An analysis of translated puns in the Spanish dubbed version of the American sitcom The Simpsons.

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An analysis of translated puns in the Spanish dubbed

version of the American sitcom The Simpsons.

Is the translation successful in re-creating the same effect as the original?

Name: Inge Gooskens

Student number: 6171184

Master thesis

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Abstract

This thesis deals with what many scholars claim to be the most difficult field of translation: humor. The debate on whether or not humor is translatable has been going on for years. This corpus-based analysis focuses on a language-specific part of humor: puns. Because puns play with ambiguities that exists in almost every language, some say it is impossible to find an equivalent in any target language. However, translators have to deal with this issue in real life and need to translate them one way or another. This corpus consists of fourteen episodes of the American sitcom The Simpsons that is famous for its use of puns. With a mix of theories of various scholars that investigated this field like Delabastita, Gottlieb, Marco, Hausmann and Martínez Sierra, a hundred puns are put to the test in order to assess what type of pun they are, with what strategy they are translated and whether or not this is a successful translation. Attention is also paid to the factors that can be of influence on an unsuccessful translation, like the nature of both English and Spanish when it comes to punning and the polysemiotic complexity of an audiovisual text like The Simpsons.

Keywords

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Motivation

Having some experience with translating humor myself, I have always been really interested and intrigued by the many challenges that translators have to face when translating humoristic texts. It is this creative side of translation that drew my attention immediately. In my opinion, a good translator has to be inventive to find a good solution so that this humoristic aspect is not completely lost in translation. For this dissertation I will take a closer look at what many scholars claim to be the most difficult one of all to translate: puns

Wanting to be a professional literary translator myself in the future, the problems that

translating humor poses, are extremely relevant to me. Therefore, in this analysis we will take a look at real-life examples of how a professional translator dealt with the translation of puns and which strategies are used to transfer wordplay from the source language to the target language. The decision for the chosen corpus was not a tough one. When thinking about humor and specifically wordplay, one of my favorite series of all times immediately popped up in my mind: The Simpsons. When doing some more research on the original series and its Spanish translation, it turned out to be a perfect example to analyze. Although I am not a great proponent of dubbing in general, at a first glance I was surprised by the quality of the Spanish translation that María José Aguirre de Cárcer delivered. At first sight, a lot of humoristic aspects have been maintained, but carrying out the analysis will give us a clear answer on the specific element of puns. Even though the debate on whether or not puns are translatable is going on strong, my personal opinion when starting this dissertation, is that there is no such thing as ‘untranslatability’. There is always some kind of solution, it might not be perfect and flawless, but the best possible option. Therefore, I hope that this dissertation will confirm my personal opinion on the matter and show that a good translator can find a way to maintain the humoristic aspect in wordplay one way or another. If it is within my reach I will also propose solutions that could be possibilities in my opinion. It is by no means my intention to insult María José and I really appreciate her help on this matter. Likewise I expect to get inspired and enlightened by the translator’s findings and creative solutions that might help me in the future.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1: Typology concerning types of puns……… 18

Figure 2: Arrangement of Delabastita’s translation techniques along the punning balance 24 Figure 3: Types of puns in the source text categorized……… 34

Figure 4: Translation strategies used for each different type of pun……… 34

Figure 5: Total of renderings per strategy……… 42

Figure 6: Successful rendering per category……… 42

Figure 7: Unsuccessful rendering per category……… 43

Figure 8: Visual puns per category……… 45

Figure 9: Translation strategies used for visual puns per category……… 46

Figure 10: Percentages of horizontal and vertical puns in the corpus……… 48

Figure 11: Strategies used for translation of horizontal and vertical puns……… 49

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Aim of the dissertation

The Simpsons is an American series about a typical middle-class family struggling with everyday life in the small city of Springfield. In the series the creator, Matt Groening, makes fun of political hot-potatoes, religion and everything else you can think of. Each episode has a duration of approximately thirty minutes and was first broadcasted in the United States on the 19th of April of 1987 and now contains of 25 seasons and a movie. The series has won

multiple awards, like various Emmy Awards and a People’s Choice Award (Todd, 2009: 2). For this analysis we are going to take a closer look at the translation of one specific type of humor: puns. That the popular American sitcom is humorous is an understatement. With its apparent simple structure it appeals to heterogeneous public of both children and adults. However, when you take a closer look at the underlying structure and sometimes even mathematics of the series, as was investigated by Singh (2013) amongst others, it turns out not to be so simplistic as thought on first sight. Puns are a great part of the series and a good example of this layered structure of the series: what seems simple at first sight, might have a double meaning. The Simpsons contains a countless amount of humor, a lot of it referring to American culture, but with the absence of the so called laugh-track that many American shows have, the viewers are forced to choose what they themselves think is funny and

therefore are not aware of the jokes they might have missed because of the sound of laughter. This could be one of the factors that many translations of the show are successfully accepted by their foreign public (Ferrari, 2009:19). This thesis will carry out an analysis on one of these translations, the one for Spain that was under the responsibility of María José Aguirre de Cárcer from the very beginning of the series. She is one of Spain’s most experienced

translators who has been responsible for translating everything from The Muppets to films like Johnny English. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze her Spanish translation of The Simpsons in which we will focus on what some translators say to be one of the most difficult aspects of translation: puns. To begin with, we will take a look at the definition of the pun and the debate that has been going on about their translatability. After that, we will focus on the different types of puns as explained by Hausmann: paronymy, homonymy, homophony and homography. To the list we will add the category of portmanteaux. We will also make the distinction between horizontal and vertical puns to see if there is a relation between what kind of pun has been translated with which techniques. We will use the model of Delabastita that

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consists of eight possible strategies that we will elaborate in more detail in the next chapter: PUNPUN, PUNNON-PUN, PUNRELATED RHETORICAL DEVICE,

PUNZERO, ST PUN=TT PUN, NON-PUNPUN, ZEROPUN, EDITORIAL TECHNIQUES.

With each ST pun we will ask ourselves the following questions: -What type of pun are we dealing with? (Hausmann, 1974)

- How was the pun translated? Which one(s) of Delabastita’s strategies was used and perhaps we can guess why?

- Is the humorous utterance maintained or lost in translation?

After answering ourselves these questions, we arrive at the main question of this thesis:

Is the Spanish dubbed version of The Simpsons successful in re-creating the same effect as the original?

