UNIVERSIDADE DO EXTREMO SUL CATARINENSE - UNESC
PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUÇÃO EM LÍNGUA INGLESA
SHEREE BARROS DA SILVA
RECONSTRUCTION OF HUMOR IN SUBTITLES OF FRIENDS
SITCOM
CRICIÚMA, JUNHO DE 2010
SHEREE BARROS DA SILVA
RECONSTRUCTION OF HUMOR IN SUBTITLES OF FRIENDS
SITCOM
Monografia, apresentada para obtenção do grau de
Especialista no Curso de Pós Graduação em Língua
Inglesa da Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense,
UNESC.
Orientador: Prof. Dr. Wilson Schuelter
CRICIÚMA, JUNHO DE 2010
AGRADECIMENTOS
A Deus que sempre esteve à frente dos meus sonhos e das minhas conquistas.
Aos meus pais, Márcia e Narciso, que me apoiaram durante todo o tempo e que souberam
tolerar o meu mau humor e a minha ausência.
À minha irmã, Suéllen, que mesmo a distância me ajudou na realização deste trabalho ao me
emprestar a nona temporada do seriado Friends.
Ao meu cachorrinho Joey, que tem esse nome devido ao personagem Joey Tribbiani do
seriado Friends, que muitas vezes pediu pra brincar mas não pude dar atenção a ele.
Às minhas colegas de curso Francilane e Andreza, por terem estado todo o tempo comigo nos
momentos mais difíceis.
Ao meu professor orientador, Wilson Schuelter, que me orientou desde o pré-projeto, pelas
correções, comentários e por sempre estar pronto a me atender em todos os momentos.
A todos os professores da Pós-Graduação em Língua Inglesa, que contribuíram para aumentar
os meus conhecimentos e progredir na minha carreira profissional.
“Many critics, no defenders,
Translators have but two regrets,
When they “hit”, no-one remembers,
When they “miss”, no-one forgets”.
Anonymous
“Translation is not a matter of words only:
it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture."
Anthony Burgess
RESUMO
A legenda já faz parte de nossas vidas. Elas aparecem em filmes, seriados, documentários, em
vários programas da televisão a cabo ou via satélite, etc. Mas podemos confiar nessas
legendas? O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o desafio da legendagem na tradução
audiovisual do humor, a partir do DVD do seriado Friends. Foram analisadas, através de uma
análise qualitativa, a tradução do humor nas legendas dos episódios 10, 13, 16 e 17 da nona
temporada, uma vez que estes foram os que mostraram um maior número de referências
culturais, jogos de palavras, ou situações que desafiavam o tradutor. Foi levada em
consideração a fala dos personagens no idioma original e sua tradução nas legendas. A
ferramenta para esta análise foi a Ficha Lexológica usada por Livia Rosa Rodrigues de Souza
Barros (2006) em sua dissertação Tradução Audiovisual: a Variação Lexical Diafásica na
Tradução para Dublagem e Legendagem de Filmes de Língua Inglesa, onde foram
especificados o personagem que pronunciou a frase a ser analisada, a fala do personagem, a
tradução feita para a legenda, a análise do enunciado e alguns comentários, e sugestões para a
legenda (se necessário), entre outros. No decorrer da análise do corpus, composto
principalmente de exemplos de cenas humorísticas ligadas a aspectos culturais, procurei
analisar as estratégias utilizadas pelo tradutor do seriado Friends ao traduzir o humor, e em
que extensão essa tradução reflete os diálogos de partida e mantém o humor na língua de
destino. Ao examinar os exemplos extraídos do seriado procurei, além de verificar se a
tradução refletiu ou não os diálogos de partida, propor alternativas que melhor se ajustassem à
cultura brasileira e que melhor ajudassem na compreensão do humor. Ao final do trabalho
pude concluir que a maioria dos exemplos analisados reflete os diálogos de partida e também
provoca o riso no telespectador brasileiro.
Palavras-chave:
Tradução audiovisual, humor, Friends, legendagem, tradução
ABSTRACT
Subtitles are already part of our lives. They appear in movies, sitcoms, documentaries, in
several cable and satellite television programs, etc. But can we trust in these subtitles? The
objective of this study is to analyze the subtitle challenge in translating audiovisual humor,
from the DVD of the Friends sitcom. It was analyzed, through a qualitative analysis, humor
translations in subtitles from episodes 10, 13, 16, 17 of the ninth season, since these are the
ones that showed a great number of examples of humor related to cultural aspects, word plays,
or situations that challenge the translator. The characters’ speech in the original language and
its translation in the subtitles were taken into consideration. It was used as a tool for this data
analysis, the Ficha Lexológica used by Livia Rosa Rodrigues de Souza Barros (2006) in her
dissertation: Tradução Audiovisual: a Variação Lexical Diafásica na Tradução para
Dublagem e Legendagem de Filmes de Língua Inglesa., where the character who pronounced
the statement, a transcript of the speech in English, the transcript of the subtitle for the
specific statement, the context of the speech, a translation suggestion to the subtitle (if
necessary), the analysis of the statement and some comments were specified. During the
corpus analysis, consisting mainly of examples of humorous scenes linked to cultural aspects,
I tried to examine the strategies used by the translator in translating humor of Friends sitcom,
and to what extent the translation reflects the starting dialogues and maintains the humor in
the target language. By examining examples from the sitcom, in addition to verifying whether
the translation reflects or not the starting dialogues, to propose alternatives that best fit into
the Brazilian culture and that could help on the comprehension of humor. At the end of this
study, I could conclude that most of the examples analyzed reflect the starting dialogues and
also provoke laughter in the Brazilians viewers.
Keywords:
Audiovisual translation, humor, Friends, subtitling, translation
LISTA DE ILUSTRAÇÕES
Figure 1 – Horizontal translation........................................................................................ 23
Figure 2 – Vertical and diagonal translation....................................................................... 24
Figure 3 – Opening Scenario ............................................................................................ 30
Figure 4 – The Six Friends ............................................................................................... 30
Figure 5 – Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green) ..................................................................... 32
Figure 6 – Courteney Cox Arquete (Monica Geller) ........................................................ 32
Figure 7 – Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay) ......................................................................... 32
Figure 8 – Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani) ......................................................................... 33
Figure 9 – Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) ....................................................................... 33
Figure 10 – David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) .................................................................... 33
Figure 11 – Oreo Sandwich ................................................................................................ 44
Figure 12 – Double Stuf Oreo ........................................................................................... 44
SUMÁRIO
1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 08
2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................. 10
2.1 Translation Techniques ............................................................................................. 10
2.2 Skopostheorie ............................................................................................................. 13
2.3 Humor ......................................................................................................................... 15
2.3.1 Humor and Subtitling ............................................................................................. 19
2.4 Audiovisual Translation ............................................................................................ 21
2.4.1 Modalities of audiovisual Translation ................................................................... 22
2.4.2 Subtitling .................................................................................................................. 23
2.4.2.1 Main Rules and Limits of Subtitling .................................................................. 25
3 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 29
3.1 Sample ......................................................................................................................... 29
3.2 Friends Sitcom ............................................................................................................ 30
3.2.1 Cast and Characters ................................................................................................ 31
4 DATA ANALYSIS .........................................................................................................34
5 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 49
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 51
ANNEX A – Sample Form .............................................................................................. 53
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1. INTRODUCTION
Currently, humanity lives in a globalized world. At times, distances seem not to
exist. A way to make distances shorter is through language. English language is nowadays
worldwide spoken. It is considered the language of global hegemony, or also the international
language, or even the universal language of the human race. According to Phillipson (2003, p.
34 – 37) the dissemination of the English language was due to political, economical and
historical facts. The United States as an economic and political reference have also become a
cultural reference. This culture, in a certain way, is widespread, among other possibilities,
through movies and sitcoms, which reach various parts of the world through the cinema,
DVDs or even through cable or satellite TV channels. Since many of these countries do not
have English as their mother tongue, these audiovisual products require dubbing and/or
subtitling into the local language.
Nowadays, with the increase in sitcoms and films available on DVD, viewers have
the option to watch them dubbed or subtitled. There are those who prefer dubbing instead of
subtitling since the former is easier and demands less effort. However, many viewers prefer
subtitling, since it maintains the original audio and, thus, the "soul of the film." But subtitles
really reflect this "soul"? In this sense, the role of the translator is extremely important, since
the translated text will be read quickly and probably only once. With limited space for
subtitling, many features of spoken language will be deleted, for instance, pauses, selfcorrections, interruptions and grammatically incorrect constructions. As Chile (1999, p. 175)
states “One of the problems is that subtitling do not usually retain the style, register markers
of the original text and other interpersonal components of the communication, which can
harm the effect of humor as produced in the original”. Considering colloquialisms found in
sitcoms, subtitling, as illustrated by Chile, may interfere on humor recreation in subtitles,
especially when this humor is related to cultural aspects. Therefore, translators should be
aware of these characteristics and be prepared to solve or minimize them.
From what was said above, humor translation, and also humor translation related
to cultural aspects, becomes a great challenge, mainly because of the limited space, which
restricts the translation’ possibilities. Therefore, meaning must be recreated considering all
these aspects. Since there is a change on the linguistic code, translation is always a subject of
9
conflict. These conflicts, in a subtitling environment, are target for criticism mainly because
the original audio is simultaneously available to viewers.
As a weird element to the film, since it occupies part of the area for the image,
subtitles should convey all its meaning in a clear, precise and not in a tiring way for viewers.
Subtitles must convey all the sense of the story and still make sense for the target language.
Thus, subtitling translation should be appropriate to the situation (context of the
story) and at the same time must reach its purpose, that is, keep the humor in the target
language. That is why I intend to answer the following question in relation to the corpus of
my research: What are the strategies used by the translator of the Friends sitcom when
translating humor, and to what extent this translation reflects the starting dialogues and keeps
the humor in the target language?
To answer this question I selected from the ninth season of Friends, distributed on
DVD, four episodes. From these episodes I only selected examples that contained humor,
especially if it was related to cultural aspects, and then compare it to the Portuguese subtitles
on the DVD. Thus, through a qualitative analysis, which does not aim to quantify the
techniques used in the translation nor to judge them as right or wrong, I analyzed the Friends
sitcom subtitled in Portuguese in order to observe regularities in the choices made by the
translator and the consequences of these choices in the humor reconstruction in subtitles.
In Chapter 2, I describe the main technical procedures used in all types of
translation, but which are also used to a greater or lesser extent in subtitling. I also describe a
theory that applies well to the translation of humor: the Skopostherie.
In chapter 3, I describe the main ideas about humor, like the work by Bergson
(1983) and Raskin (1985), and the humor classification according to Zabalbeascoa (1996)
who classifies the humor from the translator’s perspective. Going forward, I relate humor to
subtitling, discussing its difficulties and constraints.
