Abstract:
This article examines some types of verbal humour developedin the Doric comedy of Epicharmus and in the mimes of Sophron. The two Sicilian authors employed in particular homonymy and homophony, plays on thedouble sense of words, often including obscene allusions, coinage of new terms,and paradox. The study of these humorous linguistic techniques helps us acquire a deeper knowledge of the dramatic art of these two poets. It also allowsus to imagine the manner in which the intra-dramatic listener and the spectatorsin the theatre would react to these wordplays.
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