THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS
- An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an
empirical example
Author: Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
ASB: English and Spanish
Date of hand in: December 1, 2010
Supervisor: Nick Wrigley
Number of characters:54.996
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1.
Aim and problem statement ....................................................................................................... 2
1.2.
Theory and method ...................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.
Delimitation .................................................................................................................................... 4
SUBTITLING AS TRANSLATION ...................................................................................................... 5
2.1.
What is subtitling? ........................................................................................................................ 5
2.2.
Characteristics and constraints.................................................................................................. 5
THE NATURE OF THE PUN ............................................................................................................... 8
3.1.
What is a pun? ................................................................................................................................ 8
3.2.
The classification of the pun ....................................................................................................... 9
3.2.1.
The relation of formal identity ........................................................................................... 9
3.2.2.
The arrangement of pun components ........................................................................... 10
3.3.
4.
Puns in film- and TV productions ........................................................................................... 11
THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSLATING PUNS............................................................................... 12
4.1.
Language-specific constraints ................................................................................................. 12
4.1.2. Translation and equivalence ................................................................................................. 12
4.2.
5.
STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING PUNS .................................................................................... 15
5.1.
6.
Media-specific constraints ....................................................................................................... 14
Delabastita’s translation strategies ........................................................................................ 15
INTRODUCTION TO THE EMPIRICAL MATERIAL .................................................................. 16
6.1.
About ‘Sex and the City’ ............................................................................................................. 16
6.2.
Plot and characters .................................................................................................................... 16
6.3.
Genre and communicative purpose ....................................................................................... 17
6.4.
The TT audience ......................................................................................................................... 18
7.
ANALYSIS OF THE ST AND TT ...................................................................................................... 19
7.1.
Homonymic puns ....................................................................................................................... 19
7.2.
Homophonic puns ...................................................................................................................... 22
7.3.
Paronymic puns .......................................................................................................................... 25
7.4.
Visual puns................................................................................................................................... 28
8.
THE EFFECT OF THE TARGET TEXT RENDERINGS ............................................................... 31
9.
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 33
10.
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................... 34
11.
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 36
12.
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................................. 39
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
1. INTRODUCTION
The way that certain combinations of sounds and words can be exploited to create some kind of playful and
surprising effect fascinates me. This is also one of the reasons that ‘Sex and the City’ (in the following
referred to as ‘SATC’) is one of my favourite TV-series. In my opinion, one of the characteristics of this
comedy series is the sharp and witty dialogue, in which humorous effects to a large degree are generated
by the employment of wordplay. This use of wordplay in ‘SATC’ inspired me to the subject of this thesis.
One day while watching an episode, it occurred to me that many of the instances of wordplay were lost in
the subtitles; either because the meaning of it was only maintained to a certain degree or because the
wordplay was simply left out. This observation indicates that the translation of wordplay can be a
challenging and in some cases maybe even impossible task. Moreover, it can be assumed that the task of
translating wordplay in subtitles may pose even greater challenges for the translator due to the constraints
induced by the nature of this specific translation type. Therefore, I find it interesting to look into the
translation of wordplay in this particular context. Since ‘SATC’ was my source of inspiration, I find it natural
to use examples of wordplay from this series as objects for study.
Wordplay comprises the creative use of language in the form of e.g. rhyme, alliteration, play with grammar,
etc. (Schröter 2004:159). An additional type of wordplay is the pun, which is the form of wordplay that will
be focused on in this thesis. The pun is a complex and diverse phenomenon, which is evident from the
terminological and conceptual inconsistency that different works and publications on the subject tend to
show. The terms ‘pun’ and ‘wordplay’ are in many cases used interchangeably, and in the words of Dirk
Delabastita, an influential scholar on the field, ‘there is not even a consensus as to how the term pun should
be understood’ (Delabastita 1993:55).
In this thesis the term ‘pun’ refers to the type of wordplay that creates a double meaning in the context in
which it is employed by exploiting words that differ in meaning but are similar or almost similar in
pronunciation and/or spelling. In order to avoid any potential confusion or misunderstanding, I will thus
distinguish between the terms ‘wordplay’ and ‘pun’1. The former will be used to refer to the different types
of wordplay in general, whereas the latter will be used to refer to the specific type of wordplay just
mentioned. In other words, I regard the pun as being a subtype to the wider term ‘wordplay’.
1
The only exception will be when I quote a source which uses ‘pun’ and ‘wordplay’ interchangeably.
[1]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
1.1.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Aim and problem statement
The purpose of this thesis is to examine which strategies are implemented by subtitlers when dealing with
the transferring of puns from one language into another. In extension of this, I will evaluate whether the
effect of the pun in the original version is maintained in the subtitled version.
I will do this by carrying out an empirical analysis, which consists of a comparative analysis between the
puns in the original version, i.e. the source text (in the following referred to as ST) and their translations
into the subtitled version, i.e. the target text (in the following referred to as TT). The empirical material that
is subject to analysis consists of 12 selected examples of puns from SATC, season 1-6.
It is not my intention to provide an exhaustive analysis of all the different types of puns that can be
identified in the empirical material and the translation strategies that can be employed to translate them.
Rather, I intend to look into how some of the issues that the translator faces when dealing with the
translation of puns in subtitles are solved – successfully or not.
Thus, the aim of this thesis is to look into which strategies are used for the translation of puns in subtitles
and with what effect. I will fulfil this aim by evaluating the translation of every example of puns that are
subject to analysis. This will be done by answering the following questions to each example:
1) Which translation strategy has been used to translate the ST pun? In extension of this, I will seek to
determine why the translator has chosen this strategy.
2) Is the presumed intended effect of the ST pun maintained or lost in translation, and why?
3) Would it be possible, or maybe even more suitable, to apply a different translation strategy for the
ST pun, and why?
The results will enable me compare the fate of the puns in the Danish subtitles, and on the basis of this I
will be able to conclude on the following problem statement:
Does the effect of ST puns tend to be lost in the TT?
[2]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
1.2.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Theory and method
In order for me to be able to fulfil my aim, I will need a theoretical framework. Seeing that the selected
examples are taken from a TV-series, it is pertinent to look into relevant aspects of translation within this
type of media. Accordingly, I will start by accounting for some of the characteristics of subtitling that may
be influential on the choices made by the translator. This theoretical part will mainly be based on Henrik
Gottlieb’s works, since he has carried out several studies on the field. Additional references will be made to
Jorge Díaz Cintas and Aline Remael, who are also specialised within the area.
In order for me to be able to analyse the selected ST puns and their translations, it is necessary to
understand the phenomenon. Therefore, I will use the works of Delabastita to look into the characteristics
of the pun as well as to provide a tool for classifying it. Since the focus is on the translation of puns in
subtitles, the pun in this specific context will also be accounted for.
Having looked into the nature of both subtitling and the pun, the challenges of translating puns are
examined. In this regard it is relevant to look into the notion of ‘untranslatability’ as well as the concept of
‘equivalence’, since these theories are relevant when seeking to understand why the meaning and effect of
the pun can be challenging to transfer from one language to another. As regards the theory of equivalence,
I will focus on Nida’s ‘formal’ and ‘dynamic equivalence’ because these distinctions are suitable in my
evaluation of whether the effect of the ST puns has been maintained (cf. question 2 on previous page).
Finally, I will utilize Delabastita’s model of strategies that can be applied to the translation of puns to
identify the different solutions opted for in the translation of the ST puns.
With these theories as a framework, I will be able to analyse the empirical material which consists of 12
selected segments containing pun elements. In order to give the reader an understanding of the empirical
material, I will give a brief introduction to the series in chapter 6, where the genre, communicative purpose
and TT audience also will be considered, since these factors may be influential on the choices made by the
subtitler.
On the basis of the analysis and the subsequent chapter in which the results are compared, I will be able to
conclude on the problem statement.
[3]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
1.3.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Delimitation
As a result of the different perceptions of the pun there are also various approaches as to how it should be
classified. Due to the limited scope of this thesis, I will solely focus on the classification of puns in terms of
their formal structure.
One of the pun types that are represented in Delabastita’s illustration of the formal classification of puns
(appendix 2) is the homographic pun. It has not been possible to find examples of this specific pun type in
the empirical material, though. This can be explained by the fact that it relies more on sight than hearing,
seeing that it is based on words that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently (Delabastita
1993:79). As a consequence, this pun type will not be included in the theoretical part either.
Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the empirical material (among other theories) is analysed on the
basis of Delabastita’s model in which nine different strategies that are possible to apply in the translation of
puns are identified. However, since the purpose of this thesis is not to provide an exhaustive analysis of all
the possible types of puns and their translations, it is not every translation strategy that is represented in
the analysis.
[4]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
2. SUBTITLING AS TRANSLATION
In this chapter the main characteristics of subtitling are accounted for. This is to provide an understanding
of this particular form of translation, since the nature of it poses some constraints to the translator, which
may be necessary to consider in the analysis in chapter 7. These constraints are also the reason that some
translation scholars do not regard subtitling as a type of translation, but rather of adaptation (Cintas &
Remael 2007:9). In this thesis subtitling is considered to be a form of translation, taking the stance that the
message rendered in the subtitles is not an adaptation of the original dialogue, but a translation of it that
due to the characteristics of subtitling does not render the ST dialogue in its exact wording. Accordingly, the
terms ‘translator’ and ‘subtitler’ are used interchangeably.
2.1.
What is subtitling?
Subtitling is the most common mode of screen translation2 in Denmark. According to Gottlieb, subtitling
can be defined as:
‘Diamesic translation in polysemiotic media in the form of one or more line of written text
presented on the screen in sync with the original dialogue’ (2008, in Schjoldager: 208).
This definition is broad enough to refer to both intra- and interlingual subtitling, but it is important to
distinguish between the two, though. Whereas intralingual subtitling is the subtitling of the original
dialogue in the same language (thus a translation form provided particularly for the deaf and hearing
impaired), interlingual subtitling is the translation from one language to another (Gottlieb 1997:71). The
latter is the type of subtitling that is dealt with in this thesis.
2.2.
Characteristics and constraints
Subtitling differs from other types of screen translation by being written.3 The fact that this particular
translation type renders the original dialogue in a written form makes it diamesic, seeing that a shift in
language mode is involved. Additionally, interlingual subtitling is diagonal, meaning that it shifts from one
2
Screen translation encompasses all products distributed on screen, be it a television, cinema or computer screen
(Cintas & Remael 2007:12).
3
Other modes of screen translation is for instance dubbing and revoicing (Cintas & Remael 2007:12).
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
language to another. Thus, the language mode shifts from source language (in the following referred to as
SL) speech to target language (in the following referred to as TL) writing (Gottlieb in Schjoldager 2008:210).
This means that the subtitler must not only translate the dialogue from one language to another. S/he is
also to transfer dialogue from the spoken language which is characterised by pauses, interruptions,
unfinished sentences etc. to the written language which is more rigid (Gottlieb 1997:113). This shift from
speech to writing induces some time- and space constraints, because there is a limit as to how many
characters the average viewer can read while at the same time grasping the visuals and acoustics on
screen. Therefore, the task of the subtitler is to focus on rendering the most informative elements of the
original dialogue in the subtitles (Cintas & Remael 2007:63-64). The subtitler is also restricted in terms of
space when translating from speech to writing, given that a new semantic load is added to the screen in the
form of subtitles. In order for the subtitles not to take up to much space on the screen, they should not
exceed 32-41 characters per line in a maximum of two lines (Cintas & Remael 2007:9).
As a result of these time- and space restrictions, which are induced because of the shift in language mode,
subtitlers often resort to condensation, meaning that much of the original dialog is left out in the subtitles
(Cintas & Remael 2007:145).
Another characteristic of subtitling is that it is conveyed in polysemiotic texts4. A text is polysemiotic when
meaning is communicated through more than one semiotic channel5 simultaneously. Film and TVproductions, which are the types of polysemiotic texts that are dealt with in this thesis, are some of the
most prominent polysemiotic text types due to their audiovisual nature (Gottlieb in Schjoldager 2008:41).
Traditionally they employ the following four semiotic channels simultaneously:

The verbal acoustic channel: dialogue, background voices, sometimes lyrics (when meaningful in
the given context)

The non-verbal acoustic channel: music and sound effects

The verbal visual channel: captions and written signs

The non-verbal visual channel: picture composition and flow (Gottlieb 1997:89).
Meaning is conveyed through the interplay between these channels, which means that there are several
aspects to consider in the subtitling process. Not only is the subtitler to transfer the verbal meaning from
4
The term ‘text’ will be used throughout this thesis to refer to ‘any combination of sensory signs carrying
communicative meaning’, cf. Schjoldager’s notion of the term (Schjoldager 2008:40).
5
A semiotic channel is the mode or sign system through which meaning or signs are communicated (Schjoldager
2008:40).
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
the original dialogue into the TL, s/he must also consider the visual channels and their importance in
relation to what is being communicated verbally.
This semiotic complexity can be considered a constraint to the subtitler because the meaning expressed in
the subtitles must conform to what is communicated through the visual channels (Díaz Cintas & Remael
2007:9). Therefore, the subtitler does not have the same freedom as e.g. literal translators.
Nonetheless, an advantage in this respect is that the audience’s understanding of the original dialogue does
not depend entirely on the subtitles, but is also supported by the intonative and visual aids of the original
verbal and visual channels (Gottlieb 1997:121).
The fact that subtitles appear in synchrony with the original dialogue makes this translation form overt6
(Schjoldager 2008:31). This coexistence of the original dialogue and the written translation of it gives rise to
what is denominated the ‘gossiping effect’ (Cintas & Remael 2007:55), an expression that is used to refer to
the fact that the audience because of the simultaneous reception of the original dialogue and the subtitled
version of it is enabled to find discrepancies between the two versions. One of the constraints in this regard
is that the subtitler cannot take the same ‘covert’ liberties as e.g. literal translators without the audience
(or the part of the audience that have a certain knowledge of the SL) noticing it (Gottlieb 1997:203).
Furthermore, due to the gossiping effect, the use of the condensation strategy referred to earlier may give
the audience the idea that too much information is left out, seeing that the presence of the subtitles in
synchrony with the original dialog makes them aware that it is not the entire dialog that is rendered.
Therefore, a common strategy is to transfer the items from the ST that have strong phonetic or
morphological similarities to the TL, thus hoping that the TT audience appreciates the ‘resemblance’
between linguistic items of the original dialogue and the message that is rendered in the subtitles (Cintas &
Remael 2007:56).
6
Translation is regarded as overt when viewers/readers are – or should be - aware that they are dealing with a
translation (Schjoldager 2008:31).
[7]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
3. THE NATURE OF THE PUN
In order for me to be able to analyse and evaluate the translation of the ST puns in chapter 7, it is necessary
to look into the nature of the pun. As indicated in the introduction, it appears that there are different
notions as to how the pun should be defined and classified. However, there seem to be an agreement upon
the fact that the pun involves two senses (Partington 2009:1795). This means that it produces two or more
possible meanings due to the context in which it is conveyed. Thus, ambiguity is triggered, which can be
said to be a central feature of the phenomenon (Gottlieb 1997:186).
3.1.
What is a pun?
Dirk Delabastita offers an operational definition of the pun, which covers the most characteristic aspects of
it. Therefore, it will serve as a basis for the elaboration of the nature of the pun in the present chapter.
Wordplay is the general name indicating the various textual phenomena in which certain
features inherent in the structure of the language used are exploited in such a way as to
establish a communicatively significant, (near)-simultaneous confrontation of at least two
linguistic structures with more or less dissimilar meanings (signifieds) and more or less similar
forms (signifiers) (Delabastita 1993:57).
In this definition, it is stated that the pun is based on the confrontation of linguistic forms that are formally
similar, but have different meanings (Delabastita 1993:58). The formal similarity is manifested in terms of
spelling and pronunciation. It is therefore the confrontation of similar forms and dissimilar meanings
between linguistic structures that gives rise to ambiguity. This means that ambiguity arises because words
that look and/or sound the same but have different meanings are exploited in such a manner that an
additional semantic layer7 is added to the otherwise stable relationship between signifier8 and signified9
(Sanderson 2009:125).
7
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words (McMillan). Thus, a semantic layer is a ‘layer of meaning.’
