Translating humor: a comparative analysis of three translations of Three Men in a Boat

Abstract

When academic studies on translating humor are examined in Turkey, there are not sufficient sources or data providing enough space for the discussion of the issue. It is also observed that most of the available studies focus on the linguistic and cultural problems observed in the transference of humorous elements in audio-visual texts and deal only with the translation of the specific humorous elements (e.g. wordplay) in terms of verbal humor. As a conclusion, it has been found out that there does not exist a comprehensive study in the target system that provides detailed information on the translation of verbal humor and the problems to be observed in the translation process. Since the translation strategies display differences in relation to the type of humorous device that texts include, studies focusing on the translation of different humorous devices are required. For this purpose, a descriptive comparison of the three l f J m K. J m ’ f m u l Three Men in a Boat including different humorous devices has been carried out. In the comparisons, the g x ’ lu c h u c x ’ hum u ff c h b analyzed in a descriptive manner and an objective translation criticism has been presented. The textual analysis has benefited from the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) (Raskin and Attardo 1991) in defining similarities and differences in the translations.