Explaining verbal humour to the audience – The case of Plautine neologisms

Plautus frequently uses new word formations to increase the comicality of his plays. Such facetious neologisms must have been understood by the audience, otherwise the jokes in the comedies would not have made any sense. However, there are a few passages in which the author explains his newly-coined lexemes through the words of the characters in the plays. This article analyses these utterances, trying to explain why Plautus decided to unveil his process of word creation in these particular places, what function the neologisms have in the dramatic text, how the writer denotes and describes the neologisms, and whether it helps spectators to recognise and appreciate his verbal humour. Most of these passages concern legal neologisms (intestabilis – Pl. Cur. 30–32; parenticida – Epid. 349–351; rabo – Truc. 687–690) and one of them contains a comic name/title (Subballio – Ps. 607–609). The playwright explains the etymology of the new Latin words or shows how he has adapted Greek wordplay (arrabo-rabo) for Roman spectators. These riddle–like explanations are composed following the pattern of identification motifs. Their main goal is to intensify the power of the jokes and their impact on the audience.


ČLÁNKY / ARTICLES
Fingere verba seems to be a frequent practice of Plautus, who uses language to increase the comicality of his plays. The author "achieves considerable diversity" 1 in creating neologisms and in their use in different dramatic contexts. Although "a good number of Plautine neologisms remains unclassified as yet", 2 there have been some attempts to categorise them, e.g. by J. Peter Stein (1971) or Michael Fontaine (2010). 3 Stein, in his article Compound Word Coinages in the Plays of Plautus, gives examples of many different ways in which the comic writer employs neologisms: (1) similar words are piled up (this is a device called accumulatio), 4 (2) a neologism may be the strongest element, placed at the end of an utterance (ἀπροσδόκητον), 5 (3) a neologism lends a tone of parody or irony to the statement, 6 (4) a neologism may be used as a mocking epithet, 7 (5) some neologisms reveal or emphasise an important aspect of an action, motif or character, 8 and (6) a neologism underlines emotions. 9 New-coined words may be found in the roles of various characters 10 and they comprise many parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and even pronouns). 11 That notwithstanding, we have to admit that Plautus invented new words for their comic effect and if they were to please and amuse the audience they had to be understood by the spectators, otherwise the jokes would not have made any sense in the comedies. However, there are a few passages in which the author explains his newly-coined lexemes through the words of the characters in the plays. In my article I wish to examine these utterances to check why Plautus discloses his process of word formation in these particular places, how he describes and terms his neologisms, what impact they have on the meaning of the whole passage and finally whether this Plautine frankness helps the spectators to perceive and appreciate his verbal innovations and wordplays.
Here the slave Palinurus offers some advice to his master, Phaedromus, but his speech has a kind of formal, legal tone (cf. the imperatives and the word probrum, a "disgrace, ignominy") 14 and it seems as if it is spoken by a counsellor. The slave recommends that the young man should not be intestabilis. 15 This is a word which in a legal context means a "man disqualified from calling witnesses, shameful" -OLD (Lex XII;Hor. S. 2,3,181;Gaius Inst. D. 28,1,26;Ulp. D. 28,1,18,1). The etymology of the above-mentioned adjective suggests that it could be connected with the noun testis, a "witness", 16 but the adulescens, reacting to the slave's statement, formulates a question which shows that he sees some incoherence between the word intestabilis and the whole utterance. In his opinion the word under discussion may be associated with the other word testis, understood as a "testicle" (Lucil. 281;Hor. S. 1,2,45;Priap. 15,7). The adjective intestabilis would then gain a new meaning, namely that of a "castrated man". 17 This conclusion may be drawn from the second semantic layer of the slave's utterance: he advises his young master how to handle love affairs and women -i.e. he must have in mind the punishment of castration as foreseen in Roman law 18 and inflicted by the injured husband for adultery. 19 12 Text: Lindsay (1910).
