Translation Of Humour Research Articles

Equivalence in Humour Superiority and Incongruity Translation: A Case of Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel

In numerous attempts to describe the phenomenon of humour, diverse theories have been proposed: ones, revealing its superiority that evolves from aggression, derision, mockery, malice, and abuse; others, focusing on the humorous incongruity contrastive and confusing effects. As far as the superiority theory is concerned, it commenced with ancient philosophers’ works like Aristotle’s Poetics [1] and Plato’s Republic [2] advancing the hypotheses of the malicious or derisive enjoyment caused by ridiculing and imitating mistakes or deformities, continued with Hobbes’ theories of laugher regarding it as a “sudden glory” and triumphant “self-applause” over the misfortunate exposed in Leviatah [3] and developed with controversial statements of superiority being too limited and poor a concept without incongruity. Though most authors agree that it is the frustrated expectation that makes the joke or narrative amusing, we support Vandaele’s [4] position concerning both theories being complementary. Since humour is a challenging translation area, rendering comic suspense and surprise without exaggerating the humourist’s superiority or diminishing his preeminence turns out to be really difficult an assignment for translators. The research question this study addresses is whether translation equivalence may be achieved when transferring narrative humour linguistic, social, contextual incongruities and positive/negative superiority from source to target text. To answer this question, detailed systematic corpus analysis has been done aiming to systematize and compare target language translated versions of J. K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (1889) and Three Men on the Bummel (1990), to identify humour translation difficulties with concern to incongruity translation (non)equivalence and (non)aggressive superiority. Part of this comparative analysis is intended to determine the transferred comic sense quality, to consider its denotative or connotative target language equivalents which are doubtlessly contextually motivated. The present study results give priority to humorous meaning interpretation achieved by means of dynamic equivalence techniques that justify or criticize Romanian translators’ competences of decoding so relative, complex and mysterious a phenomenon as humour.

Translating humour in audiovisual media

The article investigates humour translation in audiovisual media concentrating on two modes of audiovisual translation: dubbing and subtitling. The corpus consists of humorous scenes collected from two popular American situational comedies, namely Friends (1994) and The Big Bang Theory (2007). The analysis is based on the comparison of the humorous scenes in their original (English) audio track with their dubbed and subtitled Hungarian versions. Only those humorous scenes were selected and analysed in which the humorous load is mediated by language- and/or culture-specific humorous elements. The study focuses on the differences between the scenes’ humorous load in their original, dubbed, and subtitled versions. The methodology of the research is based on Juan Jose Martinez-Sierra’s case study “Translating Audiovisual Humour” (2009). The results show that in certain cases there is a difference between the humorous load in the dubbed and subtitled versions which can be traced back to the differences between the constraints of dubbing and subtitling.

Humor Translation Revisited: The Case of Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” Subtitled into Persian

The present study is an attempt to investigate the subtitling strategies adopted in Persian translation of humor of Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” and to determine which strategy was utilized more frequently than others. The study is a descriptive comparative content analysis on the basis of the dialogues and the corresponding subtitles from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall”. The theoretical framework of the present study was based on Henrik Gottlieb's (2001) classifications of subtitling strategies. The results of the study showed that the most frequent strategy was transfer . The high frequency of transfer strategy means that the Iranian subtitlers transferred the dialogues of the original film into Persian in the most comprehensible and natural way possible. Keywords: Audiovisual Translation (AVT), Humor, Subtitling, Translation Strategy

Humor Translation in Persian Subtitled Comedy Movies into English: A Case Study of ‘Lizard’

The aim of the present study is to investigate translation strategies employed in the subtitling of Persian comedy movies into English. The movie, titled ‘Lizard’ was chosen as the corpus of the study. Humorous instances are detected and identified in Persian version and they are classified into three groups according to Debra and Raphaelson-West’s (1989) categorization of humor. The eight strategies for translation of cultural jokes proposed by Tomaszkiewicz (1993, cited in Diaz- Cintas, 2009) was adopted for the framework of the study to analyze the strategies employed in rendering the humorous expressions in subtitling of Persian comedy movies into English. The findings revealed that universal jokes can be transferred easily into other language/s whereas linguistic and cultural jokes resist in translation due to the differences between languages and cultures. Based on the findings of the study, literal translation is found to be the most commonly used technique in subtitling from Persian to English. Besides literal translation, equivalence strategy was also used in many cases. This study also suggests that in order to transfer cultural jokes, it is wiser to create humor in accordance to the visual context of the movie and domesticate the translation to achieve the desired result.

