Audiovisual Translation of Puns and Cultural References in the First Season of the TV Series ‘How I Met Your Mother’

Abstract

This master thesis investigates a topic from the field of audiovisual translation. The research is focused on the subtitling of puns and cultural references in the American TV series ‘How I Met Your Mother’. It aims to analyse the characteristics of each of these two translation problems in the source text and the translation strategies applied to render them in the target text. For these purposes, the research material is analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively to provide comprehensive data on the subject. The theoretical framework is based on the concept of relevance theory as proposed by Sperber and Wilson (2004), which constitutes a valid explanation of numerous translators’ decisions. This master thesis also includes a practical framework with information on the character of the film as an audiovisual medium.

The analysed material provides a representative sample of the translation of puns and cultural references from English to Norwegian. The discussed examples show translation difficulties and factors which need to be considered while translating, such as inter-semantic redundancy and screen space limitations. In addition, the analysis of source-text puns allows for drawing conclusions on the language distance between these two languages. In relation to cultural references, the research indicates a potential distance between the American and the Norwegian culture. The conducted research also proves the usability of the relevance theory and the triangulated method of analysis for translation studies.