13 If not noted otherwise, the translation of the comedies is as per the edition: De Melo (2011,2012,2013).
14 The future imperatives (conferto, curato, amato) resemble the forms included in Roman legal regulations.
Watson thinks that such imperatives were characteristic of the aedile edicts (Watson 1991: p. 333 Thus the semantic neologism (exactly a neosemantism 20 ) emphasises the features of the stock character of a reckless adulescens amans. The meaning of intestabilis as "having no testicles" is also confirmed in line 32 which states: amato testibus praesentibus, which may be understood as: "love what you love in the presence of your testifiers" or "love, not losing/ (or exactly) still having your testicles". 21 Consequently, we may assume that the word testis gains both meanings in this text, thereby creating a wordplay 22 between a homonymic pair of words 23 testis and testis (the pun is also proposed earlier in the adjective intestabilis), and this is certainly a pun made by Plautus. The question quid istuc est verbi? directly follows the adjective, focusing the audience's attention on the problematic word and suggesting its possible new meaning. Moreover, the slave's answer prolongs the wordplay, but also explains in a way the double entendre joke hidden here. 24 The same question is used in the next example I wish to analyse, which comes from the comedy Epidicus ( 20 Heller et al. (1988: pp. 7-9) and Schippan (1992: p. 246) classify as neologisms new word formations (formative neologisms) and neosemantisms (semantic neologisms); cf. Busse (1996: p. 650);Elsen (2004: pp. 19-20).
24 Leo (1960: p. 150 25 This passage has already been briefly presented by the author, but in different contexts: when rethinking the etymology of parricida in general (Pieczonka 2012) and describing allusions to poena cullei in Plautine comedies (Pieczonka 2016).
The servant Epidicus uses the word parenticida in his conversation with the young man Stratippocles. The latter seems surprised and confused 26 on hearing the word, and so he asks right away: quid istuc est verbi? -"what kind of word is that?" The question implies that the word was obscure to Stratippocles and must have been perceived as a neologism. Its nature is confirmed by the slave's response -he says that he "does not care for old and common words" (nil moror vetera et volgata verba). 27 It appears that Epidicus creates and uses a new word on purpose and openly admits that parenticida is a neologism. 28 The noun parenticida, a "parent-killer," was rendered as a composition of the verb parens and the verbal suffix (-cida 29 from caedere), which in its derivational structure resembles the familiar legal term parricida, confirmed by Festus as existing as early as the leges regiae 30  28 Such is also the opinion of Duckworth (1979: p. 297). Fontaine writes: "this coinage, which blends parens 'father' and parricida 'parricide' is perhaps intended as a calque, or a loan translation, of the Greek word πατροκτόνος 'father killer'" (2010: p. 5).
30 According to the testimony of Isidore of Seville, parricida (Etym. 5, 26, 17: et dictum parricidium quasi parentis caedes) may originate from the word parenticida, which has been discussed above. The grammarian Priscian was of a similar opinion (Inst. 1, 33): "par paris paricida", quod vel a "pari" componitur vel, ut alii, a "patre", -r euphoniae causa additur, sin a "patre", t in r convertitur; quibusdam tamen a "parente" videtur esse compositum et pro parenticida per syncopam et commutationem t in r factum "parricida" (also Prisc. 32 The paronomasia is further emphasised by alliteration -and it must be noted that such a combination of paronomasia, alliteration and wordplay is characteristic of the archaic poets. Cf. Wölfflin (1933: pp. 225-281). a parent-killer". The word parenticida is the crucial element of the utterance and it comes as a surprise at the end of the line (creating a figure of speech called ἀπροσδόκητον).
The question about this neologism is answered by the slave's statement, which confirms the novelty of the word and then offers further explanation. Parricida, a "murderer of a near relation, especially of a parent" was sewn into a sack (culleus, though here this sack is called pera, as the text mentions someone peratum) 33 and the criminal was then drowned. Parenticida is "a comic formation, but it has a similar meaning; and the form of punishment is of course also comic", 34 as a parent-killer will be imprisoned in a money bag or a wallet (follitus) ["Plautus is not concerned whether the details of such images are realistic"]. 35 This humorous explanation contains two more neologisms: peratus ("done up in a food bag") and follitus ("enclosed in a money-bag"), which allude to the penalty of the sack, poena cullei, administered for the crime of parricide by Roman law. 36 The slave's statement should be interpreted as meaning that while others may rob the father of food, he will rob the young man's father of money (a typical comic motif). This riddle-like explanation extends the joke far beyond the point of the newlycoined noun parenticida and helps the audience understand the intended meaning of the paralegal neologism. Parenticida is the most noticeable element in the text thanks to several markers, which are: the question, the comment about his contempt for the oldfashioned words, and the explanation about the punishment, which also contains comic neologisms. These new words are without any doubt Latin, although the adjective peratus might have been created under the influence of the Greek word πήρα, "a leather bag for keeping food" (Hom. The passage contains a conversation between Harpax, the soldier's servant, and the young man's slave named Pseudolus. In this scene Harpax appears in the pimp's house with money and a letter from the soldier with which he wants to buy a girl from the pimp Ballio. Pseudolus pretends to be Ballio's butler, because he hopes to deceive Harpax and collect the money from him. To make himself more reliable Pseudolus calls himself Subbalio, meaning "Under-Ballio", suggesting that he comes second in the household hierarchy, 38 right after the master of the house. This facetiously coined new noun raises a question from Harpax: quid istuc verbist?, "What sort of word is that?" Pseudolus tries to clarify the expression, giving examples of the roles he performs in the house: condus, promus sum, procurator peni, "I'm the getter-in and giver-out, the superintendent of supplies". However, the explanation does not end here, as Harpax wants to make sure that he understood everything correctly, ergo he states: quasi te dicas atriensem. Pseudolus denies being a majordomo, "a servant in charge of household administration", 39 boasting that his position is higher in the hierarchy -he claims that he "gives commands to the majordomo" (immo atriensi ego impero).