Reframing humor in TV news translation

The increasing entertainment-oriented tendency of the news engages audiences’ emotions more readily. This trend has triggered my interest in studying the humorous aspects of international news on TV and how different varieties of humor in the TV newsroom are represented and mediated by news translators. The issue of humor in TV news, particularly in relation to its translation and translator mediation, has rarely been addressed in the literature. Because TV news translators are increasingly playing the role of journalists, it is imperative to produce interdisciplinary research on this topic. This paper draws on the news frame theory to examine the mediating role of TV news translators in working with humorous elements. The paper argues that TV news translation is a process in which news stories that have been framed by previous news workers are reframed. The paper explores the implications of different forms of humor for TV news translation strategies and seeks to optimize translation and communication effectiveness. By analyzing authentic news texts and their translated versions from five major commercial TV news stations in Taiwan, this paper aims to unveil how news frames interact with the translation of humor and how these interactions produce new meanings.

The Effects of Religion on Translating Humor from English into Persian through Figurative Language

The present study investigated the integral role of religion and culture in translation of humor from English Christian short stories into Persian. The main focus was to discover how figurative languages could be transferred from source text into target text. Four humorous Christian short stories were given to ten M.A. Persian students of Translation Studies to observe whether they could transfer the whole humorous concepts. To this end, through Newmark's faithful, cognitive, and adaptation methods, translated texts were scrutinized. Due to the religious and social differences between English and Persian cultures, the researcher concludes that the transference of figurative languages and humor from English into Persian could not take place thoroughly.

Some Questions of Linguocultural Specificity Communication at the English Humour Translation

This problem is relevant today because it is necessary to study the issues of the correlation of language, culture and translation, so far as translation is a link between linguistic cultures speakers. Obvious lack of researches in the field of linguocultural specificity affects the quality of the translation and the adequacy of reflection of ethno-linguistic worldview in the minds of other languages speakers. The objective of the article is to identify the degrees of interaction of language and culture in the translation process to provide a deep penetration in the national associated meanings of original literary works. Leading approach to the study of this problem is the analysis that was carried out on basis of descriptive, comparative methods, on the method of a literary text description, involving elements of linguistic and cultural analysis. Methodological basis became researches in linguistics, intercultural communication and translation studies. The paper revealed that linguocultural humour study suggests the priority coverage of the values that are relevant for the compared cultures. These values may get different expression in humorous texts. English humour includes relevant characteristics of universal humour and humour of those social groups that make up the English nation. The article materials may be useful for further research in this area, for effective translation techniques development.

Dubbing versus voice over: culture-bound jokes & references in the English-Italian-Polish translation of humour in adult animated sitcoms

Dubbing versus voice over: culture-bound jokes & references in the English-Italian-Polish translation of humour in adult animated sitcoms

A study on the translation of humor of English-Korean children’s literature

A study on the translation of humor of English-Korean children’s literature

Text Reduction as a Technical Constraint in Subtitling versus Humor Translation

Text Reduction as a Technical Constraint in Subtitling versus Humor Translation

Translating Aristophanes’ humour for the Modern Greek stage: The Acharnians at the National Theatre of Greece (1961–2005) and the State Theatre of Northern Greece (1991–2010)

The paper explores the reception of Aristophanes’ first extant comedy The Acharnians (425 BC) in post-war Greek modern theatre by the two government-sponsored theatre institutions of Greece, namely the National Theatre of Greece (NTG) and the National Theatre of Northern Greece (NTNG). It discusses translation trends of Aristophanes’ text and focuses on the transference of source text humour in five playscripts, which were all performed from 1961 to 2010. Consequently, it will hopefully address issues of humour translation from a theatrical perspective. The paper applies linguistic tools and humour translation methodology in order to examine source text humour transference in a self-compiled corpus of target texts. I will focus on the paratragedy scene of the comic hero’s (Dikaiopolis’) visit to the house of Euripides (lines 394–488) in order to show that translators systematically mix verbal and referential humour in their texts, even when source text humour is clearly referential. I will also argue that translators extensively employ play with register, colloquialisms and anachronisms. When viewed historically, recent target texts tend to be ‘free adaptations’ of Aristophanes’ text rather than ‘translations’. Following this major conclusion the paper argues that Aristophanes’ comedy is culturally relocated by the two government-sponsored Greek stages. This strategy is probably necessitated by the function and the aims of the source text translation and its intended audiences, that is, theatrical performances in open theatres at popular summer festivals viewed by varied audiences of an equally varied assumed level of theatrical and classical sophistication.