Signifier is a term used in semiotics (the study of ‘signs’) referring to a word, symbol or the like, through which
meaning is carried. In this case it is the word or group of word that constitute the pun
(http://www.yourdictionary.com/signifier).
9
The signified refers to the meaning that the signifier carries, thus in this case it is the habitual meaning of the word or
word group constituting the pun http://www.yourdictionary.com/signified.
8
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
The linguistic structures through which the pun can be embedded can be phonological, polysemous,
idiomatic, morphological, and syntactical10. It is important to state that in many cases two or more of these
linguistic features are exploited to obtain a single pun (Delabastita 1996:130-131).
In Delabastita’s definition of the pun it is stated that the effect of a pun must be ‘communicatively
significant’. Thereby, it is distinguished from unintentional wordplay, which appears from time to time
(Delabastita 1996:131). A pun therefore need to be conveyed in especially textually contrived settings to be
effective (Díaz Pérez 2008:37). As is stated by Brown:
‘A necessary condition for pun perception is a context in which multiple and disparate
meanings for the pun word are acceptable; the context must concern itself with certain
matters if a pun is to be made on a certain word’ (Delabastita 1993:70)
Thus, a pun can only be regarded as effective when the context allows for a double-reading to be triggered.
Such contexts can be verbal (which e.g. follow from our expectation of grammatical well-formedness, as
well as thematic or conventional coherence) (Delabastita 1996:129) or situational (i.e. referring to the
actual setting in which an utterance occurs or to ‘the world spoken of’ in the utterance) (Delabastita
1993:72-3).
The fact that a pun is communicatively significant means that it has a communicative effect. Such effect can
for instance be humorous, attention-getting (often seen in newspaper headlines) or persuasive (frequent in
marketing material) (Díaz Pérez 2008:37).
3.2.
The classification of the pun
Various criteria can be used to describe and compare puns. They can for instance be classified in terms of
their formal structure or according to the linguistic features in which they are inherent (Delabastita
1993:133). To serve the purpose of this thesis, I will use the former.
3.2.1. The relation of formal identity
The purpose of classifying puns in terms of their formal structure is to examine how the pun components
(i.e. the word or word group that have more or less similar forms and more or less different meanings) are
related formally. The relation of identity between the two pun components can be either partial or
complete. It is possible to identify four types and degrees, which can be further specified in terms of
10
Consult appendix 1 for a description of the linguistic structures.
[9]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
homonymy, homophony, homography, and paronymy (Delabastita 1996:128).
December 1, 2010
As mentioned in the
introduction, the homographic pun will not be included in this thesis.

The homonymic pun is comprised of words that are identical both in spelling and pronunciation.
The words have different meaning, though. An example is the word ‘bear’, which can be a verb (to
carry) or a noun (the animal).

The homophonic pun is based on the exploitation of word pairs which sound alike, but are
different in spelling. An example of such word pair is ‘Carrie’ (proper noun) and ‘carry’ (verb).

The paronymic pun exploits words that have slight differences in both spelling and pronunciation.
An example of such a word pair is ‘adding in salt/insult to injury’ (Delabastita 1993:79-80).
3.2.2. The arrangement of pun components
Depending on how the pun components are arranged in the text fragment in question, the pun is either
horizontal or vertical (Delabastita 1993:78-79).
A pun is vertical when the meanings of it are exposed in one glimpse (Gottlieb 1997:186). The vertical pun
is what Delabastita in his earlier-cited wordplay definition refers to as ‘the simultaneous confrontation of
meaning’, seeing that the two confronting linguistic components are represented simultaneously within the
same portion of text (Delabastita 1993:78-79), even though only one of them is materially present. The
other component is triggered into action by the employment of the contextual setting (Delabastita
1996:129), which ignites the pun. This is illustrated in the following example:
“I don’t even want to be seen in public with him. And I hate his name – Harry. ‘Cause he is…
Everywhere but his head” (Charlotte York, SATC season 5, episode 8).
This homonymic pun is vertical because both pun components are exposed simultaneously in the same text
fragment. Thus, ‘Harry’ (proper noun) is the first pun component. The second is triggered by the following
phrase, in which the homophonic relation between ‘Harry’ and ‘hairy’ (adjective) is exploited.
Additionally, it should be stated that it in some cases is possible to distinguish hierarchically between the
two meanings that are derived from vertical puns. This is done on the basis of the importance of the
meanings in relation to their contextual setting. In other words, one of the pun readings may be biased in a
contextually stronger manner because its meaning contributes more obviously to the coherence of the
pun’s immediate context (Delabastita 1993:206).
In horizontal puns, on the other hand, the two confronting linguistic components occur one after another in
the text. It is the repetition of a word in context that triggers the secondary meaning. This is what
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Delabastita refers to as ‘the near-simultaneous confrontation of meaning’ in his definition. This type of pun
component arrangement is illustrated with the following example:
“I don’t believe in the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, I just believe in parties”
(Samantha Jones, SATC season 3, episode 2).
Due to the premodifiers in the first two renderings of ‘party,’ there is no doubt that the entities that are
referred to are political. The secondary reading which triggers the pun is called forth in the third rendering
of ‘party’, where it becomes obvious that the type of party that Samantha refers to is not political.
On the basis of these criteria it should be possible to account for any pun in terms of its formal structure
(Delabastita 1993:81)11.
3.3.
Puns in film- and TV productions
Having elaborated on the pun in general, it is now pertinent to examine the phenomenon in the setting of
polysemiotic texts, more precisely film- and TV productions.
As mentioned previously, the pun can be utilized to obtain a humorous effect. This is why it is a highly
employed device in comedy films and series. In such polysemiotic texts the pun can be conveyed through:

Dialogue

Written text on screen, be it through displays or captions

Dialogue combined with non-verbal visual information (Gottlieb 1997:188)
In other words, it can be triggered through verbal representation solely (either written or spoken) or
through the interplay of verbal and visual elements. The puns that are conveyed in the latter manner will in
the following be referred to as ‘verbal puns’.
With this type of pun, the construction of a double meaning is conveyed through the simultaneous
confrontation of an utterance and a visual image (Sanderson 2009:124). The visual representation
constitutes the situational contextual setting, which means that the situational context can be regarded as
crucial to the functioning of puns in polysemiotic texts (Delabastita 1993:72).
11
Consult appendix 2 for an illustration of the combination of these criteria.
[11]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
4. THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSLATING PUNS
Puns have by some translation scholars been labelled ‘untranslatable’. The purpose of the present chapter
is to clarify the reasons for this by looking into both the language- and media specific constraints, with
emphasis on the former. The talent of the translator and the time available to perform the translating task
may also influence the results of the translation, but will not be elaborated in the following.
4.1.
Language-specific constraints
It seems to be a common notion that the translation of puns is a challenging task. This can be explained by
the fact that:
‘the semantic and pragmatic effect of source-text wordplay find their origin in particular
structural characteristics of the source language for which the target language more often
than not fails to produce a counterpart, such as the existence of certain homophones, nearhomophones, polysemic clusters, idioms or grammatical rules’ (Delabastita 1994:223).
In other words, the rationale for considering puns as untranslatable is that they exist by virtue of the
linguistic structures of the language in which they are produced. Seeing that the TL is built upon other
linguistic structures than the SL, it is not possible to translate the ST pun equivalently to the TT. Thus,
according to Delabastita, the notion of untranslatability means that translation equivalence is impossible in
the transfer of puns from a SL to a TL (Delabastita 1996:13). Nonetheless, one’s stance in the disputable
claim that puns are untranslatable depends on how the notions of translation and equivalence are
perceived.
4.1.2. Translation and equivalence
Within translation studies the term equivalence is used to refer to the relationship of similarity between
the ST and the TT. Catford offers a definition of translation where equivalence in its strictest sense seems to
be a prerequisite:
‘Translation may be defined as follows: the replacement of textual material in one language
(SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)’ (Schjoldager 2008:17).
Here it is indicated that the TT should be equivalent to its ST in both form and content. Taking this stand
point, puns are presumably untranslatable in many cases.
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Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Whitman has a more flexible view on translation, though. She regards translation as a process of mapping
aspects from one language to another, and on the basis of this she rejects the notion of untranslatability. In
her view, the task is to link the message of the original dialogue to the minds of the foreign audience. As
she states: ‘Translation means being aware of the intent of the original as well as the target audience’s
common pool of allusions’ (Gottlieb 2009:22-23).
