Abstract
The transfer of humorous elements in audio-visual texts is a challenging task as verbal expressions heavily rely on witty wordplay and are visually bound. To overcome such a challenge, the translator has to have two particular skills: creativity and a thorough understanding of the context and/or intended meanings. This paper aims at investigating the realisation of humour in dubbing animation vis-à-vis register variation and creativity by comparing the Egyptian dub with the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) re-dub of Disney’s Monster’s Inc. Drawing on House’s (2015) translation quality assessment model, the data analysis reveals that resorting to colloquialism as a covert translation strategy provided a functionally adequate, nuanced leeway for the translator to capture the essence situational humour of the source text by relying on the on-screen visuals. Therefore, the translator quasi-assumes the role of an author to communicate interpersonal meanings as effectively and humorously as possible. Meanwhile, resorting to the standard variation as an overt translation strategy significantly deflated and sacrificed verbal humour due to the translator’s literal style and Al-Jazeera’s ideological orientation that shuns functional equivalence for the sake of linguistic homogenisation.
References
Albachten, Ö. & Gürçağlar, Ş. (2020). ‘Retranslation and multimodality: introduction’. The Translator 26(1), pp. 1-8.
Al-Qinai, J. (2000). ‘Translation quality assessment: strategies, parameters and procedures’. Meta 45 (3), pp. 497-519.
Alsahafi, M. (2016). ‘Diglossia: an overview of the Arabic situation’. International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research 4 (4), pp. 1-11.
Baños Piñero, R. & Chaume, F. (2009). ‘Prefabricated orality: a challenge in audiovisual translation’, in Marrano, G., M., Nadiani, G. & Rundle, C. (eds.), The Translation of Dialects in Multimedia, [special issue] Intralinea. https://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/1714.
Baños Piñero, R. (2014). ‘Orality markers in Spanish native and dubbed sitcoms: pretended spontaneity and prefabricated orality’. Meta 45 (3), pp. 497-519.
Barthes. R. (1977). Image Music Text (S. Heath, Trans.). London: Fontana Press.
Bollettieri Bosinelli, R. M. (1994). ‘Film dubbing: linguistic and cultural issues’. Il traduttore nuovo 42 (1), pp. 7-28.
Caraway, K. & Caraway, B. (2020). ‘Representing ecological crises in children’s media: an analysis of The Lorax and Wall-E’. Environmental Communication 14 (5), pp. 686-697.
Deane-Cox, S. (2014). Retranslation: Translation, Literature and Reinterpretation. London: Bloomsbury.
Chaume, F. (1997). ‘Translating non-verbal information in dubbing’, in F. Poyatos (ed.), Non-verbal Communication and Translation: New Perspectives and Challenges in Literature, Interpretation and the Media. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 315-326.
Chaume, F. (1998). ‘Textual constraints and the translator’s creativity in dubbing’, in Beylard-Ozeroff, A., Kralova, J. & MoserMercer, B. (eds.), Translators’ Strategies and Creativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 15-22.
Chaume, F. (2012). Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.
Chaume, F. (2020). ‘Dubbing’, in Bogucki, Ł. & Deckert, M. (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 103-132.
Chiaro, D. (2008). ‘Verbally expressed humor and translation’, in Raskin, V. & Ruch, W. (eds.), The Primer of Humor Research. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 569-608.
Chiaro, D. & Piferi, R. (2010). ‘‘It’s green! it’s cool! it’s Shrek!’ Italian children, laughter and subtitles’, in Di Giovanni, E., Elefante, C. & Pederzoli, R. (eds.), Écrire et Traduire pour les Enfants – Writing and Translating for Children. Brussels: Peter Lang, pp. 283-301.
Di Giovanni, E. (2008). ‘Translations, transcreations and transrepresentations of India in the Italian media’. Meta 53 (1), pp. 26-43
Di Giovanni, E. (2016a). ‘New imperialism in (re)translation: Disney in the Arab world’. Perspectives 25 (1), pp. 1-14.
Di Giovanni, E. (2016b). ‘Dubbing and redubbing animation: Disney in the Arab world’. Altre Modernita 2, pp. 92-106.
Farghal, M., & Almanna, A. (2015). Contextualising Translation Theories: Aspects of Arabic–English Interlingual Communication. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Ferguson, C. (1996). ‘Epilogue: diglossia revisited’, in A. Elgibali (ed.), Understanding Arabic: Essays in Contemporary Arabic Linguistics in Honor of El-Said Badawi. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, pp. 49-68.
Francesconi, S. (2011). ‘Multimodally expressed humour shaping Scottishness in tourist postcards’. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 9 (1), pp. 1-17.
Fresco, P. R. (2009). ‘Naturalness in the Spanish dubbing language: a case of not-so-close Friends’. Meta 54 (1), pp. 49-72.
Galassi, G. (1994). ‘La norma traviata’, in Baccolini, R., Bollettieri Bosinelli, R. M. & Gavioli, L. (eds.), Il Doppiaggio: Trasposizioni Linguistiche e Culturali, Bologna: Clueb, pp. 61-70.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold.
