What does semantic pun mean?

Pun is a common rhetorical device. In a certain language environment, a sentence is associated with two things at the same time by means of phonetic or semantic connection. This rhetorical device is called pun.

Shi Zhongli was the foreign minister of the Song Dynasty. He and some friends went to the Royal Garden to see lions. One of them sighed: "This lion is fed meat by the court every day. We are not as good as lions as officials! " Shi Zhongli said, "Of course, our official title is Yuan Wailang. How can it compare with the lion in the imperial garden?

"Yuan Wailang" is homophonic with "Wolf outside the garden", which refers to both Yuan Wailang and the wolf outside the garden. In contrast to the lion in the garden, it is humorous, playful and interesting.

This kind of pun is called homophonic pun, which uses the homophonic relationship (homophonic or similar) of words.

After the monkey died, he went to see the king of hell and asked for an afterlife.

The prince said, "If you want to be an adult, you must pluck your hair." Just call the kid to pluck the hair. Only when you pull out one will the monkey scream in pain. The prince said, "Look at you, how can you behave?"

This joke satirizes the extremely stingy and selfish people under the guise of fable, and pulls out a gross profit if they don't do it. Finally, a sharp question "How can I be a man?"

The literal meaning of "not pulling a hair" is to refuse to pull out a hair, and the extended meaning is to describe being extremely stingy and selfish. This joke has two meanings: on the surface, it pretends that the Yan scolded the monkey for not pulling a hair; Actually, it is used to satirize extremely stingy and selfish people.

This kind of pun formed by the polysemy of words is called semantic pun.