In Chapter 4, I describe the basic concepts of various forms of audiovisual
translation and then I only detail the specific characteristics of subtitling, its rules and its
limits since subtitling is the object of my work.
In Chapter 5, I present the corpus of this study, that is, Friends sitcom. I present
the actors and their characters, as well as brief information about its story. Then, I start
analyzing the subtitles of the examples extracted from the selected episodes, and finally, in
chapter 6, I present my conclusions.
10
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Translation Techniques
Translations studies allow us to analyze how translation works. These studies are
related to textual elements (coherence, cohesion, thematic), contextual elements (extra-textual
components related to the context) and process. The process is related to the method chosen
by the translator and strategies used during the translation process to obtain a text that will
function the same way as the source text. To better analyze the method and strategies chosen
by the translator it is necessary to look into microstructures of sentences, phrases and words.
To accomplish this issue it is required translation techniques. Several translation theories have
proposed different classification of the existing techniques. This classification permits to
measure and quantify, if desired, the linguistic variation between the original and the
translated text.
The first classification of translation technical procedures was done by Vinay &
Darbelnet in their work Stylistique comparée du français et de l’anglais (1958 apud
BARBOSA, 2004, p. 63). They based their technical procedures classification on Saussure’s
concepts of linguistic sign, signified, signifier, value and signification, to look for theoretical
support for their study of translation, taking into account the complexity of the act of
translation. These concepts gave them a solid theoretical base to justify their proposal of being
distant from literal translation (BARBOSA, 2004, p. 22).
Vinay & Darbelnet (1977 apud MOLINA, 2002, p. 499) defined seven basic
procedures. The procedures were classified as direct (or literal) or oblique, to coincide with
their distinction between direct (or literal) and oblique translation.
Direct Translation
Oblique Translation
Loan
Calque
Literal Translation
Transposition
Modulation
Equivalence
Adaptation
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According to Aubert (1997, p. 2 ), “such procedures, set up on a scale ranging
from a kind of ‘zero degree’ of translation (loan) and up to the most source-distant procedure
(adaptation), and were originally intended as a didactic reference for training future
translators”.
Direct translation, to Vinay & Darbelnet (1977 apud MOLINA, 2002, p. 499), is
the same as literal translation, or word by word translation, and it is possible when the two
languages are very close to each other in relation to structure, lexis and morphology. The
direct translation procedures are:
• Loan: it consists of copying a word or segments directly from the source text into
the translated text. This strategy can be used when the target language has no
(generally used) equivalent or when the source language word sounds "better"
(more specific, fashionable, exotic or just accepted), even though it can be
translated.
• Calque: occurs when a foreign word or expression is adapted to the target language
orthography and phonology (Football – futebol; bouquet – buquê; whisky – uísque;
weekend – fim-de-semana). This procedure was also described by Newmark (1981,
1988).
• Literal translation: it is also called word by word translation, in which there will be
the same numbers of words, the same syntactical order, employing the same word
classes. Also described by Catford (1965), Newmark (1988), Vázquez-Ayora
(1977).
E.g.: My name is Juliana – Meu nome é Juliana.
Oblique translation is a translation that is not literal. It is employed when the literal
translation is impossible (BARBOSA, 2004, p. 24). The oblique translation procedures are:
• Transposition: occurs when a signified of the source text expressed by a signifier of
a certain grammatical category is translated by a signifier of another grammatical
category, without changing the meaning and the message of the source text.
Another possibility is when the word order in altered. Also described by Catford
(1965), Newmark (1988), Vázquez-Ayora (1977).
E.g.: She said reproachfully (Adverb) – (Ela) disse em tom de reprovação (Adverbial
phrase)
• Modulation: consists of translating a segment with a shift in point of view. This
reflects the way different languages interpret the experience of the real or it can just
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be a preference of the translator. Also described by, Newmark (1988), VázquezAyora (1977).
E.g.: keyhole – buraco da fechadura.
It is easy to demonstrate – É fácil demonstrar (Literal translation)
Não é difícil demonstrar (Modulation)
• Equivalence: this procedure is employed when two languages express the same
situation in a totally diverse way. It is generally applied to cliché, idiomatic
expressions, and proverbs. Also described by Newmark (1988), Vázquez-Ayora
(1977).
E.g.: God bless you – Saúde.
It’s a piece of cake – É sopa.
• Adaptation: it is the extreme limit of translation. It is employed when extralinguistic
elements in the source text do not exist in the cultural universe of the target
language. Also described by Newmark (1988), Vázquez-Ayora (1977).
E.g.: Squire – Juiz de paz; Sheriff – Delegado.
Considering the procedures by Vinay & Dalbernet insufficient to deal with all
challenges found during the translation process other authors added extra procedures and
excluded some they do not considered relevant.
Vázquez-Ayora (1977 apud BARBOSA, 2004) besides literal translation,
transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation proposed four other procedures:
amplification, explicitation, omission and compensation. He also excluded loan and calque
from his translation technical procedures. Vázquez-Ayora complementary procedures are:
• Amplification: it is employed when the target language requires the usage of more
signifiers than the source language to express the same action or situation. The
opposite procedure is economy.
• Explicitation: it is a particular case of amplification. It is employed to make clear to
readers some cultural aspects which are not familiar to them. It also occurs when it
is necessary to introduce information that is implicit from the context or from the
situation.
• Omission: it consists of omitting elements from the source language, which from
the target language point of view are considered unnecessary or excessively
repeated; or elements which the target language does not explicit.
13
• Compensation: it occurs when some information or a stylistic style from the source
language that cannot be introduced in the same place in the translated text is
reproduced elsewhere in the translated text. This procedure was analyzed by
Newmark (1988), and Nida (1964).
These procedures do not occur alone in each sentence. Several procedures will be
necessary to produce a final version of the translated sentence. Vázquez-Ayora (1977 apud
BARBOSA, 2004, p. 48) states that “it is through the usage of the variety of these procedures
that is possible to obtain in the translated text the same global effect from the source text”.
However, these procedures will not always be sufficient to explain a translation work or even
contribute to the translator facing translation problems, especially regarding the translation of
humor, which is the goal of this work.
2.2. Skopostheorie
A theory that can be applied to translation of humor is called Skopostheorie. This
theory was advocated by Katrina Reiss and Hans Vermeer in 1984. Diverging from previous
theories which postulate that the source text and the translated text should be as equivalent as
possible, Skopostheorie aims for a functionalist approach and, therefore, is pragmatic
(ROSAS, 2003 p.145). What is important to this theory is the purpose (skopo) of the
translation and not the means used to achieve the translated text as stated by Reiss and
Vermeer (1996, p. 5):
Every action aims (more or less consciously) for a particular purpose and it is
performed so that the intended purpose can be achieved in the best possible way in
the corresponded situation. [...] The production of a text is an action that also aims
for a purpose: that the text will "function" in the best possible way in certain
situation and conditions. When someone translates or interprets, he/she produces a
text. The translation / interpretation should also work optimally for the intended
purpose. Here is the fundamental principle of our theory of translational action.
What is at risk is the functional ability of the translatum (the result of the
translational action), and not the linguistic transfer with "fidelity" to the source text
(which may even be defective) which is conceived in other conditions, to another
situation and to "readers" who are different from readers of the final text.1
Therefore, translation to Reiss and Vermeer is included in a broader process called
translational action. According to Nord (1997, p. 17) translational action is the variety of
actions translators do during their work, such as to analyze cultural aspects of both languages,
14
recommend to clients the best way to translate their text or even recommend not to translate,
when the translator consider it more appropriate; whereas translation is what translators do
while they are decoding the source language into the target language.
Since translation is a type of human action, it also has a purpose, called here
“skopo” (a Greek word which means purpose). This purpose can be: 1) to lead readers to the
culture of the source text (and thus maintain all features of the source text) or 2) adapt the text
to the culture of the target language, in order to facilitate the reading and comprehension of
the translated text, for example, an adaptation of a William Shakespeare’s play. Consequently,
the skopo will determine the translator’s choices in their translational action. They will decide
what will be the most appropriate way to translate a specific text to achieve a specific goal
(the skopo).
Once the translated text is directed to the culture of the target language it cannot be
the cultural aspects of the source language that will influence the translational action. On the
contrary, the translational action will be influenced by the culture of the target language,
because it is in this culture that the text has to “function” as a communication instrument, if
this is the translator’s purpose. For this reason, the more knowledge the translator has about
the culture of the target language and their expectations, the greater is the possibility to
perform a good translation.
When the translation relies on a humorous text, probably there will be no way not
to adapt the humor to the culture of the target language. The best alternative when adaptation
is required is to use a functional translation, which should be employed when there is a lack of
cultural references between the two languages involved, or/and a lack on linguistic
correspondence (syntactic, morphologic, semantic, and even phonetic). If the translator
chooses to maintain fidelity to the content of the source text, either the translated text will be
incomprehensive (for it will not make sense to the target culture) or notes will be necessary to
explain the text (impossible in subtitling).
___________________________________________________________________________
1 My translation of the original in Spanish: Toda acción se dirige (de forma mas o menos consciente) a un objetivo
determinado, y se realiza de modo que dicho objetivo pueda alcanzarse lo mejor posible en la situación correspondiente. [...]
La producción de un texto es una acción que también se dirige a un objetivo: que el texto “funcione” lo mejor posible en la
situación y en las condiciones previstas. Cuando alguién traduce o interpreta, produce un texto. También la
traducción/interpretación ha de funcionar de forma óptima para la finalidad prevista. He aquí el principio fundamental de
nuestra teoría de la traslación. Lo que está en juego es la capacidad de funcionamiento del translatum (el resultado de la
traslación) en una determinada situación, no la transferencia lingüística con la mayor “fidelidad” posible a un texto de partida
(tal vez incluso defectuoso), concebido siempre en otras condiciones, para otra situación y para otros “usuarios” distintos a
los del texto final.
15
Thus, it is translators, in accordance to the skopo, who decide the function of the
source text in their translational action. The translation, in a broader way, does not consist of a
simple linguistic transcoding (unless this kind of translation is explicitly intended). In
summary, there are three stages during the translational action (ROSAS, 2003 p. 147 e 149):
a) To determine the skopo (purpose of the translatum): the translator must be able
to estimate, or to know the characteristics of the target readers for whom the final text is
intended; and must meet the requirements of those who require the translation;
b) To establish criteria of what is important to preserve or to modify on each part
of the source text (to define new “values”);
c) To perform the skopo: to search for alternatives to obtain a similar effect that the
source text causes on native readers. It is also important to note the possibilities and offers of
the target language/culture, always giving priority to those offerings/possibilities that are
closer to the source text.
2.3.Humor
Humor represents a challenge regarding translation. This challenge is related to the
content that humor conveys, which is ingrained with cultural, historical, political, and
everyday life aspects that will have to cross cultural boundaries, and come up against the
problem of changing language. Regarding cultural barriers, it is not only about different
countries, but the term can also include barriers such as ethnicity, gender, and religion among
others, within the same country or not.
