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Papers by TRANSLANG JOURNAL

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

This study aims to identify the key components shaping national identity through linguistic expre... more This study aims to identify the key components shaping national identity through linguistic expressions. It explores how linguistic elements, cultural symbols, and historical contexts influence the development and preservation of national identity in Kyrgyzstan. The researchers used various methods, including comparative analysis, the biographical method, and content analysis. The results show that historical changes and socio-cultural shifts in Kyrgyzstan have significantly impacted the development of linguistic patterns and symbols of national identity. Additionally, the nomadic lifestyle and the adoption of Islam have added unique aspects to Kyrgyz linguoculture. The colonial past, changes in power, and the transformation of the political environment after 1991 have also influenced the evolution of the language’s vocabulary and meaning. The study highlighted that linguistic elements such as proverbs, sayings, and metaphors are crucial for preserving and passing down national values. At the same time, folk tales and legends play a key role in shaping the cultural identity of the Kyrgyz people. The study also included a comparative analysis of four literary works: Aitmatov’s Cassandra’s Tavro, Maurice’s La Loi des mâles, Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and Eco’s Il nome della rosa. It examined the specific features of inspiration, the reflection of values, cultural aspects, national symbols, and motifs, as well as the expression of national identity in each of these novels. The findings show that all the works are deeply influenced by cultural and historical factors that have shaped the development and expression of nationality through literature. Through language, folk images, and symbols, the authors highlight the unique characteristics of their linguistic cultures and promote a sense of belonging to their national group. The practical significance of the study lies in its insights into how literary expressions of language and culture can help preserve the national identity in an increasingly multicultural and globalized world. These results emphasize the important role of literature in fostering cultural understanding and intercultural dialogue, as well as its potential to promote respect for diverse traditions and values.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

This study explores how perceptions of gender identity have evolved by analyzing works from diffe... more This study explores how perceptions of gender identity have evolved by analyzing works from different cultural and historical contexts in English, American, and Ukrainian literature. The research seeks to connect gender roles with literature, highlighting the diversity of identity expressions and their impact on the development of gender awareness. The study employed various qualitative research methods, including content analysis, inductive reasoning, and comparative analysis. Literary works by notable authors such as Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Brontë, and Olha Kobylianska were analyzed. The findings show an evolution in the portrayal of gender roles and identity in literature, moving from rigid Victorian-era stereotypes to more complex, realistic, and diverse representations in modern works. Women authors were key in this shift, challenging gender norms and amplifying marginalized voices. The analysis of Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Kobylianska's He and She reveals unique yet complementary approaches to exploring gender issues within their cultural contexts. Literature has been a strong platform for expressing and shaping views on gender identity. The study's findings suggest that the evolution of gender roles in literature mirrors broader societal changes, with modern authors often challenging traditional stereotypes and showing the complexity of gender experiences. Including Ukrainian literary heritage in the analysis offers valuable insights into the diverse cultural perspectives on gender identity. This research adds to the growing field of gender studies and the connection between literature and identity. By examining how gender is represented in works from different cultural traditions, the study provides a deeper understanding of literature's influence on the development of gender awareness. The findings can inform educational programs, literary analyses, and future research on the important role literature plays in addressing gender issues and promoting inclusivity and equality.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

The relevance of this study lies in the impact of the information society on the development and ... more The relevance of this study lies in the impact of the information society on the development and changes in Oriental languages worldwide. The preservation of their cultural diversity and unique features depends largely on their development in today’s world. The study aims to examine how languages from Asia and other Eastern regions have adapted to globalization, including new technologies such as the Internet, artificial intelligence, and social networks. The study used theoretical research methods, including analytical and comparative methods of generalization and systematization. It was found that global technological changes have greatly impacted Oriental languages, threatening the preservation of the cultural identity of their speakers. In the information society, Oriental languages play key roles in communication, preserving and sharing cultural heritage, and promoting cultural exchange between different parts of the world. Eastern languages are actively adapting to the needs of the information society, using advanced technologies, artificial intelligence, and other innovations to improve communication practices. These changes help preserve and integrate traditional language practices from both Eastern and Western societies. At the same time, the study identifies challenges for the development of Eastern languages due to globalization, which calls for new strategies to protect linguistic diversity and cultural heritage. One effective solution is the use of technologies for digital archiving and documenting linguistic aspects. The research provides a basis for developing language policies, educational programs, and digital archiving initiatives to protect and promote Oriental languages in the face of globalization and technological progress.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

Human communication is vital for the development and survival of society, yet it remains a comple... more Human communication is vital for the development and survival of society, yet it remains a complex and multifaceted process. This study aims to explore the concepts of "speech intention" and "speech response," examine their relationship within a conversation, and identify the main types of stimulus statements that express the speaker's intention, as well as the main types of verbal responses. To achieve the study's objectives, a descriptive and comparative approach is adopted. The research methods include collecting material examples, classifying language material, analysing components and context, conducting linguistic experiments, determining functional significance, using invariant analysis, and applying linguistic comparison techniques. In the process of communication, a dialogical exchange between two people includes components like language intention, which refers to the speaker's communicative goal or purpose, and verbal response, which is the listener's reply to the speaker's intentions, such as questions, requests, or information. The speaker’s intention can be simplified into three main objectives: to inform the listener, to receive information through a response to a question, or to express a will that directs the listener to take or not take a specific action. These intentions are reflected in three main types of sentences: declarative, interrogative, and imperative. The study concludes that the relationship between speech intention and speech response is key to understanding dialogue. Furthermore, the typology of responses proposed in the study can be a useful framework for future research on communication. The practical value lies in providing insights that can enhance our understanding of communication dynamics and improve language teaching methods.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