To achieve this primary aim, we first need to know what exactly are the factors that can explain the loss of puns. Then, we are going to use the criteria by Low and Marco with which we will assess all the different techniques by Delabastita and set up which ones count as a successful rendering and which ones do not. The Simpsons gives us an abundance of examples of these: “jokes that exploit the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings” (Oxford Dictionaries). By using Delabastita’s eight translation strategies for translating (1996) these types of jokes ,Hausmann’s classification for the different types of puns (1974) and the tools to achieve a successful translation offered by Low (2011) and Marco (2010). We will use these theories to put our examples to the test. By carrying out a quantitative analysis we can draw conclusions about whether or not the translation is successful in re-creating the same effect as the original. As a secondary aim, we will analyze the choices made by Aguirre de Cárcer and study their effect for the TT audience. This will be carried out by analyzing some of the criticism that has been expressed by the Spanish audience, a lot of which has been expressed on online forums where bilingual viewers complain that too much has been lost in translation. After our analysis we can link these critiques to the outcome of the actual analysis.

Since this is a corpus-based analysis and we are dealing with a specific translator and translation, we will also include an interview with the translator of our corpus: Aguirre de Cárcer. We will draw a parallel between our theory, especially the factors for unsuccessful translations, and her answers to see if these factors are applicable to this specific case. This

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way we are able to connect our theory and the outcome of our analysis with the reality of the translator and the audience.

1.2. Method and material

In order to analyze the translation of the various puns in The Simpsons, we need a theoretical framework. Luckily, a lot has already been written about the translation of humor, a lot of which concerning language-specific jokes and puns. Therefore our theoretical framework will consists of a hybrid mix of different theories by Delabastita (1993,1994, 1996), Gottlieb (1992, 1997), Hausmann (1974), Low, (2011) and Díaz Pérez (2008, 2010, 2012) amongst others. In chapter two we will explain these scholars that form our theory and make some adaptations to their theories to eventually form our own framework. We will take a closer look on the definitions of wordplay and puns and the on-going debate between scholars about the (un)translatability of puns in the next chapter. We will explain the theories and techniques of the scholars mentioned above, especially the different categories of Hausmann, the eight translation strategies by Delabastita and the criteria for a successful translation by Low and Marco’s punning balance. After we have a clear vision of our theory, we will discuss

everything that is generally involved around translating a polysemiotic text and dubbing one. In chapter two we will also take a look at four possible factors that can be of influence when a pun is translated in an unsuccessful way. This consists of human factors like the

(in)competence of the translator, but also external factors like the nature of both English and Spanish. We will also look at two qualities that are important for the translator when it comes to recognizing puns. In chapter three we will discuss some examples of criticism expressed about the translation on the Internet, to illustrate both the side of the public and the translator. The dubbing of this particular series will also be reviewed. Then, in chapter four, we will carry on with our actual analysis of the corpus. For this analysis we will compare all five categories of puns and the translation strategies that were used, of which we will give plenty of examples. We will also pay attention to the translation of visual puns in the corpus.

Furthermore we will compare horizontal and vertical puns to see if there is a difference in the way they are translated. We will also resort to the earlier discussed factors that can cause unsuccessful translations and if these are valid for our specific case. This will also include references to an interview with the translator herself, with which we can draw a parallel between theory and practice.

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season 20 of The Simpsons. There is a simple explanation for the choice of this particular season, namely the fact that it contains an actual homage to wordplay in episode 6. The rest of the selected episodes are the consecutive ones after that until we reach a corpus of a total of a hundred examples. For our corpus we are analyzing the following episodes:

Episode Original title Spanish title

Season 20, episode 6 Homer and Lisa exchange

cross words

Homer y Lisa tienen unas palabras

Season 20, episode 7 MyPods and Boomsticks MiPods y cartuchos de

dinamita

Season 20, episode 8 The Burns and the Bees Burns y las abejas

Season 20, episode 9 Lisa the Drama Queen Lisa la Reina del Drama

Season 20, episode 10 Take my life, please Quíteme mi vida, por favor

Season 20, episode 11 How the test was won La conquista del examen

Season 20, episode 12 No loan again, naturally Sin crédito de nuevo,

naturalmente

Season 20, episode 13 Gone Maggie, gone Adiós Maggie, Adiós

Season 20, episode 14 In the name of the

Grandfather

En el nombre del abuelo

Season 20, episode 15 Wedding for Disaster Una boda abonada para el

desastre

Season 20, episode 16 Eeny Teeny Maya Moe Un don din de la maya

mayita Moe

Season 20, episode 17 The Good, the Sad and the

Drugly

El bueno, el triste y la drogadicta

Season 20, episode 18 Father knows worst Un padre nunca tiene razón

Season 20, episode 19 Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D’oh Sensación de morir, jo!

Every pun that was found in the corpus, will be transcribed in both English and Spanish and completed with a back-translation. All the examples used for the analysis can be found in the appendix. The examples will be categorized on three scales: which strategy has been used for what type of pun and whether the pun is horizontal or vertical. These data will be put into

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different types of charts that form the basis of our quantitative study. After the analysis the factors for unsuccessful translations and the criticism of the audience will come together with the theory and the outcome of our analysis.

In chapter five conclusions will be presented and possible lines for future investigations will be proposed.

1.3. Hypotheses

We can formulate the following hypotheses concerning our corpus-based analysis: first of all, it is said that between cognate languages wordplay can sometimes be easily translated when we are talking about wordplay based on sound similarity (Delabastita, 1996: 135). Although English and Spanish do not belong to the same branch of the Indo-European language family (English being a Germanic language and Spanish Romanic language), in the past there have been a lot of borrowings from Latin being introduced in the English language. This Greco-Latin substratum of some European languages, like English, can sometimes make the translation of wordplay easier (Delabastita, 1996:136). In the light of this fact, it is expected to see some cases where these interlingual borrowings produce some nice translations. For each category of puns as introduced by Hausmann we will formulate a hypothesis:

It is said by Delabastita that homonymic puns have a more extralingual nature (Delabastita, 1996: 135). Because of this, there can be cases of easily translatable wordplay, even when the two languages are not historically related, like is the case for our investigation. In general, we assume that the puns based on homonymy and paronymy have more chance of surviving translation, since they are said to be less language-dependent. We expect to see this in the outcome.

If we follow Gottlieb, we can expect there to be most loss when translating homophonic and homographic puns (Gottlieb, 1997: 217). No matter how much two languages are alike, it is highly unlikely that these words will sound similar in any target language. However, since it is said that homographic puns rely more on sight than on hearing (Delabastita, 1993: 79), and we are dealing with an audiovisual corpus, it is expected that we cannot find a lot of examples of this type of wordplay.

Last, the category of puns that consists of making a new word out of two existing ones or portmanteaux, is expected not to have a lot of loss of humor. Since it involves creating a new word, this is not so restrained by the linguistic aspect of a language as for example homophonic puns. With a little creativity of the translator we expect to see these examples

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Obviously our corpus is an audiovisual text, which means that the translator has to take into account all the different channels that play a part and the interplay between these channels. Visual puns play an important role in our corpus, the question remains whether this complexity causes difficulties for the translator, or, if on the contrary this can be of help in finding a solution. For our corpus it is expected that it poses an extra problem for our

translator, because in general it is limiting for the translator to find (cultural) equivalents. The Simpsons are an animated series that explores the field of visual puns frequently. When it comes to these puns that rely on only image or both image and dialogue, we expect it to be difficult for the translator to always maintain this coherence between all these channels, especially when the pun consist of a combination of dialogue and visuals.