Added to that, there is the fact that we laugh for different reasons, reasons that
change over time. These reasons are directly related to our experiences, our culture, our way
of seeing the world. Humor, therefore, is subjective. However, issues that trigger humor, even
in different cultures are the same (CHILE, 1999, p.168). They often address to controversial
topics which strongly appeal to stereotypes, and to topics that people normally would not
openly talk about. Issues such as sex, politics, racism, relations in society, physical defects,
death, etc., are generally repeated with some variations. On Friends sitcom, we can observe
the presence of this universal humor when subjects such as sex, female conflict in society,
man-woman relationship, are explored. But when humor is driven by cultural ingredients that
are typical of New York or of United States, it is called local humor.
16
Henri Bergson (2008, p. 53), in his study on laughter and on the meaning of the
comic, Laughter: An Essay on the meaning of the comic, makes a distinction between the
witty (spiritual) and the comic, “a word is said to be comic when it makes us laugh at the
person who utters it, and witty when it makes us laugh at either a third party or at ourselves”.
Thus, when we laugh at our interlocutor (because he did or said something ridiculous), we do
not identify with him/her, and we are superior to him/her. On the other hand, when we laugh
with our interlocutor (because he said something witty about himself, about us or about a third
person), we identify with him/her and, we cannot therefore be neither superior nor inferior to
him/her (ROSAS, 2003 p. 138).
Bergson (2008) also divides the comic in three groups: the comic in forms and
movements; the comic in situations and words; and the comic in character. The first group,
the comic in forms and movements, can be found in facial features like automatism, rigidity
and acquire habits (these are comic in forms). The comic in movements is found in gestures of
the human body that are related to a simple mechanism, for example, the repeated gestures of
a politician during a speech. Bergson (2008, p. 21) states that “the attitudes, gestures and
movements of the human body are laughable in exact proportion as body reminds us of a
mere machine”. To explain the second group, the comic in situation and words, Bergson takes
elements from theater which for him, explain life. He believes that the comic is in the
repetition of situations and expressions, and in the inversion of roles (a daughter giving advice
to her father) “in a comic repetition of words we generally find two terms: A repressed feeling
which goes off like a spring, and an idea that delights in repressing the feeling anew”. For the
comic of the last group, comic in character, Bergson says that shared feelings cannot exist.
“Comedy can only begin at the point where our neighbor’s personality ceases to affect us. It
begins, in fact, with what might be called a growing callousness to social life” (BERGSON,
2008, p. 66). So, emotion is a feeling contrary to laugh, because emotional involvement with a
particular situation prevents us from having the necessary distance to see the comic in a fact.
The author also points out the fact that laughter can be a kind of punishment. Through
laughter society punishes those who violated its rules. “In laughter we always find an
unavowed intention to humiliate, and consequently to correct our neighbor, if not in his will,
at least in his deed.” (BERGSON, 2008, p. 66).
To a given behavior, made during a conversation or a speech, be accepted by
society, we must follow rules imposed by this society. These rules are not available in a
manual for a quick reference, but are secretly widespread in the day-to-day of this society.
Grice (1982 apud ROSAS, 2003, p. 141) realized this logic that governs conversation and
17
found that dialogues are cooperative efforts. Taken this into account, he formulated the
cooperative principle and the maxims of conversation, which derived from the cooperative
principles. The maxims of conversation are divided in four categories:
1) Maxim of Quality: Truth
•
Do not say what you believe to be false.
•
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
2) Maxim of Quantity: Information
•
Make your contribution as informative as is required for the current purposes of the
exchange.
•
Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
3) Maxim of Relation: Relevance
•
Be relevant.
4) Maxim of Manner: Clarity
•
Avoid obscurity of expression.
•
Avoid ambiguity.
•
Be brief.
•
Be orderly.
When these maxims are broken, a change from bona-fide (reliable) to non-bona-
fide (unreliable) way of communication occurs. Texts operating with ambiguity, with short
sentences, not so informative, irrelevant are common when it comes to humorous texts, and
those are often the strategies used to achieve the laughter, that is, to produce humor. Raskin
(1985, p. 104) uses the maxims of conversation, which he calls bona-fide way of
communication, to explain how humor is created:
It is also interesting to note that if the hearer establishes beyond reasonable doubt
that the speaker violates the cooperative principle for bona-fide communication, the
hearer’s next immediate hypothesis, in our culture, is that the speaker is engaged in
humor. This happens frequently when speaker’s information strikes the hearer as
incredible.
Therefore, the language of humor works in a non-bona-fide way of
communication, that is, not characterized by the same rules of a dialogue or a speech. The
transition from bona-fide to non-bona-fide way of communication is the principle of the
Semantic Script Theory of Humor proposed by Raskin (1985) which presupposes that a
humorous text is composed by two scripts. Although these scripts are necessarily distinct and
opposed to each other, they are compatible. To Raskin (1985), script is defined as a bundle of
information about a giving subject or situation. It is a repertoire of common sense “which
18
represent his/her knowledge of certain routines, standard procedures, basic situations, etc., for
instance, the knowledge of what people do in certain situations, how they do it, in what order,
etc.” (RASKIN, 1985, p. 81). Thus, a text can be characterized as humorous if it is
compatible, in whole or in part, with two scripts that are opposed, for instance: real/not real,
good/bad, non-sexual/sexual, etc. It is necessary that readers/interpreters identify these scripts,
they need to understand the allusions, contradictions, and produce associations, analogies and
inferences detecting what is beyond the written text or the comic character. During this
process of combination of scripts, there are passages that are compatible with more than one
interpretation, that is, with more than one script. This overlap of scripts can be partial or total
and what allows the passage from one script to another is what Raskin calls trigger.
Differently from previous authors, Zabalbeascoa (1996 apud CHILE, 1999, p.170),
proposes a classification of jokes from the translator’s perspective. He classifies the jokes or
humor in seven categories:
(1) International, which does not depend either on linguistic aspects of the source text or
familiarity with the source culture;
(2) Binational-joke, that could be included in the same previous category;
(3) National-culture-institutions jokes, whose references need to be adapted in order to retain
the humorous effect of the source text;
(4) National-sense-of-humor joke, referring to themes that are more popular in some countries
that in others and also requires adaptation;
(5) Language-dependent jokes, which are language specific, such as wordplays, and usually
require extra effort and creativity from the translator;
(6) Visual jokes, that are represented by images and/or sounds and may or may not present the
characteristics listed in the other categories; and
(7) Complex joke, which combines two or more of the types of jokes mentioned before.
These aspects regarding humor explain why some jokes are more comprehensible
and “easier” to translate. We can say that by going from top to bottom, following the above
order, the jokes are progressively more difficult to translate.
19
2.3.1. Humor and Subtitling
Subtitling presents specific characteristics, which in itself represents a major
challenge to translators, for instance, spatial and temporal constraints (which will be seen
later). When humor is added to subtitling, this challenge turns out to be even bigger. One of
the elements that make translation of humor in subtitling more difficult is the style difference
between the source (audiovisual) and the translation result (written-subtitles). As Dutra (2008,
p. 40) states:
Oral humor, besides having to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers as in any
translation, in this case has also to overcome the differences in style: the oral style
from the original dialogue to the written style of the subtitles.2
Obviously there is also the visual humor that explores gestural expressions and
situations that are independent of the language to achieve laughter. Thus, it is possible that, in
some situations, humor is a result of a contradiction between what is said and what is shown
on the scene. Therefore, a contradictory fact can be generated by the context of a situation and
not only by a contradiction related to the spoken language. This visual humor is found in large
amount on Friends sitcom. These visual expressions will not be expressed on the subtitles, but
they will influence the subtitles because they are part of the context.
In fact, what the translator needs to do is to summarize what was said on the scene
in just two lines, the average space allocated to subtitles. In this act, he has to transcribe in a
clear and readable way only what he considers the most important, since the viewer will not
have the opportunity to return to reread what was said. This is a complex task, because the
translator needs to judge whether the reader will understand the humor in a certain context,
and whether the humor will work in the target language.
During this subtitling process there will probably be a conflict between content
and form. So, the translator will have to choose between one or another. In the case of jokes
and humorous texts, the form does not have the same importance given to the content.
___________________________________________________________________________
2 My translation to:“O humor que se dá na oralidade, além de ter que transpor as barreiras lingüísticas e culturais como em
qualquer tradução, tem nesse caso que transpor também as diferenças de estilo: o do oral dos diálogos originais para o texto
escrito que compõe as legendas
20
However, there are times that even the content is set aside, because the main objective is the
effect that the text causes on the viewer. A joke that does not provoke laughter is not
successful. Therefore, the act of translating humor
Requires the accurate decoding of a humorous speech in its original context, the
transfer of that speech in a different and often disparate linguistic and cultural
environment, and its reformulation in a new utterance which successfully
recaptures the intention of the original humorous message and evokes in the target
audience an equivalent pleasurable and playful response. (LEIBOLD, 1989, p. 109)
Nevertheless, considering that in the audio-visual translation the original audio is available,
subtitling takes great chance of becoming a target for criticism when the translator chooses to
put aside the form and give more emphasis to the content. And indeed, much of what is said
in the original dialogues is suppressed on subtitles. However, the most common sequences
suppressed in subtitling are greetings, vocative, discourse markers and interjections. The
problem is that the suppressed sequences may be exactly the comic part of the scene.
However, in my point of view, humor is the type of subtitling translation to which the
principles of the Skopotheorie as discussed by Katrina Reiss and Hans Vermeer (1984) are, to
a certain extent, perfectly applicable, since the translator on the limited space available, is
expected to keep the essence of the message, requiring the minimum effort from the reader to
process it.
Another feature that is ignored on subtitles is the spoken language. According to
Chile (1999, p. 176), subtitles in Brazilian Portuguese are “very formal and do not make use
of contractions or slang, resembling, sometimes, the language in a telegram”. But worse than
that is not having subtitles at all. Sometimes, due to synchronization’s problems, a subtitle is
suppressed and the viewer that has no command of the original audio looses a part of the
speech.
Another situation that might mislead the understanding of humor is the time
available for the subtitle. Maybe, one may need more time to realize or understand the humor.
In addition, while one reads the subtitle one may be losing the visual humor of the scene. In
summary, when it comes to translating humor in subtitling, the translator needs to use the
available space and time in the best possible way, in an attempt to virtually maintain the
meaning in the subtitle translation. But the constraints themselves clearly cannot predict
whether the meaning effect tends to be preserved or lost in subtitles.
21
2.4.Audiovisual Translation
Audiovisual translation is a set of practices that involves mainly the oral and
written translation of TV series, movies, entertainment programs, cartoons, documentaries,
designed for the cinema, VHS, DVD, and cable TV channels. Nowadays, audiovisual
translation is an important activity that hits a large number of people mainly through the
cinema, television and DVD. However, according to Gottlieb (1998 apud MARTINEZ, 2007,
p. 33), audiovisual translation started in 1929, when the first spoken films were taken to
foreign countries, that is, to an international audience. Thus, we can say, that this practice is
relatively new, in comparison to literary translation which began before Christ.
