Abstract
This research focuses on translation strategies and techniques for rendering slang in Quentin Tarantino’s films “Pulp Fiction” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. The material of the research was the original scripts for the films and their translations into Ukrainian. Defining translation strategies when transferring English slang into Ukrainian involved: frequency analysis of the slang words; semantic decomposition of the slang words to establish their meanings; and comparison of the words to reveal consistent patterns of translating English slang into Ukrainian. Slang words fucking, fuck, shit, goddamn, motherfucker make up 3.6% of the total wordcount in “Pulp Fiction” and 1.33% in “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood”. They mainly function as exclamations, nominations for something inferior, as euphony, or to denote a despicable adversary. Literal translation has been registered in 31.73% in “Pulp Fiction” and 30.98% in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, explicitation (6.07% and 26.03%,) substitution (39.75% and 48.8%). Slang words were neutralised in 15.45% and 16.8%, omitted in 21.34% and 21.72%. The study hypothesises that the techniques involved show a correlation between the semantic transparency of the slang word and the strategy chosen.
Highlights
Rendering slang words is one of the problems audiovisual translators are often confronted
This case study has been based on the scripts of two films by Quentin Tarantino
Taking into account the statistics provided by WordSmith 6.0, slang words are among the most important linguistic tools, and their omission or neutralisation may entail significant losses
Summary
Rendering slang words is one of the problems audiovisual translators are often confronted. In this paper we focus on “Pulp Fiction” and “Once Upon a Time in. Hollywood” by Quentin Tarantino with a special attention paid to slang words and their translation into Ukrainian. Quentin Tarantino’s films are noted for their ambiguity, but the notorious violence often gives his characters depth which make such aggressive content more morally justifiable. The films usually trigger overreaction both from audiences and critics [1,2,3,4], with “Pulp Fiction” (1994) and “Once Upon A Time in. Hollywood” (2019) being no exception due to their utter polysemiotic character “comprising several signifying codes that operate simultaneously in the production of meaning” (5: 16)
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