Personal deixis plays a key role in political discourse. Studying how it works and its role is re... more Personal deixis plays a key role in political discourse. Studying how it works and its role is relevant to current issues in political linguistics. This paper aims to analyze Barack Obama’s farewell address to understand how he used deictic expressions to convey messages of unity, democratic values, national identity, and his personal beliefs about American resilience and collective responsibility. The present study uses multiple research methods, including analysis, synthesis, interpretation, generalization, and abstraction, to explore the concept of personal deixis. The system analysis method is also used to examine the theoretical and practical aspects of political discourse. The main results of this study include identifying the characteristics of Barack Obama’s personal deixis, determining how often it is used, analyzing the purpose behind his use of personal pronouns in speech, and interpreting deixis as a key tool for engaging the audience. The study shows that in his speech, Barack Obama uses the strategy of self-presentation and effectively applies personal deixis to succeed in politics. The personal pronouns in his speech are key tools that help him connect with the audience, persuade them, and evoke the desired emotions. The findings also show that leaders use personal pronouns in political speech to create a sense of inclusion or exclusion, shaping group identity and public opinion. These results are helpful for linguists and experts studying political discourse, deixis, and strategies to influence the audience.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

This study investigates the challenges and responses involved in shaping China’s national image t... more This study investigates the challenges and responses involved in shaping China’s national image through intercultural communication within the landscape of new media. It focuses on problems like cultural misunderstandings and media fragmentation and suggests ways to improve China’s global image. To reach the research objectives, a mixed-methods approach was adopted where structural-functional analysis, dialectical reasoning, and comparative analysis with empirical data from digital platforms were utilised. This methodology facilitates an in-depth examination of how China’s national image is portrayed across both traditional media and emerging digital channels and assesses the efficacy of current communication strategies. However, challenges like cultural misunderstandings, media polarization, and difficulty in maintaining a consistent positive image among diverse international audiences remain. Social media, on the other hand, offers new opportunities for direct engagement and cultural exchange, making it easier to share a positive image. Case studies show that targeted social media campaigns have helped address some of these issues by encouraging interactive dialogues and fostering cultural appreciation. To improve its international image, China needs to enhance its intercultural communication strategies by using the interactive and flexible features of new media. This includes creating culturally sensitive content, connecting with diverse audiences through personalized communication, and using data analytics to adapt messages effectively. These strategies are crucial for bridging cultural differences and maintaining long-term global engagement. This study offers practical insights for policymakers, communication strategists, and scholars working to improve China’s intercultural communication. By using digital platforms effectively, China can create a more positive and detailed global image, showing its cooperative and culturally rich identity.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

This study aims to highlight the translation complexities of “the Witcher” into American and Brit... more This study aims to highlight the translation complexities of “the Witcher” into American and British English as far as adapting cultural aspects, idiomatic expressions, and humour. The researcher intends to analyze the translating challenges to develop strategies that enhance cultural resonance and understanding of the Witcher. Because of its Slavic cultural background, adapting “The Witcher” requires attention to differences in syntax, phonetics, and idiomatic expressions that distinguish American and British English. A combination of linguistic, critical, and conceptual analyses is adopted as a research design to reach the study objectives. A comparative analysis focusing on the distinct linguistic features in both translations was conducted, and cultural approaches were applied to assess the effectiveness of various translation strategies. Specific examples were taken from The Witcher novels and games to illustrate how these linguistic and cultural distinctions impact the translation process. Findings revealed significant challenges in translating idioms, cultural expressions, and humour, which are integral to preserving the atmosphere of The Witcher. For example, adapting phrases with deep-rooted cultural meanings often necessitates significant modifications to maintain relevance for American and British audiences. Differences in sentence structure and vocabulary between American and British English also affected readers’ engagement and understanding of The Witcher. This study concludes by highlighting the need for culturally aware translation strategies where translators must balance accuracy in language with cultural adaptation. Understanding the cultural backgrounds of both the source and target languages may ensure idioms, humour, and character voices connect with different audiences. The findings of this study are particularly relevant for translators, editors, and cultural studies professionals engaged in intercultural communication, as they offer insights into the nuanced processes required for successful adaptation. This study provides valuable recommendations for improving translations of culturally rich works like The Witcher for a global audience.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

Language is the fabric that weaves societies, serving as the primary means by which humans commun... more Language is the fabric that weaves societies, serving as the primary means by which humans communicate, express their values, and transmit their traditions from one generation to another. Yet, the relationship between language and culture is complex, constantly evolving in response to the transformative forces of globalization, technological
advancements, and shifting sociopolitical dynamics. In this special issue of Traduction et Langues, we explore the multifaceted intersections of language, culture, and translation. Notably, this issue includes the valuable contributions of Ukrainian scholars, reflecting this nation’s rich linguistic and cultural heritage that has long navigated the complexities of linguistic diversity and cultural exchange. Their insights offer important perspectives on the dynamic interplay between language, identity, and sociopolitical change. The inclusion of Ukrainian literary works and the analysis of Kyrgyz linguoculture underscore the importance of embracing diverse cultural traditions and their unique modes of expression.

TRANSLANG Vol 24 N°1, 2025

📢 TRANSLANG Journal Call for Papers - June 2025 📢 We are excited to announce a Call for Papers f... more 📢 TRANSLANG Journal Call for Papers - June 2025 📢

We are excited to announce a Call for Papers for the upcoming issue of TRANSLANG, an indexed journal recognized in SCOPUS, DOAJ, CROSSREF, DIMENSIONS, ASJP, DGRSDT, CERIST, and Google Scholar! We invite researchers, scholars, and practitioners in translation studies, linguistics, and language education to submit original and innovative papers that contribute to the understanding of translation and languages. 🌍📚

📝 Submission Topics: We welcome submissions on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to:
Translation theory and practice 🧠
Linguistic analysis in translation 🔍
Cross-cultural communication 🌐
Language technology and translation tools 💻
Teaching translation and interpreting 🎓
The role of translation in globalization 🌏
Emerging trends in translation studies 🚀

📑 Submission Guidelines:
Manuscripts should be original and not under consideration elsewhere.
Please follow the journal's formatting guidelines, which are available on our website.
Submissions must be in English, but works in other languages may also be considered if accompanied by an English abstract.

