An analysis of the translation of (hidden) humor in Shrek:
what might have gone over your head
University of Amsterdam Faculty of Humanities
MA program in Linguistic: Translation
Supervisor: Dr. E.R.G. Metz Code: 184419700Y
Date: 24.06.2019
Name: Nadia van den Berg Student number: 10892184
Contents
1. Introduction...4
1.1. Aim and motivation...4
1.2. Research questions and hypotheses...5
1.3. Method...6
1.4. Structure...7
2. Audiovisual translation...9
2.1. Dubbing of animated movies - status quaestionis...9
2.2. The process of dubbing...11
2.3. Characteristics and restrictions of dubbing...12
2.4. Dubbing and Shrek...14
3. Humor and humor translation...16
3.1. Definition of humor...16
3.2. Conventional humor theories...17
3.2.1.Incongruity Theories...17
3.2.2.Superiority Theories...19
3.2.3.Relief Theories...20
3.3. Linguistic theories...21
3.3.1.Semantic Script Theory of Humor...21
3.3.2.General Theory of Verbal Humor...23
3.4. (Un)translatability of humor...24
3.4.1.Linguistic (un)translatability...25
3.4.2.Cultural (un)translatability...25
4. Translation strategies and procedures...27
4.1. Vinay and Darbelnet...27
4.2. Venuti...30
4.3. Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård...31
5.1. Shrek - film adaptation and plot...34
5.1.1.Film adaptation...34
5.1.2.Plot...35
5.2. Analysis...36
6. Results and conclusions...79
6.1. Results...79
6.2. Conclusions...84
6.3. Further research...86
1. Introduction
1.1. Aim and motivation
It is widely known that humor is difficult to translate, not only because everybody has a different sense of humor and laughs at different types of jokes, but also because of cultural differences between the speakers of a source language ('SL') and a target language ('TL') as well as various linguistic aspects. As a result, translators of humorous texts have to use special strategies and techniques to ensure (insofar as possible) that humor does not get lost in translation. The expectation is that ideally translated humor is understandable and sounds natural, but also that the target text ('TT') has the same humorous effect on the readers (in the case of written texts) and the viewers (in the case of films, documentaries, etc.) in the TL as it does in the SL.
The aim of this thesis is to examine the mechanisms of humor and to determine the strategies and procedures used in translating the humor in the movie Shrek from English into Polish and Dutch. Using the selected corpus, I determined which translation strategies and procedures were employed to convey humor in Polish and Dutch and investigated possible reasons why in some cases the translation delivered a more humorous rendering in the TT than in the source text ('ST').
Within the scope of my study, I analyzed several humorous fragments from the film Shrek and their translation into both Polish and Dutch and compared the strategies and techniques used to render humor in both TLs. There are specific reasons why I chose this particular film. In the first place, Shrek is a movie that is entertaining not only for kids but also adults. As far as adults are concerned, this is partly because of the hidden adult humor. Ever since my childhood, Shrek has also been one of my favorite movies. I have seen the film many times in all the three language versions, and I still enjoy it every time I watch it, mostly because of the witty dialogues with implied meanings and subtexts and in the TL versions because of
references to humorous target culture-bound elements. What is particularly interesting is that, in my opinion, the Polish version of the film is (if possible) even funnier than the English original, whereas it is usually the other way around. This also makes Shrek an interesting film
to analyze. Additionally, to my knowledge and as far as relevant for my research, the translation of Shrek into Dutch and Polish has not been analyzed thoroughly before.
Another reason why I decided to analyze the movie Shrek is that I wanted to do research on a subject related to audiovisual translation. This is one of the youngest disciplines in translation studies, yet it has developed quickly over the last few decades and is therefore gaining in importance because of the constantly increasing importance of media.
Within the scope of my research, I carried out an analysis of the selected corpus on the basis of various theories and models regarding translation in general and in particular regarding the translation of humor. I examined the mechanisms of humor applying in the first place the script-based theory of verbal humor developed by Raskin (1985), which was later integrated with the five-level representation model for jokes by Attardo (1991), and centers around the notions of script and incongruity. In order to determine the strategies applied in translating the humor from English into Dutch and Polish, I adopted the classification system introduced by Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård (2008). This system is based on the distinction between macro-strategies (relating to the general sense of the content of both the ST and the TT) and micro-strategies (relating to the means of accomplishing it).
1.2. Research questions and hypotheses
Can humor in an original film be preserved in translation? Can humor be translated in such a way that its translation is just as successful as (or even better than) the original? If so, which techniques used in the translation of Shrek contributed to it?
My hypothesis is that it is possible to preserve humor and even produce a translation that is just as successful or perhaps even more successful than the original, which in the case of Shrek is partly because of the use of the domesticating strategy and the creation of humor in the translation.
In order to answer my main research question, I formulated the following sub-questions, which served as a guideline during my research:
- What are the most important aspects of humor? - What types of humor theories are there?
- What are the contemporary linguistic theories of humor? - What are the general translation strategies and techniques?
- What kind of strategies and techniques are used for translating humor?
- Which translation strategies and techniques are used in the Dutch translation of the selected corpus?
- Which translation strategies and techniques are used in the Polish translation of the selected corpus?
- Is the Dutch translation more similar to the English original than the Polish one (as both Dutch and English belong to the same language family of Germanic languages)?
1.3. Method
I first carried out research on audiovisual translation, in particular, the type of audiovisual translation that was applied in the film Shrek, which is dubbing. I have investigated the characteristics of dubbing as well as its limitations compared to regular translation. I then proceeded to do research on the most important aspects of humor and the influence they may have on the translation of humorous texts. I studied the most important theories on translating humor as well as the strategies, procedures and techniques applied by translators.
After completing the above theoretical research, I conducted the empirical part of my study. First of all, I looked up the English script of the movie Shrek. I have not found the scripts of the Polish and the Dutch dubbed versions of the movie. Only the subtitled versions turned out to be available. Therefore, I took the scripts of the subtitled versions as the starting point and checked and adopted them in order to create the scripts of the dubbed versions. Afterwards I selected 12 humorous fragments from the original English-language version of the movie. The criterion for the choice of the humorous fragments to be collected was subjective: I chose the 12 fragments that I personally found most amusing. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that there is so much humor in the movie that it was impossible to analyze it comprehensively within the scope of my research. To make my selection more
objective, I verified my selection with a number of native speakers of Polish and Dutch, who independently of one another came up with lists of the instances of humor, which all included the passages I had selected. Furthermore, I did not take into consideration any visual materials or instances of non-verbal humor, because they are not covered by the theory.
I analyzed the selected instances of humor and divided them into the following categories according to the types of humor identified: (1) scripts that are humorous because they contain a contradiction of two scripts (planes) within a joke, (2) scripts with hidden humor (generally containing taboo or socially improper content), (3) scripts containing irony (an opposition between what is said and what is meant) (4) scripts containing culture-bound elements, (5) and scripts containing wordplay or in general humor based on linguistic elements.
