Crossing Languages to Play with Words The Dynamics of Wordplay Edited by Esme Winter-Froemel Editorial Board Salvatore Attardo, Dirk Delabastita, Dirk Geeraerts, Raymond W. Gibbs, Alain Rabatel, Monika Schmitz-Emans and Deirdre Wilson Volume 3 Crossing Languages to Play with Words Multidisciplinary Perspectives Edited by Sebastian Knospe, Alexander Onysko and Maik Goth Gefördert von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Veröffentlicht mit Unterstützung des Forschungsrates der Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. ISBN 978-3-11-046309-5 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-046560-0 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-046347-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Contents Sebastian Knospe, Alexander Onysko, and Maik Goth Crossing Languages to Play with Words – An Introduction | 1 I Discussion Forum Esme Winter-Froemel Approaching Wordplay | 11 Verena Thaler Varieties of Wordplay | 47 Michelle Lecolle Some Specific Insights into Wordplay Form: Sublexical vs. Lexical Level | 63 Alexander Onysko A Note on the Relation between Cognitive Linguistics and Wordplay | 71 Sebastian Knospe Discursive Dimensions of Wordplay | 79 II Multilingual Wordplay in Different Communicative Settings Sender Dovchin Multilingual Wordplays amongst Facebook Users in Mongolia | 97 Hanna-Ilona Härmävaara and Maria Frick Handling Linguistic Asymmetries via Bilingual Punning in Conversations among Speakers of Cognate Languages | 113 Kerstin Fuhrich and Hans-Jörg Schmid Too Matsch for You? Monolingual Humorous Slogans Are Recalled Better than Mixed-Language Ones | 135 Esme Winter-Froemel The Semiotics of Multilingual Wordplay in Linguistic Landscapes: Communicative Settings, the Hearer-Origo, and Contextual Knowledge | 157 VI | Contents Sebastian Knospe Through the Cognitive Looking Glass: Studying Bilingual Wordplay in Public Signage | 195 Martin Paviour-Smith Cutting across Linguistic Borders? Interlingual Hair Salon Names in Plurilingual Switzerland | 231 III Translation of Wordplay Matthias Bauer Playing on Translation in Shakespeare’s Henry V: Act 5, Scene 2 | 261 Angelika Zirker Language Play in Translation: Character and Idiom in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor | 283 Silvia Cacchiani On Italian Lexical Blends: Borrowings, Hybridity, Adaptations, and Native Word Formations | 305 Paulo Jeferson Pilar Araújo and Thaisy Bentes (Un)punslatable Alice in Signland: Wordplays in Brazilian Sign Language (Língua Brasileira de Sinais-LIBRAS) | 337 Sylvia Jaki Sie haben feuchte Nüsse ‒ The Translation of Verbal Humour in German Subtitles of US American Sitcoms | 357 Appendix List of Contributions and Abstracts / Liste des contributions et résumés | 381 List of Contributors and Editors | 391 Index | 397 Sebastian Knospe, Alexander Onysko, and Maik Goth Crossing Languages to Play with Words – An Introduction In the context of humorous language, wordplay takes on a special role. For one, the act of playing with words becomes manifest in a range of humorous forms of language use (e.g. in puns, spoonerisms, soundplay, and ludic word creations). Each of these rely on specific aspects that involve manipulating formal and semantic aspects of lexical units (i.e. words in a wide sense). Wordplay can give rise to jokes and other humorous manifestations of language. In addition, wordplay does not have to be humorous but can also fulfill other rhetorical functions, for instance as a pragmatic device for positioning a speaker in a con- versational situation or in front of an audience. These different facets of word- play merely hint at its complex and multifarious nature. Wordplay can be described as building associative bridges between lan- guage forms and meanings. These bridges can transcend hypostasized language boundaries and connect linguistic elements from different tongues. Such cross- linguistic settings of wordplay are at the heart of this volume, which focuses on multilingual wordplay and on wordplay in the liminal space of translation. The range of contributions involves different historical periods, discourse traditions, communicative situations and contexts of use such as newspaper language, everyday communication, Internet forums, and literary works. The contributors from the fields of linguistics, literary studies as well as media and translation studies explore the interface of wordplay and language contact. Thus, the book continues a multidisciplinary dialogue that began in the first two volumes of the book series The Dynamics of Wordplay, which is related to the academic network of the same name, funded by the German research foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft / DFG). A further aim of the current volume is to provide insight into the ongoing discussions on different notions of wordplay, which emerged from the interdisciplinary exchange of the network members. In line with that, the book offers a separate discussion fo- rum, which is a testimony to the multifaceted nature of wordplay and to its different possibilities of analysis. The following outline of the contents will give an overview of the diverse aspects captured in the contributions that trace in- stances of wordplay in multilingual practice and translation. 