Saving the BFG: A relevance-theoretic approach to pun translation

Abstract

© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press Despite their ubiquity, puns are used purposefully in children’s literature. To manifest the author’s punning intention, puns should be rendered as puns in the target language. However, due to linguistic and cultural differences, puns are frequently lost in translation. With reference to The BFG, a famous children’s book by Roald Dahl, this article explored the challenge of pun translation from English into Thai from the perspective of relevance theory. A case study approach was employed to provide insight into the translation strategies for puns from English into Thai. Moreover, quantitative data were used to support the results. The comparative analysis of the source language puns and their translations revealed that the translator tended to resort to literal translation, resulting in the loss of punning effects in the translations. Accordingly, the readers of the target language do not gain similar effects as the source language readers. Based on the relevance-theoretic approach, this article suggests recreating a target language pun or adjusting the target language contexts in order to achieve interpretive resemblance and save the punning effects intended by the author.