Subsequently, I compared scripts in English (SL) with Polish (TL) and Dutch (TL) and determined whether the scripts in the SL and the corresponding scripts in the respective TLs belong to the same or a different group of scripts.
I then determined which strategies, procedures and techniques were applied by the translators to both the Dutch and the Polish TTs as well as the differences in the choice of specific strategies, procedures and techniques used most often in the translation into Dutch and into Polish. I attempted to establish whether humor has or has not been lost in translation or whether there are any instances of the original language that do not contain humor even though its translation does. On the basis of the above analysis, I established which translation strategies, procedures and techniques have delivered successful renderings of humor in the TLs and which have not, as well as the differences between the translators' preferences. 1.4. Structure
My thesis consists of 6 chapters. In chapter 1, I describe my aim and motivation, the research questions and hypotheses as well as the method I used while conducting my research. In the following three chapters I present the theoretical framework of my research. In chapter 2, I describe various types of audiovisual translation. I focus on dubbing, this being the type of audiovisual translation applied in the movie Shrek. Chapter 3 is devoted to the description of humor, its characteristics and the most important aspects, as well as some of the most
important humor theories. I briefly discuss three conventional theories of humor: the incongruity theory, the superiority theory and the relief theory, after which I proceed to discuss the Semantic Script Theory of Humor introduced by Raskin, as well as its modified version, the General Theory of Verbal Humor developed by Raskin in cooperation with Attardo. This script-based theory served as the basis for the empirical part of my study. In chapter 4, various translation strategies and procedures are described. I first discuss Vinay and Darbelnet's model (1958, 1995), one of the best-known models developed to explain
translation processes. I then discuss, specifically with regard to the translation of culture-bound terms, two translating strategies described by Venuti (1995), the foreignizing (exotisizing) strategy and the domesticating (familiarizing) strategy. Finally, I present a relatively recent classification of the macro- and micro-strategies proposed by Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård (2008), which I adopted for the empirical part of my research. Chapter 5 contains the analysis of the selected corpus of fragments from the movie Shrek and their translation into Dutch and Polish. Finally, in chapter 6, I draw conclusions and provide some suggestions for further research.
2. Audiovisual translation
Audiovisual translation is a relatively young discipline, yet it has been developing quickly over the last few decades because of the constantly increasing importance of media. The term 'audiovisual translation' is an umbrella term encompassing various types of translation
combining image and sound. The most important three types are as follows:
- subtitling - characterized by the original language remaining present in an audiovisual document and the target language being represented by subtitles underneath the visual sequence;
- voice-over - characterized by the original language remaining present in an audiovisual document while the translated text is simultaneously being read by a reader; and
- dubbing - characterized by the oral adaptation of an audiovisual document in the form of a voice track in a target language replacing the whole voice track of an original movie with a target language recording.
In Chapter 2, I will focus on dubbing, this being the type of audiovisual translation applied in the movie Shrek, including its characteristics, advantages and restrictions as well as the technical and other processes involved in it.
2.1. Dubbing of animated movies - status quaestionis
Most studies on the subject of dubbing were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s. After a period of relative stagnation, the interest in audiovisual translations rose again in the 1990s and in the years that followed research on translation issues flourished (Sikora 2013:14). In 2002 Henrik Gottlieb compiled a list of works devoted to audiovisual translation that had been written and published in the period from 1929 to 1999 (i.e. practically the entire period since sound film had been introduced). Gottlieb mentions around 1,200 titles, which is quite impressive. However, the works mentioned on Gottlieb's list are mainly works on subtitling. The works on the subject of dubbing listed by Gottlieb were mostly included on the list because they related to comparative studies between the two forms of audiovisual translation,
subtitling and dubbing, or are comprehensive works on audiovisual translation in general (and as such also include dubbing). It is worth mentioning that this list of works compiled by the Danish scientist was in line with his interests and the studies he had been conducting for many years, and for this reason focuses mainly on audiovisual translation in the form of subtitling. The limited number of publications on dubbing presented by Gottlieb does not, therefore, accurately reflect the actual status of the works written on dubbing in that period (Sikora 2013:15).
The number of works relating to dubbing grows each year, but unfortunately there has so far been no comprehensive compilation of the works specifically devoted to dubbing. There have been some attempts to create such compilations, but none of them is as exhaustive as the compilation created by Gottlieb. To compare, the published list of works on dubbing compiled within the scope of the MLA linguistic bibliography project (website) contains about a hundred items (Sikora 2013:15).1
Several monographs are devoted to the subject of dubbing. For example, the work of the German researcher Otto Hesse-Quack (1969) on intercultural transfer in dubbing is
considered one of the most important contributions to this subject because of its precursory character and in 1976 a monograph written by Istvan Fodor was published (Sikora, 2013:16). This was considered to be one of the pioneer works in this field because it concerned the issue of synchronization in dubbing. Fodor's work is especially worth mentioning in this context because it is one of the first attempts to identify different types of synchronization. Other publications discussing the problem of dubbing in a broader context of audiovisual translation are of great importance for the state of research on this subject. These publications include, amongst others, George-Michael Luyken’s Overcoming Language Barriers in Television (1991) and Josephine Dries’s Dubbing and Subtitling: Guidelines for Production and Distribution (1995) (Sikora 2013:17).
Most of the literature in the field of audiovisual translation and dubbing is included in articles and papers (for example, research papers presented during scientific conferences). A great
1 MLA - Modern Language Association of America is a professional organization including more than 30,000
members (academic scholars, linguists and researchers), aiming at strengthening the study and teaching of language and literature (http://www.mla.org/)
number of the published material can be found in anthologies focusing on audiovisual or multimedia translation. Only individual chapters are devoted to dubbing. An example of such an anthology is a 2004 work edited by Pilar Orero called Topics in Audiovisual Translation and also the 2001 cycle of articles edited by Henrik Gottlieb. Another example is the collection of research papers that were presented during two conferences devoted to multimedia and published by Yves Gambier in 2001 (Sikora 2013:18-19).
2.2. The process of dubbing
According to Whitman-Lisnen (1992:12), the assumptions of dubbing are very simple. Dubbing is a certain type of a cinematographic action involving the 'pasting' of the already earlier recorded voice to the actors speaking on the screen. Although these assumptions are seemingly simple from the point of view of the soundtrack production, dubbing involves a rather complex process that can be divided into the following 11 stages (Tomaszkiewicz (2006:106) referring to Luyken (1991)).
1. The most important information about the program or movie intended for dubbing is recorded.
2. The original movie is verified with the dialogue list.
3. The scratch track is recorded. During this the time code is noted. This is very important because the duration of the translated parts has to correspond with the duration of the original text.
4. The duration of the dialogues, i.e. the beginning and the end of each uttered sequence, is written down.
5. The initial, approximate (rough) translation is produced.
6. The initial translation is adapted, taking into account the duration of the opening and closing of the mouth, as well as the type of opening, meaning the form of the actors' lips while pronouncing certain phones (vowels and consonants), for example, rounded versus not rounded lips. Also, the intonation, gestures and facial expressions of the actors are taken into account at this stage.