📅 Important Dates:

Submission Deadline: February 28, 2025
Final Manuscript Due: May 30, 2025
Publication Date: June 30, 2025

🔗 How to Submit: Please submit your papers via our online submission system [https://lnkd.in/epmMPZN9]. For any inquiries, feel free to contact us at: translang.journal@gmail.com. ✉️

We look forward to your contributions, which will enrich the field of translation studies and promote dialogue among scholars and practitioners! 🌟

Editor-in-chief: Prof. Ouahmiche Ghania
Secretary: Bouras Saida

Vol 23 No 2 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 02 [ Special Issue ], 2024

This Special Issue takes its start from the International Conference held ... more This Special Issue takes its start from the International Conference held on 26 October 2023 at the University for Foreigners of Siena entitled “L’umorismo dell’altro, l’umorismo nell’altro. Forme e rappresentazioni del comico tra lingue e culture” (“Humor of the other, humor in the other. Forms and representations of the comical between languages and cultures”). In addition to contributions directly stemming from the Conference, which originated from an idea by Nicolò Calpestrati, the volume also collects further papers by distinguished scholars in the humor studies field on related topics in order to investigate forms and representations of humor within different genres and text types.
The novelty of the issue consists especially in the numerous languages and cultures involved: Italian, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish texts are explored from different angles, leading to interesting contrastive insights - in which Italian is often taken as the target language. The reflections offer therefore an innovative, varied overview of multilingual and multicultural traditions and highlight potential connections among them, also from a translational point of view. The variety and diversification of the contributions allow to illustrate in a multifaceted way a nuanced phenomen common to all linguacultural systems, offering an analysis of humorous forms from a mainly synchronic perspective concerning written, oral and multimodal genres. This makes it possible to observe intrinsic features and modes of cross-linguistic and intersemiotic representation in languages and cultures that are also very distant from each other.
Starting from an historical introduction on the theoretical aspects of humor, the collection focuses on pragmatic and textual features, translation-specific issues, and teaching applications. Additionally, the analyses involve both verbal and non-verbal humor in different text genres, including several multimodal ones: from short narratives and comics to movies and TV-series up to new digital text formats (e.g. memes).
The volume is divided into three sections interacting with each other in terms of the themes and issues focused on.
The first section (Laughing across time, genres and new media) includes two papers, by Salvatore Attardo and Marco Cipolloni, which provide general overviews of humor in new digital text types and within established but constantly evolving cinematic genres. After introducing the changes that are inherent to web humor, Salvatore Attardo’s paper focuses on a case study on transmedial humor, when a joke is transposed from a movie (We are the Millers, 2013) to a meme. The two jokes, found respectively in the comedy movie and in the meme, are analyzed by drawing on Attardo and Raskin’s General Theory of Verbal Humor, making it clear that, even if humor persists in intersemiotic translation, some micro-level features may get lost in the process. These changes are especially linked to the more complex nature of the source text. In his contribution, Marco Cipolloni deals with transcultural humor in Western movies. The paper moves from an overview of humor in Western movies, to later focus on evolutions of the genre in the Spanish and Italian contexts. In this genre, humor is defined as ‘strange’ in that it varies from canonical comical standards and builds on specific narrative clichés. Through a journey across quotes, anecdotes and recurring themes, the author will show the multifaceted but ultimately related forms that humor may take on in Western cinematography.
The second section, titled Humor and audiovisual translation: Cinema and TV-series, focuses specifically on the rendering of humor in audiovisual translation (AVT), by considering different AVT modes (i.e. dubbing and subtitling) and different source and target linguacultures. Patrick Zabalbeascoa’s contribution opens the section by presenting a general reflection on the fields of Translation Studies and Humor Studies. Both disciplines represent complex aspects of human communication and involve the interaction among multiple, multimodal and multisemiotic variables, which are seen to constantly and rapidly evolve over time. Furthermore, both translation and the construction of humor are ephemeral and are often restricted to a single text or communicative act, and need to continually innovate and change.
Giuseppe Trovato concentrates on a case study on AVT, specifically the subtitled Spanish versions (Peninsular and Latin-American Spanish) of the recent Italian humorous TV-series Incastrati (2022). The author explores the subtitling of jokes, a key element of the series, by especially focusing on puns (rhymes and coinages), diatopically connoted language and culture specific references. The analysis narrows down to the Peninsular Spanish subtitles, and shows a partial loss of the original comical connotation. This is compensated for by the major role played by the paralinguistic and gestural component, although the Spanish and Italian audiences will inevitably receive - and laugh about - a different audiovisual product.
The paper by Pau Sitjà Márquez is centered on a popular line from Quentin Tarantino’s classic Pulp Fiction, and specifically explores a joke from the perspective of Relevance Theory. Multiple translated versions of the original joke are analyzed and compared (Italian, Catalan, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Turkish), and show the use of different strategies. What makes a rendering successful is the interaction between the author, the translator and the audience - and spectators’ willingness to engage in a deeper cognitive effort to decode the original connotation, as well as overall adherence to the criterion of interpretive similarity in AVT.
Still focusing on English, Margherita Dore’s contribution addresses the Italian dub of the recent US TV-series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (2017-2023), which shows the challenges faced by a female comedian in the 1950’s. The paper offers an interesting overview of scripted stand-up comedy routines in the series in relation to real-life stand-up routines and to their Italian dubbed version – especially looking at the translation of foul and taboo language. Through the analysis, the TV-show is seen to offer a realistic depiction of comedy exchanges, while dubbing overall preserves swearing as this fulfills a key function in both the comedy routines and character outline. Importantly, the study underlines the almost total absence of ideological manipulation in dubbing.
Imsuk Jung and Kukjin Kim target a scarcely explored language pair in AVT, i.e. Korean and Italian, and address the translation of wordplay in contemporary Korean television series, and particularly K-dramas, from a contrastive perspective. Given its high cultural specificity, humor represents a thriving field of analysis in this audiovisual genre, and gives the authors several opportunities to highlight how translation can be capable of rendering the comical effect even across highly distant languages in both typological and cultural terms. The authors present several case studies of humor, ranging from classic wordplay, to instances involving Korean address terms and idioms or collocations.
In their contribution, Claudia Buffagni and Marta Aurora analyze a selection of humorous doctor-patient dialogues from the German medical TV series Bettys Diagnose (2015) based on Raskin and Attardo's General Theory of Verbal Humor and illustrate proposals for interlingual subtitling in Italian. Humorous interactions are classified according to participants’ gender, socio-professional hierarchies and the use of specialized varieties, and consider both voluntary and involuntary, verbal and non-verbal forms of humor. Humorous exchanges are rendered through different strategies, and trend lines are identified in the fictional representation of communication in hospital settings in the original German dialogues and in the Italian subtitles.
As the title suggests (Humor in short written genres: Case studies on comics, jokes and short stories), the third and last section of the volume presents four different case studies on humor across short written text genres, including comic strips, short narratives and jokes.
The paper by Beatrice Garzelli and María Eugenia Granata opens the section and focuses on the translation of feminist comic books, a still somewhat neglected research field, by looking at some comic strips by the Argentinian author Maitena Burundarena. Based on the constraints inherent to this translation genre, the study illustrates a series of humorous strips that revolve around feminist themes and examines their intralingual and interlingual translation into Italian. The transposition from Rioplatense to Peninsular Spanish is often normocentric, and commonly leads to cultural loss and misleading renderings. Loss is also common in interlingual translation, which overall tends towards a domestication of the source product and a reduction of the original humorous connotation.
Maria Antonietta Rossi’s paper is centered on the short narrative genre, narrowing down the focus on humor in contemporary children’s literature, specifically Brazilian writer Sylvia Orthof’s short novel O cavalo transparente (1987). Humor is here used to make young readers reflect on important social issues, such as inclusion and gender, by deconstructing traditional stereotypes and female aesthetic canons. The author analyzes the original Portuguese version of the text and suggests some possible translations of humorous excerpts into Italian as a means to show the extent to which the comic component is anchored to both the cultural context and the socio-pragmatic norms of each speech community.
Mei-Hui Wang’s contribution addresses another humorous short narrative genre, i.e. jokes, and its rise in a culturally distant context, China, between the 2nd and...