Concerning the formal structure of the pun, they can either be horizontal or vertical. Offord (1997: 255) shows with his study about the translation of translated puns in two works of Shakespeare that horizontal puns have a bigger chance of surviving the translation than vertical puns. Based on this and other studies, for example by Marco (2010), we expect to see this in the corpus as well.

Knowing the reputation of Aguirre de Cárcer as a translator and the opinions that others expressed about her work (Simón, 2008: 22), it is difficult to imagine her translation being completely inadequate as some critical viewers state online. It is so easy nowadays to criticize something or somebody on the Internet, without presenting a good solution for the translation problem. With the four factors to explain unsuccessful translations, the interview with the translator herself and of course our analysis we expect the outcome to be in favor of Aguirre de Cárcer.

Concluding, our general hypothesis is that the strategies of PUN>PUN and PUN>NON-PUN will probably the most resorted to by the translator. Because of the

reputation and experience of the translator, the dubbing scene in Spain and the success of the series in Spain, we expect to see a lot of creative translations when it comes to puns. The puns that are unsuccessfully translated will probably be the cases of homophonic and homographic puns. When it comes to horizontal and vertical puns, we expect the horizontal ones to be easier to translate. Since we are dealing with a polysemiotic text, we expect to see a lot of visual puns that either rely one channel or more channels simultaneously. We expect this particular category of puns to have a lot of unsuccessful renderings. With the help of the factors for unsuccessful renderings, the interview with Aguirre de Cárcer and the outcome of our analysis, we will be able to assess if the criticism by the audience online is valid or not.

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CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1. The definition of the ‘pun’ and its (un)translatability

Before we can begin our analysis of the corpus in chapter three and four, we first need a good understanding about the definition of the word ‘pun’. A clear description can be found in the work of Delabastita:

“Wordplay is the general name for the various textual phenomena in which structural features of the language(s) are exploited in order to bring about a communicatively significant

confrontation of two (or more) linguistic structures with more or less similar forms and more or less different meanings.” (Delabastita, 1996: 128)

We will be using this definition throughout the analysis, but we will make a small adaptation to this explanation. Delabastita uses the terms ‘pun’ and ‘wordplay’ interchangeably, like synonyms. However, when explaining the translation strategy of PUNRELATED

RHETORICAL DEVICE, he himself says the pun can be replaced in the TT by other types of wordplay like repetition and alliteration, this sounds like he is contradicting himself (1996: 134). Therefore, we are more leaning towards the usage of a pun being a type of wordplay and are therefore agreeing with Veisbergs (1997) and Leppihalme (1997), who explain that wordplay does not consist of merely punning, but also of other types of jokes that play with language like spoonerisms, alliteration and rhyme (Veisbergs, 1997:155).

In this analysis we will focus only on puns, or in Greek ‘paronomasia’. Gottlieb explains it a little further by pointing out that the words of the pun not only serve as the function of communication, but are also part of the object of communication (Gottlieb, 1997:209). Because of the fact that puns exploit the intrinsic structure of a language, it can be a challenge to find a suitable equivalent in the target language (TT). When it comes to the translation of humor, the subject of puns and wordplay received an enormous amount of attention by scholars (Partington, 2009: 1794). However, many of them come to the easy conclusion that this phenomenon is simply untranslatable. Fortunately, this kick-started the debate on whether or not this is possible, or “the notorious thesis of the pun’s

untranslatability” as Delabastita (2004: 602) dramatically calls it. A closer look at this debate reveals various attitudes and angles concerning this dilemma. Delabastita for example claims that when scholars use the term ‘untranslatable’’, what they really mean to say is that the

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translation solution simply does not meet their requirements of a good equivalent in the TT (1996: 134). So whether or not puns are translatable, depends on what attitude towards translation itself you have. Scholars who advocate untranslatability of puns are not scarce. Jakobson for example acknowledges that poetry is by definition untranslatable because of its use of juxtaposition, and therefore puns since they ‘reign over poetic art’ (1959: 234).

Hausmann concludes that the meta-linguistic nature of puns accounts for its untranslatability, since this attracts the attention to the structure of the SL (1974:107). Tiersma agrees with the difficulties that translation of puns pose, but leaves room for ‘an extremely unlikely

coincidence’ (1985:2). When we take a look at these critics, one thing stands out immediately, namely the year in which these scholars published. Over the years there has been a shift in what exactly is a ‘good’ translation and its translation criteria. Whereas the conventional idea of translation studies states that a successful translation should be faithful to the ST in

linguistic form (Han, 2011:151, Zabalbeascoa, 2005:188), a new approach was introduced in 1978 by the German translator Vermeer: the Skopos Theory. With this theory translators were freed from the restrictions that linguistic equivalence proposed. The theory departs from the idea that the skopos or purpose of the ST is given priority when translating, and recreating this purpose in the TT is the main goal (Han, 2011: 151). By accepting compensation as a

translation strategy, Gottlieb agrees with this theory and states in a small case study that he does not believe that wordplay is untranslatable in most cases, and that there are certain factors that can be of influence when dealing with an unsuccessful translation (Gottlieb, 1997: 226). In this next paragraph we will take a closer look at these factors. Another scholar that rejects the untranslatability of puns is Delabastita. He is agreeing that the translation of wordplay poses serious difficulties, but underlines that it is above all important that a translator should: “…depart from source text structures for the sake of recreating certain effects” (1994:229). His eight translation strategies (1996:134) will form the base for our analysis. After this analysis we can come to the conclusion on whether or not the translator was successful in her translation, and to what degree. Therefore we need to have a clear view of what factors can play a role in the loss of humor.

2.2. Factors to explain unsuccessful translations of puns

Based on theories of various scholars like Low (2011), Gottlieb (1997) and our own conclusions we came to a total four factors that can explain why puns can get lost in translation.

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1. First of all, a constricting notion of translation can be a reason why there is a loss of puns in the TT. As we have seen, there are scholars who’s vision of what contains a good translation is very narrow and who are not willing to accept certain translations, because of the fact that they have derived too far from the original. These source-oriented translators do not agree with all of Delabastita’s translation strategies, like PUN > ZERO and NON-PUN > PUN. Those who think of translation as needing to be as similar as possible to the original, is limited to tools like the use of synonyms and transposition. When it comes to translating humor, this attitude is set up to fail (Low, 2011: 60).

