Slang in animated cartoons: Translation peculiarities
Kateryna Bondarenko
Volodymyr Vynnychenko State Pedagogical University , Ukrainehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2964-5123
Abstract
The research focuses on analysing the function of slang in modern cartoons (Madagascar 2, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Open Season, Cars) as well as translation strategies used to convey accurate meaning. Our data from film scripts (163 examples containing slang terms) has proved that slang, as an important part of cartoons’ verbal component, should be and mainly retained in translation. Excerpts from original cartoons scripts show slang use, that may function both for the protagonists’ characterisation and for the mapping of humor (carnivalesque) world picture. Componential analysis of meaning – breaking down the sense of slang terms into their minimal distinctive features – was used to determine the meaning of lexemes and reconstruct semantic domains actively verbalised by slang.
The assumption has been made that due to the universality of domains slang can be potentially translated in most cases. Componential analysis is particularly applicable to semantically related lexemes (in one language or comparable ones).
A thorough analysis of slang translation showed the employment of the following strategies: stylistic compensation (50.3%), literal translation (44.7%), omission (4.9%) and cultural equivalence (0.1%). As seen, a substantial proportion of the slang words can be translated from English into Ukrainian without significant loss of meaning. The neutralisation of slang appears to be inevitable in some cases.
Keywords:
slang, carnivalesque, translation strategyReferences
Adams, M. 2012. Slang: The people’s poetry. Oxford University Press.
Bondarenko, K, and S. Gas. 2018. Detabooing in dictionaries and translation. Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Bakhtin, M. 1984. Rabelais and his World. Vol. 341. Indiana University Press.
Balabin, V. 2002. Contemporary American Military Slang as a Translation Problem. К.: Logos.
Bassil-Morozow, H. 2013. The trickster in contemporary film. Routledge.
Cuddon, J. A. 1991. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin Books.
Freud, S. 1928. Humour. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 9: 1–6.
Giles, H., Wilson, P., and A. Conway. 1981. Accent and lexical diversity as determinants of impression formation and perceived employment suitability. Language sciences 3(1): 91–103.
Gilmore, D. D. 1998. Carnival and culture: Sex, symbol, and status in Spain. Yale University Press.
Gottlieb, H. 1994. Subtitling: diagonal translation. Perspectives, Studies in Translatology 2: 101–121.
Grace, D. J., and J. Tobin. 2002. Pleasure, creativity, and the carnivalesque in children’s video production. The arts in children’s lives, 195–214. Springer Netherlands.
Green, J. 2010. What is slang. Retrieved from http://jonathongreen.co.uk/the-job/
Green, J. 2014. The Vulgar Tongue: Green’s History of Slang. Oxford University Press, USA.
Hudmanyan, А., and Y. Pletenets’ka. 2014. Translation of Jargons, Slangs and Pejorative Vocabulary of American Feature Films. Naukovi zapysky [Nizhins’koho derzhavnoho universytetu imeni Mykoly Hoholya]. Ser.: Philolohichni nauky (3): 58–61.
Hamaida, L. 2006. Read my Lips: Gaps in meaning between spoken and subtitled dialog. MuTra 2006 –Audiovisual Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings.
Hotten, J. C. 1972. The Slang Dictionary. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Jung, C. G. 1969. Archetypes of the collective unconscious. In R. F. C. Hull (trans.). The collected works of C. G. Jung. 2nd ed., 3–41. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Kondratiuk, T. 2006. Slovnyk suchasnogo ukrayinskogo slenhu. Kharkiv: Folio.
Mattiello, E. 2009. Difficulty of slang translation. Translation Practices: Through Language to Culture, 65–83.
Newmark, P. 1991. About Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Nieguth, T., and A. Lacassagne (eds.). 2011. Investigating Shrek: Power, Identity, and Ideology. Springer.
Nida, E. A., and Ch. R. Taber. 2003. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill.
Partridge, E. 2006. The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: JZ (Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.
Peters, M. 2011. Screaming Yellow Zonkers! Green’s Dictionary is the Bible of Slang. Culture magazine.
Stavyts’ka, L. 2003. Korotkyi slovnyk zhargonnoyi leksyky ukrayins’koyi movy. Kyiv: Krytyka.
Victor, T., and T. Dalzell. 2007. The concise new Partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English. Routledge.
Trudgill, P. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An introduction to language and society. Penguin UK.
Ulvydienė, L., and B. Abramovaitė. 2012. Literary Style in Translation: Slang in JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Studies About Languages 20: 100–108.
Yelistratov, V. S. 1995. Argo i kultura [Argot and Culture]. Moscow, Moscow State Univ. Publ.
Volodymyr Vynnychenko State Pedagogical University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2964-5123