Hatim, B. & Munday, J. (2004). Translation: An Advanced Resource Book. London & New York: Routledge.
House, J. (2015). Translation Quality Assessment: Past and Present. London & New York: Routledge.
House, J. (2001). ‘Translation quality assessment: linguistic description versus social evaluation’. Meta 46 (2), pp. 243-257.
Linn, A., Sanden, G. R. & Piekkari, R. (2018). ‘Language standardisation in sociolinguistics and international business: theory and practice across the table’, in Sherman, T. & Nekvapil, J. (eds.), English in Business and Commerce: Interactions and Policies, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter: pp. 19-45.
Marzà, A., Chaume, F., Torralba, G. & Alemany, A. (2006). ‘The language we watch: an approach to the linguistic model of Catalan in dubbing’. Mercator Media Forum 9 (1), pp. 14-25.
Munday, J. (2016). Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications (4th ed.). London & New York: Routledge.
O’Hagan, M. & Mangiron, C. (2013). Game Localisation: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Pavesi, M. (2018). ‘Reappraising verbal language in audiovisual translation: from description to application’. Journal of Audiovisual Translation 1 (1), pp. 101-121.
Perego, E. (2014). ‘Humour and audiovisual translation: an overview’, in De Rosa, G., De Laurentiis, F. & Perego, E. (eds.), Translating Humour in Audiovisual Texts. Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 9-14.
Pérez-Gonzalez, L. (2007). ‘Appraising dubbed conversation: systemic functional insights into the construal of naturalness in translated film dialogue’. The Translator 13 (1), pp. 1-38.
Pettit, Z. (2015). ‘Translating register, style and tone in dubbing and subtitling’. The Journal of Specialised Translation 4, pp. 49-65.
Pym, A. (2014). Method in Translation History. London & New York: Routledge.
Rothe-Neves, R. (2002). ‘Translation quality assessment for research purposes: an empirical approach’. Cadernos de Tradução 2 (10), pp. 113-31.
Savova, L. (2005). ‘Register’, in Strazny, P. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Volume 2. New York: Taylor & Francis, pp. 898-899.
Schäffner, C. (1997). ‘From good to functionally appropriate: assessing translation quality’. Current Issues in Language and Society 4 (1), pp. 1-5.
Schjerve, R. R. (Ed.). (2003). Diglossia and Power: Language Policies and Practice in the 19th Century Habsburg Empire. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Tawfiq, H. (2018). ‘Language management and ideologies in re-dubbing Disney animated movies into classical Arabic’. CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education 64 (1), pp. 327-361.
Tranter, P. & Sharpe, S. (2008). ‘Escaping Monstropolis: child-friendly cities, peak oil and Monsters, Inc’. Children’s Geographies 6 (3), pp. 295-308.
Tymoczko, M. (2007). Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Vallès, D. (2014). ‘Applying Juliane House’s translation quality assessment model (1997) on a humorous text: a case study of The Simpsons’. New Readings 14, pp. 42-63.
Venuti, L. (2004). ‘Retranslations: the creation of values’, in Faull, K.M. (ed.), Translation and Culture. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, pp. 25-38.
Whitman-Linsen, C. (1992). Through the Dubbing Glass: The Synchronisation of American Motion Pictures into German, French and Spanish. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Yahiaoui, R., Alqumboz, B., Fattah, A. & Al-Adwan, A. (2019). ‘Translating irony into Arabic – who’s having the last laugh? Dubbing Monsters Inc.: Egyptian vernacular vs. modern standard Arabic’. The European Journal of Humour Research 7 (4), pp. 32-46.
Yahiaoui, R., Hijazi, D. & Fattah, A. (2020). ‘Rendering satire in dubbing vs. subtitling: a case study of the Arabic translation of the American sitcom The Simpsons’. Sendebar 31, pp. 287-311.
Yahiaoui, R. (2021). ‘Transadaptation strategies in dubbing a humorous hybrid-text type advert into Arabic – Is vernacular the panacea?’ Applied Linguistics Research Journal 5 (9), pp. 88-101.
Zanotti, S. (2014). ‘Translation and transcreation in the dubbing process: a genetic approach’, in Katan, D. & Spinzi, C. (eds.), Transcreation and the Professions [special issue]. Cultus: The Journal of Intercultural Mediation and Communication 7, pp. 109-134.
Zanotti, S. (2015). ‘Analysing redubs: motives, agents and audience response’, in Baños Piñero, R. & Díaz Cintas, J. (eds.), Audiovisual Translation in a Global Context: Mapping an Ever-changing Landscape (pp. 110-139). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Zanotti, S. (2018). ‘Archival resources and uncertainties in film retranslation research’. Status Quaestionis 15, pp. 58-85.
Zhang, H. & Ma, H. (2018). ‘Intertextuality in retranslation’. Perspectives 26 (4), pp. 576-592.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2021 The European Journal of Humour Research