Asymmetric representations of languages in contact: uses and translations of French and Spanish in Frasier

Roberto A Valdeón

doi:10.52034/lanstts.v4i.142

Abstract

In recent years, several authors have underlined the need for a critical approach to Translation Studies in order to explore power struggles in both source and target languages and cultures. Norman Fairclough ’s model of discourse analysis offers textual and interpretative procedures for the analy-sis of linguistic features of texts and their societal implications that can be successfully applied for this purpose. In this article we shall study the representations of languages and cultures in contact in the American situation comedy Frasier, one of the world’s greatest television successes of the 1990s. We shall cover two distinct uses of languages in contact. In our first section, we shall examine the use of other languages in the primary English discourse of the protagonists, notably French and Spanish, and their different representational and ideational implications, before proceeding to analyse the Spanish and French target versions to ascertain whether the ideological components are maintained or transformed. In the second sec-tion, we shall analyse the scenes where two or more languages are involved and the transformative acts performed by the characters. As in the first sec-tion, the target versions in French and Spanish will then be examined in order to identify the translational strategies used to maintain or tone down the ideological components. The final section will discuss the last dimension of Fairclough’s model, that is, sociocultural practice or explanation.

Highlights

In recent years, several authors have underlined the need for a critical approach to Translation Studies in order to explore power struggles in both source and target languages and cultures
Speakers of two or more languages sharing the same linguistic event is certainly the situation most commonly associated with the notion of language contact and, this is the way in which it is generally referred to (Thomason 2001: 1-14)
In this paper we intend to discuss the ways in which languages in contact are used in the original script of the popular American comedy Frasier, considering their representational and expressive values (Fairclough 1992: 167; 2001: 93ff) in the ST as well as in two dubbed versions

Summary

Languages in contact and screen translation

Speakers of two or more languages sharing the same linguistic event is certainly the situation most commonly associated with the notion of language contact and, this is the way in which it is generally referred to (Thomason 2001: 1-14). We would have a right to be astonished if we found any language whose speakers had successfully avoided contacts with all other languages” (Thomason 2001: 10) The effects of this can be felt in a given communicative event in two major ways: as stated above, it can be realised in the use of two or more languages at the same time, or else, speakers can use stretches of a foreign language within their own mother tongue. Both have been the source of comical situations in film and television comedies, as well as the origin of a very specific problem for the screen translator. This level involves a range of aspects that constitute social and cultural practice, including economic, political and cultural ones

French and Spanish in the ST

French and Spanish linguistic and cultural references in the TTs

French and Spanish in the TTs

Interpretation and conclusions