The film exhibit considered by scholars as a milestone was made by the Lumière
brothers in France in 1895. At that time, however, silent films were the predominant product
of the film industry due to lack of technology that would allow sound placement. However,
with the introduction of sound in the late 1920s, a problem needed solution. How to bring the
film to those who did not understand the language of the original movie?
The first solution experienced was multiple versions, which is a particular form of
translation because it included reshooting the film script in the same scenario in another
language with other actors and actresses or even with the same actors when they were
polyglots. Soon, the studios realized that this was a very expensive way of film translation,
and started investing in dubbing (MELLO, 2005, p. 23). From the 1930's to about the 1950’s,
there has been a great development of American cinema. Since European countries were
economically shaken because of World War II, the United States began to export movies. To
protect themselves against the American cultural invasion through the movies, the richer
countries had imposed the dubbing practice and also had restricted the number of imported
films per year. Silva (2009, p. 11) points out that dubbing hides the foreignness, creating the
illusion that the actors are speaking the same language of the viewer, and thus tries to exalt
the national supremacy; whereas subtitling take viewers to the culture of another country.
In Brazil, both, subtitling and dubbing are well accepted. Except those featurelength films directed to children, which are dubbed, in Brazilian culture, traditionally, foreign
products conveyed at movie theaters are subtitled, whereas those shown on television are
dubbed. This difference is due to the fact that television reaches a broad audience, including
both, high educated people and those with lower educational level (DUTRA, 2008, p. 24).
Since the Brazilian population is composed of a large number of people with low educational
22
level, the preference is, then, for dubbing because subtitling requires a dynamic reading.
However, the films exhibited on cinemas, years ago, accessible only to high society, opted for
subtitling. This option was due to the educational level of the public and also because it is a
cheaper practice than dubbing. The public get used to subtitling on cinemas, but nowadays
this scenario is changing, and dubbing is increasing over the years, although subtitling is still
most used in movie theaters. Nonetheless, with the advent of the DVD, this duality
subtitling/dubbing has finished, since the viewer can choose between one or another.
2.4.1. Modalities of audiovisual translation
Subtitling is one of the modalities of audiovisual translation. But beyond subtitling
(also called interlingual subtitling) there are yet three other modalities, among them, dubbing,
voice-over and closed captions (also called intralingual subtitling).
Dubbing is a form of audiovisual translation in which the original oral text is
covered by another oral text in a different language. The key in this type of translation is the
lip synchronization. Its positive aspects are the possibility to use colloquial language and the
less occurrence of language reduction when compared to subtitling. Thus, it seems to be more
natural and spontaneous.
Voice-over modality does not delete the original oral text, as in dubbing; it is only
broadcasted in lower volume so that the oral translated text may be recorded over the original
oral text. This modality is commonly used in documentaries programs.
Closed-captions in Brazil usually appear in intralingual translations, that is, in the
same language of the original oral text. Its purpose may be to assist the hearing impaired and
people with limited understanding of oral language. Closed caption is written in white letters,
in upper or lower case, on a black label. Its access depends on the viewer who will need to use
a caption decoder (closed-caption button) located (when available) on the television remote
control (ARAÚJO, 2002, p. 2). Closed-captions can be transmitted in two different ways: rollup (whose lines go continuously up from the bottom of the television screen, in a maximum
of two lines at a time) or pop-on (in which phrases or sentences appear as a whole and not
word for word as in roll-up).
Subtitling occurs when the original oral text is not changed and uses written text
(already translated in the target language), transmitted simultaneously to the original audio. Its
23
negative aspects are the use of two different linguistic codes at the same time (which demands
more effort from the viewer); its limited space; the use of a more formal language.
2.4.2. Subtitling
As said before, subtitling presents specific characteristics which represents a major
challenge to translators. This characteristics are related to time, space, linguistic code used
(from oral to written), among others. One of the factors that contribute to the complexity of
subtitling is the fact that this modality involves different linguistic codes: oral and written.
Therefore, due to this peculiar feature, according to Gottlieb (1994 apud MARTINEZ, 2007 p.
36), subtitling is a type of diagonal translation, because the spoken words are read in another
language by the viewers. On a book translation, for instance, there is no code changing, it is
translated from a written text to another written text. The same occurs in dubbing, when the
translation is from an oral code to another oral code; this translation can be called horizontal
translation.
Horizontal Translation
Code
Source language
Target language
Oral
Spoken language
Spoken language
Written
Written text
Written text
Figure 1: Horizontal translation (Silva, 2009 p.31)
However, diagonal translation occurs in subtitling, where besides the language, the
code also changes, from oral to written; whereas in closed-captions the language does not
change, but the code does, and this is called vertical translation, as shown below:
24
Vertical and diagonal translation
Code
Source language
Oral
Spoken language
Written
Written text
Target language
Spoken language
Written text
Figure 2: Vertical and diagonal translation (Silva, 2009 p.31)
The diagonal translation peculiarity is a challenge to translators because not
everything that is said can be written on subtitles. Generally the time we spend talking is
faster than the time required for reading (SILVA, 2009). Therefore, it is impossible to
transcribe in subtitles everything that is said in a movie or in a sitcom scene. Thus, much of
what is said has to be suppressed or condensed, since subtitle has to have synchronization
with what is being said on the scene. It is the speed of a speech that determines the time
available for subtitles, so the latter has to be short.
The understanding of a scene, and consequently, of a movie, will depend on the
viewer's ability to read, because as Gottlieb (1997 apud SILVA, 2009, p. 29) states, “the
prosodic features are not truly represented in subtitles: exclamation marks, italics, [rhythm],
etc., are only faint echoes of the certain ring that intonation gives the wording of the dialog”.
In other words, the viewer has to return to the original images and sounds to capture the
meaning and the context of a speech, in this case, subtitles (SILVA, 2009, p. 29). As Carvalho
(2005 apud SILVA, 2009, p. 29) affirms:
Although we are unable to understand what is said in the original language, rhythm,
intonation, expression, gesture, attitude - so difficult to be captured in writing - are
juxtaposed to the subtitle synchronized text, forming a kind of symbiosis.3
The cognitive effort demanded from viewers of a subtitled movie is much higher, because, in
addition to reading subtitles, one needs to assimilate the other audio-visual characteristics of a
movie (music, gestures, facial expressions, intonation, etc.). Unlike what happens in dubbing,
in which a code (language) is replaced by another, in subtitling the original features
___________________________________________________________________________
3. My translation of the original in Portuguese: Ainda que não sejamos capazes de compreender o que é dito na língua do
original, o ritmo, a entonação, a expressão, o gesto, a atitude - tão difíceis de serem captados para o escrito - se justapõem ao
texto sincronizado das legendas formando uma espécie de simbiose.
25
are not changed. Instead, a visual strange element is added to the audio-visual channel of the
product, that is, the subtitles.
Subtitles tend to be more formal, which is a written characteristic, opposed to the
norms and styles of less formality found in orality. Therefore orality is more spontaneous,
with pauses, exclamations, intonations, ambiguities, uncompleted sentences sometimes
considered incorrect or inappropriate to writing. These characteristics also contribute to the
difficult of the subtitling process, and added to all that has been said about the challenges of
subtitling, there are still a number of conventions and rules that the translator must meet in
order to maintain good relationships with their customers and with the public.
2.4.2.1.Main rules and limits of subtitling
The DVD format includes, in addition to the audiovisual material, the insertion of
several separate channels of audio and subtitles that can be selected by the viewer. Therefore,
most commercial products distributed on DVD include oral translation (dubbing) and writing
(usually subtitles and closed captions) in the languages of the communities in which the
product will be distributed. This means that each product distributed on DVD can receive
several different translations.
Since the objective of this study is to analyze subtitles, I will only detail the
characteristics of subtitling. Ivarson (1998 apud DUTRA, 2008, p. 21) points out visibility or
legibility as keys in subtitling issues, since aspects such as the font used, the space between
characters, the color used (yellow or white), the number of lines, the layout (left , right, or
centered), and the subtitle position (bottom or top of the screen) may interfere with the final
product. So, technical aspects should not be disregarded by the translator, since they interfere
on subtitle reception by viewers. The main rules of subtitling can be divided in two
categories: technical parameters (spatial and temporal), and textual parameters.
The first category, technical parameters, is practically about the spatial and
temporal characteristics of subtitling. Subtitles must compact all the speech in only two lines
of a maximum of 30 to 35 characters each (including punctuation and space), depending on
the equipment and the font size used in subtitling, and must remain on the screen for at least 4
and no more than 6 seconds. According to Mello (2005, p. 52) the remaining time of subtitles
on the screen is:
26
1 second – 1 word
1.5 seconds – 1 ou 2 words
from 2 to 2.5 seconds – 1 line (30 characters)
from 4 to 6 seconds – 2 full lines (60 characters)
Therefore, even a subtitle of one word should not remain on screen for less than
one second. However, this parameter leads to serious problems of “leakage” of the subtitle for
the next scene, since certain expressions and interjections are spoken in less than half a
second (MARTINEZ, 2007 p. 40).
Subtitles should be placed ¼ second after the beginning of the speech, so that the
brain has time to identify the sound and lead the eye to the bottom of the screen. Likewise,
they should remain ½ second and a maximum of 1 second after the final speech, providing the
viewer the adequate time to read them, unless there are other speeches starting during this
additional time. Regarding the time between subtitles, there must be a minimum of ¼ second;
even if there is no pause in speech, because that is the time it takes for the brain to realize that
the legend has changed.
The second category, textual parameters, is related basically to punctuation.
Subtitling punctuation is based on the rules of punctuation of the target language. However,
there are some differences in how subtitling uses this punctuation, mainly due to the special
structure of subtitles.
There is no standard regarding the use of ellipsis. Some companies recommend its
use at the beginning and at the end of incomplete sentences, others recommend its use only at
the end of incomplete sentences. However, the most common is the lack of them, since the
lack of punctuation already indicates that the sentence is incomplete (MARTINEZ, 2007, p.
42). One disadvantage in the use of ellipsis for this purpose is the loss of its original function
of marking hesitations, pauses and interruptions. The use of italics is to highlight a voice that
is outside the main scene, or voices coming from microphones, telephones, loudspeakers,
televisions, radios, intercoms, computers, music and speeches of narrators. It is also used to
signal the characters’ thoughts and highlight foreign words. To mark a dialogue between two
characters in the same subtitle, the hyphen should be used instead of the dash. In this case
some companies recommend not to insert a space between the hyphen and the first character
of each line. In order to differentiate the translation of banners, posters, cards, tickets, and
signs, among others that are relevant to understand the film, from the dialog of a film, they are
placed in the subtitles in upper case letters. In this case, the number of characters per line
decreases as capital letters take up more space than lower case letters.
