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Q&A Can non-English-speaking characters use wordplay specific to English?

A speaker of a foreign language can create a pun, or some sort of oddly constructed phrase in the reader's language by mistake. In Phillip K. Dick's novel, "The Man in the High Castle," a Japanese...

posted 5y ago by Wastrel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:00:07Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45468
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Wastrel‭ · 2019-12-08T12:00:07Z (almost 5 years ago)
A speaker of a foreign language can create a pun, or some sort of oddly constructed phrase in the reader's language by mistake.

In Phillip K. Dick's novel, "The Man in the High Castle," a Japanese character, Mr. Tagomi, says, "Fleece-seeking cortical response." It takes another character a second to realize that Tagomi means "woolgathering."

It seems to me that one could have a foreign speaker make unintentional puns, or try to translate puns in his own language literally with humorous results. This gimmick requires an explanation and can be used too many times.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-05-27T13:20:22Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 3