Vol 23 No 2 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 02 [ Special Issue ], 2024

This Special Issue takes its start from the International Conference held on 26 October 2023 at t... more This Special Issue takes its start from the International Conference held on 26 October 2023 at the University for Foreigners of Siena entitled “L’umorismo dell’altro, l’umorismo nell’altro. Forme e rappresentazioni del comico tra lingue e culture” (“Humor of the other, humor in the other. Forms and representations of the comical between languages and cultures”). In addition to contributions directly stemming from the Conference, which originated from an idea by Nicolò Calpestrati, the volume also collects further papers by distinguished scholars in the humor studies field on related topics in order to investigate forms and representations of humor within different genres and text types.
The novelty of the issue consists especially in the numerous languages and cultures involved: Italian, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish texts are explored from different angles, leading to interesting contrastive insights - in which Italian is often taken as the target language. The reflections offer therefore an innovative, varied overview of multilingual and multicultural traditions and highlight potential connections among them, also from a translational point of view. The variety and diversification of the contributions allow to illustrate in a multifaceted way a nuanced phenomen common to all linguacultural systems, offering an analysis of humorous forms from a mainly synchronic perspective concerning written, oral and multimodal genres. This makes it possible to observe intrinsic features and modes of cross-linguistic and intersemiotic representation in languages and cultures that are also very distant from each other.
Starting from an historical introduction on the theoretical aspects of humor, the collection focuses on pragmatic and textual features, translation-specific issues, and teaching applications. Additionally, the analyses involve both verbal and non-verbal humor in different text genres, including several multimodal ones: from short narratives and comics to movies and TV-series up to new digital text formats (e.g. memes).
The volume is divided into three sections interacting with each other in terms of the themes and issues focused on.
The first section (Laughing across time, genres and new media) includes two papers, by Salvatore Attardo and Marco Cipolloni, which provide general overviews of humor in new digital text types and within established but constantly evolving cinematic genres. After introducing the changes that are inherent to web humor, Salvatore Attardo’s paper focuses on a case study on transmedial humor, when a joke is transposed from a movie (We are the Millers, 2013) to a meme. The two jokes, found respectively in the comedy movie and in the meme, are analyzed by drawing on Attardo and Raskin’s General Theory of Verbal Humor, making it clear that, even if humor persists in intersemiotic translation, some micro-level features may get lost in the process. These changes are especially linked to the more complex nature of the source text. In his contribution, Marco Cipolloni deals with transcultural humor in Western movies. The paper moves from an overview of humor in Western movies, to later focus on evolutions of the genre in the Spanish and Italian contexts. In this genre, humor is defined as ‘strange’ in that it varies from canonical comical standards and builds on specific narrative clichés. Through a journey across quotes, anecdotes and recurring themes, the author will show the multifaceted but ultimately related forms that humor may take on in Western cinematography.
The second section, titled Humor and audiovisual translation: Cinema and TV-series, focuses specifically on the rendering of humor in audiovisual translation (AVT), by considering different AVT modes (i.e. dubbing and subtitling) and different source and target linguacultures. Patrick Zabalbeascoa’s contribution opens the section by presenting a general reflection on the fields of Translation Studies and Humor Studies. Both disciplines represent complex aspects of human communication and involve the interaction among multiple, multimodal and multisemiotic variables, which are seen to constantly and rapidly evolve over time. Furthermore, both translation and the construction of humor are ephemeral and are often restricted to a single text or communicative act, and need to continually innovate and change.
Giuseppe Trovato concentrates on a case study on AVT, specifically the subtitled Spanish versions (Peninsular and Latin-American Spanish) of the recent Italian humorous TV-series Incastrati (2022). The author explores the subtitling of jokes, a key element of the series, by especially focusing on puns (rhymes and coinages), diatopically connoted language and culture specific references. The analysis narrows down to the Peninsular Spanish subtitles, and shows a partial loss of the original comical connotation. This is compensated for by the major role played by the paralinguistic and gestural component, although the Spanish and Italian audiences will inevitably receive - and laugh about - a different audiovisual product.
The paper by Pau Sitjà Márquez is centered on a popular line from Quentin Tarantino’s classic Pulp Fiction, and specifically explores a joke from the perspective of Relevance Theory. Multiple translated versions of the original joke are analyzed and compared (Italian, Catalan, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Turkish), and show the use of different strategies. What makes a rendering successful is the interaction between the author, the translator and the audience - and spectators’ willingness to engage in a deeper cognitive effort to decode the original connotation, as well as overall adherence to the criterion of interpretive similarity in AVT.
Still focusing on English, Margherita Dore’s contribution addresses the Italian dub of the recent US TV-series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (2017-2023), which shows the challenges faced by a female comedian in the 1950’s. The paper offers an interesting overview of scripted stand-up comedy routines in the series in relation to real-life stand-up routines and to their Italian dubbed version – especially looking at the translation of foul and taboo language. Through the analysis, the TV-show is seen to offer a realistic depiction of comedy exchanges, while dubbing overall preserves swearing as this fulfills a key function in both the comedy routines and character outline. Importantly, the study underlines the almost total absence of ideological manipulation in dubbing.
Imsuk Jung and Kukjin Kim target a scarcely explored language pair in AVT, i.e. Korean and Italian, and address the translation of wordplay in contemporary Korean television series, and particularly K-dramas, from a contrastive perspective. Given its high cultural specificity, humor represents a thriving field of analysis in this audiovisual genre, and gives the authors several opportunities to highlight how translation can be capable of rendering the comical effect even across highly distant languages in both typological and cultural terms. The authors present several case studies of humor, ranging from classic wordplay, to instances involving Korean address terms and idioms or collocations.
In their contribution, Claudia Buffagni and Marta Aurora analyze a selection of humorous doctor-patient dialogues from the German medical TV series Bettys Diagnose (2015) based on Raskin and Attardo's General Theory of Verbal Humor and illustrate proposals for interlingual subtitling in Italian. Humorous interactions are classified according to participants’ gender, socio-professional hierarchies and the use of specialized varieties, and consider both voluntary and involuntary, verbal and non-verbal forms of humor. Humorous exchanges are rendered through different strategies, and trend lines are identified in the fictional representation of communication in hospital settings in the original German dialogues and in the Italian subtitles.
As the title suggests (Humor in short written genres: Case studies on comics, jokes and short stories), the third and last section of the volume presents four different case studies on humor across short written text genres, including comic strips, short narratives and jokes.
The paper by Beatrice Garzelli and María Eugenia Granata opens the section and focuses on the translation of feminist comic books, a still somewhat neglected research field, by looking at some comic strips by the Argentinian author Maitena Burundarena. Based on the constraints inherent to this translation genre, the study illustrates a series of humorous strips that revolve around feminist themes and examines their intralingual and interlingual translation into Italian. The transposition from Rioplatense to Peninsular Spanish is often normocentric, and commonly leads to cultural loss and misleading renderings. Loss is also common in interlingual translation, which overall tends towards a domestication of the source product and a reduction of the original humorous connotation.
Maria Antonietta Rossi’s paper is centered on the short narrative genre, narrowing down the focus on humor in contemporary children’s literature, specifically Brazilian writer Sylvia Orthof’s short novel O cavalo transparente (1987). Humor is here used to make young readers reflect on important social issues, such as inclusion and gender, by deconstructing traditional stereotypes and female aesthetic canons. The author analyzes the original Portuguese version of the text and suggests some possible translations of humorous excerpts into Italian as a means to show the extent to which the comic component is anchored to both the cultural context and the socio-pragmatic norms of each speech community.
Mei-Hui Wang’s contribution addresses another humorous short narrative genre, i.e. jokes, and its rise in a culturally distant context, China, between the 2nd and the 3rd century AD. Th...

