Pun，as a special English figure of speech，aims at building a humorous atmosphere in English language.It is widely used in our daily life，including literature works，translation and advertisement and so on.According to The Oxford English Dictionary，the word pun was defined as“The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings or different associations，or the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with different meanings，so as to produce a humorous effect，Nevertheless”，English pun，apart from building humorous atmosphere in English language by playing on word，it can stimulate reader’s imagination and achieve agreeable or redundant expression，and it is usually used for rhetorical effect such as for emphasis，humor，sarcasm，fun and irony，etc.

However，one point to note here is that English pun is greatly different from the Chinese rhetorical term“shuangguan”.Then，the opinion that they are not always corresponding to each other，to a great extent，was accepted by many scholars.For one thing，“shuangguan”refers to one term with two different meanings.However，English pun，on top of“one”term for two meanings，it may include multiple meanings through using polysemy and homonyms，sometimes，it is also termed“antanaclasis”or“polace”，equivalent to another figure of speech in Chinese“huanyi”.Besides，in recent years，the opinion mentioned above was objectively analyzed and accepted by most of scholars.In addition，discussion about English pun in this paper are mainly based on the author’s own reflection.

In terms of research field，based on data from CNKI，the author found that domestic pun researches mainly concentrate on its definition and classification，pragmatic analysis，reorganization mechanism and translation.Besides，it seems that scholars are more inclined to analyze English pun from the last three aspects because there is a little controversy about the first one.In pragmatic analysis，scholars tend to analyze pun based on Grice’s cooperative principle and the relation theory of Sperber& Wilson，which provided suggestions for people to more effectively communicate or decode in the language-using or communicating process.As for the cognitive mechanism， due to the figure and speech perceptions pertain to same category，and basic rules of the former can represent the latter one.Therefore，many scholars have studied the English pun from figure-background theory.In addition，conceptual blending theory also is accessible to further study English pun.

In the view of the author’s opinion，armed with the research situation at home and abroad，more attention shouldn’t be paid to the field with little controversy now，such as the definition or the theory itself of English pun.And the reason why the study of translation，literature works and advertisement based on pun is so popular，probably，can be attributed to context of situation and stylistic effect.For one thing，literature works has more higher requirements for the use of language and aesthetic feeling，thus which is greatly different from business English or technological English with the characteristics of conciseness and directness.For another，the form and the character of pun decide that pun is much more easier to catch reader’s attention than any other rhetorical devices.As a result，it’s no wonder that pun is very popular for merchants to advertise their production.

As a whole，scholars should lay more emphasis on the study of traditional Chinese riddle as most of riddles are play on word.No matter what kind of cultural background，riddle-guessing is common in our daily life，and the further research of riddle is a good way to promote our traditional Chinese culture.Then，as people are tend to use a lot of pun in delivering a public speech，it goes without saying that the study of it is beneficial for people to handle rhetorical device skillfully.For another，English pun is rarely studied from cognitive pragmatics，and a detailed and thorough analysis of English pun processing in terms of the inheritance of connotation-denotation and frame-shifting theory are hardly conducted.Eventually，interdisciplinary research，undoubtedly，is also a good perspective to study English pun.