There's a Double Tongue : An investigation into the translation of Shakespeare’s wordplay, with special reference to Hamlet

The pun is as old as Babel, and inveterate punsters like Shakespeare clearly never lacked translators. This book critically examines the evergreen cliché that wordplay defies translation, replacing it by a theory and a case study that aim to come to grips with the reality of wordplay and its translation. What are the possible modes of wordplay translation? What are the various, sometimes conflicting constraints prompting translators in certain situations to go for one strategy rather than another? Ample illustration is provided from Hamlet and other Shakespearean texts and several Dutch, French, and German renderings.The study exemplifies how theory can usefully be integrated into a description-oriented approach to translation. Much of the argument also rests on the definition of wordplay as an open-ended and historically variable category. The book's concerns range from the linguistic and textual properties of Shakespeare's punning and its translation to matters of historical poetics and ideology. Its straightforward approach shows that discourse about wordplay doesn't need to rely on stylistic bravura or abstract speculation. The book is concluded by an anthology of the puns in Hamlet, including a brief semantic analysis of each and a generous selection of diverse translations. Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface Editorial note Chapter One. Translation and Translation Studies 0 Introduction 1 Translation Problem Number One: the Anisomorphism of Non-Artificial Codes 1.1 Linguistic recoding 1.2 Cultural recoding 1.3 Textual recoding 2 Translation Problem Number Two: the Complex Organization of Messages 2.1 2.2 3 Some Conclusions 3.1 Types of translational relationships 3.2 Communicative types of equivalence 3.3 The intermediate level of translation norms 3.4 Reconsidering the communication scheme 3.5 Studying translation Chapter Two. Wordplay and the Study of Wordplay 1 Towards a Definition of Wordplay 1.1 A definition 1.2 Some notes on wordplay and language 2 Defining Wordplay: Further Specifications 2.1 A confrontation of similar forms 2.2 A confrontation of dissimilar meanings 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.2.1 Verbal irony 2.2.2.2 Speech act ambiguity 2.2.2.3 Allegory 2.2.2.4 Allusion 2.2.2.5 Metaphor 2.2.2.6 Referential equivocality 2.2.2.7 Referential vagueness 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.4.1 Conceptual meaning 2.2.4.2 Connotative meaning 2.2.4.3 Stylistic meaning 2.3 An exploitation of linguistic features 2.3.1 Phonological structure 2.3.2 Lexical developments: polysemy 2.3.3 Lexical developments: idioms 2.3.4 Morphological development 2.3.5 Syntactic structure 2.3.6 Two additional remarks 2.4 The communicative significance of wordplay 2.4.1 The dilemma 2.4.2 The dilemma rephrased 2.4.3 Intention 2.4.4 Signal 2.4.5 The significance of wordplay and a historical corpus 3 Classifying wordplay 3.1 A very short review 3.2 A word on alternative classifications 4 The textual perspective 4.1 Providing semantic links: coherence 4.2 Animating characters: individuals and interactions 4.3 Supporting witty dialogue: interaction 4.4 Supporting rhetorical monologue: persuasion 4.5 Exploiting awareness discrepancy: irony 4.6 Manipulating audience response: tension and attention 4.7 Tricking the censor: taboo 4.8 A final observation Chapter Three. Translating Wordplay: A Theoretical Perspective 1 Ambiguity, Wordplay, and Translation: a Survey of the Field 1.1 Translation turned to wordplay: bilingual wordplay, false cognates, oblique wordplay, interlingual ambiguities 1.2 Translation and wordplay: the issue of significant versus non-significant wordplay, or a dilemma revisited 1.3 Translation and non-significant wordplay: various approaches 1.4 Translation and significant wordplay: the question of translatability 2 Modes of Wordplay Translation: Possibilities 2.0 Towards a competence model of wordplay translation 2.1 Pun > Pun 2.1.1 Linguistic mechanism 2.1.2 Formal structure 2.1.3 Semantic structure 2.2 Pun > Non-Pun 2.2.1 Non-selective non-pun 2.2.2 Selective non-pun 2.2.3 Diffuse paraphrase 2.3 Pun > Punoid 2.4 Pun > Zero 2.5 Direct Copy: Pun S.T. = Pun T.T. (SA.) 2.6 Transference: Pun S.T. = Pun T.T. (SÉ.) 2.7 Addition: Non-Pun > Pun 2.8 Addition (New Textual Material): Zero > Pun 2.9 Editorial Techniques 2.9.1 Footnotes 2.9.2 Anthological translation 2.10 Some additional notes 2.10.1 Wordplay translation and wordplay signals 2.10.2 Chains of puns in translation 2.10.3 The principle of redundancy 2.10.4 The principle of compensation 3 Modes of Wordplay Translation: Restrictions 3.0 Kinds of restrictions 3.1 Is every language capable of wordplay? 3.2 Is every language capable of any pun? 3.2.0 The problem 3.2.1 When the S.T. pun is phonetic, the chances of finding a congenial T.T. pun are relatively higher to the extent that the S.ling.code and the T.ling.code are historically related 3.2.2 When the S.T. pun is polysemic, the chances of finding a congenial T.T. pun are relatively independent of the historical relatedness of the S.ling.code and the T.ling.code 3.2.3 When the S.T. pun is syntactic or morphological the chances of finding a congenial T.T. pun are relatively higher to the extent that the S.ling.code and the T.ling.code are typologically related 3.2.4 When the S.T. pun is phonetic or polysemic, the chances of finding a congenial T.T. pun are relatively higher to the extent that there exists interlingual borrowing between the S.ling.code and the T.ling.code 3.2.5 A final remark Chapter Four. Handet, or Wordplay Translation in Action 0 Introduction 1 Norms Pertaining to the Acceptability of Wordplay 1.1 Notes towards a history of wordplay 1.1.1 A bird's-eye view of the history of the pun 1.1.2 Some tentative conclusions 1.1.3 The effect of such attitudes on Shakespeare's case 1.2 How do negative (or positive) attitudes towards wordplay influence translational policies as they emerge in our corpus? 1.2.1 The frequency of PUN > PUN translations 1.2.2 The frequency of NON-PUN > PUN or ZERO> PUN translations 1.2.3 Signals in the translations 1.2.4 Preference for or resistance to phonetic wordplay 2 Norms Pertaining to the Acceptability of Related Textual Functions 2.0 Acceptability and translation 2.1 Wordplay and mixed imagery 2.2 Wordplay and character: the noble hero 2.3 Wordplay and comedy: mixing the genres 2.4 Wordplay and social taboo 3 Translation Norms 3.0 An introductory note 3.1 Acceptable translation 3.2 Adequate translation: the dilemma 3.3 Adequate translation: the dilemma and its consequences 3.3.1 The conservative and seemingly erratic behaviour of translators 3.3.2 The mechanism further analysed 3.3.3 Metatexts 3.3.4 Intertexts 3.3.5 Text variants 3.4 Intermediate positions Epilogue Appendix. Puns and Ambiguities in Hamlet and in Hamlet Translations: An Anthology of Examples. Bibliography (I). Shakespeare texts discussed. (II). Other references. Index Shakespeare's Works Shakespeare Translators General Index