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2) , 2024

Since the emergence of the communicative and then task-based approach in foreign language teachin... more Since the emergence of the communicative and then task-based approach in foreign language teaching, humor has been left aside to the benefit of an "efficient" language perspective. This vision limits the language to a communication tool and forgets all the implicit and cultural weight any language act supposes, as has established Bougherra in 2007 by defending an "estheticalludic-referential competence". This paper proposes to introduce humor in a French class for foreigners through a didactic activity field tested, easy to build and to adapt in different teaching contexts, operable from the beginner level to the advanced one. The project uses the website birdsdessines.fr, which publishes every day new comics created by any user and at the same time offers a very userfriendly content creation tool. Guiding the learners into it step by step, starting from understanding those comics and arriving at creating some new ones, will allow them to discover and understand different humor types, but also reproduce them. We will present three different educational uses based on this website, implemented in two Italian universities in groups going from the beginners to the B1 level. We will observe how the learners familiarize themselves with humor's presence in their language path, understand its mechanism, and finally manipulate it themselves in the foreign language. Finally, we will verify that the learners have developed a true capacity for understanding and creating humor, but also that their relation to the learning process has been positively impacted, by analyzing the comics they produced. Since this project has been carried out on a small scale, we intend to inspire foreign language teachers to reproduce it and hopefully confirm our results. Thus, we aim to demonstrate how it is possible and beneficial to expand the existing pedagogical approaches by including a true "humor competence", as defined by Harakchiyska and Borisova as a transversal capacity to understand, react to and produce jokes.

