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The Translation of Humour in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens

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The Translation of Humour in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens University of the Witwatersrand The Translation of Humour in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens Solomzi S. Khoza 296800 A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humantities University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation Johannesburg, 2016 i Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate how the different types of humour in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens have been translated into French and German as De Bons Présages and Ein Gutes Omen, respectively. This study applies frame semantics to analyse how the translators recreated the humour of the ST in the instances that they were able to do so. This theory examines how context is created and what expectations arise from an individual’s knowledge of context i.e. their understanding of the context and what the reader or hearer associates with it. The novel involves several subplots, but the same humorous elements such as puns, parody and an invented archaic variety of English appear throughout the book and it is the aim of this study to determine how these elements were dealt with by the translators. I will compare the two translations and determine how, and if each translator was able to recreate the same frames that made the ST humorous. ii Declaration I, Solomzi Sonwabo Khoza, declare that this research report is my own unaided work. It is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation. It has not been submitted for any other degree or examination in any other university. Signature:__S.S. Khoza________ Date: _2016-03-16_____________ iii Table of Contents Chapter One – Introduction..................................................................................................................1 1.1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................1 1.2. About the Authors.............................................................................................................................2 1.3. Good Omens......................................................................................................................................3 1.4. Aim and Rationale.............................................................................................................................5 1.5. Structure of the Study........................................................................................................................6 Chapter Two – Literature Review……………………………………................................................8 2.1. Humour……………………………………………………………………………………………..8 2.1.1. Parody...........................................................................................................................................11 a. Parody of a Genre...............................................................................................................................12 b. Parody of an Author/School.............................................................................................................13 c. Parody of a Specific Work..................................................................................................................13 2.1.2. Identifying Parody........................................................................................................................14 2.1.3. Satire.............................................................................................................................................15 2.1.4. Defining Jokes..............................................................................................................................16 2.2 Creating and Translating Humour....................................................................................................18 2.2.1. Creating Names............................................................................................................................18 2.2.2. Puns..............................................................................................................................................20 2.2.3. Culture and Translation……........................................................................................................21 2.2.4. Substitution...................................................................................................................................25 2.3. Relevance Theory and GTVH.........................................................................................................25 Chapter Three – Theoretical Framework..........................................................................................30 3.1 Frame Semantics..............................................................................................................................30 3.1.1. Visual Frames...............................................................................................................................32 3.1.2. Situational Frames........................................................................................................................32 3.1.3. Text-type Frames..........................................................................................................................32 3.1.4. Social Frames...............................................................................................................................33 3.1.5. Institutional Frames......................................................................................................................33 3.1.6. Generic Frames.............................................................................................................................34 3.1.7. Reinforcement..............................................................................................................................35 3.1.8. Metaphoric Mapping....................................................................................................................35 3.1.9. Metonymic Mapping....................................................................................................................35 3.1.10. Modification...............................................................................................................................35 3.1.11. Distortion of Existing Frames.....................................................................................................36 3.1.12. Creating New Frames.................................................................................................................36 3.1.13 New Connections between Frames..............................................................................................36 3.1.14. Activating Erroneous Frames.....................................................................................................36 Chapter Four – Methodology and Analysis…………………………………………………………37 4.1. Methodology...................................................................................................................................37 4.2. Analysis...........................................................................................................................................38 Chapter Five – Conclusion...................................................................................................................67 5.1. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................67 Bibliography.........................................................................................................................................72 iv CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1.1. Introduction Humour is often defined as something that makes a person laugh or smile (Ross, 1998: 1). This definition, while commonly accepted, hardly encompasses the numerous and complex cognitive processes involved in perceiving humour. This definition, however, does hint at the universal nature of humour. All peoples and cultures have humour whether in an oral or written form. Humour is also present in many literary works produced over the years. The translation of literature therefore sometimes involves the translation of humour. Cultural differences are part and parcel of translation, but they acquire a new dimension when it comes to the translation of humour. What is considered humorous differs from culture to culture and the humour that people use may be a way of expressing their belonging to a specific group. As Ross (1998: 1) states: “Like other aspects of language, humour is a way in which people show their allegiance to a group. If someone signals their intention to say something humorous, the listeners are immediately ready to laugh”. The cultural element of humour is not the only obstacle that a translator may face – there are also challenges based on the type of humour. Different forms of humour will, of course require different strategies. Salvatore Attardo (1994: 95) makes a distinction between referential and verbal jokes: There are two kinds of jokes (…) On one side, we have “referential” jokes, and on the other, we have “verbal” jokes. The former are based exclusively on the meaning of the text and do not make any reference to the phonological realization of the lexical items (or of other units in the text), while the latter, in addition to being based on the meaning of the elements of the text, make reference to the phonological
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