7. The actors are selected on the basis of the timbre of their voice, which preferably should be similar to the timbre of the voice of the actors in the original production. It is also important that target voices be compatible with the personality and the physical appearance of the person on screen.
8. The actor's voices for the individual roles are recorded. 9. Preliminary mixing and sound editing takes places.
10. The soundtrack, including voices, music and other sounds, is finally mixed. 11. The product is finally released for distribution.
Because of the many challenges that have to be faced during the complex process of dubbing, Díaz Cintas & Orero (2010:441) refer to it as traduction totale (after Cary, 1960). They argue that because the original message in the case of dubbing is replaced by the message in the TL, whereby the actors' lip movements are synchronized (for a description of synchronization, see section 2.3.), dubbing creates the illusion that the actors are speaking the same language as the target audience. As a result, the translation act is 'hidden' so that dubbing, as opposed to voice-over or subtitling, can be considered as an example of 'covert translation'.2
2.3. Characteristics and restrictions of dubbing
As described in section 2.2, the dubbing process depends on a lot of technical procedures. However, the translator who makes the first rough translation and afterwards adapts it to various technical requirements plays the main role in the dubbing process.
One of the most serious restrictions in the translation process and at the same time the most characteristic feature of this type of translation is dubbing synchronization. From the
perspective of translation studies, the synchronization process involves recording in the TL of the translation of the original SL dialogues in such a way that the translated text is tuned as well as possible to the lip movements and gestures made by the actors.
2 Overt translation is a translation in which 'the TT does not pretend to be (and is not represented as being) an
original' while the covert translation is a translation 'which enjoys the status of an original ST in the target culture' (Munday 201:142).
This process has been defined in many different ways by various researchers; however, most of the definitions concentrate on the lip movements and disregard other factors, and therefore do not cover the subject of synchronization completely. Chaume (in: Sikora 2013:77) defines synchronization as 'one of the features of translation for dubbing, which consists of matching the target language translation and the articulatory and body movements of the screen actors and actresses, as well as matching the utterances and pauses in the translation an those of the source text.'
Consequently, there are three types of synchronization:
1. lip synchronization - also called phonetic synchronization - synchronization with the movement of the actor's lips;
2. kinetic synchronization - synchronization with the actor's body movements;
3. time synchronization - also called 'isochrony' - the synchronization of the duration of the original utterances with the recorded dubbing.
The first type of synchronization relates to fitting the TT into the mouth openings of the persons on the screen. The lip synchronization must ensure that the translated dialogue appears, despite the phonetical nature of the TL differing from the SL, to be visually identical to the original when superimposed on the original images and soundtrack. Two elements are important: (1) the duration of the opening and the closing of the mouth and (2) the type of the mouth opening, i.e. the form of the lips while pronouncing certain phonemes, such as rounded versus unrounded, etc.3
The second type of synchronization has to do with the actors' movements and gestures. It is generally known that every culture is characterized not only by its natural language, but also by its own specific gestures and facial expressions (Tomaszkiewicz 2006:108). The aim of kinetic synchronization is to ensure that the dialogue does not contradict the image, for example, that the shaking of a head is not accompanied by a negative statement (Díaz Cintas & Orero 2010:443). If there is a significant difference between the SL and TL, the translator
3 As lips' movements are sometimes less precise in animated movies as compared to movies with real actors, this
has to synchronize the spoken text with the gestures made by the given person on the screen. For example, knocking on the head means in European cultures that someone says or does something stupid, whereas in America it means that someone is smart.
The third type of synchronization is called time synchronization, or isochrony. Its aim is to ensure that the duration of the original utterance corresponds with the duration of the translation and fits between the moments the actors open and shut their mouths (Cintas & Orero 2010:443). To achieve this time synchrony, two resourceful strategies are deleting (if the equivalent TT sequences are longer than in the ST) or adding some words or padding expressions4 (if the equivalent TT sequences are shorter than in the ST). The necessity of the
extension of the TT is usually required if the SL is an analytical language (for example, English) and the TL is a synthetic language (for example, Polish) (Tomaszkiewicz 2006:110). There are still some other elements on which the translator has no special influence, but which have to be taken into account during dubbing, such as the type of dubbing voice and its characteristic features, such as the pitch, timbre, speed of speech, fluency, diction, accent, and other voice features that determine to which social group or which geographical region someone belongs.
2.4. Dubbing and Shrek
This complex process entails high costs and involves many different professionals, not only translators, but also dialogue writers, adaptors (dubbing directors responsible for the above-mentioned synchronizations), actors and sound technicians. As a result, dubbing is practically limited to the translation of TV series and sitcoms, films for children and other children's programs.
In the Netherlands, Dutch dubbed versions are in generally made for children and family films; however, sometimes the original versions of animated children's movies and family films are also made available with subtitles. An example is the movie Shrek. Both the dubbed version and the subtitled version were shown in Dutch movie theaters.
4 Padding expressions are superfluous or repetitive words or information added to sentences and paragraph to
In Polish cinematography, dubbing was considered a necessity until recently and applied mostly to productions addressed to children. Subtitles are still preferred in translations of narrative films/fictional film, but in television programs voice-overs are controversially used most frequently. However, dubbing, which was until recently a rather rarely used form for presenting foreign movies, is gaining popularity. Polish viewers' preferences concerning the type of film translation has undergone a significant change. This is the result of the quality of the dubbed translations (Sikora 2013:13).
Viewers have increasingly accepted dubbing as a type of audiovisual translation because they realized that it does not have to be boring, unnatural and poorly executed. In Poland it was the movie Shrek, translated by Bartosz Wierzbięta, that initiated this 'dubbing revolution' (Sikora 2013:13). The dubbed dialogues sounded familiar and natural to the audience, they were full of jokes, and the actors' voices were colorful. The translation of Shrek was described as sensational and also the excellent execution of the role of Donkey by Jerzy Stuhr5 opened the
hearts of the Polish audience towards dubbing and caused an increase in its popularity. The draw for moviegoers was not only the plot of the film, the brilliant animation or the
interesting plot, but above all the Polish dubbing. Shrek's translator had a lot of followers. Moviegoers expect dialogue that is interesting, witty and natural-sounding and that has many references to the target viewer's realities.
5 Jerzy Stuhr (born on 18 April 1947) is one of the most popular and versatile Polish film and theatre actors, who
3. Humor and humor translation
Chapter 3 contains a brief analysis of humor as a human phenomenon and its most important aspects and conditions. The first section is devoted to humor in general. In the second section I discuss three conventional theories of humor: the incongruity theory, the superiority theory and the relief theory, after which I proceed to discuss the linguistic theories, the Semantic Script Theory of Humor introduced by Raskin (1985), as well as its modified version, the General Theory of Verbal Humor developed by Raskin in cooperation with Attardo (1991). The last section discusses some aspects of the '(un)translatability' of humor, including cultural and linguistic aspects.
