synonym jokes

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Tuesday, March 20, 2001 3:01 pm -0600 Mark Odegard
<markodegard at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> The whole genus of 'knock-knock' jokes meet this specification, I think.
> Here is a link to some Christmas ones:
> http://www.christmasjokes.co.uk/jokes/knockknock.html
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Actually, knock-knock jokes take advantage of homophony, not synonymy.
I've had one (private) usable response so far, just to give you an idea of
what I mean:


Q: What did the mayonnaise say to the refrigerator
A: Shut the door. I'm dressing.

This takes advantage both of the homonymy of dressing/dressing, but also
the synonymy of mayonnaise/dressing.
(Thanks to Alice Faber.)

Lynne


M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320