2. Another reason is based on human constraints. This could be the incompetence of the translator, like his or her knowledge of the two languages. In the case of puns, especially vertical ones, there is a good possibility that the translator is not aware of all the wordplay in the original and therefore does not translate them in a humorous way. Other human

constraints is a lack of creativity on the part of the translator (Gottlieb, 1997: 216). Low adds that there is a possibility that the translator simply did not make a serious effort in finding a humorous equivalent in the TT (2011: 59).

3. The third constraint is that translators often have to work under a lot of time pressure. When the original comes out, the translator has little time to work on the translation, especially in the case of dubbing, since the translation also has to be adapted to be in sync with the movement of the lips of the original. It is a given that a time limit is of influence on the quality of the target text (Jiménez Crespo, 2012: 57-58). When dealing with humor and especially with puns, there is no unlimited time frame for a translator to search for an equally funny equivalent. Therefore, a translator often settle for the first acceptable translation to cross his or her mind (Delabastita, 1996: 135).

4. The last factor concerns the nature of both involved languages and their attitudes towards punning. When dealing with two different languages, it is important to take a look at the nature of both. Frequently it has been said that the English language, and especially the English of the United Kingdom, has a long tradition of using puns. It is even said that puns are one of the first figures of speech used in English (Wu, 2012: 2133). Both the Spanish and the English language have ambiguities that are necessary for punning. When making a pun, this means there is a violation of the submaxim of manner introduced by Grice: avoid

ambiguity (Attardo,1993:549). This means that wordplay is possible in both languages of our analysis. However, when we take a closer look at the nature of both languages, we come to the conclusion that homophones are easier to create in the English language than they are in Spanish, because of the fact that English is a Germanic language and therefore has a higher

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number of monosyllabic words than Romanic languages and because of the fact that the English sound changes through the years were not accompanied by a change in spelling as well (De La Cruz Cabanillas, 2008:56). The relation between spelling and pronunciation is more complex in English than it is in Spanish: different combinations of characters can “correspond to the same sound sequence” (Díaz Pérez, 2012: 32). From this we could

conclude that especially homophonic puns would be used more frequently in English, because of the differences in spelling. Apart from the obvious exceptions, Spanish has a much more regular spelling-pronunciation relation. We now know that both languages can create puns, but that they are easier to create in the English language than in Spanish. But apart from this language aspect of punning, we also have to take a look at the popularity and acceptance in both cultures. Redfern (1982: 272) for example says that American or British advertisements contain twice as much cases of wordplay than French ones, another interesting comparative study of Díaz Pérez shows that English men’s magazines contain significantly more puns than their Spanish counterparts (2012: 31) and Díaz Pérez also adds that puns are not as

appreciated by the rest of the European audience as they are by the Anglo-Saxon cultures (2010: 21). With Shakespeare making a lot of use of the ambiguities that exists in his language, puns have become a real trend in British and American literature since then (Díaz Pérez, Delabastita, Wu, 2012: 2133). On the contrary, in Spain this tradition is not found. The famous 18th century translator and play writer of Shakespeare Fernández de Moratín, who translated Shakespeare into Spanish, even said he very much disliked the abundance of puns in his works. It is said by Díaz Pérez that this is a reflection of the situation in Spain, where puns were considered inappropriate in a serious genre as drama is (2012: 32). More

investigation should be executed on more recent attitudes towards punning in Spanish society today.

At the end of our analysis, we will look back on these four factors to see if any of the three is relevant for our translator. Now let us take a look at what type of puns there are according to Hausmann and Delabastita.

2.3. Hausmann’s classification of puns

Hausmann distinguishes four different types of puns: paronymy, homonymy, homophony and homography (Hausmann, 1974: 76-80). A good understanding of these categories are needed for our analysis.

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17 2.3.1. Paronymy

The first type is a play between two words that are pronounced or spelled alike, but not completely. They are similar, but not identical. In Delabastita (1993: 81) we can find a good example of paronymy between the words ‘purse’ and ‘person’.

2.3.2. Homonymy

Puns based on homonymy play with words that have the same spelling and the same pronunciation, but various meanings and therefore can cause a humorous ambiguity. An example is the word ‘stroke’ that can either mean a loving touch or a brain hemorrhage.

2.3.3. Homophony

Homophonic puns have the same pronunciation, but a different spelling. A nice example of this can be found in the song ‘I scream of Ice Cream’.

2.3.4. Homography

Logically, a homographic pun is based on two words with the same spelling but a different pronunciation. This can be demonstrated with the word ‘wind’, that has two different ways of pronouncing and also two different meanings. However, Delabastita claims that homographic puns depend for a great part on sight, which makes finding examples of them in an

audiovisual text not likely (Delabastita, 1993:79).

2.3.5. Horizontal versus vertical punning

Now we have seen the different categories of puns as explained by Hausmann and

Delabastita, we also chose to use their distinction between horizontal and vertical puns. In the case of vertical puns, the, in this case, viewer is being confronted with the ambiguity of meaning at one glance. The relation between the two elements of the pun are established on a paradigmatic level (Delabastita, 1996: 128) and are therefore introduced simultaneously. This means that only one of the semantic components is visible and the other one is hidden. This makes the vertical pun easier to overlook and not notice. This opposed to horizontal puns, in which the two meanings are being triggered by repetition (Gottlieb, 1997: 209). It is to say that in a horizontal pun, the two meanings confront each other directly and is therefore established on a syntagmatic level.

When it comes polysemiotic texts, like a sitcom, various studies come to the conclusion that there is a predominance of vertical puns (Schröter, 2005:171). As we have

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seen, the horizontal pun is more easily recognizable, because it signals itself explicitly by repetition. This could be the reason that more often the pun is vertical in polysemiotic text and therefore less obvious, especially visual puns that also rely on the images to get the pun across. The vertical puns will depend more on the images and therefore do not need the repetition that the horizontal one has. Our hypothesis claims that horizontal puns are more easily to be translated with a pun than vertical puns. This is based on the studies of Offord and Marco, that both have the same outcome that vertical puns are more often omitted or

translated without a pun than horizontal puns.

To make the complete typology a little clearer, we will use Delabastita’s schedule that can function as a reminder for our analysis, but we replaced his examples with examples that we found in our own corpus (1993: 81). Since we only found one example of homography in our corpus, there is one example (horizontal homography) that was not found in our episodes of The Simpsons, but in another season of the series.

Homonymy: = sound = spelling Homophony: = sound ≠ spelling Homography: ≠ sound = spelling Paronymy: ≠ sound ≠ spelling Horizontal:

My orange is not the orange of that orange

Horizontal: See if I care. Eye-care!

Horizontal:

C’mon Marge, it’s us,not uter-you! (Season 12) Horizontal: Mr. Wiener is Mr. Whiner Vertical: A magazine for African honeys Vertical: The Basket-belles Vertical: Ignorital Vertical:

In High School they called me Marge Boobier

Figure 1. Typology concerning types of puns

2.3.6. An addition: Portmanteaux

Even though this schedule introduced by Delabastita will come very handy and addresses almost every type of wordplay, there is a type of pun not that did not fall in one of the above mentioned categories that we did find in the corpus:

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19 Lisa: A two horned unicorn!

