Cover not available
Article published In:
Target
Vol. 31:3 (2019) ► pp.444–464

A translation-based heterolingual pun and translanguaging

ORCID logo | Stony Brook University

This paper examines six English translations of the Japanese novel Botchan with a focus on a complex pun that pairs a multi-morphemic sentence-ending in the Matsuyama dialect with the name of a traditional Japanese food. One English translation renders it as a heterolingual SL-TL pun, which is made comprehensible for TT readers without using footnotes and without distorting the culture of the ST. The SL item in this pun is seamlessly integrated into the TT’s linguistic environment at the morpho-syntactic level and is provided with layers of scaffolding at varied linguistic levels which are naturally presented as if they are a part of textual message. This heterolingual pun is analyzed as a manifestation of translanguaging. The paper proposes a research methodology whereby translanguaging perspectives are applied to translation studies in order to explain varied heterolingual translation phenomena, including foreignization.

Keywords: puns, wordplay, translanguaging, translation, foreignization, intercultural communication, heterolingualism, multilingualism, Japanese, dialect
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Puns
  • 3.SL features in translation
  • 4.Translanguaging
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1The ST
    • 5.2English translations
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusions and implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.18115.sat
References
Baynham, Mike, and Tong-King Lee
2019 Translation and Translanguaging. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheung, Martha P. Y.
2014 “Translation as Intercultural Communication: Views from the Chinese Discourse on Translation.” In A Companion to Translation Studies, edited by Sandra Bermann and Catherine Porter, 179–190. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Connors, Chuck
1904 Bowery Life. New York: Richard K. Fox. [URL]
Delabastita, Dirk
1993 There’s a Double Tongue: An Investigation into the Translation of Shakespeare’s Wordplay, with Special Reference to Hamlet. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
2001 “Aspects of Interlingual Ambiguity: Polyglot Punning.” In Quitte ou Double Sens: Articles sur l’ambiguïté offerts à Ronald Landheer, edited by Paul Bogaards, Johan Rooryck, and Paul J. Smith, 45–64. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
2005 “Cross-Language Comedy in Shakespeare.” Humor 18 (2): 161–184. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “The Dynamics of Wordplay and the Modern Novel: A Paired Case Study.” In Cultures and Traditions of Wordplay and Wordplay Research (The Dynamics of Wordplay 6), edited by Esme Winter-Froemel and Verena Thaler, 47–73. Berlin: De Gruyter. [URL]. DOI logo
Devy, Ganesh
1999 “Translation and Literary History: An Indian View.” In Post-Colonial Translation: Theory and Practice, edited by Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi, 182–188. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Díaz-Pérez, Francisco Javier
2013 “The Translation of Wordplay from the Perspective of Relevance Theory: Translating Sexual Puns in Two Shakespearean Tragedies into Galician and Spanish.” Meta 58 (2): 279–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 “Relevance Theory and Translation: Translating Puns in Spanish Film Titles into English.” Journal of Pragmatics 701: 108–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 “From the Other Side of the Looking Glass: A Cognitive-Pragmatic Account of Translating Lewis Carroll.” In Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2015: Current Approaches to Discourse and Translation Studies, edited by Jesús Romero-Trillo, 163–194. Heidelberg: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Ofelia, and Wei Li
2014 Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Ofelia, and Angel Lin
2018 “English and Multilingualism: A Contested History.” In Routledge Handbook of English Language Studies, edited by Philip Seargeant, Ann Hewings, and Stephen Pihlaja, 77–92. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gutt, Ernst-August
1991 Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lee, Tong King
2015 “Translanguaging and Visuality: Translingual Practices in Literary Art.” Applied Linguistics Review 6 (4): 441–465. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Wei
2011 “Moment Analysis and Translanguaging Space: Discursive Construction of Identities by Multilingual Chinese Youth in Britain.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (5): 1222–1235. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language.” Applied Linguistics 39 (1): 9–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Wei, and Hua Zhu
2019 “Tranßcripting: Playful Subversion with Chinese Characters.” International Journal of Multilingualism 16 (1): 145–161. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Natsume, Sōseki
(1906) 2011 Botchan. Aozora Bunko. [URL]
1918 Botchan (Master Darling) [orig. Botchan]. Translated by Yasotaro Morri. Tokyo: Ogawa Seibundo. [URL]
(1968) 2013 Botchan [orig. Botchan]. Translated by Umeji Sasaki. Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.Google Scholar
1972 Botchan [orig. Botchan]. Translated by Alan Turney. Tokyo: Kodansha International.Google Scholar
(2005) 2012 Botchan [orig. Botchan]. Translated by Joel Ralph Cohn. London: Penguin. First published in 2005 by Kodansha International.Google Scholar
2009 Botchan [orig. Botchan]. Translated by Matt Treyvaud. Richmond, IN: Ontko & Co. (Kindle Edition).Google Scholar
2013 Botchan [orig. Botchan]. Translated by Glenn Anderson. Long Island City, NY: One Peace Books.Google Scholar
Niranjana, Tejaswini
1992 Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism, and the Colonial Context. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pablé, Adrian
2005 “The Importance of Re-naming Ernest? Italian Translations of Oscar Wilde.” Target 17 (2): 297–326. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sato, Eriko
2017 “Translanguaging in Translation: Evidence from Japanese Mimetics.” International Journal of Linguistics and Communication 5 (2): 11–26.Google Scholar
2018 “Sociocultural Implications of the Japanese Multi-Scripts: Translanguaging in Translation.” In Writing Systems, Reading Processes and Cross-Linguistic Influence: Reflections from the Chinese, Japanese and Korean Languages, edited by Hye Pae, 313–332. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sato, Eriko, and Aruna Sharma
2017 “Translanguaging in Translation: A Case Study of an English Translation of a Hindi Novel Godaan .” International Journal of Language and Literature 5 (2): 132–145. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schweinberger, Martin
2015 “A Comparative Study of the Pragmatic Marker Like in Irish English and in South-Eastern Varieties of British English.” In Pragmatic Markers in Irish English, edited by Carolina P. Amador-Moreno, Kevin McCafferty, and Elaine Vaughan, 114–134. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shakespeare, William
(1933) 1990 “Romio to Jurietto” [orig. Romeo and Juliet ]. In Za Shēkusupia [The Shakespeare]. Translated by Shōyō Tsubouchi. Tokyo: Dai San Shokan.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson
1986 Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria
1999 Translation in a Postcolonial Context. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence
1995 The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998 The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wakabayashi, Judy
2009 “Translational Japanese: A Transformative Strangeness Within.” PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies 6 (1): 1–20. [URL]
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Sato, Eriko
2021. Translanguaging sequel. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 7:2 ► pp. 177 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 february 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.