If we look at the structure of this conversation, it resembles the previous two. It consists of three parts: the neologism, the question and the explanation, which is much longer, thereby not only extending the neologistic joke, but also allowing for the accentuation of the typically comic situation between the two stock characters of a clever and a stupid slave.
Subbalio, the neologism in question, has already been a subject of interest and inquiry for scholars. For instance, David Bain thinks that subBallio (his spelling) should be understood as a professional title, meaning "a kind of deputy functionary" 40 and he puts this 38 "Sub denotes a position lower than or beneath something, an assistant", OLD, s. v. sub. Lorenz  Interestingly, Michael Fontaine undertook the task of finding this unidentified word. In the passage discussed above, the scholar suspects a double entendre joke invoked by the name of the pimp (it was Ludwig Gurlitt who first sensed a hidden innuendo here). 50 He interprets Subbalio as "Sub-Phallio", a "lieutenant Phallio" 51 or "Under-Phallio", which ironically implies that the pimp Ballio, called Phallio by Fontaine, pedicates the slave. Furthermore, the scholar thinks that condus might have been pronounced connus, which makes a pun on cunnus "a pussy", and in his opinion both terms condus and promus refer 41 Lorenz (1876: p. 160, n. 824) also thinks that suppromus, subcustos and Subbalio are comparable wordformations.  (Cf. Nörenberg 1975: pp. 305-306). Subpromus = "an under wine-drawer" is a noun from promere = "to put forward", "to draw out" - Hammond, Mack, Moskalew (1968: p. 146 It is true, however, that the pimp's name, Ballio (from Gr. βαλλίον), 57 may be interpreted as φαλλός, membrum virile. 58 But even if this is so, it does not necessarily refer to the pimp's anatomy or sexual behaviour, but may rather allude metaphorically to his features of character and/or his being a pimp as well. Such a conclusion may perhaps be drawn from a fragment from a Greek comedy entitled Etruscan by Axionicus, preserved in Athenaeus (Axionicus fr. 1, 1-2 K-A = Ath. 4, 166c): ὁ Πυθόδηλος οὑτοσὶ ὁ Βαλλίων προσέρχετ' ἐπικαλούμενος μεθύουσά τ' ἐξόπισθεν ἡ σοφωτάτη Ἀποτυμπανισχὰς κατὰ πόδας πορεύεται.
