Using Optimal Relevance in Solving Wordplay Dilemma in Five Translations of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Abstract

Pun translation represents a challenge to any translator. Delabastita (1996) argues that in pun translation, faithfulness to the verbal playfulness of the original text means, paradoxically, unfaithfulness to its vocabulary and grammer. This study tackles the translation of puns in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by five Arab translators using Delabastita's translation techniques and Gutt's Principle of Optimal Relevance. The thesis seeks to reach some recommendations on pun translation as some translators, out of their belief that pun translation is impossible, ignore its presence and translate the text literally. To reach this goal, a contrastive analysis is carried out on five translations by Amira Kiwan (2003), Ahmed Khaled Tawfik (abridged, 2007), Chakir Nassreddine (2012), Nadia El Kholy (2013), and Seham Abdel Salam (2013). 16 types of pun are analysed. The study proves that some types are more retainable in translation than others: polysemy, antimetabole, syntactic ambiguity, and alliteration can be easily retained in Arabic. Polysemy can be retained in Arabic without much loss, thus proving Delabastita's assumptions about the presence of polysemy in extralingual reality. Conversely, homonyms are rare in Arabic and can hardly be retained, but other types can be used to replace them. The reason for revisiting this old text is that in 2013, two new translations which retain puns of the original text much more than the relatively older ones were produced.