Juliette: A twonicorn!

Episode 9. Example 31

The definition for this type of wordplay can be found in Nash (1985: 143) who gives the name ‘portmanteau’ to refer to a made-up word that has been created out of two existing words. It is described by Nash as “a label for the coinage that packs two meanings into one word.”

Although not a frequent phenomenon, we will include this wordplay in our analysis.

2.4. Delabastita’s eight translation strategies for puns

Now that we know what types of puns there are, we need a model with which these puns can be translated. As said, we will be using Delabastita’s translation techniques. It presents translators possible solutions that they can resort to when dealing with puns, as opposed to merely declaring them untranslatable as some critics have done. Fact is that in real-life, translators have to deal with puns whether they want to or not. Delabastita himself admits that the model needs to be refined and developed more, but that at least it can “serve as a starting point” (1993: 191). The methods can sometimes be quite radical, like omission and NON-PUNPUN, in which compensation, that later was put under more attention by Newmark (1998), but Delabastita explains that sometimes “the only way to be faithful to the original text is paradoxically to be unfaithful to it” (1996:135). The techniques that we will be using for this thesis are the following:

2.4.1. ST PUNTT PUN

The first and most ideal strategy is that the ST pun is replaced by a TT pun. This does not mean it has to be exactly the same as the original wordplay. Delabastita explains that even this type of renderings can undergo various language shifts. A pun in the original text can be based on lexical, grammatical or phonological features of the ST linguistic code and the solution for the TT pun can also be found in one of those features. So the ST pun and the TT pun may shift from one linguistic feature to another, which gives the translator more

possibilities of finding a pun for the TT. A shift in formal structures is also a possibility. So whereas for example the ST pun is based on paronymy, the solution for a TT pun can lie in a pun of the homographic type. It is also interesting to take a look at the semantic level of the pun and its translation. The ST pun is based on two different meanings: the S1 and S2. The ST and TT pun can either share S1 and S2 (parallel translation), only one meaning

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parallel translation) or neither of them (non-parallel translation). To put in other words, there is a pun in both ST and TT, but there can be shifts in formal and/or semantic structure (Díaz Pérez, 2010:25).

2.4.2. PUNNON-PUN

In the second strategy the pun is replaced by a non-pun phrase. This phrase can either

represent two or more meanings of the ST pun in a non-punning way (non-selective), just one meaning (selective), or no meaning at all is maintained (diffuse paraphrase). Either way, the translation does not contain any form of wordplay.

2.4.3. PUN RELATED RHETORICAL DEVICE  OTHER FUNNY RENDERING The third strategy, that he also calls PUNPUNOID, resorts to other wordplay-related devices with which the ST pun can be replaced, this in order to recreate the same humorous effect in the TT. Examples of other devices are repetition, rhyme, alliteration and so on. This still creates a funny effect, when no TT pun is at hand. However, for this analysis we will add to this strategy the cases of a TT translation that is funny in general, or a non-punning joke to speak with Gottlieb’s words (Gottlieb, 1997: 216). So under this strategy we are not just ranging the renderings that contain another rhetorical device, but also with a TT utterance that is considered funny. This strategy will therefore be called PUN > Other funny rendering instead of ‘other rhetorical device’. Without this adaptation, there would not be place in our analysis for translations in which the pun is lost, but not the very cause for laughter.

2.4.4.PUNZERO

With this technique the translator simply omits the portion of the text that contains the pun. Delabastita adds here that this choice can be put under attention, and the translator will try justify this practice. However, this is obviously not a possibility when dealing with an audiovisual translation. The omission can take place on various levels: only (a part) of the utterance containing the pun is deleted, a part of a dialogue or even the omission of an entire scene or act.

2.4.5.ST PUNTT PUN

In this strategy we are dealing with a direct copy of the pun into the TT. About this technique, also called non-translation or direct transfer, Delabastita explains that it is often combined with a footnote (see strategy 8: editorial techniques) explaining the pun and that recently this has become a popular phenomenon in modern mass media, like international advertisements (Delabastita, 1993: 211). However, in this audiovisual translation of The Simpsons our

translator can not resort to this solution of explaining the wordplay in a footnote for the public that do not understand. It is not for nothing that Luque Durán emphasizes on the fact that a

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thorough knowledge of the language is crucial (2007: 93). Therefore, a direct copy without the possibility of explaining the ST pun, seems highly unlikely to find in our corpus. 2.4.6. NON-PUNPUN

What is meant with this strategy is that a pun is added in the TT where there is no pun present in the ST sentence, to compensate for the loss in another case. The translator in this case sees an opportunity to make a pun in the TT with the non-punning ST utterance. No completely new material is added, but more so the original is transformed into a pun in the TT. 2.4.7. ZEROPUN

A strategy that is similar to number seven, but with the difference that it is not possible to find the counterpart of the TT in the original, it is to say that completely new material has been added by the translator. Delabastita himself did not find any examples of this in his corpus, maybe because a lot of criticism has been expressed about this strategy being too liberal and free (1993: 217).

2.4.8. EDITORIAL TECHNIQUES

For this strategy, Delabastita refers to the metatextual elements of a text, in which there are possibilities to take usage of several editorial techniques, like footnotes and the introduction. When dealing with an audiovisual translation like ours, the translator has no access to these phenomena in which translation choices can be explained. For that reason, this strategy will be left out of the analysis itself.

Now that we know and understand the strategies completely, we can leave out the eighth strategy and, according to Delabastita, it will be unlikely to find cases of compensation, either NON-PUNPUN or ZEROPUN (1993: 217). Delabastita also explains that the different techniques can be used combined. On another note, he admits that many critics, more specifically source-orientated translators, do not agree with some of these techniques, like PUNZERO as being a possible solution and that some even have difficulties accepting PUNPUN because frequently this also contains certain translation shifts. However,

Delabastita’s model has proved to be very useful for many translators, despite of the criticism. Apart from actual translators using his eight strategies, it also often used for similar analyses like this one. An example is the investigation that was carried out by Crisafulli about La Divina Comedia by Dante (1996) and a similar one by Marco concerning puns in the works of Oscar Wilde (2010).

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2.5. On successful and unsuccessful translations

Low (2011: 60) helps us to evaluate the jokes in a specific work with a series of questions that a translator can ask him- or herself before starting:

1. What is the genre/context/tone/situation/purpose of the work? 2. Is the humor obscure/clumsy/complex/hilarious/offensive? 3. Is the humor language-specific or not?