3.1. Definition of humor
Humor seems to be a very straightforward phenomenon. It is something that causes amusement, smiling or laughter. Instances of humor occur when somebody hears or sees something amusing and laughs. Different people laugh at different things; what is funny to one group of people may not necessarily be funny to another group. To mention some examples, people laugh at absurdity, deformity, extreme simplicity, awkwardness, hypocrisy and mischief. They laugh to show their satisfaction with themselves or to show contempt for others (Raskin 1985:2). A lot of jokes or funny situations are appreciated by large groups of people, while some jokes are 'private' in the way that they are restricted in their funniness to a small group of individuals, a very small group or in an extreme case to only one person. Yet, even though the types of humor that individuals appreciate vary, the ability to appreciate humor in general is common to all people and can be considered universal.
Yet the seemingly straightforward phenomenon of humor has been the subject of studies in many different fields of research, including psychology, philosophy, sociology and
linguistics. A lot of theorists argue that, at least from the point of view of a researcher, the concept of humor is not necessarily so straightforward and easy to define. According to Attardo, not only have researchers been unable to find a consensus on the 'category divisions' of the concept of humor (for example, 'comic' as opposed to 'ridiculous'), but it is also difficult to find 'a pretheoretical definition of humor in the most general sense' (Attardo 2009:3).
3.2. Conventional humor theories
The theories of humor have been traditionally divided into three main groups: (1) the theories of incongruity, (2) the theories of superiority, and (3) the theories of relief, which are each discussed in this section.
3.2.1. Incongruity Theories
The first group of humor theories, according to the conventional literature, consists of the incongruity theories, which are also known as the theories of inconsistency, contradiction or bi-association (Krikmann 2006:27). These theories form the most influential approach to the study of humor (Mulder 2002:4). The concept of incongruity was defined by Chapman and Foot (1976:12) as 'a conflict between what is expected and what actually occurs in the joke' (Vandaele, 1999:239). According to Krikmann (2006:27), every instance of incongruity involves two different and mutually incompatible planes. There is also some common part enabling the shift between the two planes. Kiken (1977) and Raskin (1996) have both independently made an attempt to describe the linguistic markers carrying the concept of incongruity or opposition. One of the most prototypical jokes is relied on by Kiken to explain incongruity (Kiken 1977:45 in Vandaele 1999:239):
'Two dog owners are having a conversation:
- Can you imagine, my Astor goes out for the paper on his own! - I know, my Rex told me about it yesterday'
The two opposing and therefore incongruous planes (semes) are [+human] describing the ability to talk and [-human] for dogs.
Following on from the incongruity theory, an incongruity-resolution theory has been
developed, according to which it is not the incongruity itself, but the congruous resolution of what seems to be an incongruous situation, that causes the humor (Mulder 2002:4).
1. Linguistic incongruity . This type of incongruity involves an opposition to what is considered 'normal' from a linguistic point of view. Examples of linguistic incongruity are stuttering or exaggerated imitation. In the movie Shrek, this would include Robin Hood speaking with a much exaggerated French accent in the English and Polish language versions of the movie.
2. Pragmatic incongruity . This occurs when cognitive schemes concerning the actual use of language, for example, as reflected by Grice's maxims, are broken.6 An example of
a pragmatic incongruity is Donkey's reaction when Shrek tries to scare him: 'Oh, wow! That was really scary.', while he is not scared at all. In this case, the maxim of
truthfulness is violated, which results in funniness.
3. Narrative incongruity . According to Vandaele, narrative incongruity can be caused, for example, by referential vagueness. An example from the movie Shrek is when Lord Farquaad addresses the people of DuLoc and says, referring to Shrek: 'What is that? It's hideous!' to which Shrek himself answers, speaking of the Donkey: 'Ah, that's not very nice. It's just a donkey.'
4. Intertextual incongruity (or 'parody'). This presupposes some shared knowledge between the performer of humor and his audience, and depends on the audience's ability to recognize the source text (Norrick 1989:118). One of the many examples is a description of Cinderella as: 'a mentally abused shut-in from a kingdom far, far away', who likes sushi and hot-tubbing, and whose hobbies include cooking and cleaning for her two evil sisters, which description is far from how Cinderella is characterized in the original fairy tale (a modest young women unjustly oppressed by her stepmother and stepsisters).
6 Grice's maxims include (as described on https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/dravling/grice.html):
(1) The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more;
(2) The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.
(3) The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion. (4) The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and
5. Social incongruity (or 'satire'). It refers to incongruous social practices and lifestyles in society and situation-bound schemes that are being violated. In the movie Shrek this would include Shrek and Donkey mocking Lord Farquaad, a king-to-be, thus violating the politeness-rule. (Lord Farquaad can be considered the 'but of the joke'.)
6. Natural incongruity. In the definition of 'natural incongruity', what the audience would recognize as 'proven under all circumstances' is considered 'natural'. There are many examples of natural incongruities in Shrek, e.g. Princess Fiona on her own fighting and successfully defeating Robin Hood and all of his Merry Men, applying Japanese martial arts. (This is not what men would normally describe as the typical behavior of a princess).
3.2.2. Superiority Theories
Belonging to the second group of theories of humor described in the conventional literature are the theories of superiority, also known as the theories of disparagement, criticism or hostility (Krikmann 2006:27). The general assumption of the superiority theories is that some people like to feel superior to others. Therefore, they make fun of the misfortunes of others, which makes them feel superior to the target of their jokes. The idea of superiority dates back to the times of Plato, Aristotle and Hobbes. According to Caroll, Plato and Aristoteles
associated humor with malice towards people and offending people who were considered 'defective' in one way or another (Caroll 2014:8). According to Hobbes, humans are constantly competing with one another in searching for the shortcomings in other people (Mulder 2002:3). He considers the laughter to be 'nothing else but sudden glory' triggered by a feeling of superiority on the part of the receiver of humor when he realizes that he is better than others (Mihalcea 2007:414). The theory of superiority was reformulated by Gruner in 1997. According to Gruner's theory, every humorous situation has a winner and a loser, based on human nature, whereby the 'winner' is the one who successfully makes fun of the 'loser' (Mulder 2002:3). Vandaele suggests that the concept of superiority is as necessary for the poetics of humor as the concept of incongruity; however, it is more easily detectable because the parties involved undergo it and feel it (Vandaele 1999:205). He distinguishes between two types of superiority: negative superiority and positive superiority. In the case of negative
superiority, the target can be identified as the so-called 'butt of the joke'. In the case of
negative superiority, aggressive humor often has the form of verbal irony. However, one does not have to find a target to achieve the goal of feeling superior. In other words, there are also instances of non-aggressive humor, which Vandaele describes in terms of general
circumstantial superiority, in which in a general sense superiority can be understood to be the lack of inferiority and is considered to include the two humor generating principles described by Vandaele as 'good mood' and 'cueing'. In this context, superiority can be considered to be the general background against which humor can be deduced from the incongruity. Labelling something as 'comedy' can be considered a reliable cue, which in its turn leads to the creation of good mood. Another important mental process that can also be characterized as non-aggressive is described by Vandaele as 'problem solving'. It involves humor recognition (the more explicit it is, the easier it is for the public to understand), bringing about a feeling of safety after incongruities have been solved. Finally, another important mechanism of humor is 'institutionalized humor' that can be produced by, for example, a repetition of certain
expressions, which if not repeated would probably not be humorous at all (Vandaele 1999: 257-259).
