Investigating the strategies adopted in translating humour in subtitling: allusive expressions in two Arabic TV series as an example

Abstract EN

Translating humour is an area that requires special attention, especially Arabic audiovisual products translated from or into English, as the linguistic and cultural gaps between these two languages are very wide.

this paper tries to investigate the most frequently used strategies adopted in subtitling one type of humour which is called proper noun (PN) allusion.

it also tries to find out whether the used strategies could be classified within-to borrow venute’s terminology-‘foreignization’ or ‘domestication.

the taxonomy suggested by leppihalme (1997) is employed to analyze the English PN allusions streamed in two Arabic TV shows which are translated into English.

the study reveals that the most prominent strategy adopted in subtitling PN allusions from Arabic into English is ‘retention’.

another finding is that ‘foreignization’ is always adopted when the strategy of ‘retention’ is manifested, while ‘domestication’ appears when the strategies of ‘replacement’ and ‘omission’ are spotted.

the results of the study may serve as a guideline to help translators deal with NP allusions in subtitling.