4. Is the humor culture-specific?

When answering the first question, it gives us more information on the importance of the humor and its eventual loss. For example, when dealing with translating a serious political speech, it is logically less severe than when humor is lost in a sitcom. Obviously, The Simpsons is a good example of the latter: every episode deals with the same group of

characters in a ‘normal’ everyday-life setting. It is not secret that The Simpsons is a humorous series on many levels. Humor of every kind as described in questions two, three and four can be found in The Simpsons, but again, we will be focusing on the language-specific type. To be able to analyze our corpus, we first need to take a look at what the general purpose of punning is. It is comprehensible that one of the main purposes of wordplay is to amuse its public and to cause laughter. There are nonetheless a few other very important functions that wordplay can fulfill as Delabastita (1996: 129-130) points out, namely “forcing the listener/reader to pay more attention, adding persuasive force to the statement, deceiving our socially conditioned reflex against sexual and other taboo themes, and so forth”. Vandaele agrees with this and adds the puns may look like ‘fun and games’ but that they often carry socially transgressive content with which political, ideological or ethical messages can be expressed (2010: 181). Kjerkegaard (2011:1) adds that with punning the structure of meaning and sense is being undermined and therefore fulfilling a deconstructive function. With these puns Groening is also deconstructing certain elements of American society. This is where we come to the conclusion that wordplay plays an extremely important role in the sitcom, since The Simpsons “offers a critical view of mainstream social and cultural norms” (Todd, 2009: 231). In the form of jokes Groening critiques and satirizes various aspects of American (or can we say western?) culture, like aesthetic, sexual, political and social norms of society (Korte, 1997). As said, because of its layered structure, it has a very heterogeneous public

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that appeals to both children and adults. The absence of a laugh-track makes it possible for children to watch the series without having the idea that they are not understanding the jokes, and adults are “rewarded for paying attention” (Groening, 1997: 9). So, puns have various important functions in the series: they force the viewer to pay attention and to be critical while at the same time expressing criticism about certain aspects of western society.

According to Low, all jokes are translatable in some way, and if a joke is not

translated as a joke, it therefore is a bad translation (2011: 59), especially when the humor is of such great importance as is the case in The Simpsons. That is why our first criterion for a successful translation is that translation strategies 2. PUNNON-PUN and 4. PUNZERO count as unsuccessful renderings. If the goal of translator is to create a nearly identical TT in every aspect, your are immediately set up to fail. Low wants to broaden this view by saying that the main goal is to deliver a more or less similar joke. It does not have to be based on the same linguistic structures, “nor does the pun need to be equally funny” (2011: 60.). This broader notion of translating jokes brings us to the second criterion, namely that the strategies 1. PUNPUN and 3. PUNOTHR FUNNY RENDERING count as a successful translation. These two strategies bring a humorous effect to the TT and that is in the end what counts.

As for the strategies of compensation, 6. NON-PUNPUN and 7.ZEROPUN, we

go by the conception that the overall goal is to recreate an equally humorous overall translation, so we can see these two strategies as a last resort for a translators if not able to make a humorous rendering in the same utterance and therefore make up for a loss in another part.

Last, strategy number 5. ST PUN=TT PUN is usually not considered to be a successful translation for our Spanish audience, who because of the complex structure of a pun will not understand a direct copy without the possibility of explaining the joke in for example a footnote. As said, to be able to understand puns, a knowledge of the language has to be extremely good, if not on the level of a native speaker. Because this is usually not the case in Spain (or any other country for that matter), the direct copy will often cause confusion. Marco agrees that the direct copy means a punning loss (2010:270). However, when analyzing all our examples we have to make adaptations to this classification. One reason is the fact that the two cases of direct copies found in the corpus (ST PUN = TT PUN) actually do function for the Spanish audience in these examples, like the visual pun : “Pasta la Vista, baby”. This works as perfectly in the TT, because the pun is actually based on a famous Spanish exclamation: “Hasta la Vista”. Since it is the name of a pasta restaurant, and ‘pasta’ has the same name in Spanish, this pun works in both. Therefore, the strategy of ST PUN = TT PUN

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is in our analysis considered as a successful rendering. So our final scheme, based on the one made by Marco (2010: 270) is the following:

Figure 2. Arrangement of Delabastita’s translation techniques along the punning balance

In Marco’s so-called punning-balance he divides Delabastita’s translation strategies in three categories based on their effect for the TT pun: punning loss, pun preservation and pun gain. We are using a similar balance, but whereas he strictly focuses on the pun and we focus more on the overall effect of the renderings, our division is slightly different from his.

2.6. On recognizing puns

When it comes to translating puns, the first obvious step is that the puns need to be recognized by the translator for it is impossible to translate with a pun if the original pun has not been picked up. There are two important qualities that, in this case, a translator needs to have to be able to see and understand all the cases of wordplay.

The most important aspect of this recognition is that the translator possesses sufficient knowledge of the source language, to an extent that linguistic ambiguities and even broken or bent linguistic rules, that mark cases of wordplay, are being recognized. Therefore a high standard of proficiency of the source language is absolutely essential for a translator (Chiaro, 1992: 13). This includes every aspect of a language. For example, if the knowledge of

pronunciation is not sufficient, it is fairly difficult to recognize cases of homophony. There are also puns that play with the different pronunciation within the same language, so if the translator has no knowledge of these regional differences, the pun will also be missed. The question remains if an L2 learner can ever reach the same language proficiency as a native speaker. There has not been a lot of research regarding the recognition of puns by second language speakers, but the research that has indeed been carried out, shows that although their level may be advanced and their reading skills can reach the same level as native speakers, they ‘seldom reach the same level of automated language processing as L1 speakers’ (Paradis

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in Burns, 2010). In other words, their reading skills might reach a high level, but there will always be a difference in their ability to decode (Burns, 2010: 1). In this same investigation that was realized by Burns, it even shows that the native speakers did recognize more puns and they also recognized them faster, but not one of his respondents recognized all cases of puns in his corpus (Burns, 2010: 8). We can conclude that recognizing puns is easier for native speakers than it is for second language speakers, but even they do not pick up all of them either. In the case of our analysis, the native tongue of our translator Aguirre de Cárcer is Spanish and her second language is English. The standard amongst translators is still that a translators translates into their mother language, as is the case here too. Dickins points out that: “Translator training normally focuses on translation into the mother tongue, because higher quality is achieved in that direction than in translating into a foreign language” (2005: 2), a source-orientated approach . In this case, a natural sounding translation is most stressed and therefore best carried out by a native speaker of the target language.

The other necessary quality is also explained by Chiaro who claims that a big amount of this recognition lies in socio-cultural knowledge of the source culture (1992: 11). If a cultural reference is used in a pun, and these specific aspects, like famous people, events or institutions, are not known by the translator, it is almost impossible to identify the utterance as a pun. Beforehand, we already know that The Simpsons has an abundance of “cultural and political references to American culture” (Ferrari, 2009: 19).