In other words, she encourages a TT-oriented approach where the focus is on producing an effect on the TT
audience that is as close as possible to the effect obtained on the ST audience. Thus, it can be argued that
she favours what can be called an equivalent effect.
The concept of equivalence has been widely discussed, since it traditionally focuses on achieving
equivalence in terms of form and function between the ST and TT. Most translation scholars have moved
towards a more TT- oriented approach to translation, arguing that the aim of translation is to be ‘doing for
a new target audience what the source text did for its readers’, thus advocating a functional approach to
translation (Schjoldager 2008:70) as is also what Whitman sees as the ideal approach.
Nonetheless, Nida has proposed two types of equivalence, which allow for a less restrictive perception of
the concept by moving away from strict word-for-word equivalence (Munday 2008:43).
The first is formal equivalence, which focuses on the message itself in terms of form and function. Thus, the
object is for the message in the TT to match the different elements of the ST as closely as possible, if
necessary at the expense of natural expression.
The second is dynamic equivalence,12 which focuses on creating what Nida denominates ‘the principle of
equivalent effect’. With this form of equivalence the aim is to create a relationship between the TT
audience and the TT that is substantially the same as the one between the ST audience and the ST, if
necessary at the expense of literalness, original word order, etc. Phrased differently, the TT audience and
their needs and expectations are in focus, and these should be met with a complete naturalness of
expression. Thus, it can be concluded that a crucial aspect of this type of equivalence is the achievement of
naturalness, also if this involves adaptations in terms of grammar, lexicon and/or of cultural references
(Munday 2008:42). Nida’s two approaches to equivalence have been heavily criticized. First of all, it is
argued that still too much focus is put on the word level. Second, much criticism is centred on the
equivalent effect, e.g. by questioning the measurability of such effect (Munday 2008:43). Nonetheless,
seeing that these two distinctions allows for a less strict approach to the concept of equivalence, I find
them useful as an analytical tool in chapter 7, when determining the degree of translation equivalence in
each example.
12
Also denominated functional equivalence.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
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Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
4.2.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Media-specific constraints
Apart from the language specific constraints that occur in the translation of puns from one language to
another, the challenge of translating puns is increased in audiovisual productions due to their polysemiotic
nature.
First of all, the condensation strategy often applied by subtitlers because of the time- and space constraints
may be influential. The fact that subtitled humour in many instances are rendered in fewer words than in
the ST may affect the outcome of the rendering of the pun in the TT (Veiga 158).
An aspect particularly characteristic for audiovisual productions concerns the visual pun, though. The visual
pun is produced through the visual rendering of the unexpected semantic layer, i.e. the secondary
‘reading’. This poses some constraints to the subtitler, since the translation of the original dialog which is
rendered in the subtitles is not only to correspond with the semantic content of the original utterance, but
also with the visual image (Gottlieb 1997:189). Consequently, the subtitler does not have the same
opportunities of providing alternative creative translation solutions as would be an opportunity in
monosemiotic text types. This is likely to influence the outcome of the translation.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
5. STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING PUNS
Delabastita has developed a model which deals specifically with the translation of puns. In this model nine
different translation techniques that are possible to apply in the translation of puns are identified. As
Delabastita reckons, the model is open to further refinement. Nonetheless, it is applicable to identify the
strategies applied in the translation of puns in subtitles.
Worth mentioning is that strategy nine in the model is not possible to applicable in subtitling due to the
technical constraints within this type of translation. Furthermore, it should be stated that in some cases it is
possible to combine two or more techniques (Delabastita 1993: 191). The different strategies in the
following model are explained in appendix 3.
5.1.
Delabastita’s translation strategies
1) Pun  pun
2) Pun  non-pun
a) Non selective non-pun
b) Selective
c) Diffuse paraphrase
3) Pun  Punoid
4) Pun  Zero
5) Direct copy: Pun ST = Pun TT
6) Transference: Pun ST = Pun TT
7) Addition: Non-pun  Pun
8) Zero  Pun
9) Editorial techniques
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
6. INTRODUCTION TO THE EMPIRICAL MATERIAL
In the present chapter I will give an introduction to ‘SATC’, the series from which the examples that
constitute the empirical material have been selected. Furthermore, the genre, communicative purpose and
TT audience are considered, because these are relevant aspects to consider in the translation process.
6.1.
About ‘Sex and the City’
‘SATC’ is an American TV- series, which consists of six seasons with a total of 94 episodes. It was aired for
the first time in 1998 by HBO, an American cable TV-station.13
The series, which is partially based on the book of the same name written by Candace Bushnell , has been a
huge success all over the world, which is also evident from its more than 50 Emmy Award and 24 Golden
Globe Awards nominations,14 of which it has won several. The success has been so big that ‘SATC: the
Movie’ was released in 2008, followed by ‘SATC 2’ in 2010.
The series was broadcasted in Denmark by TV3 from 1998-2004, and has subsequently been rerun several
times.15 All the seasons from the series is available on DVD, either separately or in a DVD box featuring the
complete series.
6.2.
Plot and characters
With New York City as the setting, ‘SATC’ tells the story about four attractive, fashion-conscious, career
minded and independent female characters. Or more precisely, the lead character Carrie Bradshaw, the
central narrator of the series, tells the story. Carrie (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), a ‘thirty-something’
fashionista, writes a weekly column called ‘Sex and the City’ for the fictive newspaper ‘New York Star’. In
the column she tries to make sense of the city’s dating jungle, the relationship between men and women,
as well as just about any matter that may impact the life of the modern woman.
Every episode of the series is centred on Carrie’s research for her next column, and thanks to the ups and
downs of her and her three best friends Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte, she is never short of material.
Samantha Jones (played by Kim Cattrall) is a confident and successful PR executive with a very uninhibited
sexuality. Miranda Hobbes (played by Cynthia Nixon), a hardworking and successful corporate lawyer, who
later in the series has a baby is the relationship cynic. Charlotte York is an art gallery manager and an
indefatigable romantic optimist.
Based on the experiences of these four very different girls and best friends, relevant issues are dealt with.
13
(http://www.information.dk/160082)
(http://www.hbo.com/sex-and-the-city/index.html#/sex-and-the-city/about/index.html)
15
(http://www.kulturkapellet.dk/musikanmeldelse.php?id=30)
14
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
This is done both in the form of conversations between the girls where they share stories and experiences,
but also when Carrie reflects upon the theme in question for her next column. In many cases the latter is
done in the form of Carrie’s voiceover narration (McCabe & Akass 2004:185), but in the first three seasons
she also addresses the camera directly, asking questions like: “Why are there so many great unmarried
women and no great unmarried men?” (Season 1, episode 1- 04:20).
6.3.
Genre and communicative purpose
HBO defines ‘SATC’ as a comedy series. According to Nedergaard-Larsen, the language is a characteristic
feature within this genre (1992:45).
As mentioned in the introduction, the dialogue in ‘SATC’ is sharp and witty, and the flexibility of the
language is often exploited in the form of wordplay (McCabe & Akass 2004:186). According to McCabe and
Akass, the writing is vital for the series, and they state that HBO has focused on this particular feature in
their promotion of it. They argue that ‘promoting SATC as a literary product means the series can navigate
difficult adult content – sex and profanity – by putting it into a context where smart comedy writing sets this
product apart from its competition’ (McCabe & Akass 2004:6). On the basis of this, it can be argued that the
primary communicative purpose of the series is to entertain the audience. Based on the fact that much of
the narrative is centred on sex and profanity, it can also be argued that some additional communicative
purposes are to inform and to create debate (seeing that ‘sensitive subjects’ such as sexually transmitted
diseases, abortions, breast cancer etc. are also dealt with).
Furthermore, even though not characteristic of the comedy genre, it can be argued that an additional
communicative purpose is to invite the audience into dialogue by questioning the idea of the modern
woman, gender roles, etc. This is partly because Carrie due to her role as the narrator of the story
occasionally addresses the camera directly (McCabe & Akass 2004:178), and partly because the series
draws on modes of confession in the first two seasons by including clips with statements of ‘real’ people
expressing their attitude towards some issue related to dating and the relationship between men and
women. By drawing on this TV confessional technique, the audience is invited to identify with different
issues that are placed in comic fictional narrative (McCabe & Akass 2004:167).
