English-Vietnamese Translation Strategies of Subtitles Involving Humor in the TV Series “Modern Family”

Abstract

The study aims to (a) identify the joke types in the TV series “Modern Family” (Season 1) and (b) analyze the different strategies used by fansubbers to translate the jokes. Accordingly, Raphaelson-West’s (1989) model of joke types and summative content analysis were employed to analyse 100 joke samples. Results showed all three types of universal, cultural, and linguistic jokes were found in the first season with universal jokes accounting for the largest number. Six main strategies were applied to translate the jokes, including literal translation, explicitation, loan, compensation, transposition, and lexical recreation. As the most popular strategy, literal translation was proved to effectively render universal jokes only. Meanwhile, regarding cultural and linguistic jokes, strategies such as compensation, transposition, and lexical recreation, although being used at a much lower frequency, helped to create a kind of dynamic equivalence and ensured there was wordplay somewhere near the source language pun.