Concluding, recognizing puns is a two-dimensional competence, where on one hand the translator needs to have a high proficiency of the source language, high enough to understand the ambiguities where puns are based upon, and on the other hand a great knowledge of the source culture. However, the standard still remains that translators should translate into their mother language, although almost native level of the second language is required. These qualities are important to keep in mind when analyzing the corpus, not only to analyze the translation of The Simpsons, but also because of the possibility that some puns may have been overlooked by us as well.

2.7.Translating a polysemiotic text

The corpus that we are analyzing is a polysemiotic one, what means that the communication is transmitted through more than one channel. Television series like The Simpsons belong in this category. Audiovisual texts usually employ the following four semiotic channels:

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2. The non-verbal acoustic channel: this semiotic channel consists of the music and other sound effects.

3. The verbal visual channel: in this category we can find captions and other written signs. 4. The non-verbal visual channel: the picture composition and flow of the images fall in this category (Gottlieb, 1997:89).

These channels interact with each other, making it important that the translator takes all four categories into account when translating. With these four channels in mind, we can distinguish three different kinds of puns in polysemiotic texts: puns that merely depend on the dialogue or channel one, the second are puns that are solely written on screen, these are puns based on channel three. In this case it is a visual joke that depends on the language, it seems entirely visual, but in reality is a visually coded version of a linguistic joke (Zabalbeascoa, 1996: 53). Last are puns that are based on an interplay of dialogue and verbal visual images (Gottlieb, 1997: 188).

Some scholars, like Díaz Cintas, consider this semiotic complexity to be a constraint for the translator, since the translation of the dialogue has to coincide with what is seen on screen. This takes away a certain freedom that literary translators do have (Díaz Cintas, 2007:9). Zabalbeascoa adds that translators of audiovisual texts have to face a lot more restrictions than translators of literary texts, since they have to deal with lip synchronization and above all the coherence between image and dialogue (1996: 248). A big disadvantage for translators of animated texts, is that the image in general plays a bigger part than in other audiovisual ones. With computer techniques everything is possible to create and animated series generally make good use of this option. The maintenance of the coherence between the verbal acoustic channel and the verbal and non-verbal visual channel can cause problems for a translator. However, when it comes to dubbing any audiovisual text Ainaud explains “la imagen manda” or “the image is in charge” (2003:90). This means that the translator departs from the image and adapts the translation to make it coherent, but with verbal visual puns this might cause big problems.

Gottlieb on the other hand, claims that these verbal visual elements that are the basis of a lot of puns can be part of the translation solution (Gottlieb, 1997:207). In the case of an animated series there is a big advantage when it comes to lip synchronization. When not dealing with real human beings, this is obviously easier and less noticeable if not executed perfectly. Our analysis of visual puns in chapter four will reveal which one of them is right when it comes to the translation of visual jokes in our corpus, but beforehand we expect this

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complexity to be another difficult barrier for the translator to overcome, especially for the third category of puns in which there is an interplay between channel one and three.

2.8. The dubbing scene in Spain

As we have already seen, in this analysis we are dealing with an English source text for a Spanish audience. This obviously means that there is a language barrier that has to be overcome in order for the, monolingual, target audience to understand. They depend on intermediaries who translate the foreign text into the target language and thereby overcoming the initial communication gap (Kilborn, 1993: 642). The two most common methods are subtitling and dubbing. For this analysis we are focusing on a Spanish translation, a country that has been a dubbing country since before the Civil War (Menéndez Otero, 2013, Martínez Sierra, 2009). The first Spanish dubbing studios were founded in 1932 and 1933 in Barcelona in Madrid and over the years dubbing became the norm for audiovisual translation. A decade later the dictator Francisco Franco even made the dubbing of foreign films into Spanish obligatory. This tradition continued on for many years. Recent studies show that even with the option of choosing the original version on a DVD and more complex televisions, only 22 percent of the people make use of this option, the rest still stays true to the dubbed version (Menéndez Otero, 2013). A reason could be that in general, the option you are used to is preferred, in this case dubbing, and that is fairly difficult to change a tradition that has been embedded in culture for a long period of time. This is true for both subtitling and dubbing. This is supported by the fact that most negative comments about the nature of dubbing, comes from countries that have subtitling culture (Kilborn, 1993: 644- 657). With respect to the future development, it is expected that globalization will evoke a greater sense of European identity and therefore a growing interest in other cultures and languages. According to Kilborn this can be one of the factors that can cause a shift in the dubbing-subtitling debate over time (1993: 657). In the last years, in which multimedia like Facebook and Twitter play in important role in everyday life, we already see an increasing number of Spanish people who are revolting against the Spanish dubbing tradition and rooting for subtitles for

educational, cultural and artistic reasons. It is on this same medium, the Internet, where the Spanish audience come together to complain about the, in their eyes, insufficient, translations. We also have to take into consideration that nowadays because of piracy almost every series and movie is available for watching online within a few hours after broadcasting. This is, according to the Spanish newspaper El País, the reason why the pressure of translators is

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increasing drastically. The audience wants to view the newest episode as soon as possible. In order not to lose their viewers, the dubbing studios in Spain are forced to adapt their way of working and realize their translations more and more quickly, rising the costs of the already expensive dubbing scene and putting a lot of time pressure on the translator (Marcos, 2012, Kilborn, 1993:657). Since subtitles can be made and added easily by bilingual viewers and putting it online. We can expect to Spanish audience to get accustomed to this method more and more.

In the next chapter we will take a look at criticism that was specifically expressed about the Spanish translation of The Simpsons that we will analyze in chapter four.

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CHAPTER THREE: ABOUT THE TRANSLATION OF THE

SIMPSONS

3.1. Critique expressed by the audience online

As said in the beginning, on the Internet a lot of criticism can be found concerning the

Spanish version of The Simpsons. On various forums the English speaking audience complain about the quality of the translation. Let us take a look at what some viewers have to say about the topic on one particular forum: Menéame (

http://www.meneame.net/story/errores-traduccion-simpsons ). This forum is home to both Spanish and South-American viewers, but

gives really interesting points of view on our topic. First of all, we can see a clear tendency of discontent with the fact that Spain and South-American countries have a dubbing culture (Martínez Sierra, 2009). It appears that with the globalization and the trends of multimedia as Facebook, the Spanish audience has become aware of the original versions of the series and movies they are so used to hearing in Spanish. For some time now, subtitling has been gaining territory in Spain, but it is still dubbing that is the dominant one (Martínez Sierra, 2009). On the forum however, we can read a lot of messages along the line of the next opinion:

 “Es inevitable perder cosas en traduccion si los 'puns' dependen del idioma inglés. Lo mejor que puedes hacer es tener buen nivel de ingles y verlo en V.O.”