3.2.3. Relief Theories
Finally, the third group of conventional humor theories consists of relief theories, also known as psycho-physiological, which concentrate on the psychological effects humor has on the recipient. The key point of relief theories is the view that laughter relieves an accumulation of psychic energy and reduces psychological tension. Such psychic energy is accumulated in the human body, and because it has no further function, it has to be released, and this relief expresses itself in laughter. The most important names associated with the relief theories (including their origin and development) are those of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). According to Spencer, laughter is an 'economical phenomenon', whose function is to discharge 'nervous energy'. Such nervous energy is transformed into laughter and thus comes 'out of the system' (Caroll 2014:38). According to Freud, the
accumulation of psychic energy helps suppress certain feelings in taboo areas, such as sex or death. Laughter is a natural consequence of the release of the psychic energy, but is also a result of the taboo thoughts being entertained (Mulder 2002:4). However, the relief theories
differ from the incongruity and superiority theories described in 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 because they, unlike the incongruity and superiority theories, do not explain why we find humor funny. 3.3. Linguistic theories
The theories described in this chapter have some common characteristics with the theories described above, particularly with the theories of incongruity. However, they have been classified separately under the name of 'linguistic theories', because their authors, Raskin and Attardo identify their approach to humor as 'linguistic' (Krikmann 2006:31). According to Raskin, a linguistic theory of humor should be able to explain why some texts are funny and others not in terms of certain linguistic properties of the text. To put it in his words: 'Ideally a linguistic theory of humor should determine and formulate the necessary and sufficient linguistic conditions for the text to be funny.' (Raskin 1975:47).
3.3.1. Semantic Script Theory of Humor
The Semantic Script Theory of Humor ('SSTH') has been developed by Raskin and described in his book Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. The main hypothesis, on which Raskin's
approach is based, has been formulated as follows. A text can be considered a 'single-joke-carrying text' if it is fully or in part compatible with two opposite scripts that fully or in part overlap each other (Raskin 1985:99).
The main constituents of the SSTH are the joke-telling mode of communication, described by Raskin as a specific kind of 'non-bona-fide' communication, the concept of 'script overlap' and 'script oppositeness' (incongruity) and the trigger that makes it possible to switch between the scripts. The script is defined as 'a large chunk of semantic information surrounding the word or evoked by it' (Raskin 1985:81) and the 'bona-fide communication' as 'governed by the co-operative principle' developed by Grice (Raskin 1985:100).
According to Grice's principle (explained in note 1) the speaker has to produce a text that is true and relevant, which will only be perceived as such if the receiver recognizes that the speaker is committed to producing a true and relevant text. The joke-telling can occur in four situations, depending on whether or not the speaker makes the joke intentionally and whether
or not the receiver expects to hear a joke. A speaker who makes a joke intentionally knows that there is a full or partial overlap of scripts and that the text is therefore ambiguous, which means that he engages in a non-bona-fide communication. If the receiver does not expect a joke he will first try to understand it in a bona-fide way and fail, whereupon he will try to find some alternative non-bona-fide explanation (which can be 'nonsense' or 'lie' but also for example 'joke-telling'). If the receiver is some way or another 'attuned' to the joke he will not try to interpret the text in a bona-fide way and will understand the joke or at least attempt to understand it.
The concepts of 'script overlap' and 'script opposition' of incongruous scripts are explained by Raskin on the basis of some empirical examples. One of his most representative examples, which has been frequently quoted and discussed in literature, is the 'bronchial patient' joke: 'Is the doctor at home' the patient asked in his bronchial whisper. 'No' the doctor's young and pretty wife whispered in reply. 'Come right in.' (Raskin 1985:32). In this joke two scripts are identified by Raskin: 'doctor' and 'lover'. The words 'doctor', 'patient' and 'bronchial whisper' refer to the script 'doctor' and the words 'young', 'pretty' and 'whispered' in combination with ‘come right in’ refer to the script 'lover'. The linking element between the two scripts is the 'whispering', which is compatible with both. The fact that the patient in the joke wants to see a doctor and the doctor's wife invites him in while the doctor is not at home is incongruous with the script 'doctor' but congruous with the script 'lover'. In terms of Grice's maxims, the maxim of quantity is violated in two different ways. The information about the age and good looks of the doctor's wife is too much unnecessary information for the first script. On the other hand, the lack of explanation why she is inviting the patient to come in while the doctor is not at home is too little information. This violation of the Grice's maxim triggers the shift from the first script ('doctor') to the other ('lover'). The confrontation of two scripts occurs when the doctor's wife replies (negatively) to the patient's question whether the doctor is at home: 'No', immediately followed by the (positive) invitation for the patient to come in.
In short, the main component of a joke is incongruity, which is explained by Raskin through the notion of scripts consisting of wholly or partially contradictory elements put together. Jokes do not have to be rational, just the opposite; they have their own logic. The reason we laugh is because the punch line (being usually the last sentence) is unexpected and funny.
3.3.2. General Theory of Verbal Humor
The General Theory of Verbal Humor ('GTVT'), which was presented in the article Raskin and Attardo wrote jointly in 1991 under the title 'Script theory revised: joke similarity and joke representation model', is a revised version of Raskin's SSTH, integrated with the Attardo's five-level interpretation model of jokes, as a result of which a six-level joke representation model has been introduced. The levels in question, defined as independent knowledge resources ('KRs'), are the following:
1. Language (LA). 'It includes all the choices at the phonetic, phonologic,
morphophonemic, morphologic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels of language structure that the speaker is still free to make'. In general, it includes any changes that are not covered by a higher level KR (Attardo & Raskin 1991:298) 2. Narrative strategy (NS). This KR refers to the genre (or the micro-genre) of the joke,
or in other words, to 'whether the text of the joke is set up as expository, as a riddle, as a question-and-answer sequence, and so on' (Attardo & Raskin 1991:300). Due to this KR, the joke can be expanded into a longer dialogue, applied in the form of a
newspaper advertisement etc.
3. Target (TA). The TA is the personalized 'object' of the joke (individuals or group members) present in the majority of jokes (Attardo & Raskin 1991:301-302). 4. Situation (SI). This consists of the rest of the content elements of the joke, such as
other participants, the target, activities, objects, instruments, etc. (Attardo & Raskin 1991:179).
5. Logical mechanism (LM). This is a mechanism connecting the different scripts in the joke. 'Logical' has to be understood as 'rational thinking and acting' rather than 'deductive logic'. LM includes various techniques, such as a pun, faulty logic, false
analogy and false priming (tricks made by means of polysemy and homonymy in puns) (Attardo & Raskin 1991:303-304).
