Verbal-Visual Punning in Translational Perspective

Abstract

The aim of the present contribution is to discuss a specific phenomenon at the interface of intersemioticity and translation. Intersemiotic punning occurs when a relation of equivoque obtains not between two meanings encoded in the same semiotic layer, the verbal one, but between two different layers, e.g. verbal text and image. Such puns have been present in cultures since antiquity: Egyptian hieratic texts could flaunt their pictorial qualities to offer "an alternative visual reading" (Brotherston: 211-212). Intersemiotic puns, as heterogeneous complexes, are an object of enquiry of more than one discipline, as will be manifest in the way the discussion below is structured, with some examples pertaining to textual (literary) domain and some to visual arts. Translation studies, itself an interdiscipline, seems an ideal platform for examining the phenomenon. The aim of the paper is to exemplify and analyse in translational perspective verbal-visual equivoques (the material is restricted to puns involving text and image). I intend to diagnose translational implications of the presented examples, to indicate the level of translatability and possible solutions to the tasks. It will be shown that intersemiotic puns-grouped according to the semiotic composition and the priority of the respective layers within it-occur in a surprising variety of media, and a tentative algorithm for translation options will be formulated.

Rendering of Verbal and Verbal-Visual Puns in Lithuanian-Dubbed Animated Film “Mr. Peabody and Sherman”

“…Furthermore, the concept of verbal-visual pun has to be discussed in greater detail. According to Kaźmierczak (2017), a verbal-visual pun is intersemiotic and appears when the relation between two meanings is encoded in two semiotic layers, i.e., verbal text and image. The origin of verbal-visual puns could be traced back to ancient history; e.g., Brotherston (1998) states that they could be dated back to ancient Egyptian cursive writing that, together with hieroglyphs, offered an alternative meaning in visual form.…”

Verbal, visual, and verbal-visual puns in translation: cognitive multimodal analysis

“…Some of the audiovisual translation studies focus on verbal puns in animated films (see, for example, Aleksandrova, 2020). Yet, very few papers (Kaźmierczak, 2017;Luque, 2010) have investigated how the affordances of different modes, specifically the verbal and the visual, contribute to meaning making in translation of puns. Moreover, to our best knowledge there have been no papers studying the impact of the interface between the visual and verbal semiotic modes on translation of puns with analytical tools of cognitive linguistics, which opens new perspectives of translation analysis.…”

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“…Some of the audiovisual translation studies focus on verbal puns in animated films (see, for example, Aleksandrova, 2020). Yet, very few papers (Kaźmierczak, 2017;Luque, 2010) have investigated how the affordances of different modes, specifically the verbal and the visual, contribute to meaning making in translation of puns. Moreover, to our best knowledge there have been no papers studying the impact of the interface between the visual and verbal semiotic modes on translation of puns with analytical tools of cognitive linguistics, which opens new perspectives of translation analysis.…”