27
Besides having to take care of all the above technical aspects of subtitling, the
translator must also take care of how what is being said at the scene will be placed in subtitle.
Ideally, a subtitle must be composed of a complete sentence, and if it needs to be divided into
two lines it should keep together in each line the elements necessary for comprehension.
Thus, a sentence can be divided into clauses; or in subject and predicate; or in noun phrase
and verb phrase, and so on (MARTINEZ, 2007, p. 43). As a general rule, subtitles tend to be
divided where the speaker pauses to breath while reading a text. Sometimes a phrase has to be
divided into two subtitles, and in this case the translator must do a direct translation of what is
being said even though a reconstruction or an inversion of the phrase would be more
acceptable in the target language. This is due to the fact that the viewer has simultaneous
access to the original; this means, in this case, that a subtitle adaptation may suffer criticism.
However, for those who do not have a good command of the original language and only rely
on subtitles to watch a film, the adaptation or not of a subtitle will not make much difference.
But, in general, subtitles should be clear and direct, and always subordinate to the original
since most Brazilians have some knowledge of English.
An audiovisual text can be about a variety of topics. Some of the elements that
cause much difficulty for any modality of translation, especially for subtitling, due to all
reasons already mentioned, are humor, cultural and geographical references. In subtitling
translators cannot use any extensive explanatory note or additional information to solve the
cultural reference mentioned on the scene. In a humorous situation, translators have to find
out what is considered humorous in the original, transpose it to other linguistic and cultural
contexts and reformulate it in a new statement that, with luck will lead the audience to an
equivalent or similar response.
The strategies that can be used in the case of humor, cultural and geographical
references are the same of those used in other modalities of translation (CARVALHO, 2005
p. 121) such as the following: to maintain the reference in the original culture (leave it as it
is); to transfer it to an equivalent or similar reference in the target culture (adaptation);
neutralization or generalization; explanation; or omission. Which of these strategies will be
used depends on the technical constraints, on the target audience, on the experience of the
translator, and on the rules set by the company which may ask to soften swear words and ask
to replace or exclude certain criticisms of social nature.
The point is that much of the humor found in films and sitcoms is also transmitted
by its visual components and by the situation that the film depicts, and not only by its
linguistic components. In this situation translators may maintain the original structure of the
28
linguistic code and let the humor on the image account. On the other hand, if humor is based
on a cultural aspect or on wordplay or pun (since they are created by viewers of a given
culture), the audience will strongly depend on subtitles to understand the scene. In this
situation, translators are forced to move away from the linguistic structure of the speech to
pursue a comic solution that makes the audience laugh. In cases where viewers know
something of the source language, they may accuse the translator of ‘infidelity’ and of ‘not
knowing how to translate’. It is, therefore, necessary to be careful not to hurt the credibility of
the translation. Moreover, this is one of the dangers of humor audiovisual translation.
29
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1.Sample
The sample consisted of 10 seasons of Friends sitcom, each one consisting of an
average of 23 episodes, totaling 236 episodes. Because of the impossibility of analyzing the
whole series, I selected only the ninth season, since I own the DVD, which facilitates the
analysis.
The reason for choosing Friends sitcom is because I have watched this sitcom at
the time that it was being filmed. Thus, it was part of the end of my adolescence and my early
adulthood. Since Friends is a hilarious sitcom, it softened the difficulty of this work. Thus, I
could combine entertainment and my passion for Friends with my passion for the English
language and translation.
Through a qualitative analysis, humor translations in subtitles of episodes 10, 13,
16, 17 of the ninth season were analyzed, since these are the ones that showed a great number
of examples of humor related to cultural aspects, word plays, or situations that challenge the
translator. The characters’ speech in the original language and its translation in the subtitles
were taken into consideration. As a tool for data analysis, a sample form (Appendix 1) was
used, in which the character who pronounced the statement, a transcript of the speech in
English, the transcript of the subtitle for the specific statement, the context of the speech, a
translation suggestion to the subtitle (if necessary), the analysis of the statement and some
comments were specified.
This sample form is an adaptation of the Ficha Lexológica used by Livia Rosa
Rodrigues de Souza Barros (2006) in her dissertation: Tradução Audiovisual: a Variação
Lexical Diafásica na Tradução para Dublagem e Legendagem de Filmes de Língua Inglesa.
30
3.2. Friends Sitcom
Figure 3: Opening scenario
Friends is an American sitcom created by David
Crane, Marta Kauffman, and Kevin S. Bright which ran
on NBC, an American television channel, during 10
years, from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004
(www.warnervideo.com/friends15/). The series revolves
around a group of six friends in the area of Manhattan,
New
York
City.
The
series
was
produced by
Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with
Warner Bros. Television. The original executive producers were Crane, Kauffman and Kevin
Bright, with numerous others being promoted in later seasons. Kauffman and Crane began
developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe in November 1993. They presented the idea to
Bright, with whom they had previously worked, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment
of the series to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, the series was finally named
Friends and premiered on NBC's coveted Thursday 8:30 pm timeslot. Filming for the series took
place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California in front of a live audience. After ten seasons
on the network, the series finale was promoted by NBC, and viewing parties were organized
around the US. The series finale (airing on May 6, 2004) was watched by 52.5 million American
viewers, making it the fourth most-watched series finale in television history.
Figure 4: The six friends
The show is about six friends: Ross Geller (David
Schwimmer), Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller
(Courtney Cox), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Joey Tribbiani
(Matt LeBlanc) and Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow). They struggle
to succeed and to prosper in the competitive city of Manhattan.
Their intelligent humor and their mutual unconditional support
make their friendship stronger, overcoming all obstacles that life
presents to them. (http://www.wbla.com/series/friends/). Work,
family, responsibility, money, sex, commitment and, above all love and friendship, are some
of the issues that bother and sometimes entertain these characters, who share thousands of
adventures and setbacks during the course of the plot.
31
Set in New York City, the story practically takes place in two neighboring loft
apartments. One of these was the home of Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), who can be described
as the series' "rock" -- or better yet, "den mother." An assistant chef who later ran her own
restaurant, Monica lived with her best friend, Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), who had come to
New York after running out on her wedding; employed as a waitress in the earlier episodes,
Rachel later became a buyer for a retail fashion chain, and finally an assistant to a high-profile
designer. Occasionally dropping into Monica's apartment was her brother, Ross (David
Schwimmer), a paleontologist who spent most of the first season coming to grips with the fact that
his wife, Carol (Jane Sibbett), had declared herself a lesbian and divorced him (Carol would later
give birth to Ross' son Ben, whom she and her partner insisted upon raising themselves). Across
the hall from Monica's flat lived Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), an aspiring actor whose
professional luck was generally bad until he landed a continuing role on the daytime drama Days
of Our Lives -- as a man with a woman's brain! Joey lived with "corporate guy" Chandler Bing
(Matthew Perry), who was regarded as the class clown of the bunch. A frequent guest at both
apartments was Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), an airheaded will-o'-the-wisp who never quite got
it all together at any one time.
When the "friends" weren't at home or at work, they could be found hanging out at
Central Perk, a Greenwich Village coffeehouse manned by Gunther (played by real-life
"coffee guy" James Michael Tyler) where Phoebe occasionally performed as a folksinger.
Gradually and inevitably, many of the friends became lovers. First it was Ross and Rachel
and after Chandler and Monica.
Friends received positive reviews throughout its run; becoming one of the most
popular sitcoms of all time. The series won many awards, among them the 2002 Emmy Award for
Outstanding Comedy Series, with nominations in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000 and 2003. The series
also won an American Comedy Award one GLAAD Media Award, one Golden Globe Award,
three Logie Awards, six People's Choice Awards, one Satellite Award, and two Screen Actors
Guild Awards.
3.2.1. Cast and characters
As said before, the sitcom featured six main cast members, with numerous characters
recurring throughout the ten seasons. The main cast members are:
32
Figure 5: Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green)
Jennifer Aniston portrays Rachel Green, a fashion enthusiast and Monica
Geller's best friend from high school. Rachel was a rich girl who, after
leaving the groom at the altar, goes to live together with Monica.
Although she was raised in a rich family, during the sitcom she matures
and becomes a determine woman, friendly, and responsible. Rachel and
Ross Geller are involved in an on again off again relationship throughout
the series. Rachel's first job is as a waitress at the coffee house Central
Perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's and a buyer at Ralph Lauren
in season five. At the end of season eight, Rachel and Ross have a child together, which she
names Emma.
Figure 6: Courteney Cox Arquete (Monica Geller)
Courteney Cox Arquette portrays Monica Geller, the mother hen of the
group, known for her obsessive-compulsive and competitive nature. She is
obsessive by cleanness and likes to be the truth’s owner. Despite all her
faults, all her friends like to get together in her apartment. However,
Monica is often jokingly teased for having been an extremely overweight
child by the others, especially her brother Ross. Monica is a chef who
changes jobs often throughout the show, and marries longtime friend
Chandler Bing in season seven.
Figure 7: Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay)
Lisa Kudrow portrays Phoebe Buffay, an eccentric masseuse, vegetarian
and musician. Phoebe is known for her self-written guitar songs (which are
commonly viewed as awful due to the fact that she is tone-deaf) and for
being ditsy yet street smart. She leaves home at the age fourteen, she was
homeless, living on the streets before meeting her friends. Her mother
committed suicide and her father abandoned the family. In the last season,
she marries a character named Mike Hannigan, played by Paul Rudd. She hates her twin sister
Ursula Buffay who Kudrow previously played on Mad About You.
33
Figure 8: Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani)
Matt LeBlanc portrays Joey Tribbiani, a struggling actor and food lover
who becomes famous for his role on Days of our Lives as Dr. Drake
Ramoray. He is the silly of the group, and not very smart. He becomes
Chandler’s roommate.
Joey is a womanizer with many girlfriends
throughout the series and tries to attract every woman with his famous
sentence: "How you doing?" He develops a crush on his friend Rachel in
season eight which will be overcome.
Figure 9: Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing)
Matthew Perry portrays Chandler Bing, an executive in statistical analysis
and data reconfiguration for a large multi-national corporation. Chandler
quits his job and becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency
during season nine. Chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor,
and without any doubt he is the joker of the group. He always makes jokes
at inappropriate moments. He is questioned about his sexuality, and has a
transvestite dad, what makes the rumor even bigger. His longest
relationship, before he marries Monica Geller, was with the annoying Janice, eternally known
by the old and unmistakable phrase: “Oh… my…God!”
Figure 10: David Schwimmer (Ross Geller)
David Schwimmer portrays Ross Geller, Monica’s oldest brother. He is a
paleontologist (who loves dinosaurs) who works at a museum of
Prehistoric History, and later a professor of paleontology at New York
University. Ross is involved in an on-off relationship with Rachel
throughout the series. Ross also has three failed marriages during the
series, which include Rachel (they were drunk when they get married in
Las Vegas), Emily (instead of saying Emily he said Rachel when they
were getting married), and his lesbian ex-wife Carol, who is also the mother of his first son,
Ben.