['Here comes Pythodelus, whose nickname's Big Dick; 52 Fontaine (2010: p. 219). Gurlitt suspects that the passages from Miles gloriosus which contain the word subpromus (vv. 852; 837) also refer to an erotic relationship between the two males. Moreover, the scholar thinks similarly about other derivatives from promere. This fragment mentions the name Ballio as a nickname, meaning "Big Dick", and the person called by this name is probably a pimp, because his companion Apotumpanischas (" Dried Fig" = "Sweetie") seems to be a prostitute. 60 In Latin, the pimp's name Ballio became a synonym of "a scoundrel, worthless person" (OLD, cf. Cic. Rosc. 20; Phil. 2, 15), which might be a similar meaning to "Big Dick", but this metaphorical understanding of the name was perhaps influenced by the Plautine comedy, not the Greek nickname. Nevertheless, the word Subballio in the Plautine play is not a name or even a nickname, but a function / title of sorts, because the slave gives his fictional name later in the conversation with Harpax (Ps. The slave explains the word Subbalio, giving some examples of his duties. 61 As I have said before, Fontaine interprets these terms as erotic (thus following Gurlitt's hypothesis on this matter) 62 and is especially suspicious of condus, a "putter-in man", a neologism not found elsewhere and used by Plautus instead of condĭtor, which was attested in wordplay in Epidicus (522-523: (...) qui omnium/ legum atque iurum fictor, conditor cluet). 63 However, the word cunnus, "the female pudenda", indicated by Fontaine, was not used by Plautus either (attested only since Catullus), maybe because it was considered extremely obscene. 64 The second title that is mentioned, promus, "the taker-out man" ("a servant who dispensed household stores, especially food and drink" -OLD), was quite a common word, and was also used by Plautus in other plays (Trin. 81: ne admittam culpam, ego meo sum promus pectori; Poen. 716: edepol fecisti prodigum promum tibi). Fontaine gives practically no evidence that it might have a sexual meaning in the Plautine play. The last expression employed by the slave, procurator peni, a "proctor of supplies", was used instead of penator. Fontaine proposes 59 Olson (2006: p. 299). A Polish translation of the passage says very boldly: "oto Pythodelos/ nadchodzi zwany Kutasem, a za nim,/ krok w krok podąża pijana Ischada,/ co umie pięknie grać na tamburynie" -Danielewicz (2010: p. 360).
63 The line is in iambic senarius and the medium syllable in conditor may contain a short or a long "i". It is therefore possible that Pseudolus is alluding to the words used earlier by the pimp while he is pretending that he is Ballio's servant. Nevertheless, the allusion to the unvoiced word pēnis may be hidden in his statement anyway and might have been recognised by the audience (such relation between two similar words pĕni and pēni may be called homoionymy and a wordplay between them is a paronomasia). It is worth noticing that the whole passage contains more names of positions than those listed by Fontaine -line 606 mentions precator et patronus foribus, "intercessor and patron for the door", 66 and line 609 contains the word majordomo, atriensis. The scholar does not describe them, nor does he mention them as having any erotic meaning. However, it must be admitted that the door, fores=ianua, may have had a sexual meaning of the "external female pudenda" or an "anus". 67 Therefore, the noun atriensis, which refers to someone who guards the door of the household, might also be understood in the erotic sense. This may be confirmed by the passage from another Plautine play, In the above scene, it is implied that the slave "Olympio got his job as vilicus by submitting sexually to the master", 68 senex Lysidamus. Homoerotic relation between these two characters is suggested by the expressions: apage a dorso meo; morigerus 69 and voluptati fui. 70 The second slave, Chalinus, says that he had been given a similar proposition 71 -he could become atriensis in exchange for homosexual services, which are implied by the noun ianua (a "back entrance," meaning metaphorically an "anus"). But even though the noun atriensis may be interpreted in Casina as erotic, this fact does not definitely determine the meaning of this particular word in the comedy Pseudolus. Therefore, all things considered, it is difficult to judge whether Fontaine's theory is right -there are arguments for and against it. Moreover, Fontaine's hypothesis seems to be contradicted by the general sense of the whole scene in question (Ps. 604-609). The eponymous slave is a servus callidus who has just come up with a new trick and he seems to be boasting about his new fictionally assigned position in the house of the pimp. His exemplification is to prove that he really works here and that he can be trusted with the money that Harpax has brought. It would be weird to assume that he explicitly admits to being Ballio's boy, a submissive homosexual partner, when he wants to present himself as a reliable second emperor of the house, to command respect and to persuade Harpax to hand over the money. The only sensible explanation for this kind of self-incrimination could be that Pseudolus, while boasting, could be unconsciously praising and humiliating himself at the same time (which would be very ironic).
Regardless of this controversy, we may admit that the passage from Pseudolus represents a scheme of a neologism depiction analogous to the two that were mentioned earlier in this paper, where the newly coined word and the subsequent question are followed by a riddle-like explanation. Subballio differs from the first two examples of neologisms only in the fact that it may be deciphered as a hybrid, composed of a Latin prefix sub-and a Greek name Ballio (Βαλλίον), while the first two are Latin word-formations.
