[Lexicog] Extraordinary English

[walterhakala]

As has already been pointed out, English is far from extraordinary in
this regard!  Sanskrit poets developed techniques of punning to a truly
extraordinary degree.  Prof. Yigal Bronner has summarized the technique
of śleṣa, or conarration, through this helpful analogy:
​Imagine a poem ​ ​of​ ​large or even
epic proportions, say, the​ Iliad. Now try to imagine that the
language of this poem is constructed in such a way that it
simultaneously tells an entire additional story. Suppose, in ​
​other words, that each verse of the Iliad could simultaneously
be read as narrating the Odyssey as well. It is hard to imagine that
language could sustain such an effort and still be intelligible, let
alone beautiful. We can conceive of punned words or even proverbial
utterances that are doubly readable, such as "Gladly the cross-eyed
bear" for "gladly the cross I'd bear;' but a large-scale poem that is
consistently "bitextual" seems inconceivable ​…In South Asia
the phenomenon I have described here does, in fact, exist. The creation,
consumption, and study of doubled texts using the literary device called
​śleṣa ​was a robust literary movement that
lasted over ​1​,ooo years throughout the Indian
subcontinent. It is primarily associated with Sanskrit, but it existed
in several other languages as well.  ​Śleṣa​
was​ ​used for many purposes, but most productively to
conarrate the two great South Asian epics, the Ramay ​ana and the
Mahabharata.  ​(1-2)​ ​As you might imagine, the
production of these "bitextual" epics was enabled by a vast
lexicographical apparatus of anekārthakoṣāsâ€"lexicons
of homonyms produced by and for poets.  ​
I highly recommend Prof. Bronner's book, Extreme Poetry: The South Asian
Movement of Simultaneous Narration (Columbia University Press, 2010), to
those interested in the relationship of lexicography with literature in
South Asia.  For those interested in the diverse range of punning
devices (e.g., Ä«hām, tajnÄ«s, and áº"ilÊ¿
ایہاÙ
، تجنیش، ضلع) in Urdu literature
and lexicography, the third chapter of my dissertation ("Diction and
Dictionaries: Language, Lexicography, and Learning in Persianate South
Asia," http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3447480/
<http://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3447480/> ) provides some
very rudimentary points of reference.
Best wishes,Walt Hakala  ​University at Buffalo​
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