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
6.4.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
The TT audience
Due to the themes in the series, i.e. womanhood, men, sex, gender roles, fashion, career and any relevant
issue in relation to being woman in the 1990s, it can be assumed that the intended target audience is most
likely to be women in the age of 18-40 years old, since this target audience is likely to be able to recognise
and relate to some of the experiences and situations that the characters face and maybe even to a certain
degree identify with one of the very different girls.
The fact that the TT audience is likely to be relatively young and ‘up to beat’ makes it fair to assume that
the main part of it has a fair knowledge of the SL. This claim can be based on the fact that Denmark is a
subtitling country, meaning that most Danes listen to English every day (Gottlieb 1997:199). This influences
the TT audience’s knowledge of the SL.
In this regard, the gossiping effect is relevant, because it can be argued that it is likely that the main part of
the TT audience is still able to appreciate the effect of the ST pun even though it is not rendered in its
original sense in the TT. Thus, the simultaneous reception of the dialog and subtitles may be an advantage
in this regard, but it should of course not restrict the subtitler’s effort in recreating the effect of the ST pun
in the TT.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
7. ANALYSIS OF THE ST AND TT
In the following analysis the ST and TT will be analysed on the basis of the questions enumerated in the
introduction.
The ST puns have been classified on the basis of their formal relation cf. Delabastita’s classification
accounted for in chapter 3. Thus, the puns that will be analysed in the following are based on homonymy,
homophony, and paronymy. Last, but not least, the visual pun is also represented.
It should be noted that the ST version is reproduced with any characteristics of spoken language that the
dialogue may have, meaning that e.g. ‘it is’ is reproduced as ‘it’s. Furthermore, the pun components in the
ST are underlined.
For the sake of word economy, the two meanings that are called forth in the following puns are
denominated M1 (meaning 1) and M2 (meaning 2). Consult appendix 4 for a transcription of each segment
in context.
7.1.
Homonymic puns
Segment 1
Character
ST
TT
Carrie
I have no fortune. I didn’t need a
Jeg har ingen lykke. Det
cookie to tell me that
behøvede jeg ikke en lykkekage
for at vide
M1: ‘the entity or power believed by some to bring good or bad luck to people’
M2: ‘a very large amount of money’ (www.yourdictionary.com)
Translation strategy: Pun Non-Pun (selective)
This is an example of a vertical pun where one of the possible readings is more plausible than the other (cf.
chapter 3). Because of the immediate contextually setting (the audience has just seen Carrie opening a
fortune cookie), M1 is the obvious signification. M2 is called forth by the context as well. In the precedent
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
scenes the audience sees Carrie being refused a loan in the bank, and this is what triggers this additional
meaning.
The pun is rendered in a non-punning manner in the TT because only M1 of the ST pun has been retained. It
can be argued that the subtitler had no other choice but to render M1, given that the contents of the
subtitles must conform to the visual image, which in this case exposes Carrie opening a fortune cookie. The
Danish equivalent to ‘fortune cookie’ is lykkekage, a compound of the two words lykke + kage. ‘Lykke’ has
another semantic meaning than ‘fortune’ though, seeing that it is rather an equivalent to the English noun
‘happiness’. Consequently, equivalence is not achieved and the effect of the ST pun is lost.
Given that the subtitler is merged to retain M1 in the TT due to the pictorial information, I do not see any
alternative translation solution.
Segment 2
Character
ST
TT
Instructor
Are you ready to grab the bar?
Parat til at gribe stangen?
Carrie
I’m ready to go to the bar
Solgt til stanglakrids
M1: A long piece of wood (in this case the object that Carrie holds on to when swinging the trapeze)
M2: A place where you go to buy and drink alcoholic drinks
Translation strategy: Pun  Punoid
In this horizontal pun a double reading is triggered with the repetition of the word ‘bar’ in a context where
it has another meaning than the first pun component.
The subtitler has chosen to translate the ST pun by using a wordplay-related rhetorical device. This is done
by exploiting the effect of repetition, thus repeating the word ‘stang’ in the compound ‘stanglakrids,’ which
in this context is rendered as a Danish idiom that figuratively means ‘to be in a very unpleasant situation’
(Andersen 1998:205). The meaning of Carrie’s answer to the trapeze instructor’s question is that she is
nervous and most of all feels like calming her nerves with a drink. Comparing the figurative meanings of the
ST pun and the TT version of it, it can be argued that dynamic equivalence has been held (even though in a
non-punning manner), since the communicative meanings are similar: Carrie finds herself in an unpleasant
situation.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
An alternative translation solution, which arguably remains closer to the meaning of the ST pun, could be:
‘Parat til at blive stang-Bacardi.’ Even though the same strategy is used by conveying a play on words
through the repetition of ‘stang’ in another context, it can be argued that this utterance renders the
meaning and structure of the ST pun in a more equivalent manner since only ‘blive stang-bacardi’ diverges
from being formally equivalent to the ST pun. With ‘stang’ as a premodifier to ‘Bacardi’, a spirits brand
whose name can be used to describe the condition of someone who is very drunk, the meaning of ‘stangBacardi is ‘to be very drunk’. Thus, it can be argued that it draws on the same meaning as the one in the ST
pun: That alcohol is suitable to calm a person’s nerves. Hence, it maintains the effect of the ST pun more
successfully.
Segment 3
Character
ST
TT
Carrie’s voice-over
That night the only thing Miranda
put to bed was the McKenziebrief
Den aften var det eneste Miranda
gav tørt på, McKenzie
ST M1: Putting the child to bed (the literal meaning)
ST M2: To finish dealing with something, in this regard a case she has been working on in the law firm (the
figurative meaning)
Translation strategy: Pun  Pun
In this vertical pun based on an idiom, both the literal and figurative meaning of an English idiom is
exploited. The subtitler has succeeded in translating the ST pun to a TL pun. The TT pun has the same
formal structure as well as underlying linguistic mechanism as the ST, seeing that it is also a homonymic
vertical pun based on an idiom. Nonetheless, the TT pun has a different figurative and literal meaning:
TT M1: To change nappy
TT M2: To tick someone off (Anderson 1998:225)
Even though the semantic meaning of the idiom is not quite similar, I believe that it is fair to state that an
equivalent effect is obtained in the TT seeing that both the literal and figurative meaning of the idiom upon
which it is based serves the purpose of the ST pun, i.e. it states the fact that Miranda (once again) missed
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
out on spending time with her baby and instead spent time on work. Thus, dynamic equivalence has been
held.
7.2.
Homophonic puns
Segment 4
Character
ST
TT
Carrie’s voice-over
The next morning I recovered
from my see-Big-sickness
Næste morgen kom jeg mig over
min Big-søsyge
M1: sea sickness (i.e. playing on the fact that Carrie attended a boat-party)
M2: ‘see sickness’ (referring to the fact that Carrie was overwhelmed by old feelings when seeing Big. Thus,
implicitly, these feelings are referred to as a ‘sickness’.)
Translation strategy: Pun  Non-Pun (selective)
In this vertical pun, which exploits the formal relation between ‘see’ and ‘sea’, the subtitler has only
expressed aspects of M1 of the ST pun while having excluded M2.
The equivalent words to ‘sea’ and ‘see’ in Danish are ‘sø’ and ‘se’ respectively. This Danish word pair is not
homophonic, which precludes an equivalent translation in terms of the formal structure. It is interesting to
look into the wording of the TT, though. ‘Big-søsyge’ can in a word-for-word sense be rendered as ‘Big-sea
sickness’ in English, but this signification does only convey ST pun M1 partially, seeing that ‘Big’ seems to
function as an indicator to the kind of seasickness that Carrie has in the TT.
Due to the situational context, it can be argued that the effect of the ST pun is maintained to some degree,
even though a pun is excluded because of the lack of homophony between ‘se’ and ‘sø’. Nonetheless, this
requires that the target audience sees the underlying correlation between ‘Big’ and ‘seasickness’. The
aspect of Carrie feeling ‘see’-sick because of this meeting is implicit only, because of the lack of the punning
effect in the TT.