The last neologism I would like to include in my article is derived from the Greek word arrabo (ὁ ἀρραβών), 72 which means a "pledge/money which in purchases is given as a pledge that the full amount will subsequently be paid". In the passage from the comedy Truculentus, the eponymous slave wishes to rent the courtesan's maid named Astaphium for the night, and therefore he gives her an advance for her service, but he mentions the word arrabo in an odd shortened version (Truc. 687-690): 68 O'Bryhim (1989: p. 98 72 Frequently also written ἀραβών. Latin authors also used an abbreviated form arr(h)a (Plin. Nat. 29,21;33,28;Gell. 17,2,21), which according to Hamp (1985: p. 109) arose as a shortening in mercantile slang. AST. I'm dead! "Posit"? What beast should I say this is? Why don't you say "deposit"? TRUC. I'm saving the "de", just as a woodpecker is a "pecker" for people of Praeneste.'] The word in question is transformed by the slave, who decides to cut off the beginning letter "a" and take it as his savings ('a' facio lucri). Such a poetic device of separating the word into two parts, called divisio or tmesis (τμῆσις), has been known and used in Latin literature since Ennius, 73 but the maid from the Plautine play is surprised at hearing the strange new word, which she describes as belua, 74 "the beast". The slave confirms the comic device, presenting another example of such a linguistic phenomenon. He claims that the inhabitants of Praeneste do the very same thing -instead of ciconia they use the abbreviated form conea. Wallace Lindsay tried to translate the noun rabo, coined by Truculentus, as a "raver", 75 as if this word would be derived from the verb rabio rabere, "to rave", "to be frenzied with rabies" (OLD). Unfortunately, the scholar was mistaken, because rabo is certainly a mutilated form of arrabo, a word which came into Latin from the Greek, 76 but earlier it seems to have passed to Greek from the Hebrew 77 ērāḇōn (previously -*ʿirrabōn ‫בון‬ ֹ ‫ָר‬ ‫ע‬ ֵ ). 78 The slave Truculentus compares the pair of words arrabo -rabo with the Latin ciconia and Praenestine conea, suggesting that conea is a derivative from ciconia. 79 It seems likely that the Praenestine dialect probably tended to leave out vowels, 80 so that the word ciconia could have been reduced by the process of haplology to [c-conia], which eventually would produce conia. 81 However, it also looks like Plautus intended "to make fun of the way the Praenestines pronounce certain words", 82 and that is why he allowed the rustic slave 83  In this dialogue the slave admits that he comes from the country and his incorrectly spoken words are called jokes (ridicularia) by the maid Astaphium. This passage is directly followed by the lines which contain the invented neologism rabo and the Praenestine form conea, so these words may also be perceived as comic formations made up by a peasant (their purpose is to emphasise the slave's rustic features). The neologistic nature of the word rabo is confirmed by the maid, who describes it as belua. The passage about ciconia -conea is a kind of explanation of the word-derivation process. We may only wonder why Plautus used the word arrabo, although he could have employed the Latin pignus instead 86 1133); (...) Diesptr (for Diēspĭter -CIL I, 1500); Ptronio (for Pĕtrōnio) -Lindsay (1894: p. 177). The scholar says that the syncope might be a result of the antepaenultima accent, but in some words it seems that the accented syllable is omitted, e.g. Trtia (for Tertia -Eph. I, 108); Atlia (for Atilia -Eph. I, 33). Cf. De Melo (2013: p. 345). Adams claims that: "It may be concluded that the town had a dialect to Roman ears (...), but to what extent it shared non-urban phonology with other areas of Latium and nearby cannot be determined" (2007: p. 123). However, it seems that the Latin spoken in the city was different from the variety spoken in the country and it could be the subject of mockery (Lucil. frg. 1130: ne Cecilius pretor fiat rusticus) - Adams (2007: p. 118 -the interesting thing is that both these terms may be found in his comedies (arrabo: 87 Mil. 957;Mos. 645;Rud. 46;555;861;but v. 581 pignus). 88 I suppose that Plautus might have translated a Greek passage here. Splitting the prefix a (e.g. expressing want, absence or strengthening the meaning) from the main word seems like a Greek linguistic process, although it should concern compound word-formations, to which arrabo does not belong. The proof of the Greek provenience of the passage may be hidden in the word belua which looks like a translation of the Greek τὸ τέρας (or τὸ θηρίον / ὁ θήρ), a "monster" (cf. τέρας λέγεις καὶ θαυμαστόν Pl. Hp. Ma. 283c). Later Latin authors actually used the word monstrum 89 to describe a strange, incredible statement or an odd word, as we may conclude from the passage of Gellius' Noctes Atticae (11, 7, 9,  The pun on ciconia -conea seems to have been created by Plautus, as it concerns Latin words. Nevertheless, I wonder if this joke could also imitate