34
4. DATA ANALYSIS
The most challenging texts to translate are those that are related to cultural aspects
or those that use the language to evoke humor such as: word plays and rhymes. And I will
start the analysis by examining the cultural aspects and the language usage in humor.
Example 1:
The first episode to be analyzed is the tenth episode of the ninth season called
“The One with Christmas in Tulsa” which was translated as Aquele do Natal em Tulsa. In this
scene Chandler is working in Tulsa, a city that is about 2278 km far from New York where
his friends and wife live. This year, on Christmas day, Chandler will have to work and,
therefore, will not be able to spend Christmas with his friends and wife. He is on a business
meeting and one of his coworker asks him what he would be doing if he were home at that
moment. He begins to remember a few past Christmas days with his friends. In one of his
memories, he remembers a song Phoebe did to honor her friends.
There is a peculiarity in this scene. When I selected subtitles in English, there was
no subtitle during the music. So, I transcribed the song.
Audio in English
Went to the store and
sat on Santa’s lap
Subtitle in Portuguese
Sentar no colo do Papai Noel
Ai, como eu queria (para pedir o que eu queria)
Asked him to bring to my
friends all kinds of crap
E pedir para os meus amigos
Todo tipo de porcaria
He said all you need is
to write them a song
Ele disse: “Você só precisa
Uma canção para eles inventar”
They hadn’t heard yet,
so don’t try to sing along
Vocês (eles) ainda não conhecem
Então não adianta cantar (tentem cantar)
No, don’t sing a long.
Não adianta cantar (Não tentem cantar)
Monica, Monica
Monica, Monica
Have a happy Hanukkah
Tenha um Feliz Chanukah
Saw Santa Claus
Papai Noel eu vi
35
He said hello to Ross
E para o Ross ele sorri
And please tell Joey
Por favor, ao Joey vá contar
Christmas will snow eeeee
Que neste Natal vai nevar!
And Rachel and Chandler
how...
Rachel e Chandler
Como...
This song sung by Phoebe is an example of humor that is based on the language
usage. Although much of the humor is also visual, the rhyme she does in the song is also
funny.
Phoebe’s basic idea was to make a surprise to her friends by making a song that
has some rhymes with their names. She starts the song saying that she had been with Santa
Claus and had asked him some presents to her friends. Santa suggested her to write them a
song, and so she does. To better analyze this song I will divide it in four parts according to the
rhymes. The first rhyme is the following:
Went to the store and
sat on Santa’s lap
Sentar no colo do Papai Noel
Ai, como eu queria (como eu queria)
Asked him to bring to my
friends all kinds of crap
E pedir para os meus amigos
Todo tipo de porcaria (literal)
The main difficult in translating this song is the fact that it is necessary to maintain
the rhymes in an attempt to transmit the original. Otherwise, the song does not bring any
difficulty, it could be translated literally.
The first fact that calls attention is the omission of the first words “Went to the
store” and the addition, in the Portuguese subtitle, of the sentence “Ai, como eu queria”. This
was a strategy to make the rhyme. Otherwise, the translation would be: “Fui a uma loja e
sentei no colo do Papai Noel”. Although possible in terms of number of characters, space
occupied on the screen, and also correctly translated, the last word would be Noel and would
be necessary another word in the next sentence that ends in “el” to rhyme with Noel. And that
would be impossible considering the next sentence is “Asked him to bring to my friends all
kinds of crap”. So the strategy used was the addition of the sentence “Ai, como eu queria” that
will rhyme with “porcaria” in the next sentence.
36
On the second sentence the words “him to bring” were omitted, which in
Portuguese is not necessary for the understanding of the sentence; and also, of course, because
it saves space.
Another point that requires attention is how the song’s story is told. In the original,
that is, in English, Phoebe tells the story as a concrete fact, something that really happened.
She went to the store and sat on Santa’s lap, and asked him to bring to her friends all kinds of
crap. In spite of this, in the Portuguese subtitle the story is told as though it was a possibility,
something that has not happened yet. The words that make this clear are: the verbs sentar and
pedir; and ai, como eu queria. This fact may not make much difference to the audience. The
time that the subtitle remains on the screen is extremely short and, therefore, neither allow
viewers perceive the difference when compared to the original (if they have a good command
of English), nor permits the perception of the lack of coherence in the Portuguese subtitle, as I
will explain later.
An alternative to maintain the story as a concrete fact is to replace the verb sentar
by sentei; the verb pedir by pedi, and the expression ai, como eu queria by como eu queria, as
shown below:
Went to the store and
sat on Santa’s lap
Sentei no colo do Papai Noel
Como eu queria
Asked him to bring to my
friends all kinds of crap
E pedi para os meus amigos
Todo tipo de porcaria
Now, in the second rhyme, the story continues as though Santa was answering her
requests and giving her suggestions.
He said all you need is
to write them a song
Ele disse: “Você só precisa
Uma canção para eles inventar”
They hadn’t heard yet,
so don’t try to sing along
Vocês ainda não conhecem
Então não adianta cantar
No, don’t sing a long.
Não adianta cantar
All the sentences here could be literally translated. This did not happen just
because of the need to maintain the rhyme. If the sentence were translated literally, it would
37
be impossible to do the rhyme. So, the strategy used here was to invert the sentence order. I
could say they look like poetry.
However, what calls my attention in this part of the song is the coherence in the
story in the Portuguese subtitle. Following the initial logic that the story had not happened yet
why has the translator now maintained the simple past tense of the verb to say and translated
“Ele disse”? To maintain the same logic in the story, the better translation would be “Ele
diria”.
On the next sentence, Santa is giving her an advice. Since her friends had not
heard the song yet, Santa is warning her not to try to sing the song together with them. But, in
the Portuguese subtitle the pronoun “they” was translated as “vocês”, and this changes the
person who is speaking. Now, it is not Santa who is talking, but Phoebe (the singer), as
though she were talking directly to her friends.
A translation alternative would be to translate the pronoun they as eles, and so
don’t try to sing along as então, não tentem juntos cantar.
He said all you need is
to write them a song
Ele disse: “Você só precisa
Uma canção para eles inventar”
They hadn’t heard yet,
so don’t try to sing along
Eles ainda não conhecem
Então, não tentem juntos cantar
No, don’t sing a long.
Não, Não tentem cantar
Here begins the music itself, where she rhymes the names of her friends with
something. But in the Portuguese subtitle the only rhyme made with the name of one of her
friends was with Monica’s name that rhymed with Hanukkah. However, it was impossible to
rhyme the other names in the Portuguese subtitle.
Monica, Monica
Monica, Monica
Have a happy Hanukkah
Tenha um Feliz Chanukah
Here, in this rhyme, there is a cultural aspect, not from the American culture but
from the Jewish culture. Those who watched the sitcom since the first season know that
Monica and his brother Ross are descendants of Jews. That is why Phoebe rhymed Monica’s
38
name with Hanukkah, a Jewish celebration. The viewers of this sitcom also have some notion
of what Hanukkah means, because during the seasons the characters explain the meaning of
this Jewish celebration.
According to the site www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah, Hanukkah celebrates
two miracles:
a) The second century victory of a small, greatly outnumbered and out-armed army of Jews,
known as the "Maccabees," over the mighty Greek army that occupied the Holy Land. The
rebellion was in response to the Greek attempt to force a Hellenistic Godless lifestyle on the
Jewish inhabitants of Israel.
b) The kindling of a seven-branched Menorah (candelabra) was an important component of the
daily service in the Holy Temple. When the Maccabees liberated the Temple from the hands of
the Greek invaders, they found only a small cruse of pure and undefiled olive oil fit for fueling the
Menorah. The problem was, it was sufficient to light the Menorah only for one day, and it would
take eight days to produce new pure oil. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days and nights.
Chanukah begins on the twenty-fifth day of the Jewish month of Kislev. The
Jewish calendar is primarily based on the lunar cycle, and its dates fluctuate with respect to
other calendar systems. Thus the first day of Chanukah can fall anywhere between November
28th and December 26th.
In the Hebrew, Chanukah is pronounced with the letter "chet." The chet's "ch"
sound is not enunciated like the "ch" in child; rather it's a guttural, throaty sound – like the
"ch" in Johann Bach – which does not have an English equivalent. The letter "H" is the
closest, but it's not really it. So while some people spell and pronounce it "Chanukah" and
others settle for "Hanukkah," they really are one and the same.
The word Hanukkah in Portuguese is spelled Chanucá. Although in the English
version the subtitle brings the word spelled Hanukkah, the translator opted for the Chanukah
spelling. None of the words, Hanukkah, Chanukah, or Chanucá would make difference to the
Brazilian audience; none of them would make clear what Hanukkah means, since this word is
not known in the country. Therefore, it was really better to maintain the word in English,
using the loan translation technique, since the two spelling are accepted in the United States,
than use the calque technique and use the word Chanucá, which would not add any important
information to the sentence.
On the last part to be analyzed, the rhymes with her friends’ names continue. It is
important to note that the rhymes in English are done with her friends’ names like: Ross
rhymes with Claus, and Joey with snow which in the scene she sings with a long “e” sound.
39
Saw Santa Claus
Papai Noel eu vi
He said hello to Ross
E para o Ross ele sorri
And please tell Joey
Por favor, ao Joey vá contar
Christmas will snow eeeee
Que neste Natal vai nevar!
And Rachel and Chandler
how...
Rachel e Chandler
Como...
However, in Portuguese the rhyme with their names was impossible. So the
strategy was to maintain the song message and sacrifice the linguistic structure. And this is a
common situation that occurs during translation. It is not always possible to keep all the
features of the original, the translator frequently has to sacrifice something. And this is the
translator’s task: to decide what will be kept and what will be sacrificed, always taking into
account the purpose of the translation and the determinations of who ordered the translation.
Since she did not find words to rhyme with Rachel and Chandler, she simply made
some noise at the end of the song.
In summary, the translator kept the meaning of the song. Here the most important
was to maintain the rhymes, if the story was told as a fact already occurred or as a fact that
has not happened yet, it makes no difference to the scene humor. The suggestions that I have
made was just to maintain the original idea and fact sequences.
Example 2:
The second episode to be analyzed is the seventeenth episode of the ninth season
called “The One with the Memorial Service” which was translated as Aquele do Memorial. In
this scene Ross is at home and shows Chandler his personal page on the college alumini
website, a page made so that classmates from high school could share what is happening to
them with one another. Chandler makes fun of Ross because he (Ross) has written some notso-true information. Ross gets upset and says he will finish making his page later. He leaves
the room, and Chandler decided to make fun of Ross writing on his page that he (Ross) clones
and makes love with dinosaurs (Ross is a paleontologist). To retaliate, Ross makes a page on
behalf of Chandler and writes that he (Chandler) is gay. To re-retaliate what Ross had written,
Chandler decided to write some more things on Ross’ page. Now they are on Chandler’s
apartment discussing about what one wrote about the other.