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2)

Xiaolin: An Exploration of Jokes and Humor in Ancient Chinese Culture This article is based on ... more Xiaolin: An Exploration of Jokes and Humor in Ancient Chinese Culture

This article is based on the study of the book "Xiaolin" (The Forest of Laughter) by Handan Chun 邯鄲淳 (ca.132-ca.221) of the Cao Wei 曹魏 period in the Eastern Han Dynasty 東漢 (25-220).The first book dedicated to jokes in ancient China. The realistic and satirical folk stories produced against the backdrop of the times, reflected the interest in life, humor and the educational sense of the literati, lower-class and common peopleof that period (Wang, 1981; Huang, 1999). Focusing on the only 29 jokes left in the book, the extracts and short quotes found in the nine important ancient documents analysed, in a chronological list, the five most mentioned and representatives jokes , will be explored in depth. These are: “Zhao Bo gong (weng) feida 赵伯公(翁)肥大” [Zhao Bo gong (weng) is fat], “Shen Jun xing jianlin 沈峻性俭吝” (Shen Jun is stingy), “Wu ren dao jing chi naisu(lao)吴人到京吃奶蘇(酪)” (The people of Wu go to Luoyang to eat cheese), “Taiyuan ren ye shihuo 太原人夜失火” (A house in Taiyuan caught fire during the night) and “Lu ren zhi gan 魯人執竿” (The people of Lu hold long poles in their hands). Which are translated into Italian with some reflections.This work highlights the social and cultural ideologies of the people of the time, its purpose is to deepen the knowledge of the pragmatic language and ideologies reflected in the culture of the time. These jokes express the importance of laughter,and with the study and in-depth research of this genre little considered will also be able to disseminate the spirit of humor everywhere without forgetting to possess this gift that makes us feel good with little. The history of Chinese jokes is very rich, therefore I hope that in the future its knowledge will be appreciated with the right value.

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

Deconstructing Female Stereotypes through Humor in Sylvia Orthof's O cavalo transparent The wid... more Deconstructing Female Stereotypes through Humor in Sylvia Orthof's O cavalo transparent

The widespread use of humor in children's literature used to make readers reflect on important social mattters, such as inclusion and gender equality. The study focuses on the analysis of this technique as exploited in the story O cavalo transparente by the Brazilian writer Sylvia Orthof (1987). Through strong comic traits, the author deconstructs traditional female stereotypes, choosing the protagonist Carmen, a gypsy anti-heroine who embarks on a journey to search for a lost magic bottle. The function of humor will be highlighted by analyzing the most significant part of the text, determined by the climax, in which the protagonist encounters a mermaid, whose physical characteristics differ from the usual canonical model. This analysis depicts how humor in O cavalo transparent operates to subvert traditional female stereotypes. It examines the dialogues between the two anti-heroines from a pragmatic perspective, highlighting how their interactions give emphasis to the atypical physical characteristics of the mermaid. Also, this study explores these humorous elements into Italian in reference to the functionalist model as a frame. This model considers the cultural context of the text which influences conversational styles, the choice of registers, lexical labels, politeness strategies and allocutive formulas, and domestication. This approach emphasizing domestication brings the text closer to the reader, adhering as much as possible to the linguistic and social conventions of the target culture. Within the framework of the ‘linguistics of humor’, this study demonstrates how the conveyance of comedy is strongly anchored to the socio- pragmatic precepts of each linguistic community. The study underlines the challenges of retaining the original comedic text effect of O Cavalo Transparente when adapting it into the target culture, revealing how the comedic essence may be altered in translation. This research contributes to understanding the effect of humor in literature and the intricacies of cross-cultural translation. Humor could be used as a valuable pedagogical means to stimulate effective learning as comedy by inducing positive emotional states, significantly contributing to lowering the Affect filter and performance anxiety.

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

Maitena Burundarena: feminism and humour in Spanish-Intralingual and interlingual translation Thi... more Maitena Burundarena: feminism and humour in Spanish-Intralingual and interlingual translation
This paper focuses on the translation of comics, a type of so-called “subordinate” translation that is typically subject to space and time constraints – respectively, the limited space available in each speech bubble and the need for written text to render actions effectively in a few words and to qualify a character, so as to allow the audience to understand his or her psychology. Specifically, the article examines the case of the Argentinean cartoonist Maitena Burundarena (an author known for her humorous production), observing the double transposition of her work (“Mujeres Alteradas 5”, 2001 and “Superadas 1”, 2002): from Rioplatense Spanish into Peninsular Spanish and into the interlingual Italian version. With regard to intralingual translation, we will reflect on the need to have a version adapted for an Iberian audience, also with reference to the humorous rendering of text and image and from a contrastive perspective. Focusing on interlingual translation into Italian, the difficulties that emerged during the translation process will be analysed, observing how the use of certain strategies sometimes leads to conflicts and losses in the final product that alter the scope of the humorous intent of the prototext. The affinity between Spanish and Italian, two cognate languages, hides many pitfalls in translation. In order to compensate for some of these linguistic and cultural losses, particularly related to culturally marked terms or colloquial expressions, alternative translation solutions will be proposed. While in some cases a literal translation will be suggested, more creative renderings will also be proposed, so as to more closely respect the author's intentions.

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

This article analyses humorous dialogues from the first season of the German medical TV series Be... more This article analyses humorous dialogues from the first season of the German medical TV series Bettys Diagnose (2015) on the basis of Raskin and Attardo's General Theory of Verbal Humor (1991). First, the gender of the participants, socio-professional hierarchies, and specialized language are identified as criteria for classifying humorous interactions. Applying a qualitative approach, the study investigates the linguistic ambiguity found in numerous exchanges based on opposing scripts in the medical workplace. It demonstrates how humor can often conceal aggressive attitudes, help manage critical situations and aim at teasing other speakers. The analysis of specific dialogues sheds light on the knowledge gaps between clinicians and patients and the related effects of misunderstandings that may occur, regardless of the speakers' language and cultural background. At the same time, humor seems to convey — more or less overtly —gender-related issues and social tensions between communities and subcommunities, as well as between different professional roles. Other dialogues in the series reveal how humor can also contribute to reducing the daily emotional burden of people facing trauma, fear, and pain, thus serving as a coping strategy. The essay also considers both voluntary and involuntary, verbal and non-verbal forms of humor. Subsequently, the article presents proposals for interlingual subtitling in Italian, selected on the basis of the dominant tone of the dramedy series examined (Nord, 1993) and consistent with the dynamic and compelling dialogues typical of oral communication. Specific strategies (Díaz Cintas & Remael, 2007) were thus identified and employed to render those humorous exchanges in which gender, socio-professional hierarchies, and specialized language play a relevant role. This section distinguishes between cases of correspondence between the two language systems (German and Italian) and cases requiring a more creative intervention by the translator. The study identifies some trends in the fictional representation of communication in hospital settings in German as well as in interlingual subtitling in Italian. These results could be further consolidated on a quantitative level through the analysis of larger corpora of dialogues from German TV series with similar topics, settings, and genres.