6. Script opposition (SO). This KR corresponds to Raskin's 'script opposition' introduced in the SSTH and includes many various types of opposition. SO can however be divided into three basic types of oppositions between 'real' and 'unreal' situations that they describe or evoke:
1. the actual situation in which the hero of the joke is actually set as opposed to a non-actual, non-existing situation not compatible with the actual setting of the joke;
2. the normal, expected state of affairs as opposed to abnormal, unexpected state of affairs; and
3. a possible, plausible situation and a fully or partially impossible or much less plausible situation (Raskin 1985:111).
In the context of my research, one of the undeniable advantages of the GTVH as compared to the SSTH is the introduction of the KR level of NS, thanks to which all humorous texts (therefore not only puns) can be analyzed, including one-liners and extended dialogues, which are often employed in Shrek.
3.4. (Un)translatability of humor
Translating humor is known to be challenging for translators. By some researchers, humor is even considered to be virtually untranslatable. However, there are also many researchers who recognize the existence of translation problems but consider humor completely translatable. In the case of the translation of humor, the translator's task is to deliver the same joke and create amusement on the receiver's part, however not necessarily by using the same linguistic structures (Low 2011:60). According to Zabalbeascoa (1996:238) humor is not untranslatable; however, a translator needs both time and special skills. Also, Delabastita argues that it is always possible to translate humor; however, he points out that a translator has to accept that
his/her translation will in most cases mean departure from the ST and that he/she will provide a more or less free adaptation. Paradoxically, in the case of humor translation being faithful to the text actually means being unfaithful to it (as far as its vocabulary and grammar are
concerned) (Delabastita 1996:135).
In general, there are several factors that make translation of humor more difficult than the translation of other texts. This has to do mainly with linguistic and cultural aspects. In section 3.4.1, I will discuss linguistic untranslatability, and cultural untranslatability will be discussed in section 3.4.2.
3.4.1. Linguistic (un)translatability
With regard to linguistic 'untranslatability', theorists mention problems relating to 'linguistic denotation and connotation […], so-called 'lectal' varieties of language (dialects, sociolects, idiolects […]), and metalinguistic or metalingual communication in which linguistic form matters ('wordplay', 'puns')' (Vandaele 2010:150). For the sake of completeness, according to Vandaele, many of the above-mentioned problems cannot be investigated separately from the problems relating to cultural 'untranslatability' discussed below in section 3.4.2. Such
problems may also be encountered in the process of translation of other texts. However, translation of humor poses specific problems because humorous writers have a strong
preference for group-specific jargon and a tendency to employ metalinguistic communication. Most of the linguistic problems in translating humor involve wordplay, which is defined by Delabastita (1996:128) as follows: 'Wordplay is the general name for the various textual phenomena in which structural features of the language(s) used are exploited in order to bring about communicatively significant confrontation of two (or more) linguistic structures with more or less similar forms and more or less different meanings.' According to Low (2011:62), wordplay involves not only punning, but also such linguistic devices as parody, anagram, spoonerism and transformed allusion. Puns, which are one of the most often used devices, is a kind of wordplay in which ambiguities of words and phrases are exploited. Puns create specific translation problems because they are based on specific features of a particular language (Low 2011:59).
All instances of humor occur within a certain culture, which in its turn belongs to a certain society. Naturally, not all humorous acts are culture-specific; however, some are embedded in a specific culture or subculture, and are therefore more difficult to translate. The specific challenge faced by the translator is that a joke not only has to be translated from one language to another, but it has to be translated to a culturally different audience that may not necessarily find things equally funny as the audience for whom the original joke was meant. To be clear, the problems of translating culture-specific elements is not restricted to translation of humor, and these problems can also occur while translating other sorts of STs. However, translation of humor poses specific problems. The reason is that most of humor is intended for people who are familiar with certain things, which are in many cases things they know because they live in a specific country and therefore know its customs, prominent politicians and
institutions, TV shows and personalities, etc. In translating such specific culture-bound elements, explicitation and expansion could do the job, but in the case of humor such techniques may kill the joke.
In his paper entitled 'Translating jokes and puns', Low mentions obscenity as a specific cultural issue that relates to humor (2011:68). Translating vulgar and taboo words and expressions poses a problem to translators because these words and phrases are culturally constructed and therefore differ greatly. A translator has to be very well aware of the target culture to avoid changing a mild vulgarity into something offensive.
4. Translation strategies and procedures
There are many various translation strategies and procedures that can be adopted by translators or identified while analyzing translations. In chapter 4, I describe several select translation strategies and procedures. I restrict myself to the models I have (to a certain extent) applied within the scope of my research. In section 4.1, I discuss one of the best-known models developed to explain translation processes. Vinay and Darbelnet’s model was published in 1958, but it only gained wider prominence in 1995, when the original book was revised, translated and published in English. In section 4.2, I discuss the translating strategies described by Venuti (1995), which are specifically useful with regard to the analysis of the translation of texts in which a lot of culture-bound terms and elements are included (such as the movie Shrek). Finally, in section 4.3, I present a relatively recent classification of the macro- and micro strategies introduced by Schjöldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård (2008), which is basically an expanded and more detailed version of the model of Vinay and Darbelnet.
4.1. Vinay and Darbelnet
One of the best-known models developed to explain translation processes is the model of Vinay and Darbelnet (1958 and 1995). Vinay and Darbelnet's model consists of two general translation strategies and seven procedures. The two strategies identified by Vinay and
Darbelnet are direct translation (which can be described as literal translation in a broad sense) and oblique translation (which can be described as free translation). The seven procedures are borrowing, calque, literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. The first three procedures relate to direct translation, the last four to oblique translation. These procedures can be used either separately or in combination with one another (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1995). The choice of different procedures depends on whether the SL and the TL are closely related. If this is the case, then the translator can usually translate several elements literally and therefore make use of the procedures that fall under the direct translation
strategy. If languages are not closely related to each other and therefore differ greatly, a direct translation (usually) is not possible. In this case, the translator has to choose the
procedures that fall under the oblique translation strategy to make sure the message/content of the ST is kept in the translation. All of these seven procedures are explained below.
The following three procedures are covered by direct translation.
1. Bo rrowing . In the case of borrowing, a word from the SL is, without translating it, directly transferred into the TL. This category concerns words like the Russian rouble or the Japanese kimono. Borrowings are used to fill a semantic gap in the TL and to add local color (to the TT).
2. Calque. According to Vinay and Darbelnet a calque is a special kind of borrowing. The TL borrows a certain expression or structure, where each of its elements are literally transferred into the TL. When the translator keeps the same syntax in the translation, it is called a lexical calque (1995:33). A calque can also be structural. In this case, a new construction is implemented in the TL. This is for example the case for the French calque 'science-fiction', borrowed from English.
3. Literal translation. Literal translation, also known as 'word-for-word' translation, occurs when no stylistic changes are made in the TL (1995:33-34). Instances of literal translations of both individual words and text passages are much more common in languages belonging to the same language family.
If a certain word or a syntactic structure does not exist in the TL or if the effect on the reader is not the same, direct (literal) translation is not possible. In such cases, literal translation is unacceptable, and therefore the oblique translation strategy has to be used by the translator. Vinay and Darbelnet consider literal translation unacceptable if the literal translation (i) gives another meaning to the original message, (ii) has no meaning, (iii) is structurally impossible, (iv) does not have a corresponding expression within the metalinguistic experience of the TL, or (v) has a corresponding expression, but not within the same register (1995:87).