2 | Sebastian Knospe, Alexander Onysko, and Maik Goth 1 Outline of Contents The volume consists of three parts. At the beginning, the discussion forum opens the floor for critical reflections on different aspects of wordplay. This is followed by six contributions that explore multilingual wordplay in diverse communicative settings. While part two celebrates the creativity and diversity of wordplay that draws on two or more languages, the five contributions in part three offer close analyses of wordplay in translation and highlight difficulties in rendering humorous effects across different languages. 1.1 Part I: Discussion Forum The idea to offer a broad platform for critical and interdisciplinary discussion was born during several meetings of the scientific network “Dynamik des Wort- spiels / The Dynamics of Wordplay” (www.wortspiel.uni-trier.de).1 To document that, the volume opens with a discussion forum illustrating opinions and in- sights grown out of the exchange among the network members. The centerpiece of the forum is a comprehensive paper that addresses various aspects of word- play. This is followed by four concise statements that explore additional do- mains of wordplay and elaborate on some of the points raised in the position paper. It is the intention of the forum that the discussion will continue and lead to further statements, which will be published in future volumes of the book series The Dynamics of Wordplay. Throughout the discussion, two central ques- tions emerged: (1) How can the notion of wordplay be adequately defined and delimited? (2) How can its manifestations, effects and interactive potential be described? || 1 The full name of the DFG-funded network (12/2013 – 11/2016) is “Dynamik des Wortspiels: Sprachkontakt, sprachliche Innovation, Sprecher-Hörer-Interaktion / The Dynamics of Wordplay: Language Contact, Linguistic Innovation, Speaker-Hearer-Interaction.” The subtitle indicates the three key aspects of wordplay investigated by the network, involving fourteen scholars from the fields of linguistics and literary studies: Pauline Beaucé, Georgia Christinidis, Barbara Frank-Job, Bettina Full, Maik Goth, Bettina Kluge, Sebastian Knospe, Michelle Lecolle, Alexander Onysko, Alain Rabatel, Monika Schmitz-Emans, Verena Thaler, Esme Winter-Froemel, and Angelika Zirker. Crossing Languages to Play with Words – An Introduction | 3 Due to the multi-dimensionality of wordplay as well as its close relation to spe- cific discourse traditions that may also change over time, these questions re- main of central relevance. At the same time, different theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches may complement each other in a fruitful way, while there are also contrasting points of view on the nature of wordplay. As exemplified by the current contributions, the discussion forum gives room for theoretical and methodological considerations as well as for the analysis of concrete linguistic instantiations and their “wordplayfulness.” 1.2 Part II: Multilingual Wordplay in Different Communicative Settings Part II brings together articles which look at the embedding of multilingual wordplay in different communicative settings. To begin with, Sender Dovchin studies hybrid forms in Facebook posts by Mongolian users, who draw on vari- ous linguistic resources from English and Russian. The coinages illustrate ongo- ing negotiations of identity between the local and global culture bringing about sequences of similar formations in the virtual sphere and beyond. Although amusing from the perspective of in-group members, these examples show that playful uses do not have to be bound to wordplay in a strictly ludic sense. Ra- ther, there are also various other types of language play and verbal humor which employ different techniques. Dovchin’s article is thus an example of how language can be playfully manipulated for socio-pragmatic effects that go be- yond primarily