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

Stand-up comedy is a fascinating art form that has received much scholarly attention (e.g., Mintz... more Stand-up comedy is a fascinating art form that has received much scholarly attention (e.g., Mintz, 1985; Rutter, 2000; Lockyer and Mayers, 2011; Quirk, 2015; Double, 2020; Dore, 2022). Similarly, fictional stand-up has been discussed in the literature (Bhattacharjee, 2023), yet analyses exploring the intersections and possible differences between these two phenomena seem to be lacking, with a notable exception being Salamova (2016). To help fill this gap, this study focuses on fictional stand-up routines performed by Miriam “Midge” Maisel, the main character of the TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Sherman-Palladino, 2017–2023). This show is worth examining due to the topics it develops and the manner in which it conveys them. Thus, the analysis first examines Midge’s fictional, fully scripted stand-up routines, including the language used (explicit language openly discussing taboo subjects like sex, religion, and politics) and the purposes it serves (to raise awareness and captivate the audience). More importantly, this work explores how Midge interacts with the audience and contrasts this with real, semi-scripted comedian- audience interactions, thereby highlighting similarities and significant differences between them. Subsequently, it investigates how the Italian dubbing, which has traditionally served as a platform for ideological manipulation, handles Midge’s explicit language. The dubbing team largely retained instances of swearing, and when certain instances were omitted, they were compensated for through creative additions (i.e., adding items in the target text [TT] that are not mentioned in the source text [ST], Ranzato, 2016, p. 95). This pattern aligns with current trends in Italian dubbing, indicating a greater degree of freedom in addressing sensitive topics (cf. Dore and Petrucci, 2021; Dore and De Nicola, 2023). However, this change may be because The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, like other popular shows, is not subject to watershed regulations. Comparative analyses between shows featured on streaming platforms and traditional broadcasters may yield different and interesting results.

Revue de Traduction et Langues Rivista di traduzione e lingue 119 L'opera è sotto la licenza Crea... more Revue de Traduction et Langues Rivista di traduzione e lingue 119 L'opera è sotto la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione-Non commerciale 4.0 Internazionale.

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

This paper is framed by the Relevance Theory as applied to the translation of a pun in Quentin Ta... more This paper is framed by the Relevance Theory as applied to the translation of a pun in Quentin Tarantino's cult film Pulp Fiction into nine dubbed versions. Entitled “the story of the family of tomates”, this pun is particularly difficult to translate because of its linguistic and cultural characteristics. The paper starts by classifying the kind of pun in question and describing its function in the original film. From here, the paper proceeds to a close examination of each of these translations, using Relevance Theory in the analysis of how each version revises the pun for the target audience. The analysis instead focuses on interpretative similarity, rather than fixed or standard equivalence to the source text. In this case, the study will establish how each translation develops the intended meaning of the pun by adjusting to the cognitive environment of the target audience. This paper therefore adopts Relevance Theory, which explains how individuals process information with regard to context and cognitive effort involved, in testing how well the translations could maintain original humor and communicative intent without being strictly tied to specific lexical or syntactic structures in the source text. It is also beyond the surface linguistic features, taking into consideration how pragmatic factors-like cultural references and the audiences' expectations-are accounted for in each dubbed version. This article, then, insists on the preeminence of pragmatic context over literal lexical and syntactical equivalence. In so doing, the research provided challenges the more traditional notions of translation fidelity-particularly in instances where puns or other wordplay resist direct translation. Relevance theory in this analysis examines the complications of humor translation and how these different dubbed versions face such challenges, while fidelity to source materials is imposed on them with imperatives to engage their particular target audiences.

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

It is common knowledge that language is the most evident manifestation of idiosyncrasies and that... more It is common knowledge that language is the most evident manifestation of idiosyncrasies and that it undoubtedly allows cultural elements of a very different nature to be expressed. Among these elements is the aspect related to humor, the transposition of which from language/culture A to language/culture B often poses major challenges for the translator. In this paper, we aim to address this phenomenon from the perspective of verbal humor and cultural references. Our analysis will focus on Italian and Spanish, two languages generally considered cognate due to their common historical background. The reason for this choice is justified by the limited number of scientific contributions in this field of study. Based on a corpus created from the transcriptions of the Italian and Spanish subtitles of an Italian series called Incastrati, available on Netflix, our interest will be devoted to analyzing how the two languages express certain aspects of humor. To this end, regarding the methodology, we will adopt a qualitative approach aimed at evaluating the translation results given by audiovisual translation in terms of comparative analysis. Additionally, our analysis will be based on the translation procedures proposed by renowned scholars in the field of audiovisual translation, such as Agost (1999), Fuentes Luque (2001), Chaume (2012), and Martínez Tejerina (2016). We aim to observe whether humor is expressed in the same way in both Spanish and Italian, to confirm or refute that the linguistic proximity between Spanish and Italian facilitates the translation process. In the conclusions, it appears that the proximity between Spanish and Italian, in many cases, does not facilitate the process of interlinguistic transposition. For this reason, the translator/subtitler is occasionally required to make appropriate changes and adaptations to render humor effectively.