If the subtitler had decided that ST M2 was the most important to maintain in the TT, a possible solution
would be: ‘Næste morgen kom jeg mig over min se-Big-syge,’ which would also be an application of the
pun non pun (selective) strategy. The punning effect would still not be maintained, but the ST M2, which
in my opinion is dominant in the given context, would be rendered and maybe the target audience would
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
be able to see the similarity between ‘se-Big-syge’ and ‘sø-Big-syge’, which would actually retain both
meanings. Consequently, it can be argued that dynamic equivalence to a certain degree would be held
because the effect of the ST pun would be partially transferred to the TT.
Segment 5
Character
ST
TT
Enid
I want less Carrie Bradshaw and
more carry this bag with these
shoes, do you see what I mean?
Jeg vil have mindre Carrie
Bradshaw og mere: “bær denne
taske med disse sko”
M1: Carrie (proper noun)
M2: To carry (verb)
Translation strategy: Pun  Non Pun (non selective)
In the translation of this horizontal pun, which exploits the homophonic relation between M1 and M2,
both meanings of the ST pun are retained in the TT, but in a non-punning manner. Characteristic for
horizontal puns when utilizing this strategy is that a relative degree of equivalence is established between
the ST M1 and M2 and the meanings rendered in the TT. Nonetheless, the lack of equivalent lexical items in
the TL results in the loss of the pun (Delabastita 1993:202). Therefore, it can be stated that lexical
equivalence has been held with the loss of the pun in the TT as a result. However, it can be argued that the
TT audience due to the gossiping effect may be able to grasp the wordplay anyway, seeing that no
particular proficiency in English is required to appreciate the identical pronunciation of Carrie and the
English verb to carry. It can be argued that puns based on names are particularly challenging cases of pun
translations, seeing that no word can replace the name. Therefore, I cannot point on a translation strategy
that would be more suitable.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Segment 6
Character
ST
TT
Woman in waiting room
I’m a nun
Jeg er søster
Samantha
You have none?
De har en søster
Woman in waiting room
No no no, I am a nun
Nej, jeg er søster
M1: None
M2: Nun
Translation strategy: Pun  Pun
In this example, the horizontal pun is translated successfully into a TT pun. The formal structure differs
from the ST pun seeing that the TT pun is homonymic. This is because ‘søster’, a Danish equivalent to ‘nun’
is equivocal. Consequently, the two following meanings are called forth in the TT pun:
TT M1: Sister (the antonym to brother)
TT M2: Nun
Even though the meaning is not identical to the one in the ST pun, it can be argued that the TT pun imposes
the same effect on the TT audience as the ST pun does on its ST audience. Accordingly, dynamic
equivalence has been held.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
7.3.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Paronymic puns
Segment 7
Character
ST
TT
Charlotte
You don’t have a crib yet?
Har du ingen vugge endnu?
Miranda
No Charlotte, I have a job instead.
I’m sorry, but when am I
supposed to find time to prepare
for this baby? I don’t have a
vague idea how I’m gonna do any
of this
Nej, Charlotte. Jeg har et job.
Hvornår skal jeg finde tid til at
forberede mig på babyen? Det
har jeg ingen vag idé om
Carrie
Well, I don’t have a “Vogue” idea,
so “hello”
Det har jeg ingen “Vogue” idé om
M1: Vague idea
M2: Vogue idea
Translation strategy: Pun  Non-Pun (non-selective)
This horizontal pun is based on the phonemic similarities between ‘vague’ and ‘vogue’. In the TT, the
subtitler has rendered both meanings, but in a non-punning manner. In this segment, the condensation
strategy referred to in chapter 5.2. is employed, given that some of the ST dialogue items are left out.
Nonetheless, this is not at the expense of the meaning. Even though ‘vague’ and its Danish equivalent ‘vag’
are very similar, the punning effect is not possible to recreate in the TT because the formal relation
between ‘vag’ and ‘Vogue’ is too weak. The pun is triggered with the ‘I don’t have a Vogue idea’-utterance,
which refers back to the preceding scenes where Carrie is criticized by her ‘Vogue’-editor. It is therefore
dependant on the situational context. Because ‘Vogue’ is a proper name, it can be argued that the subtitler
does not have the same opportunities of creating a well-functioning TT pun if the situational context is to
be maintained. Therefore, I do not see any alternative translation solution.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Segment 8
Character
ST
TT
Samantha
Well, I decided to turn a little hair
loss into a lot of hair gain
Jeg besluttede at gøre hårtab til
hårforøgelse
Stanford
Oh, you’re getting wiggy with it
Du pa’rykker for vildt
M1: Wig (i.e. artificial hair to be worn on your head as a replacement of your own)
M2: Witty (i.e. to be clever and funny)
Translation strategy: Pun  Pun
In this vertical pun, the phonemic similarity between the words ‘wit’ (in this context used as the adjective
witty, though) and ‘wig’ has been exploited, resulting in the word ‘wiggy’.
The subtitler has succeeded in creating a TT pun by exploiting the phonemic similarity between two Danish
words, thus rendering the following meanings:
TT M1: Paryk (wig)
TT M2: Rykker (the figurative meaning of ‘to rock’ can be regarded as an English equivalent to this
expression)
As in the ST pun the phonemic similarities between two words are exploited by combining them into one
word. Thus, it can be stated that the subtitler has succeeded in creating a pun that is similar in terms of the
formal relation between the pun components. Furthermore, the semantic content of the TT pun is
equivalent to the ST pun with the result that the same effect is achieved. On the basis of this, it can be
concluded that this is an instance of formal equivalence.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Segment 9
Character
ST
TT
Mr. Big
I’m tired of old New York
Jeg er træt af gamle New York
Carrie
Well, if you are tired you take a
“napa”, you don’t move to Napa
Hvis du er træt, så “napa” en lur,
ikke flyt til Napa
In this case a double pun is triggered, seeing that Mr. Big states that he is tired of New York. As an answer
to this, Carrie implies that the normal reaction when you are tired is to take a nap, thus calling forth
another signification of the adjective tired, i.e. the one that is used to refer to a person’s condition when
s/he is tired and needs rest.
Nonetheless, the pun that is in focus is the second, which is a vertical pun that triggers the following
meanings:
M1: Nap (i.e. a short sleep)
M2: Napa (i.e. the geographical location in California)
Translation strategy: Pun  Pun
The subtitler has managed to create a TT pun which is also homophonic, and establishes the following
meanings:
TT M1: ‘napa’ (an altered version of the Danish verb ‘at nappe’
TT M2: Napa
Even though the pun is triggered through other syntactic elements than in the ST, it can be argued that
formal equivalence is held. This is due to the fact that the TT is a word-for word translation which renders
the same meaning. Therefore, no other translation solution would be better.
Common for both the ST and TT pun is that the English ‘nap’ and the Danish ‘napa’ (nappe) are altered, i.e.
an ‘a’ is added. The reason for this may be that the pun is emphasised, seeing that it might go unnoticed if
‘nap’ was spelled normally. With this wrong spelling, the link between the two pun components is stronger.
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Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
7.4.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Visual puns
Segment 10
Character
ST
TT
Carrie’s voice over
When your career is going better
than ever, it’s hard not to get a
big head
Når ens karriere er på toppen, er
det svært ikke at blive indbildsk
M1: “To get a big head” can figuratively speaking mean ‘when success goes to your head in the sense that
you might start thinking that you are better than other’ (Politikens Engelsk-Dansk Idiom Ordbog 2001:147).
M2: “Big head” in the literal sense (the audience sees a poster of Carrie where she is enlarged.
Consequently, her figure (including her head) is much bigger than that of the real Carrie).
Translation strategy: is Pun  Non-Pun (selective)
In this example the subtitler has only rendered M1 in the subtitles, i.e. the signification that is rendered
through the verbal utterance. The secondary ‘reading’ in the ST pun is triggered through the visual image.
