Journals / Transynergy Journal of Translation, Literature and Linguistics / 2024 / Volume 3, Issue 1
Cars 2 Film and Its Translation into Turkish: A Relevance-Theoretical Approach to Translations of Puns and Wordplays
- Pages
- 32–48
- DOI
- —
Abstract
Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the translations of expressions containing humour or wordplay in the Turkish dubbing of the film Cars 2 through a relevance-theoretical approach. Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986/1995) was developed in the mid-eighties by Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson to examine cognitively how people carry out their meaning-making processes during their interactions with the outside world. Within the scope of this theory, the relationship between the source text and the target text is based on ‘interpretive resemblance’ rather than ‘equivalence’ (Gutt, 1998, 2004). According to the principle of relevance and its principles, the translator must first identify the humour or wordplay in the source text. Then, by coming up with various strategies, the translator should try to evoke similar effects in the target text as much as possible. The strategies used by the translator in the film Cars 2 are classified under four headings and comparatively analysed through 17 randomly selected examples. As a result, it is concluded that the translator prioritizes maintaining cognitive effects, therefore the puns and wordplays, rather than equivalence (i.e. semantic content) in most cases, avoiding any increase in the cognitive cost in the process.
Özet
Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the translations of expressions containing humour or wordplay in the Turkish dubbing of the film Cars 2 through a relevance-theoretical approach. Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986/1995) was developed in the mid-eighties by Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson to examine cognitively how people carry out their meaning-making processes during their interactions with the outside world. Within the scope of this theory, the relationship between the source text and the target text is based on ‘interpretive resemblance’ rather than ‘equivalence’ (Gutt, 1998, 2004). According to the principle of relevance and its principles, the translator must first identify the humour or wordplay in the source text. Then, by coming up with various strategies, the translator should try to evoke similar effects in the target text as much as possible. The strategies used by the translator in the film Cars 2 are classified under four headings and comparatively analysed through 17 randomly selected examples. As a result, it is concluded that the translator prioritizes maintaining cognitive effects, therefore the puns and wordplays, rather than equivalence (i.e. semantic content) in most cases, avoiding any increase in the cognitive cost in the process.