Vinay and Darbelnet distinguish the following four procedures within the oblique translation strategy.
1. Transposition. In the case of transposition, a word class is replaced for another one (for example, a verb for a noun), while the sense remains unchanged. Transposition can be either obligatory or optional. Obligatory transposition is used when the
translator does not have a choice in the way of translating something, for example, if more words are needed in the TL to explain a certain term. Optional transposition is used if the same construction can be kept in the TL, and yet the translator chooses to use a different one. Vinay and Darbelnet consider transposition one of the most common structural changes undertaken by translators (1995:94) and list at least 10 categories of such transpositions. An example of transposition is this: verb > noun: 'after she had sung the song' > 'po zaśpiewaniu piosenki'.
2. Modulation. In the case of modulation, the semantics and point of view of the SL change. Also modulation can be either obligatory or optional. An example of optional modulation is when, for example, the word 'easy' is translated as 'not difficult'
(negation or opposite) (1995:37). Vinay and Darbelnet consider modulation justified when the ST translated literally or transposed results in a grammatically correct utterance, which is however 'considered unsuitable, unidiomatic or awkward in the TL' (1995:133). At the level of message instances of modulation can be subdivided into the following categories, expressing the type of change the ST undergoes during translation: abstract vs. concrete or particular vs. general, explicative modulation or effect vs. cause, whole vs. part, part vs. another part, reversal of term, negation of opposite, active vs. passive, rethinking of intervals and limits in space and time, and finally, change of symbol (Munday 2012:88).
3. Equivalence. Vinay and Darbelnet speak about equivalence when stylistic or structural changes are made but the message remains the same. Equivalence can be the opposite of a calque because in the case of a calque, an expression is translated literally, while equivalence (usually) gives a different expression but with the same connotation. This technique is especially useful when for the translation of idiomatic expressions, stock phrases and proverbs, which usually have different equivalents depending on the language, for example 'it is raining cats and dogs' is translates into Polish as 'leje jak z cebra' (literally: it is pouring as if from a bucket) and into Dutch as 'het regent
4. Adaptation. The last procedure mentioned by Vinay and Darbelnet is adaptation, which deviates the most from the structure and the meaning of the ST. Adaptation is used when a certain situation does not exist in the target culture and the translator creates a new one by making an adaptation that can be considered an equivalent. An example of adaptation in the film Shrek is the replacement of the reference to a children's song about 'The Muffin Man', which is (relatively) unknown in Poland and the Netherlands, by the reference to the very well-known (humorous) children's series about two gnomes 'Żwirek i Muchomorek' and the reference to a popular children's song about 'De Mosselman'. Another example is replacing 'parfait' with 'kremówka' in Polish and 'spekkoek' in Dutch.
4.2. Venuti
According to Venuti the process of translation in general is a 'localizing practice', which means that it is influenced and mediated by values, beliefs and representations of the target culture. Translation is not a (mere) reproduction of the ST, but rather its transformation and interpretation reflecting what is 'intelligible and interesting to receptors'. This transformation occurs even if the translator attempts to apply formal and semantic correspondence (Venuti 2011:180).
Furthermore, in his book The Translator's Invisibility (1995), Venuti makes a distinction between two translation strategies: the foreignizing (exotising) strategy and the domesticating (familiarizing) strategy. He derives the terms describing the two strategies from
Schleiermacher (Baker 2011:285), in particular, the discussion about the translator's choice whether to move the reader towards the author (in Venuti's terminology, foreignization) or whether to move the author towards the reader (in Venuti's terminology, domestication). According to Venuti, the foreignizing strategy entails the language and cultural difference of the source text being present in the target text. Schleiermacher evidently prefers and supports the strategy of foreignization as opposed to the domestication strategy, and so does Venuti. He praises the foreignizing translation strategy for having the potential to 'restrain the ethnocentric violence of translation' and describes it as 'highly desirable today' as it can be 'a
form of resistance against ethnocentrism and racism, cultural narcissism and imperialism, in the interests of democratic geopolitical relations' (Venuti 1995:20). However, adopting a foreignizing strategy may cause problems in the translation of humor. Amongst other things, culture-bound terms related to the ST may be felt as alien by the target audience and as such the usage of such terms may increase the processing effort (Martínez-Sierra 2008:237, in Pérez Díaz 2017:57). Also, the extent to which the translated text has the same humorous effect on the target viewer depends on the knowledge he/she has of the source culture, so that in the case of a foreignizing strategy, shared background knowledge of the world is
particularly important (Pérez Díaz 2017:57), even though this may be lacking (to a certain degree).
The domesticating strategy on the other hand entails the source culture-bound terms and other specifics being replaced by the target culture-bound ones. It also entails translating in a fluent way, or to put in Venuti's words, in an 'invisible' way, which results in the minimization of the foreignizing effect in the TT.
However, adopting a domesticating or familiarizing strategy may also involve a risk because it might be perceived as artificial and unnatural by the target addressee, and consequently the joke might not work in the target culture (Martínez Sierra 2006:22, in Pérez Díaz 2017:57). 4.3. Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård
Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård (2008) have relatively recently proposed a classification of translation strategies that distinguishes between macro-strategies and micro-strategies (2008: 90-92 in Korostenskienė 2017:162), which corresponds to a certain degree with the strategies and procedures introduced the Vinay and Darbelnet. According to Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård macro-strategies relate to a general content of both the ST and the TT. The role of micro-strategies is, by contrast, to determine how this can be accomplished on a lower level. In my present study I classified the selected fragments according to the macro- and micro-strategies as described by Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård. The micro-strategies mentioned in the classification of Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård (including the ones corresponding with
the strategies and procedures introduced by the Vinay and Darbelnet) are included in the table below (Korostenskienė 2017:162).
Table 1. Macro-strategies and micro-strategies by Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård Translation strategy Translation micro-strategy Definition Direct translation
Borrowing The source and the target texts are the same. Calque The TL uses the same construction or a phrase
as the SL.
Literal translation A word-for-word translation while maintaining the correct grammar and idiomaticity in the TL and preserving the same meaning.
Oblique translation
Explicitation Elaboration on the information appearing in the SL in an implicit way.
Paraphrase Free translation.
Condensation Information in the TL is condensed and made less explicit than in the SL.
Transposition A word class in the SL is substituted for another word class in the TL without the loss of meaning.
Modulation TL contains an insignificant change in meaning or message.
Equivalence The TL employs 'different (stylistic) means' than the SL while preserving the same meaning.
Adaptation A culture-specific item in the SL is translated into a relevant phrase that would be
understandable and effective to a TL speaker.
Transformation
Substitution An item from the SL is translated into an equivalent term in the TL.
Repetition The formal components of the SL are rendered in the TL.
Deletion Certain words or phrases present in the SL are omitted in the TL.
Addition Certain items that are not present in the SL are added to the TL.
Permutation A certain phrase or word appears in a different place than in the SL.
