Czeching Out Puns and Clichés in Football Reporting

Abstract

Punning, as the playful manipulation of linguistic forms and the exploitation of literal and metaphorical meanings, is a common strategy used in the media for increasing the engagement of the readers in a speech event. Regardless of the stereotypical and trite character of many puns and the varying degree of their explicitness, they divert the attention from the representational towards the formal aspect of the message. Puns are seen in the context of the mode of presentation as a part of the wider trend towards ‘infortainment’ in the media. The operation of the allusive character of puns is documented in examples of word play from headlines of various British papers on the pursuits of the Czech national team at the Euro 2004 Football Championship in Portugal. _____________________________________________________________________

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