The fact that the subtitler has chosen to translate the verbal meaning may have the result that the
audience feels confused by the visual image because it does not conform to what is being expressed in the
subtitles. It may therefore be fair to state that this is an unsuitable translation solution. To avoid the
mismatch between the contents of the subtitles and the visual images, it can be argued that it would be
better to render M2 of the ST pun by employing a Danish formulation that somehow matches the visual
image. In the lack of better Danish phrasings, such solution could be: 'Det er svært ikke at lade succesen
stige én til hovedet når karrieren er på toppen’. Even though the semantic content of this phrase is only
equivalent to the verbal ST meaning, it can be argued that the fact that the word ‘head’ is included makes it
a better translation solution. It does not conform entirely to the visual image, but the fact that the phrase
contains the word ‘head’ may mean that the meaning of the subtitles makes better sense to the audience
seeing that Carrie’s head on the poster is in focus in the visual semiotic channels. Thus, a slight degree of
dynamic equivalence will be held because the effect of the ST pun is recreated to some extent.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Segment 11
Character
ST
TT
Carrie’s voice over
Meanwhile, Miranda was getting
Miranda var også godt irriteret,
fed up as well, with herself…
på sig selv…
M1: To be sick and tired of something (figurative meaning)
M2: To be fed with something eatable (literal meaning)
Translation strategy: Pun  non-pun (selective)
Special for this instance where only M1 of the ST pun is rendered in the TT is that the subtitler is not only
restricted by the visual elements but also by Carrie’s voice-over which carries the audience from one scene
to another. The voice-over brings us from a scene where Charlotte is fed up (in the figurative sense) by her
husband and his nonsense and to this scene, where the visual channel renders the figurative meaning of
the idiom. Thus, ambiguity is triggered, and due to the reference to the preceding scene, the subtitler has
no other choice but to render the meaning of the idiom. In Danish the meaning of the English idiom ‘to be
fed up’ is ‘at være træt af’ (Smith 1995:56). With this rendering a double reading is precluded though,
seeing that it is not equivocal. Therefore, the pun is lost. Nonetheless, it can be argued that the effect of
the ST pun to some degree is maintained due to the support of the visual image. Even though the visual
images do not call forth a second reading of the TT rendering, the meaning is still implicit seeing that the
audience cannot have any doubt as to why Miranda is ‘sick and tired of herself’.
On the basis of this and the fact that the subtitlers opportunities of finding a creative solution to the
problem is restricted because of Carrie’s voice-over which serves to create coherence between this and the
preceding scene, I do not see any alternative translation solution.
[29]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Segment 12
Character
ST
TT
Carrie’s voice-over
I didn’t think Mrs. Cohen could
move any slower. But apparently
she could…
Jeg troede ikke, Mrs. Cohen
kunne bevæge sig langsommere,
men det kunne hun åbenbart
M1: Move from the apartment
M2: Move her body physically
Translation strategy: Pun  Non Pun (Selective)
In this example, only ST M2 is rendered in the subtitles, i.e. the meaning that conforms to what is expressed
through the visual channel. In Danish, the equivalents to move in M1 and M2 can be ‘flytte’ or ‘bevæge sig’
respectively, and the latter is the one employed in the subtitles due to the visual image. Nonetheless, it can
be argued that the effect of the TT rendering would have been more similar to that of the ST by employing
the Danish word ‘flytte’, i.e. “Jeg troede ikke Mrs. Cohen kunne flytte sig langsommere, men det kunne hun
åbenbart.” Even though it is only a slight difference, it can be argued that this rendering conveys the effect
of the ST pun better, seeing that ‘flytte sig’ might suggest a duplicity in meaning because it is the word that
is employed in the context of ‘moving out of the apartment’ (for instance) as well. Thus, by doing this, a
higher degree of dynamic equivalence would have been attained.
[30]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
8. THE EFFECT OF THE TARGET TEXT RENDERINGS
On the basis of the comparative analysis between the selection of ST puns and their translations into the
TT, it can be stated that there are several instances where the effect of the ST pun has been maintained in
the TT – either with an equivalent meaning or with a meaning that produces the same effect on the TT
audience as the ST pun did for its audience. Nonetheless, the main part of the TT renderings only conveys
the meaning of the ST pun partially or not at all, with the result that the effect is lost in the TT. Considering
the fact that the language is a very important feature of comedy series, this means that some humorous
aspects are lost in the TT. Thus, the importance of recreating the effect of the ST cannot be overrated.
Therefore, it is interesting to examine whether it is possible to identify some tendencies concerning the
instances where the ST puns have been translated successfully as well as the ones where the effect is lost.
Four of the selected ST puns (segment 3, 6, 8, and four) have been translated using the Pun  Pun strategy.
Only one of these is based on homonymy. According to Gottlieb, puns based on homonymy and paronymy
are most likely to ‘survive’ in translation because these pun types allow for greater differences between the
pun-components at play. Therefore, they may be regarded as less language-specific than the homophonic
puns (Gottlieb 1997:190). The analysis carried out in this thesis is far from exhaustive because of the limited
number of examples. Nonetheless, it can be stated that two of the four successfully translated puns are
paronymic, i.e. puns of the type where the formal relation between the pun components is weak.
Accordingly, the subtitler has a larger degree of freedom when dealing with this pun type, which suggests
that these pun types also are the ones that are most likely to be rendered with an equivalent effect in the
TT, as is also stated by Gottlieb.
In five instances (segment 1, 4, 10, 11, and 12), the Pun  Non-Pun (selective) strategy has been employed
with the result that the effect of these puns is not conveyed in the TT. The visual puns are most dominant
here. It can be argued that the reason for this is that the subtitler is restricted because of the situational
context, i.e. the visual image. Characteristic for visual puns is that the subtitler should make what is
communicated in the subtitles conform to what is expressed through the visual semiotic channels. This
precludes him/her from taking creative liberties and finding an alternative phrasing whose meaning differs
from the original version.
The Pun  Non Pun (non-selective) strategy has been used for two puns (segment 5 and 7) whose common
denominator is that one of the pun components is a proper name. It can be presumed that proper names
generally make the translation of puns challenging, seeing that they are rarely replaced with another item,
which is easier to do when dealing with other word classes. Therefore, it may be safe to assume that it is
very hard to maintain the effect of such puns.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Finally, the Pun  Punoid strategy has been employed to segment 2. Even though only one of the selected
examples illustrates the employment of this strategy, it may be assumed that the effect of ST puns to a high
degree can be maintained if the subtitler is not able to find a TT pun, and therefore creates some other
form of wordplay as a form of compensation.
A final observation that is relevant to the theory on subtitling accounted for in chapter 2 is that the
condensation strategy, which is an often employed strategy used by subtitlers because of the time- and
space constraints, does not seem to impact the outcome of the TT rendering of the ST puns, seeing that
only very few instances of the selected examples showed instances of condensation.
[32]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
9. CONCLUSION
The aim of this thesis was to study how puns are translated in subtitles and with what effect. By doing this,
my intention was to examine whether a loss of effect tends to be the fate of puns in subtitling. To enable
me to answer this problem statement, I made an empirical analysis based on Delabastita’s theories on the
nature of the pun as well as strategies that can be employed to translate it, in which the ST puns were
compared to the TT renderings with the purpose to determine whether the effect of the ST puns was lost in
subtitling.
In the analysis, I considered the characteristics of subtitling primarily based on Gottlieb’s theories in
chapter 2 when relevant to the example in question. Furthermore, Nida’s theories of formal and dynamic
equivalence were included as a tool for estimating whether the effect of the ST pun was rendered
equivalently in the TT.
The results of the analysis showed that only a third of the selected examples of ST puns maintained the
meaning and/or the effect of the original pun. Considering the primary communicative purpose of ‘SATC’, it
can be argued that this is a considerable loss given that an important generator of humorous effects in
comedy series is the creative use of language. This means that many of the humorous aspects are not
rendered as effectively in the TT as in the ST.
Furthermore, the analysis enabled me to suggest some tendencies, seeing that it showed that puns that
only have a slight degree of formal identity are likely to be translated successfully into the TT. Furthermore,
it can be stated that there is a tendency for the effect of puns to be lost in translation when the context is
of high importance to the calling forth of a secondary meaning, which means that the visual puns are
particularly difficult to translate without losing the punning effect. Finally, it can be suggested that puns
based on proper names can be difficult to render with an equivalent effect.
On the basis of this, it can be concluded that the type of pun as well as the semiotic complexity of film- and
TV productions tends to have a saying in how successfully the effect of the ST pun is rendered in the TT.
Nonetheless, the study also shows that puns are not untranslatable, and that the effect of a ST pun is
possible to transfer to the TT.
Considering the limited number of examples, the results of this thesis are not conclusive. In order to be
able to conclude anything definite, it would be necessary to carry out a more comprehensive analysis.
