Double strategies for reproducing multimodal puns in interlinguistic translation: Experimental research

Abstract: The research is dedicated to exposing the specifics of translating multimodal puns on the basis of the retrospective experiment. Multimodal pun is defined as a creolized/polycoded formation substantiated by a certain type of ambiguity and consisting of two inhomogeneous semiotic modes. The material for our research was provided by verbal-visual puns functioning as separate texts. Each multimodal pun is the result of intersemiotic translation when the signs of one semiotic system are transformed into the signs of another one. For the vast majority of multimodal puns verbal signs are interpreted into pictures, but the opposite cannot be excluded either. The role of the visual component is twofold. It can be creative when the picture is part of ambiguity mechanism; or it can be amplifying when the picture accentuates the verbal wordplay not participating directly in the creation of ambiguity. Hence, our first hypothesis is that multimodal puns with an amplifying visual component are a lesser challenge for translators than those with a creative one due to the absence of necessity to coordinate verbal and visual modes in the target text. The aim of the research is to identify the strategies of interlinguistic translation of multimodal puns as well as factors that determine them and in particular the impact of the visual mode on the translator’s decision-making. Hence, our second hypothesis is that multimodal puns require double strategies that would allow to correlate the reproduction of the elements of two different semiotic systems. The analysis of the subjects’ translations as well as their reports received in the course of the delayed retrospective experiment confirmed both hypotheses.