40
Subtitle in English
Subtitle in Portuguese
(Ross) I’m dead?
Eu morri?!
(Chandler) And so young.
E tão novo!
(Ross) Posting that I died?
That really isn’t funny.
Dizer que eu morri
não teve a menor graça.
(Chandler) Well, how you died was funny.
- A causa da morte foi engraçada.
- Fui atingido por um dirigível?
(Ross) Oh, please. Hit by a blimp?
(Chandler) It kills over one Americans every year.
Isso mata mais de um
“americanos” todo ano.
(Ross) Unbelievable. My classmates
are gonna think I’m dead.
Meus colegas vão achar
que eu estou morto!
(Ross) My professors. My parents
are gonna get phone calls!
Meus professores…
vão ligar para os meus pais.
(Ross) You’re messing with
people’s feelings here.
Está brincando com
O sentimento dos outros!
(Chandler) You wanna talk about people’s fellings?
You should have heard how hurt…
Quer falar de sentimento?
O professor Stern ficou supertriste...
(Chandler) … Professor Stern was when I told him
I wouldn’t be able to go to Key West!
quando eu disse que não iria
com ele para Key West!
This whole dialog was just to make clear in what context the sentence that will be
analyzed appears. The sentence that will be analyzed is the last one, because it contains a
cultural aspect: Key West city.
The translator might have chosen to maintain the name of the city in the subtitle,
and for this the translator used the loan technique, mainly for two reasons. First of all, the
audio is very clear, and one can clearly hear Chandler say Key West in the end of the
sentence. Therefore, in order to not suffer criticism, the translator might have chosen to
maintain the name of the city, otherwise the translator could have been accused of a bad
translation or worse than that, of being a bad translator.
Another possibility is related to the purpose of the translation (skopo). Since this
translation was done for a DVD, and in this case, viewers can choose whether they want to
watch it dubbed or subtitled, the studio (Warner) might have asked the translator to maintain
all cultural references, taking into account that the viewer’s choice may be the result of a
desire to know the other’s culture.
If the purpose was to lead the audience to the foreign
culture, the maintenance of the name of the city was correct.
41
But as mentioned before all decisions made, sacrifice something. In this case, Key
West means nothing to Brazilians, it is just a city. On the other hand, to Americans, Key West
is full of meaning.
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at
the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. The city has a Pride Fest that is presented by the
Gay and Lesbian community center during the first week in June. It also has a Gay and
Lesbian Museum and Archive.
Key
West
has
a
lot
to
be
proud
of.
According
to
the
site
www.pridefestkeywest.com, the city’s official motto is “One Human Family”. The business
Guild is one of the nation’s first gay and lesbian chambers of commerce, established in 1978,
and Key West has been welcoming GLBT visitors and their friends long before that time. Key
West has its own Gay and Lesbian Community Center (GLCC) complete with Museum and
Archive, the Guild’s Visitor Center located within The Center, and the only City AIDS
Memorial in the Country.
For all the above reasons, this specific city was cited by Chandler. The
maintenance of the name of the city in the subtitle does not influence on the understanding of
the humor. Viewers will understand that Professor Stern is probably gay and has invited
Chandler for a romantic trip to some place. And this alone plus the visual aspect of the scene
make it funny. But what Brazilians do not know is that Key West is a city that promotes
GLBT tourism.
To my knowledge, there is no city with the same characteristics in Brazil. What I
know is that in Rio Grande do Sul when one wants to make fun of, generally, a man to say he
is gay, or because he made something feminine one say that this man is from Pelotas. The
same occurs in São Paulo, where they say the man is from Campinas. These two cities are
famous in their states for being a reference to homosexuality. However, this occurs only in
people’s mind, the truth is that men from these cities may or may not be gay, as in any other
city. Therefore, the use of these two cities would fit to an audience from these two states:
however, it would not be adequate to the whole country.
An alternative is to substitute Key West for parada gay, which is something that is
nationally known here in Brazil. However, this alternative will also sacrifice one intrinsic
meaning of the message. To go to a gay parade is totally different of going on a trip to a city.
On a gay parade there are a lot of people together, walking, dancing, talking, shouting, and
singing, and so on. A trip is much more intimate; it is just the two persons, together, sharing
moments.
42
All of the aspects discussed above have to be weighted to find the best alternative
to meet the purpose of the translation. As said before, there will always be losses.
Example 3:
This dialogue was taken from the sixteenth episode of the ninth season called “The
One with the Boob Job”, translated as Aquele com a cirurgia plástica.
Phoebe and Mike arrive at Central Perk, where their friends are to tell them the
news: they are going to move in together. Mike goes to the bathroom and they start to talk
about this new.
Subtitle in English
Subtitle in Portuguese
(Ross) I can’t believe you’re moving in
together. I’m happy for you guys.
Que bom que vão morar juntos!
Fico muito feliz por vocês.
(Monica) - I hear wedding bells.
(Phoebe) - Monica, slow down, ok?
- Já ouço os sinos.
- Vai com calma…
(Phoebe) I’ just excited to be living with him.
já estou emocionada só de morar com ele!
(Phoebe) You know, I mean, I don’t know…
Eu não sei…
(Phoebe) … can I see someday being
married to Mike? Sure. Yeah.
será que me vejo um dia
casada com o Mike? Claro.
(Phoebe) I could picture myself walking down
the aisle in a wedding dress…
Eu posso me ver na igreja,
com um vestido branco...
(Phoebe) … that highlights my breasts
in an obvious yet classy way.
que realce os meus seios,
mas de maneira bem clássica.
(Phoebe) But do I want that house in Connecticut
near the good schools…
Mas será que quero a casinha
perto das boas escolas...
(Phoebe) … where Mike and I could send
little Sophie and Mike Jr.?
onde estudarão nossos filhos,
Sophie e Mike Jr.?
(Phoebe) Oh, my God, I do.
- Quero, com certeza!
- Não sabia que era tão convencional.
(Ross) - I had no idea you were so conventional.
(Phoebe) - I Know. I guess I am.
(Phoebe) Oh, my God, load up the Volvo,
I want to be a soccer mom.
Pois é, acho que sou! Vou encher o
Volvo, ter milhões de filhos!
43
The problem here is the word Volvo. Probably the translator had maintained the
word or because it was pronounced in the scene or because there was a request from the
studio; another evidence that there is a concern to lead viewers to the American culture.
Volvo, in this scene, is related to a fancy car. A car that is not popular, a car more
sophisticated, a car that is big enough to transport the whole family with sufficient space to
everyone carry what they need. The problem is that Volvo, here in Brazil, is not a car brand,
on the contrary is a brand more related to trucks; and since truck is not a popular subject,
something that not everybody knows about can make it difficult to understand the humor in
the scene. Perhaps, because Volvo here in Brazil is related to trucks, the translator decided to
translate the second sentence of this scene as “ter milhões de filhos”, to justify the use of the
word Volvo and to maintain the proportionality, since more people can fit in a truck than in a
car.
The difficulty that the viewer will face is the time necessary to associate the word
Volvo to trucks and then to understand that Phoebe wants to have so many children that she
can fill a truck with them. Maybe when viewers read the word Volvo they may ask
themselves: What is Volvo? And this can cause them to lose the funniest part of the scene.
An alternative is to find a brand of car that is equivalent to Volvo, but more
common in Brazil, for instance, Toyota, Vectra, Hyundai. Another possibility, that for me is
better, is to omit “Oh, my God, load up the Volvo” and concentrate the translation only on the
sentence “I want to be a soccer mom”. There exists an expression in Brazil that is often used
when mothers (an also fathers) want to say they want to have many children, which is: “Eu
quero ser mãe de um time de futebol”. This expression is exactly what Phoebe meant when
she said: I want to be a soccer mom. This single sentence is enough to convey what the
character meant, and does not contain anything that can divert viewer’s attention and
concentration. However, part of the message will be lost. When Phoebe mentions the Volvo
she is also saying, not explicitly but implicitly, that she wants to have a normal life, thinking
in the comfort of her children. A life that is far away from her current life.
Example 4:
This fourth example is from the sixteenth episode from the ninth season called:
“The One with the Boob Job”, translated as Aquele com a cirurgia plástica.
Chandler and Monica are in the kitchen talking about how much money they have
spent lately.
44
Subtitle in English
Subtitle in Portuguese
(Chandler) Have you seen our bank statement?
Can this be right?
Este extrato de banco está correto?
(Monica) I know. God, I haven’t seen
my savings take a hit like this…
Pois é! Só estive tão dura assim
quando era criança...
(Monica) … since I was a kid and they came up
with Double Stuf Oreos.
E lançaram
o pão de mel com recheio.
(Monica) - What happened to all of our money?
(Chandler) - I’m not sure exactly what they did…
O que houve
Com o nosso dinheiro?
(Chandler) … but I’m inclined to blame Enron.
Não sei bem o que eles fizeram,
mas acho que é culpa da Enron.
There are two cultural references in this dialogue: Double Stuf Oreos and Enron.
First, I will analyze the sentence that contains the Double Stuf Oreos. According to Monica
this was what led her to spend all her money when she was a child. But what is Double Stuf
Oreos?
Oreo is a trademark for a popular sandwich cookie by the Nabisco Division of
Kraft Foods. The current design consists of a sweet, white filling commonly referred to as
'cream' or 'creme', sandwiched between two circular chocolate or golden cookie pieces. Since
what children most do before eating the cookie is to twist off one side and eat the middle first,
that is, the cream, Nabisco had a brilliant idea: they came up with a cookie that has twice the
normal amount of White cream filling that they called Double Stuf Oreo. This drew much
attention from children.
Figure 11: Oreo sandwich
Figure 12: Double Stuf Oreo
Since this cookie was mentioned in this sitcom, we can suppose that it made a
good success among children in The United States. During my research to know more about
this cookie I have found many blogs where people talk about their fascination for them and
tell many histories related to their childhood and Double Stuf Oreos. However, here in Brazil,
we do not have Double Stuf Oreo that is why the translator could not maintain it in the
subtitle. The translator translated it as “pão de mel com recheio”. However pão de mel com
45
recheio did not make so much success here in Brazil as it made Double Stuf Oreo in The
United States, and this a translation loss.
Monica was fat when she was a child, those who watch the sitcom know that. The
American audience had two reasons to laugh at this scene: the fact that Monica spent all her
money on cookies when she was a child, and maybe they laughed at themselves because they
probably did the same. The Brazilian audience just has had one reason to laugh at because pão
de mel com recheio does not cause the same feeling at Brazilians, although it is possible to
understand the reasons of a fat child to buy pão de mel com recheio.
