Msc dissertation the feasibility of dubb

The Feasibility of Dubbing the Verbal Function of Humour: A Contrastive Analysis of the English Original and the Italian Dubbed Version of The Simpsons, First Season. September 2002 Margherita Dore Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies Department of Language and Linguistics A dissertation submitted to the University of Manchester and Institute of Science and Technology for the degree of MSc in Translation Studies Declaration No portion of the work referred to in this dissertation has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institution of learning. Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisor, Peter Fawcett, for his continuous help and guidance throughout this endeavour. I would like to thank my parents, my sister, my brothers and all my friends for their moral support.

I am also indebted to the government of my region (Sardinia) without whose economic support this experience would not have been possible. Last but not least, special thanks are due to John Robinson whose love and patience (and proof-reading) will never be forgotten. Abstract As a component of human behaviour, humour has received a large amount of interest throughout the centuries from theorists of many different fields of study. In the recent past have theorists in the field of humour research analysed this phenomenon strictly from a linguistic viewpoint (e.: Greimas, Raskin, Attardo) in order to understand the mechanism which creates linguistic humour.

Far less interest has been shown in translation of humour itself. Similarly, given that the audiovisual medium is a relatively recent creation, theorists in its earlier past paid little attention to the role played by translation in this medium. Nevertheless, scholars in the field of translation studies have demonstrated a growing interest in this complex branch of language transfer which, as in translation in general, contributes to the communication between cultures across linguistic boundaries. In this light, this study seeks to highlight the way in which humour can be translated in the audiovisual domain by virtue of the dubbing mode.

In order to do so, it will consider the case of the Italian translation of an American television series: The Simpsons. 1 Chapter I Constraints and Advantages in Dubbing with Particular Reference to the Italian Situation. 2 Dubbing: A Procedural Mixture of Constraints and Advantages. 3 Italy: A Case of Dubbing Tradition.

17 Chapter II Difficult Issues: Theories of Humour and its (Un)Translatability. 3 Semiotic and Text Theories. 4 Script-Based Theory. 5 Theories of Contextual Humour.

6 Violation of Grice's Maxims. 7 Humour and Translation: Possible or Impossible?. 35 Chapter III Humour Categorisation and Translation Strategies. 1 Culture-specific wordplay.

2 A mini-theory of humour translation. 3 Parody, Satire and Irony in Translation. 4 Humour in the Audio-visual Domain. 5 Translating the Perlocutionary Nature of Humour.

54 Chapter IV Data Analysis: The Simpsons, First Season. 4 Combining Verbal and Non-verbal Text. 5 Humour and Grice's maxims of communication. 6 Humorous Register in Dubbing (and Disparagement Theory).

7 Unexpected but Humorous Rhymes. 94 Findings and Concluding Remarks .104 ii Introduction Introduction As a component of human behaviour, humour has received a large amount of interest throughout the centuries from theorists of many different fields of study. Cicero, Freud and Bergson, to name only a few, have tried to explain the reasons for the existence of humour. Their explanations often focused on the psychological reasons which lead humans to produce humorous utterances.

Only in the recent past have scholars in the field of humour research analysed this phenomenon strictly from a linguistic viewpoint. Their studies have shed new light on the mechanism which creates linguistic humour (e.: Greimas, Raskin, Attardo). Far less interest has been shown in translation of humour itself. Similarly, given that the audiovisual medium is a relatively recent creation, theorists in its earlier past paid little attention to role played by translation in this medium.

Nevertheless, scholars in the field of translation studies, which is itself in its infancy, have demonstrated a growing interest in this complex branch of language transfer which, as in translation in general, contributes to the communication between cultures across linguistic boundaries. In this light, this study seeks to highlight the way in which humour can be translated in the audiovisual domain by virtue of the dubbing mode. In order to do so, it will consider the case of the Italian translation of an American television series: The Simpsons. The first chapter presents a survey on the dubbing mode, which starts with an insight into its technical production process.

This underlies the need for team collaboration during the recreation of the verbal text that has to be adjusted in order to match adequately the non-verbal one present in the original audiovisual material, be it a film, a television programme and so on. The process is complex and the result often depends on the level of technical expertise of the whole team. In particular, the ability and creativity of translators and dialogists in the preliminary phases may greatly help the dubbing director and actors to deliver a satisfying performance. The role of the translator should then not be underestimated, as it often is, because it is a fundamental 1 Introduction element in the dubbing process.

In this light, the chapter proceeds to focus on dubbing in Italy, where a long and established tradition has developed its peculiarities such as a tolerant attitude towards lip synchronisation and a tendency to localise the source text during translation, especially when dealing with entertainment material. The second chapter concentrates on humour and the feasibility of its translation. It first discusses some of the recent linguistic theories which mainly agree with the idea that humour is the result of incongruities or oppositions between items present in a text. Then, a discussion on the (un)translatability of humour follows.

