Humor theory and translation research: Proper names in humorous discourse

Abstract

This paper reports the results of comparing source and target text jabs (from Raymond Chandler's novels translated into Greek) involving allusive Proper Names, with a view to accounting for the contribution of this grammatical category to humorous eect. The Proper Names discussed are sociocul- turally bound. Therefore, the dierence in production dates, sociocultural environment, and audience design has resulted in dierent strategies being adopted for their intercultural transference. This has provided the opportu- nity to check the traditional strategies against respondents' reactions to humorous eect and compare source text and alternative target text jabs us- ing the GTVH metric. Considering also the Cognitive Grammar account of the functions of Proper Names (PNs) has led to an interpretation of the un- expected finding that jabs with allusive PNs may well be humorously eec- tive even if their referents are unknown to the audience. The following factors emerge as crucial in this respect: the brevity of the linguistic sign, the specif- icity and concreteness of the evoked scripts, and the immediacy with which mental contact is established. It is suggested that replacing socioculturally- bound PNs in translating jab lines may jeopardize their humorous eect.