An alternative to try to maintain the nostalgic feeling the Brazilian audience is to
find something that was a success among children during the eighties; the time Monica was a
child. Maybe what might cause this feeling would be bala soft or chocolate Surpresa. Bala
soft was famous among children and as Double Stuf Oreos there are some web pages and
blogs where people talk about it. Chocolate Surpresa was famous for its colorful cards that
brought some information generally about animals (popular name, family, scientific name,
habitat, eating habits, etc). However, sometimes the product was purchased by children and
adolescents who were more interested in the cards than in the chocolate itself.
The other cultural reference is Enron that was a United Sates electric company
located in Houston. It was the target of several accusations of tax and accounting fraud.
Investigations revealed that Enron had manipulated its financial statements, with the help of
companies and banks. When Enron declared bankruptcy many people were prejudiced.
The translator, through a loan translation technique, maintained the word Enron in
the Portuguese subtitle. The problem is that Brazilians have no idea what Enron is. For this
reason, the humor was totally lost. It is not known why the translator has kept the word Enron
in the subtitle. Maybe it was because the translator did not know what Enron is, or because
the translator did not have time to search about Enron, or because it was a request from the
studio (Warner).
Here in Brazil there are some companies that declared bankruptcy and as a
consequence many people were prejudiced, like some companies of civil construction.
However, it does not have anything to do with the scene. Unfortunately, we do not have a
company with similar characteristics of bankruptcy as Enron, which would help in this
situation. Therefore, a solution may be to omit the word Enron and add the word bank. The
sentence would be: “Não sei bem o que eles fizeram, mas acho que é culpa do banco”. The
word banco maintain the humor in this scene since Chandler and Monica are sat in a table
looking at bills and bank statements and talking about how much money they have been
46
spending lately. At least Brazilian viewers can laugh of the scene, contrary to what occurs
when we read Enron in the subtitle. It is possible to understand that chandler is blaming
others, in this case the bank, which probably made something wrong with their money. Of
course this modification does not carry all the meaning that Enron provokes on the American
audience, but al least the humor is not lost.
Example 5:
This fifth example is from the thirteenth episode from the ninth season called:
“The One where Monica Sings”, translated as Aquele em que a Monica Canta.
Rachel and Ross have a daughter, and they are now living together but they do not
date anymore. Ross and Chandler had a previous conversation about how Rachel has moved
on with her life. Ross is mad at Rachel because she is seeing someone and did not say
anything to him, and also because while he is worried about Emma (their daughter) she is
worried about her personal life. In this scene Ross and Chandler are at Central Perk talking
about how Rachel is moving on because Ross saw Rachel kissing a guy on a birthday party on
Monica’s apartment. Now Ross is telling Chandler about how sometime ago Rachel tried to
go on a date with another man.
Subtitle in English
Subtitle in Portuguese
(Ross) I can’t believe Rachel just moved on
and didn’t say anything to me.
Não creio que a Rachel seguiu
com a vida e não me disse nada.
(Chandler) Maybe she didn’t move on.
Talvez ela não tenha feito isso.
(Chandler) Maybe that kiss was just an impulsive,
one-time birthday thing.
Talvez esse beijo tenha sido
algo impulsivo, só naquela noite.
(Ross) No, a month ago, she gave her number
to some guy in a bar.
Há um mês, ela deu o telefone
dela para um cara no bar.
(Chandler) - Did she go out with him?
(Ross)
- No. When he called…
- Ela saiu com ele?
- Não. Joguei o telefone fora.
(Ross) … I threw the message away.
(Chandler) The high road.
Muito nobre de sua parte.
I selected this dialogue to show an example of idiomatic expression, which occurs
when a word or phrase assumes different meanings from the words alone. Thus the
47
interpretation is taken as a whole, it has a figurative meaning, and therefore it can not be
translated literally.
In this dialogue, the last thing Chandler said was: The high road. It can not be
translated word by word because it would have no sense. The only possible way to translate it
is to find an equivalent expression in Portuguese.
High road, according to The Free Dictionary online, is the easiest or surest path or
course or; the most positive, diplomatic, or ethical course. Whereas Longman Dictionary
online defines it as to do what you believe is right according to your beliefs. It is exactly what
Chandler meant when he said the high road. This sentence together with the visual of the
scene is what triggers humor. Ross is telling Chandler that Rachel was about to go out with a
guy. The only reason why she could not go out with that guy was because Ross threw away
the guy’s message. So Ross took the high road that is, he did what was ethical or right but
according to his beliefs. The translator, in my opinion, did a good translation. However, a
viewer might think it was a bad translation or that the translator modified something, since the
two sentences – the one in English and the one in Portuguese – are totally different.
Example 6:
The last example is from the sixteenth episode from the ninth season called: “The
One with the Boob Job”, translated as Aquele com a cirurgia plástica.
Phoebe and Mike (Paul Rudd) her current boyfriend, are in her apartment. Mike
says that he needs to go to his house to change his clothes (through the images one can
conclude that he is, for some time in her apartment with the same clothes). He says goodbye
and leaves, but he soon returns and says that he has realized that he does not want to go home
and proposes to her to move in together.
Subtitle in English
(Phoebe) - We’re really gonna move in together?
(Mike) - Yeah.
Subtitle in Portuguese
Nós vamos mesmo morar juntos?!
Eu sempre quis morar com um cara.
(Phoebe) I’ve always wanted to live with a guy.
(Phoebe) Pick up your socks.
Put down the toilet seat.
(Phoebe) No, we are not heaving sex anymore.
“Pegue já essas meias! Abaixe a tampa
da privada! Já chega de sexo!”
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This example, unlike the others, is much easier to translate. The humor in this scene
can be classified as a bi-national humor, according Zabalbeascoa (1996 apud CHILE, 1999
p.170). It is easier to translate because it is also a common situation in Brazil, where just
married couples fight for nothing. Because of this characteristic, the translation requires no
adaptation and may be translated literally.
This scene is funny because the first thing Phoebe thought after she realized they
were really moving in together was the possible fights they would face, or how she would
control him. The only modification I would do on the subtitle was to translate the last
sentence as: vai ficar sem sexo por uma semana (or por um mês, or por quinze dias). I would
do this, because here in Brazil it is more common for women to impose a limit to stay without
sex, for instance, for one week, for fifteen days, or for a month.
The subtitle would be like this:
(Phoebe) Pick up your socks.
Put down the toilet seat.
(Phoebe) No, we are not heaving sex anymore.
“Pegue já essas meias!
Abaixe a tampa da privada!”
“Vai ficar sem sexo por uma semana”
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5. CONCLUSION
This study observed the humor translation in the subtitles of the popular North
American sitcom Friends. It was intended to analyze what strategies were used by the
translator of the Friends sitcom when translating humor, and to what extent the Portuguese
subtitles reflect the starting dialogues and keep the humor in the target language. Four
episodes of the ninth season were selected, from which it six examples were analyzed.
A difficulty found during the analysis was the fact that there was no reference to
the translator on the DVD, neither in the box, nor on the credits at the end of the DVD.
Therefore, it was not possible to contact the translator to make some important questions. It is
very difficult to analyze aspects that one does not know in which context they happened.
Translators often have no access to the audiovisual material or they only have
permission to watch it once. Sometimes they just receive the script, making it difficult or even
preclude the knowledge of situations where it is necessary to translate some images that are
relevant to the comprehension of the audience. In this case, the script is the only source of
information to translators; they will not have the benefit of the images to help them to
elucidate a doubt found on the script. The translation will be exclusively based on the script.
In other situations, translators only receive the audiovisual material. Consequently,
besides translating, they will have to transcribe all of its content. In this type of procedure, the
translation will depend on translators’ knowledge of the English language. When translators
receive the script and the audiovisual material, both will constitute the source of information
making the translation more complete and reliable. But in what circumstances was the
translation of Friends done? Only based on the script? Only based in the audiovisual material,
or in both? These are questions that could only be answered if the translator’s name was
disclosed.
Besides all that was posed above, it was also important to know what the studio’s
requests were. All these characteristics together will greatly affect the final result of the
translation. Subtitles must be analyzed taking into account the entire audiovisual environment
(production, distribution and exhibition environment; the subtitle technical characteristics;
translator’s working conditions; target public, etc.) to a more precise criticism.
However, even without knowing the conditions under which the translation was
made, a tendency can be observed in the selected examples. This tendency is related to the
50
maintenance of the American cultural references in the Portuguese subtitles. But it cannot be
said that this tendency is a characteristic of Friends sitcom because this study presented
limitations. The number of examples was small, only six, limiting the variety of examples of
humor. A larger number of examples could reveal other issues related to this tendency. For
the same reason, it was also difficult to analyze what the strategies used by the translator of
the Friends sitcom were when translating humor.
Considering only the six examples analyzed in this study, it was possible to
observe that in most cases the translator managed to convey the scene message. As discussed
during the analyzes, all the translations loose at least one meaning, that is, the message in the
subtitles do not convey all the American people’s feelings when they heard a word, or a
sentence, but maintain the humor. Only in one subtitle the humor was prejudiced: on the
fourth example where the translator maintained the word Enron.
The objective of this study was not to judge whether the translation was correct or
not, but if the translation kept the original idea, and yes it does. When it comes to translation
there is no right or wrong, everything will depend on the skopos, that is, the purpose of the
translation.
In conclusion, I hope that further study on audiovisual translation can be
performed, particularly in the field of humor, since it is a rich and little explored field. I hope I
have contributed in some way, because to describe the strategies adopted by translators when
facing cultural aspects and explain the effects of the solutions proposed, contributes to the
reflection about our responsibility both as translators and as researchers.
51
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ANNEX A – Sample Form
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1. Order
2. Season
3. Year
4. Origin
5. Original title of the episode
6. Translated title of the episode
7. Character
8. Time
9. Context of the scene
10. Subtitle in English
11. Subtitle in Portuguese
12. Subtitle analysis
13. Suggested translation to the subtitle
14. Dialogue
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SAMPLE FORM ORGANIZATION
1. Order: Sample order number.
2. Season: Season of the analyzed text.
3. Year: year of the season.
4. Origin: country of the show production.
5. Original title of the episode: original title of the selected episode.
6. Translated title of the episode: translated title of the selected episode.
7. Character: Character who said the sentence to be analyzed.
8. Time: when the sentence to be analyzed starts.
9. Context of the scene: some information about the context in which subtitle to be
analyzed is being said.
10. Subtitle in English: Subtitle to be analyzed in the English language.
11. Subtitle in Portuguese: Subtitle to be analyzed in the Portuguese language.
12. Subtitle analysis: analysis of the translated subtitle in relation to the context, and the
maintenance of the meaning and humor.
13. Suggested translation to the subtitle: suggestion to the translated subtitle in order to
make it clearer for Brazilians.
14. Dialogue: a fragment of the dialogue to make clear in what context the sentence that
will be analyzed appears.