(It is inevitable to lose certain things in the translation because the puns depend on the English language. The best you can do is improve your level of English and watch the original. -own translation)

 “Me hizo perder la confianza en las traducciones. Ahora ya no soporto ver algo traducido al Español. Y todo por esa tendencia a Españolizar los chistes.

(It made me lose faith in translations. Now I can’t it to watch anything translated into Spanish. And all for the tendency to ‘Spanify’ the jokes.-own translation)

These two viewers seems to think that the only way to really understand and enjoy the series completely, is to watch it completely in English. He seems to be aware of the fact that puns are really difficult or even impossible to translate, and that this not the translator’s fault, but made undoable because of the language-dependent nature of a pun. On the forum we can however also find really explicit and poorly founded opinions like:

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 “Habría que matar a los traductores, de verdad.”

(They should kill the translators, really. –own translation)

This is a good example of the anonymity that the Internet provides. Anyone can make a threatening and hostile statement like this without being confronted with any consequences. The viewer simplistically states that the translations are so bad that they should be killed. Zabalbeascoa (1996: 235) writes that these kinds of critiques are not uncommon and that some people openly state that dubbed versions of foreign works should not exist. He adds that these expressions of judgement are not valuable, since they are not based on objective criteria. Luckily, there are some reactions to this mean comment, defending the work that translators have to do:

 “...ser doblador y/o traductor es un trabajo complicado y es muy fácil criticar, por eso no me parece bien como se pone a los dobladores de los Simpson...”

(…it is a really difficult job to be a dubber or a translator and it is really easy to critique them, that is why I do not like the way they treat the dubbers of the Simpsons... –own translation.)

This viewer realizes that expressing critique about the translator is really easy, especially online, and that is not fair to say so without coming with a solution or an alternative. The fact is, The Simpsons have to be translated for the Spanish audience in order for it to be a success, and a loss of wordplay might be inevitable. Thankfully there are also a lot of viewers who compliment Aguirre de Cárcer with the good translation she presented:

 “Tenemos la suerte de tener en España a los que probablemente sean los mejores dobladores del mundo. Los Simpson puede no ser perfecta, pero es muy fiel a la V.O. (y cuando no lo es, se resuelve de manera bastante satisfactoria)”

(We have the luck that here in Spain, we probably have the best dubbers of the world. The translation of The Simpsons might not be perfect, but it is really faithful to the original (and when it is not, it has been resolved in a pretty satisfactory manner).-own translation.)

 “De los trozos que recuerdo claramente, que son muchos están bien traducidos en España, aunque los dobles sentidos, como lo de sea-men, obviamente son lost in translation.”

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(The parts that I remember clearly, are translated really good in Spain, although the double meanings, like the pun ‘sea-men’, are obviously lost in translation. –own translation.)

This viewer agrees that the Spanish translation is sufficient, but also sees that puns are almost always are lost in translation. Since a lot of this criticism is concerning the fact that the series is dubbed, let us take a look at this matter.

3.2. The dubbing of The Simpsons

As we have seen in paragraph 2.8. Spain was and still is a dubbing country. Our corpus demonstrates this: the method that was chosen for the emission of the sitcom is the one of dubbing. On the DVD box that came out in Spain, the option of subtitles is also provided. However, in line with the investigation that shows that only 22 percent of the Spaniards make use of this option, it is expected that this also the case for The Simpsons and thus the biggest part of the audience watches the Spanish version. A study of Martínez Sierra about the translation of humoristic aspects in The Simpsons in both the subtitled and the dubbed

versions, surprisingly shows that the latter maintains more humorous aspects than the former, although the difference is relatively small (Martínez Sierra, 2009). When it comes to linguistic jokes however, he comes to the conclusion that the biggest part is lost in both. In spite of this outcome and the criticism we have seen in paragraph 3.1., in 2000 the series received the price of best dubbed series by Fox (Aguirre de Cárcer, appendix). The translator herself says that many people validate her translation as better than the original. Carlos Ysbert, who has been doing the voice of Homer, says that when the target version is less funny that the original, this is the fault of the translator and not of the, as he calls himself, actors. Both him and Simón agree however, that the scripts made by Aguirre de Cárcer are of excellent quality (Villatoro, 2012). Martínez Sierra adds that generations of Spaniards are raised with The Simpsons making typical expressions in Spanish like ‘multiplícate por cero’ and ‘mosquis!’ part of their everyday vocabulary (Martínez Sierra, 2008:50). When it comes dubbing any program, the main goal is for the translator, voice actors and all the people involved in

making the Spanish version, is to be invisible for the target audience (Simón, 2008:23). There are certain specific aspects of The Simpsons that alleviate this goal; one of them being the fact that we are dealing with an animated series, making lip synchronization easier. This animated nature also inhibits the Spanish audience of comparing the original English utterance with the

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translation and pick up eventual mistakes made by the translator. Add to that the absence of the laugh-track that so many American sitcoms have which would reveal the existence of a joke in the original that is missing in the translation.

However, there is also an aspect of The Simpsons that makes realizing this goal more difficult: the verbal visual information that was explained in paragraph 2.7. and where The Simpsons has an abundance of. This visual information contains of English utterances that often contain a pun. This information cannot be dubbed, so sometimes a subtitle is provided. We will discuss the difficult topic of visual puns later on in chapter four.

Now that we have our theory complete, we can start with the analysis of our hundred examples and the conclusions we can draw from the outcome.

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CHAPTER FOUR: PUNS IN THE CORPUS

4.1. Translated puns in the corpus

In the fourteen episodes that we analyzed, we found a total of a hundred puns. All these puns can be found in the appendix, with the Spanish translation and a back-translation to English. For each example we categorized the type of pun: paronymy, homonymy, homophony, homography and portmanteaux . In retrospect, remember that for our analysis the successful translation strategies are PUN > PUN, PUN > Other funny rendering, ST PUN = TT PUN and potentially the strategies of compensation ZERO > PUN and NON-PUN > PUN. That leaves us with the unsuccessful strategies of PUN > NON-PUN, PUN > ZERO.

In the charts that were made with the data coming from our corpus, the successful strategies will appear on the green color scale, the strategies that represent a loss of humor will be displayed in red colors.

We made figure (3) with the percentages of all the types of puns that were found in the original English series. Because our amount of examples is exactly a hundred, every

percentage in figure (3) represents the actual amount of puns found. So, the 55 percent that are paronymic puns, represent exactly 55 occurrences. This represents the biggest group of all types of puns; counting for more than half of all the puns found in the corpus. With 23 percent homonymic puns take the second place. After that come homophonic puns which form 16 percent of the total. Five percent are cases of portmanteaux and only one case of homography was found in our episodes.

An analysis of translated puns in the Spanish dubbed version of the American sitcom The Simpsons.