“Trapicheando” on Baltimore's Corners A Semantic Analysis of The Wire's Slang Terminology and its Translation

Abstract

The current paper seeks to establish an analytical tool aimed at determining the appropriateness of the translation of complex terms and providing an adequate alternative when necessary. The study is built on Fillmore's Frame Semantics Theory (1975) which divides concepts into different frames, a structure that encompasses people's perception, knowledge and interpretation of the notions that make up the world around them (Wendland, 2010). To test the model's practical implementation, I have decided to focus on the English-Spanish translation of a slang term from HBO's acclaimed series The Wire. In this vein, I seek to compare the frames triggered by the original word with those evoked by the translation from the Spanish subtitles of the official DVD collection distributed in the EU.