A Descriptive Study on the Translation of Wordplays In Subtitles of the Tv Serial How I Met Your Mother

Abstract

KALENDER, Derya. A Descriptive Study on the Translation of Wordplays in Subtitles of TV Serial How I Met Your Mother, Master’s Thesis, Ankara, 2019.

This thesis aims to analyse the problematic nature of one of the humor elements in Audio-visual Translation specifically speaking, the wordplay translations in subtitles of American sitcom How I Met Your Mother 3rd Season. Subtitling contains many constraints due to its nature (time, space limitations etc.). These constraints become more problematic for the subtitle translator when the sitcoms with culture-bound humor elements are in question. This study has adopted the two-stage methodological framework for analysing two different translations of wordplays done by Tiglon (DVD) and Netflix (Online Platform) in How I Met Your Mother 3rd Season which was broadcasted on CNBC-e channel between 2005-2014. The study has been based on Holmes/Toury map in the light of problem restricted theories. For the wordplay translations that constitute the area of application of the study, strategies for wordplay translation suggested by Dirk Delabastita have been adapted. This descriptive study has altogether attempted to analyse the wordplays in an audio-visual context in general and the strategies that govern their translations done by two different translators in a situational comedy How I Met Your Mother in specific. Study analyzes the translations of wordplays done by Tiglon as DVD and Netflix in terms of what strategies were used in what frequency, how translators differed in their choice of strategies and the reasons for the use of certain strategies, thus sheds light on whether humor elements can be transferred to a different language for its culture bound nature and at the same time aims to be an example for further studies on similar subjects.