Translation and Reception of Culture-based Humor in a Video Game: A Case Study of StarCraft II

Translation and Reception of Culture-based Humor in a Video Game: A Case Study of StarCraft II

Finding the Fun in Daily Occupation: An Investigation of Humor

Humor as a human phenomenon has long been explored for its perceived therapeutic benefits. To date, occupational therapy's contribution to this exploration has been limited, despite attention to rapport-building. This article provides an overview of the humor literature, particularly highlighting the neuroscience of humor, laughter, and fun, to craft an argument that humor is biologically, socially, and contextually grounded and influential in affecting the experience of occupational engagement. Translation of humor and fun into daily activity through clinical examples from an eating disorder program are introduced, along with the possibility of using fun to support social, emotional, and behavioral change.

Explicitations and other types of shifts in the translation of irony and humor

The goal of this article is to examine the differences in the use of explicitation strategies when translating irony and humor, based on a comparative model that distinguishes between cues for the two phenomena. The study suggests that translations of irony manifest more explicitations, whereas translations of humor yield more non-explicitating shifts. This finding can be interpreted as indicating that while the explicitation of humor may override its function altogether, the explicitation of irony does not necessarily do so, since the implied criticism is not eliminated. This finding further strengthens the claim that irony is inherently critical, whereas humor is not.

On Over-compensation and Principles of Linguistic Humor E-C Translation

Skopos theory and Translation Variation Theory have entitled Chinese translators to deal with linguistic humor translation in a broader framework and approach it with compensation translation. However, some translators’ views exceed the limits and over-compensation happens, leading to a new serious problem. Therefore, this paper puts forward two principles about linguistic humor translation to prevent translation from turning into creation.

On Untranslatability of English Linguistic Humor

Linguistic humor has long been considered untranslatable because of the fact that its linguistic features can never be duplicated in another language. The thesis views this long-debated issue with the Skopos theory and Translation Variation Theory and arrives at the conclusion that what has been hindering the humor translation includes not only the outward form—linguistic features of humor, but also something in ideological aspect— the conventional idea about the nature of translation and translation criteria.

A model for Hebrew translation of British humor

The influence of translational norms on the translation of humor manifested in prose fiction has not been a focus of much research. This paper will try to establish the existence of an institutionalized strategy of amplification, presumably born out of a wish to bridge the cultural gap reflected in two different national traditions of literary humor. The effect of amplification, as it is implemented in the various Hebrew translations of Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers and Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, is analyzed on the basis of Attardo’s General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo 2001, 2002). The use of amplification as a model for the translation of humor from the beginning of the 20th century, and its diminishing currency from the 1980s onwards are also discussed.

A cognitive approach to the translation of metonymy-based humor

This paper proposes an approach to the translation of humorous texts based on Cognitive Linguistics, one of the few linguistic theories which have attempted to unveil and understand the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the use of language for humorous purposes. More specifically, we argue that a model focused on the frames or knowledge structures activated in the text and on the metonymical mappings that guide humorous inferences may help us gain useful insights into the cognitive mechanisms used during humor production and understanding. This model is applied to the analysis of a number of examples from three different novels and their translations into Spanish: Small World by David Lodge, Money by Martin Amis, and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi.The approach suggested here has centered on the metonymical patterns which have been most relevant to explain the humorous examples found in our corpus. In this sense, we have specifically focused on the analysis of four of the most productive types of metonymical mappings: part for whole, material for object, cause for effect and producer for product . Following Peirsman and Geeraerts’ (2006) prototypical organization of conceptual contiguity, these mappings have been classified into two different domains: a) contiguity in the spatial and material domain and b) contiguity in the domain of actions, events and processes. We will argue that such a model can guide translators, helping them to develop a systematic method to solve the problems implied in the translation of humor. In this way, it will be easier to adjust the comprehension mechanisms of the ST audience and those of the TT audience and elaborate a translation that achieves an equivalent effect to that of the ST.

Interdiscourse humor: Contrast, merging, accommodation

AbstractHow do we communicate forms of humor across cultures, languages and styles? What are the common features of accommodation and translation of humor between groups and languages? How do we exploit differences between cultures and languages to create humor? This article addresses these and related questions based on data from conversation, interviews, canned jokes, the electronic media and literature.

TRANSLATING AUDIOVISUAL HUMOUR. A CASE STUDY

This article presents a descriptive and discursive analysis of how elements in humorous extracts from an animated American television show (The Simpsons) fared in overcoming linguistic and intercultural barriers in dubbing (English-Spanish). The analysis is based on several Translation Studies and Pragmatics methods and on a taxonomy of humorous elements in audiovisual texts. These were used to (1) quantify and (2) analyse the humorous elements in the source and target texts, (3) calculate the percentage of humour in the source texts that had been realised in the target versions, (4) make observations on humour translation in animated serials; and, finally, (5) create a list of translational tendencies – potential norms – in humour translation in audiovisual texts.