The translation of humour based on culture-bound terms in Modern Family. A cognitive-pragmatic approach

摘要

If the translation of humour may become problematic for a translator, this is particularly so in those cases in which humour is based on culture-bound terms which are not shared by the target culture. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the solutions adopted by the translators into Spanish to deal with culture-specific jokes in the first two seasons of the American TV series Modern Family. Both the DVD dubbed and subtitled versions have been focused on. The approach adopted in this paper is Relevance Theory. From the perspective of this theoretical framework, the translator will resort to different solution-types to try to recreate the cognitive effects intended by the source communicator with the lowest possible processing effort on the part of the target addressee. Different aspects related to the translator’s metarepresentation of the target audience’s cognitive environment, among other factors, will determine his/her choice of solution-type.