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- Title
Pygmalion, Humor, and the Translation of Dialect.
- Authors
Tien, Sunny
- Abstract
The non-standard varieties of language in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion reflect the manners of the dramatic characters and satirical playfulness of his work, but at the same time pose unique challenges to the translators. This paper engages with issues of language variety and the creation of comic effects in the Chinese translations and visual transformations of Shaw's Pygmalion. Special attention is given to the renderings of Lin Yutang and Yang Xianyi. How is Shaw's linguistic humor represented in the Chinese context to capture the subtlety of his characters' "ungrammatical" Cockney English? This discussion not only concerns the translation of the play from one language to another but also the translation of the inter-relations of the dialects or languages used in it. Apart from the linguistic norms, a range of other factors affect the process of translation—associations and connotations attached to the languages, cultural expressions that occur in oral and written forms, the kinds of meaning engendered by the "literary dialect," comic effects of the language varieties, etc.
- Subjects
PYGMALION (Play : Shaw); SELF-fulfilling prophecy; WIT &; humor; SATIRICAL plays; METAMORPHOSIS in art
- Publication
Translation Quarterly, 2015, Issue 75, p1
- ISSN
1027-8559
- Publication type
Article