the verbal humour from the Greek original. It is very intriguing that the Greek word for a stork, ὁ πελαργός, can be separated as well. First, if we split πελαργός, which literally means "black and white", 91 we will see the names of colours ἀργός, "white, shining", and πελλός/πέλλος (the accent varies in codd. LSJ), "dark coloured, dusky". Then, if we cut off the first part πελ-, we will be left with the name of several Greek cities τὸ Ἄργος; or if we divide the word in the same way, separating πελ-, we may also get ἀργός, which could be a contracted form of ἀεργός, "not working" -this word, when referred to money, may mean "lying idle, yielding no return" (LSJ), so it could define a pledge. Of course, these are all guesses, but the notion 87 Terence uses arrabo only in: Haut. 603; the word is not attested in Cicero (Maltby 1985: pp. 113;118 (1904-1924; 1926-1933 of Greek wordplay being present in the passage seems quite appealing to me. Plautine originality would lie in translating the divisio joke, finding the Latin equivalent belua and rendering the Greek wordplay for the Roman audience. Nevertheless, regardless of the provenience of the Latin pun ciconia -conea (if it continues the Greek wordplay on πελαργός), we must admit that it was certainly composed as an explanation of the neologism rabo and was done especially for the Roman spectators.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we need to state that all the neologisms analysed here were made up by slaves, who used this linguistic device to underline the representation in the play of such elements of the world as stock characters (adulescens amans, servus callidus and stupidus) and motifs (deceiving a senex and robbing him of money; playing a trick on leno). Among these word-formations are three nouns and one adjective. The first two examples try to bring the etymology of the new "funny" words closer, juxtaposing them with their alleged formative bases (intestabilis -testibus praesentibus; patrem faciam parenticidam), while the noun in the last passage shows the process of word-derivation called divisio (arrabo rabo). If we want to consider the originality of the neologisms presented here, we may notice that intestabilis and parenticida are Latin compound word-formations, Subballio is probably a hybrid, and rabo is in fact a Greek neologism transcribed into Latin. Regardless of these differences, in all of these cases the playwright employs a particular kind of utterance structure: each begins with a humorous neologism, followed by a question about its meaning and then the explanation of the incomprehensible word. The characters in the plays, by asking for an interpretation of the strange invented words (quid istuc est verbi?) or making some comments about them (vetera et volgata verba / belua), draw attention to their neologistic nature. They "signpost these creations for us" 92 and of course for the Roman audience too. Neologisms do not conform to standard knowledge of lexems, and that is why they may need some explanation from the interlocutor who is using them for the first time. Three of the passages discussed above concern legal neologisms (intestabilis, parenticida, rabo), which may be more difficult to understand when used in comic contexts in place of legal ones. That is why Plautus expands the dialogues in the scenes analysed above in order to clarify the new word-formations and to compound the joke. The explanation that follows each new word is in fact a variation on the preceding words, a playful elaboration of the subject which usually contains a riddle to solve (sometimes in the form of new neologisms). Eduard Fränkel calls this kind of a dialogue structure an identification motif 93 and recognises this device as peculiar to Plautus. 94 Fränkel 92 Fontaine (2010: p. 5).
94 Terence, according to Fränkel, "offers nothing of this kind nor, apparently, does Menander" (Fränkel 2007: p. 19). "Similar things occasionally appeared in the Attic comedies, though hardly in Menander, where even similes, the weaker form of identification, are hard to find (this is in contrast to Old and Middle Comedy)" - Fränkel (2007: p. 38;cf. also pp. 39-41). notices that "in Greek comedy real comparisons predominated, not the identifications so beloved by Plautus". 95 The Plautine identification motif may be pictured as a composition of two elements joined by the verb "to be" = "a" is "b". 96 All the passages presented above contain such typical Plautine riddling identifications, despite the fact that not all the neologisms under consideration are Latin. Plautus decides to develop the dialogues which contain these neologisms not only to clarify their meaning, but also in the process to rework a Greek text or to adapt a Greek play on words for his Roman spectators. The most important function of these identification motifs is that they intensify the power of the jokes and the impact of the verbal humour on the audience. Thanks to this fact, the new words "do not pass unnoticed". 97