The use of cultural conceptualisations as a translation strategy for culture-specific jokes and humorous discourse: A remedy for a malady?

Abstract

Translating humour across languages and cultures is a complex task that requires more than just linguistic competency. It requires understanding the cultural background and social context of both the source and target languages. This study examines the applicability of cultural conceptualisations in translating Persian jokes into English. The study adopts Cultural Linguistics as an investigative framework (Sharifian, 2017) to analyse five Persian jokes and offer a strategy for translators to follow when translating jokes containing cultural conceptualisations. The study argues that cultural conceptualisations, such as cultural schemas, cultural categories, and cultural metaphors, play a crucial role in translating humour. By identifying and using cultural conceptualisations in the translation process, translators can ensure that the humour of the original joke is retained in the target language. This framework involves three stages: identifying the source language cultural conceptualisation, finding the equivalent cultural conceptualisation in the target language, and translating the joke to ensure laughability in the target language. The study also shows that humour is closely tied to cultural knowledge and assumptions and that what may be considered funny in one culture may not necessarily be funny in another. Therefore, cultural conceptualisations can serve as a bridge between different cultures and can help translators translate humour across cultural and linguistic boundaries effectively. The findings of this study offer important implications for translators and cultural communicators who aim to efficiently communicate humour and other forms of cultural content across languages and cultures.