ABSTRACT
Because a rebus picture can stand for a word or its homonym, the rebus is inextricably linked to the pun. A pun is the humorous use of a word or phrase that has one sound but more than one meaning. A grave man most usually means a serious man, but Mercutio, punning while dying, plays on the word to mean "a man in a grave." Semantic puns are the most common type, but some puns involve the meaning of an entire sentence rather than just a word or two. Some puns exploit the meanings of two words that sound virtually the same as a single word, or vice versa. Although most people connect puns with word-play, there are many sorts of nonlinguistic puns that can create double meanings without involving words – nonverbal puns. There can be certain identical images that have different identities.