This analysis takes into account the opposite orientations of scholars in the field of translation studies and gives ground to the following discussion on the translation methods recently suggested in order to overcome the problems that humour poses in translation. The third chapter outlines the evaluation of the translatability of humorous texts according to the language and culture-specific features which characterise them, be they wordplays, parodies, satirical or ironic remarks. The focus of this chapter then shifts to the particular case of audiovisual translation of humour. In this, other elements come into play and the translator/dialogist has to take them into account.

For example the connection of verbal and visual humour or the references to culture- specific humour or the presence of a live audience and the time pressure under which translators usually work are important factors influencing the final result. The solutions adopted in the case of humour translation are demonstrated to depend on the type of approach adopted. To be sure, the pragmatic functional approach seems to ensure adequate results in humour translation. This means that, in order to allow the text to produce its perlocutionary effect (amusement), the translated text partially overlooks the literary, and sometimes semantic, fidelity to the source text.

The fourth chapter demonstrates the efficacy of the pragmatic functional approach through the analysis of the data collected regarding the first season of the television cartoon comedy The Simpons. The choice of this text depends on both personal and objective reasons. Personal because we are aware of the fact that the enjoyment of The Simpsons and its humour in Italian (I Simpson) overtly depends on the high level of localisation applied to it. Objective reasons are given by this programme world- 2 Introduction wide success and the fact that it has revolutionised the concept of animation.

In fact it combines animation with comedy aimed at an adult audience thus becoming a landmark in this new type of television entertainment. The contrastive analysis carried out on the English original and the Italian dubbed version clearly shows that the Italian dubbing team opted for a high level of source-text manipulation for the sake of its primary function, that is its humour. This has been possible mainly because of the transfer medium used. In fact, dubbing allows the complete removal of the original verbal text, substituting it with a new target one.

It goes without saying that this is impossible in subtitling where the original is retained and its translation is presented written at the bottom of the screen. Finally, we propose a few avenues of future research. 3 Chapter I Constraints and Advantages in Dubbing with Particular Reference to the Italian Situation Chapter I Constraints and Advantages in Dubbing with Particular Reference to the Italian Situation. ‘Language Transfer can be an important means of access to the life-styles, thoughts and creative productions of people from other regions in Europe and elsewhere.

High quality Language Transfer is, therefore, a vital key to better understanding between countries and people in Europe’ (Luyken et al 1991: 28) 1. 1 Introduction Recently, multimedia translation in the field of translation studies has seen a relatively large amount of interest in the translation of films and television programmes. Scholars of translation, such as Marleau (1982) and Delabastita (1989, 1990), discuss a variety of problems associated with audio-visual translation. In particular, they analyse a possible range of constraints related to the most popular ways in which the aforementioned media are transposed from the source language (SL) into the target language (TL): dubbing and subtitling.

The choice of one mode of translation over the other often depends on factors such as the cost of production, the traditions developed by individual countries and the relevance of the source text (ST) within the receiving culture. Similarly, Luyken et al. His empirical investigation reveals that a preference for dubbing increases with age while subtitling is preferred among highly educated audiences (ibid. However, Luyken et al.

point out that the term Language Transfer has to be intended as inclusive of the different types of strategies applied, whether these include subtitling, voice-overs, commentary or dubbing. Each of these processes employs particular techniques aiming to overcome the linguistic barriers posed by the medium itself. Indeed, he crucially points out that: “Any method of Language Transfer will inevitably interfere with the original film or programme. But it should attempt to be as unobtrusive as 4 Chapter I Constraints and Advantages in Dubbing with Particular Reference to the Italian Situation possible so that, ideally, the new viewer's experience of the programme will differ as little as possible from that of the original audience.

Highly professional and competent application of the various methods of Language Transfer, be it subtitling, voice-over or lip-sync dubbing, is therefore essential in order to preserve the original artistic identity of the audiovisual production to the widest possible extent. For whether emotionally supported or rejected, Language Transfer will play an increasingly significant role in the future direction of the television industry and the development of European identity.29) The emphasis on the word ‘ideally’ derives from the fact that the situation portrayed by Luyken et al. can only be described as ideal. More often that not, in fact, the process of Language Transfer faces a large number of constraints forcing translators and dialogists (or scriptwriters in subtitling) to manipulate texts in such a way that they differ greatly from the originals.

However, if the aim of Language Transfer is to allow the target audience to participate in an experience as close as possible to the original, then the means applied might be justified by the scope. Moreover, the translator's high level of expertise will help to overcome the difficulties posed by each audio-visual text. If, on the one hand, translation modes in this field have to cope with specific constraints, on the other, they are able to rely upon peculiar advantages. This multiplicity of constraints and advantages is in fact the result of the very nature of mass communication, which develops through a multi-semiotic channel.