, antanaclasis (from the, antanáklasis, meaning "reflection", from ἀντί anti, "against", ἀνά ana, "up" and κλάσις klásis "breaking") is the literary trope in which a single word or phrase is repeated, but in two different senses. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans.

Examples

Shakespeare

Witticisms

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Responding to questions

Antanaclases are prevalent in humorous paraprosdokians employed when responding to a question. For example, in response to the question "how are you two?", an Israeli (Modern Hebrew) speaker can say בסדר גמור; היא בסדר, אני גמור be-séder gamúr; hí be-séder, aní gamúr, literally "in-order complete; she in-order, I complete", i.e. "We are very good. She is good, I am finished". Note the ambiguity of the Israeli lexical item גמור gamúr: it means both "complete" and "finished". A parallel punning paraprosdokian in English is a man's response to a friend's question Why are you and your wife here?: A workshop****; I am working, she is shopping.

Latin literature

Footnotes

Sources