It is worth mentioning that there is a significant difference between the term 'modulation' in Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård's classification compared to its definition in Vinay and Darbelnet's model. In Vinay and Darbelnet's model modulation is described as 'the form of the message, obtained by a change in the point of view' (1958/1995:89). In Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård's classification the definition of modulation (TL contains an insignificant change in meaning or message) is quite open and, therefore, also rather vague. Moreover, it seems that the sub-categories 'explicitation' and 'condensation' in Schjoldager, Gottlieb and
Klitgård's classification partly overlap with the sub-categories of 'modulation', as described by Vinay and Darbelnet's, when it comes to respectively hyponyms (narrower terms) and
5. Corpus and analysis
Chapter 5 contains an analysis of the selected corpus of fragments from the movie Shrek and their translation into Dutch and Polish. I begin with a short introduction to the movie Shrek, its main characters and the plot. Then I present the selected fragments, followed by their analysis.
5.1. Shrek - film adaptation and plot
5.1.1. Film adaptation
Shrek is an American animated comedy film, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, produced by DreamWorks. It is a parody of other films based on fairy tales, mostly animated Disney productions. The voices of the main characters were recorded by Mike Myers (Shrek), Eddie Murphy (Donkey), Cameron Diaz (Princess Fiona) and John Lithgow (Lord Farquaad).
The translation of the ST into Polish was made by Bartosza Wierzbięta, Polish translator and dubbing director, who is primarily known as the translator of animated movies Shrek, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Chicken Little and many other films. He argues that translated dialogues have to be understandable to the Polish audience and, therefore, they should in a lot of
situations differ considerably from the original version. He uses mostly colloquial language in his translations because he believes that a too formal translation would not be understandable for children and would diminish the authenticity of the whole dubbing
(https://archiwum.stopklatka.pl/news/bardzo-dobre-dialogi-sa-rozmowa-z-bartoszem-wierzbieta-150636). The Polish dubbed version stars Zbigniew Zamachowski (Shrek), Jerzy Stuhr (Donkey), Agnieszka Kunikowska (Princess Fiona) and Adam Ferency (Lord Farquaad) as the voices of the leading characters.
The Dutch voices of the main characters were recorded by Peter Paul Muller (Shrek), Frans van Deursen (Donkey), Angela Schijf (Prinses Fiona) and Arnold Gelderman (Lord
Farquaad). Unfortunately, I did not manage to find the name of the translator of the Dutch language version of the movie Shrek.
5.1.2. Plot
A grumpy, self-contained ogre called Shrek and a naughty and extremely talkative donkey named Donkey are the main characters in the movie Shrek. Their task is to set princess Fiona free and bring her safely to Lord Farquaad, who by marrying Fiona will become the king of the fairytale world. Fiona is locked away in a castle, guarded by a terrible fire-breathing dragon, where she is waiting for her true love and her true love's first kiss. This will lift the curse put on her by a witch when she was a child.
Shrek lives alone in a swamp, enjoying his solitude. However, his life gets disrupted when countless fairy tale creatures oppressed by mean Lord Farquaad are exiled from the fairy-tale kingdom and come to live in his swamp. Shrek is upset by this situation and decides to go to DuLoc, Lord Farquaad's residence, to reclaim the ownership to the swamp and make sure that
the fairy-tale creatures can return to where they came from. Donkey volunteers to come along with him to help him find Lord Farquaad's residence. Shrek and Donkey set out on a journey and after a while arrive in DuLoc, where they meet Lord Farquaad. As a result of the
negotiations, Shrek and Lord Farquaad make a deal: Shrek will rescue beautiful princess Fiona from the tower guarded by the dragon, which Lord Farquaad does not dare to do himself. After Fiona is rescued, Lord Farquaad will be able to marry the princess, and by doing so become king, In exchange, Lord Farquaad will allow the fairy-tale creatures to come back to his kingdom so that Shrek will again be able to live in solitude in his swamp.
After leaving DuLoc, Shrek and Donkey travel to the castle where Fiona is locked away and manage to free Fiona without slaying the dragon. After being rescued, Fiona is at first disappointed and angry, as she sees that it is not her Prince Charming who has rescued her, but an ogre, and also that the man who wants to marry her did not come himself to rescue her. She refuses even to meet Lord Farquaad; however, she is forced by Shrek to come along. During the journey, she makes friends with Donkey and gets to like Shrek very much. She realizes that she and Shrek are more similar than she first thought. During one of the scenes, Fiona's secret is revealed. It turns out that a witch put a spell on her when she was a child: Fiona is a human by day but at night she turns into an ogress and her enchantment can only be broken by her true love's first kiss.
When Donkey checks in on Fiona at night, he discovers her secret. While Fiona is telling Donkey her story, Shrek comes by with the intention to tell Fiona he has feelings for her and overhears a part of their conversation. He hears Fiona asking Donkey, 'Who could ever love a beast so hideous and ugly?' and assumes that Fiona is referring to him. Upset and
disappointed, he changes his attitude to Fiona. Fiona does not know Shrek overheard her conversation with Donkey and therefore does not understand Shrek's sudden cool behavior towards her.
The next day Shrek hands Fiona over to Lord Farquaad, with whom she leaves for DuLoc, where she is supposed to marry him. When Donkey later tells Shrek that it was not Shrek who Fiona called a hideous and ugly beast, Shrek rushes to DuLoc to prevent Fiona from
marrying Lord Farquaad. He manages to get to the church where Lord Farquaad and Fiona's wedding is taking place, and he disrupts the wedding. When he kisses Fiona, the curse is lifted. However, instead of remaining human, Fiona, to her surprise, becomes an ogress permanently.
5.2. Analysis
As already mentioned above, I selected 12 humorous fragments from the movie Shrek. Below I present them one by one, in the order in which they appear in the movie and not according to whether they belong to the same or to different scripts and describe the translation macro-strategies and micro-macro-strategies. The analysis of the humor and its translation into Polish and Dutch are placed within the framework of Raskin's theory, in which incongruity plays a central role. The description of the various macro-strategies and micro-strategies used for the translations into Polish and Dutch, based on the classification introduced by Vinay and Darbelnet and/or Schjoldager, Gottlieb and Klitgård, are presented in sections 4.1 and 4.3. Where applicable, this is supplemented with additional remarks about and references to the foreignizing and the domesticating strategy described by Venuti, as presented in section 4.2.
Fragment 1 – “You and what army?” Context
The Head Guard approaches Shrek with the intention to transport him to a resettlement facility.
English SL - Polish TL
Head Guard: You there. Ogre! Shrek: Aye?
Head Guard: By the order of Lord Farquaad I am authorized to place you both under arrest and transport you to a designated resettlement facility.
Shrek: Oh, really? You and what army?
Head Guard: Ej, ty! Ogrze. Shrek: Ta...?
Head Guard: Z rozkazu lorda Farqada mam prawo pozbawić was obu wolności i
przetransportować do wydzielonej strefy zamkniętej.
Shrek: Oh.. serio? Ale masz jakieś wsparcie?