Vol 23 No 03 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 03 [ Special Issue ]/ December 2024, 2024

TRANSLANG Vol 24 N°1, 2025

📢 TRANSLANG Journal Call for Papers - June 2025 📢 We are excited to announce a Call for Papers f... more 📢 TRANSLANG Journal Call for Papers - June 2025 📢

📅 Important Dates:

Submission Deadline: February 28, 2025
Final Manuscript Due: May 30, 2025
Publication Date: June 30, 2025

🔗 How to Submit: Please submit your papers via our online submission system [https://lnkd.in/epmMPZN9]. For any inquiries, feel free to contact us at: translang.journal@gmail.com. ✉️

We look forward to your contributions, which will enrich the field of translation studies and promote dialogue among scholars and practitioners! 🌟

Editor-in-chief: Prof. Ouahmiche Ghania
Secretary: Bouras Saida

Vol 23 No 2 (2024): Traduction et Langues Volume : 23 Numéro : 02 [ Special Issue ], 2024

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2) , 2024

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2)

Xiaolin: An Exploration of Jokes and Humor in Ancient Chinese Culture This article is based on ... more Xiaolin: An Exploration of Jokes and Humor in Ancient Chinese Culture

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

Deconstructing Female Stereotypes through Humor in Sylvia Orthof's O cavalo transparent The wid... more Deconstructing Female Stereotypes through Humor in Sylvia Orthof's O cavalo transparent

Traduction Et Langues, 23(2), 2024

traduction et langues , 2022

Aller au de-là des langues TRANSLANG est une revue de Traduction et de Langues fondée en 2002 à l... more Aller au de-là des langues TRANSLANG est une revue de Traduction et de Langues fondée en 2002 à l'Université d'Oran. Les travaux qui y étaient publiés étaient davantage germanophones avec une nette orientation vers la traduction, sous la direction de Djamel Eddine Lachachi. À partir de l'année 2010, Translang devient pluridisciplinaire et plus de langues y sont présentes l'anglais, l'arabe, le français, l'espagnol, le Russe les travaux entre traduction et langues s'équilibrent. En 2015, la direction passe sous la coupe de Ghania Ouahmiche et TRANSLANG dépend de l'Université Oran 2, l'éditrice en Chef oeuvre pour son indexation et ce, à travers de nouvelles orientations, la traductologie est plus présente. En 2020, TRANSLANG est indexée, son staff est caractérisée par la dimension internationale ce qui confère à la revue davantage de crédibilité. En 2022, TRANSLANG se met à jour et se spécialise en traductologie, s'inscrivant dans le cadre de Recherches de hautes Qualités (RHQ). Les thématiques abordées aujourd'hui sont particulièrement en relation avec la réflexion sur le processus de traduction notamment la traduction de textes spécialisés (techniques, littéraires, artistiques), sur le processus d'interprétation (simultanée, consécutive, communautaire), sur les aspects cognitifs de la traduction, histoire de la traduction, didactique et pédagogie, traductique, terminotique, etc. La qualité des manuscrits ne constitue pas le seul critère d'acceptation, le critère de nouveauté/originalité est également nécessaire pour la publication. TRANSLANG favorise diverses méthodologies, argumentatives, empiriques, scientométriques, etc. La revue a pour vocation de permettre une visibilité des chercheurs en traductologie des régions du Maghreb, d'Afrique, du Moyen Orient, d'Asie et d'occident. TRANSLANG s'adresse à tout chercheur, traducteur qui s'intéresse à la traduction dans sa dimension communicative, textuelle, culturelle et esthétique.

OUAHMICHE GHANIA DOCTORAL THESIS , 2013

This research attempts to describe and analyze some linguistic practices among Algerian students ... more This research attempts to describe and analyze some linguistic practices among Algerian students resulting from contact between Oran Arabic and French. Indeed, this study is based mainly on a double orientation. The first approach appears to be descriptive/ analytic, and tries to apply the theoretical and empirical foundations of the insertional models proposed by Myers-Scotton on a corpus realized among university students recorded in different speech situations even if university remains the major context (formal setting). The second approach seems to be interpretive principally based on quantitative and qualitative methods in order to test the empirical validity and the explanatory power of Myers-Scotton’s insertional models.
The main idea underlying this research seeks to establish a link between the asymmetry in the different patterns of Oran Arabic/French Code-Switching realized by bilingual students showing varying degrees of bilinguality, and the asymmetry with regard to the organization of the various system and content morphemes in the mental lexicon.
Despite the structural explanations of the dueling languages permitting the alternation from French to Oran Arabic and vice versa, other factors appear to be influential in shaping of mixed constructions, namely the speakers’ competence in the languages involved in t the mixed constructions, the pragmatic intentions of the interlocutors when producing mixed constituents, embedded islands and internal islands as well as the speakers’ attitudes towards the languages involved in bilingual speech.
In fact, this research is basically founded on a corpus of spontaneous conversations recorded among some Algerian bilingual/plurilingual students. The analysis of the students’ productions tries to demonstrate the directionality of code-switching in an Algerian context where the emplacement, the distribution and the status of the syntactic categories/structures were investigated when French and Oran Arabic have been shown as Matrix or Embedded Languages in the corpus.
Unlike other researches on code-switching and mainly studies undertaken by Ziamari, which targeted the correlation of the specificities of code-switching Moroccan Arabic/ French to fact of urbanity, this research aims to demonstrate that the linguistic dynamism due to Oran Arab/French duality is the result of a particular practice that distinguishes a community of practice (that of bilingual students) from other linguistic communities. For this purpose, the context (university) as an urban structure cannot be the only trigger of code-switching if the pragmatic intentions of the interlocutors do not favor this linguistic act.
The results obtained in this research showed that the insertion of French constructions in a morphosyntactic frame governed by OrA as a matrix language is characterized by a predominance of certain structures, namely noun phrase islands, mixed nominal constituents, and inflectional phrases. Also, the results showed an asymmetry in the roles assigned to languages involved in CS (Arabic and French Oran in this case). Oran Arabic appears as the matrix language in most mixed-codes whereas French’ role was limited to an embedded language despite the abundance of embedded structures from this language.
The insertional models which constitute the theoretical framework of this research provide consistent elements of answers to many questions raised in this study. These models treating issues relevant to syntax and cognition indicate a flexibility of analysis and facilitate the understanding of complex linguistic phenomena generated by plurilingualism. Notwithstanding, other avenues of exploration appear to be completive to this research should target the application of the basic principles of Myers-Scotton’s models by adopting a didactic perspective where problems of the acquisition of French and English syntactic categories and larger constructions, error analysis, and problems of interference would be discussed.