Nonetheless, the findings of this thesis contribute to the field of translating by indicating some tendencies
and by enlightening some of the issues that the translation of puns tends to entail.
[33]
THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
10.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
ABSTRACT
The pun is a form of wordplay that creates a double meaning in the context in which it is conveyed by
exploiting the similar or almost similar pronunciation and/or spelling between words with different
meanings. It serves to create some kind of communicative effect, be it humorous, attention-getting or
persuasive. Nonetheless, it is a complex phenomenon, particularly when wanting to translate it from one
language to another. This is because it is based upon linguistic structures, and such structures differ from
language to language. This means that it may be difficult to render the meaning of puns from one language
to another because of the lack of equivalent counterparts of certain linguistic items and structures in the
target language.
I find this issue interesting, which is why my intention of this thesis was to examine how puns are translated
and with what effect. I chose to focus on the translation issue in the context of a TV-production because I
found it interesting to see how the pun is dealt with in this medium, which is characterised by semiotic
complexity. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to identify the translation strategies that are
employed for the translation of puns in subtitling and on the basis of this evaluate whether the effect of the
ST pun was maintained in the TT. This was done by conducting an empirical study with the comedy series
‘Sex and the City’ as an empirical example. On the basis of 12 selected puns from this series, a comparative
analysis of the ST puns and their TT renderings was carried out with the purpose to examine how they were
translated into the TT and with what effect.
By looking into the characteristics of subtitling primarily based on theories by Henrik Gottlieb, it became
evident that the polysemiotic nature of film- and TV productions poses some constraints to the subtitler.
This is interesting for this thesis because it might influence the outcome of the subtitled versions of the ST
puns. Furthermore, by looking into the nature of the pun based on Dirk Delabastita’s theoretical
contribution to the field, I was enabled to identify and classify the ST puns as well as to evaluate how
successfully they were rendered in the TT. This was done on the basis of a model proposed by Delabastita,
in which he has identified nine strategies that are possible to employ when dealing with the translation of
puns. After having examined why the translation of puns is such a challenging task by looking into the
notion of untranslatability and the concept of equivalence, I was able to carry out the analysis by taking
point of departure in three operational questions enumerated in the introduction. In the analysis, the
selected ST puns were classified on the basis of their relation of formal identity. Furthermore, the pun type
that only functions in polysemiotic texts because it relies on the visual representation of one of the
meanings was included. Accordingly, the different types of puns that were analysed were homonymic,
homophonic, paronymic, and visual.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
The analysis showed that a third of the selected examples were translated successfully, in the sense that
the effect of the ST pun had been maintained in the TT – either with an equivalent meaning or with a
meaning that produced the same effect on the TT audience as the ST pun did for its audience. However,
this also showed that two thirds of the selected ST puns were not translated in such a manner that the
effect of the ST pun was maintained in the TT. This is a considerable loss, particularly when taken the genre
of Sex and the City in consideration. Since the language is an important generator within comedy series, it
can be argued that the TT audience misses out on many of the humorous aspects that are generated by the
employment of puns.
The results of the analysis enabled me to conclude that the success of maintaining the effect of the ST pun
in the TT depends on the degree of formal similarity between the pun components, as well as on the
contextual setting. The latter proved to be particularly relevant for the visual pun, seeing that this relies on
visual representation (which equals the context). Accordingly, it could be stated that the effect of visual
puns are particularly difficult to maintain in the subtitled version. Finally, the analysis also enabled me to
suggest that puns based on proper names can be difficult to render with an equivalent effect.
Number of characters: 3.696
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
11.
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
REFERENCES
Books
Andersen, S.T. (1998): Talemåder i dansk: Ordbog over idiomer. Munksgaard.
Delabastita, D. (1993): There’s a Double Tongue: An Investigation into the Translation of Shakespeare’s
Wordplay, with Special Reference to Hamlet. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Díaz Cintas, J.; Remael R. (2007): Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling. Manchester, UK & Kinderhook, USA: St.
Jerome Publishing.
Gottlieb, H. (1997): Subtitles, Translation & Idioms. Copenhagen: Reproafdelingen – The Faculty of
Humanities, University of Copenhagen.
Grue, M.; Steen, H.H. (2001): Politikens Engelsk-dansk Idiomordbog. København: Politikens Forlag.
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners 2nd edition (2007). Macmillan Education.
Munday, J. (2008): Introducing Translation Studies – Theories and Applications, 2nd edition. London & New
York: Routledge.
Schjoldager, A. with Gottlieb, H. and Klitgård, I. (2008): Understanding Translation. Copenhagen:
Academica.
Smith, L. B. (1995): Engelsk-dansk idiomordbog. Jørgen Paludans Forlag.
Articles in anthologies
Akass, K.; McCabe, J. (2004): Introduction. In Akass, K.; McCabe, J. (eds.) Reading Sex and the City. London
& New York: I. B. Tauris, pp. 1-14.
Akass, K.; McCabe, J. (2004): Ms Parker and the Vicious Circle: female narrative and humour in Sex and the
City. In Akass, K.; McCabe, J. (eds.) Reading Sex and the City. London & New York: I. B. Tauris, pp. 177 -198.
Bignell, J. (2004). (2004): Sex, confession and witness. In Akass, K.; McCabe, J. (eds.) Reading Sex and the
City. London & New York: I. B. Tauris, pp. 161-176.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Delabastita, D. (ed.) (1996): Introduction. In Wordplay and Translation. Special Issue of the Translator.
Studies in Intercultural Communication, 2.2., pp. 127-139.
Gottlieb, H. (2009): Subtitling Against the Current: Danish Concepts, English Minds. In Díaz Cintas, J. (ed.):
New Trends in Audiovisual Translation. Briston, UK & Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters, pp. 21-43.
Nedergaard-Larsen, B. (1992): Kulturbundne problemer ved tekstning. In TV-tekster: Oversættelse efter mål
– Danske afhandlinger om oversættelse nr. 3. Center for Oversættelse, Københavns Universitet.
Sanderson, J. D. (2009): Strategies for the Dubbing of Puns with One Visual Semantic Layer. In Díaz Cintas, J.
(ed.): New Trends in Audiovisual Translation. Briston, UK & Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters, pp. 123132.
Schröter, T. (2004): Of Holy Goats and the NYPD – A Study of Language-Based Screen Humour in
Translation. In Hansen, G.; Malmkjær, K.; Gile, D. (eds.): Claims, Changes and Challenges in Translation
Studies: Selected Contributions from the EST Congress Copenhagen 2001. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins, pp. 157-168.
Veiga, M. J. (2009): The Translation of Audiovisual Humour in Just a Few Words. In Díaz Cintas,
J. (ed.): New Trends in Audiovisual Translation. Briston, UK & Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters, pp. 158175.
Articles in journals
Delabastita, D. (1994): Focus on the Pun: Wordplay as a Special Problem in Translation Studies. Target, 6
(2), pp. 223-243.
Díaz Pérez, F. (2008): Wordplay in Film Titles: Translating English Puns into Spanish. Babel, 54 (1), pp. 36-58.
Partington, A. S. (2009): A Linguistic Account of Wordplay: The Lexical Grammar of Punning. Journal of
Pragmatics, 41, pp. 1794-1809.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
Bachelor thesis
December 1, 2010
Internet resources
www.yourdictionary.com: Online Dictionary
Skov, M.: Mere sex i city http://www.information.dk/160082 (Retrieved October 28, 2010).
HBO: Sex and the City Homepage: About the Show http://www.hbo.com/sex-and-the-city/index.html#/sexand-the-city/about/index.html (Retrieved November 25, 2010).
Richter, K. Ø.: Mens vi venter http://www.kulturkapellet.dk/musikanmeldelse.php?id=30 (Retrieved
October 10, 2010).
DVD
HBO (1995): Sex and the City The Complete Series 1 to 6 Shoebox. Paramount Pictures.
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THE TRANSLATION OF PUNS – An analysis of the fate of puns in subtitling with Sex and the City as an empirical
example
Camilla Østergaard Pedersen
12.
Bachelor thesis
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Linguistic structures
Appendix 2: Illustration of the formal classification of the pun
Appendix 3: Delabastita’s translation strategies
Appendix 4: Transcripts in context
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December 1, 2010