2. Ambiguity in language that leads to conflict. 3. The punch line is surprising, it means the unexpected interpretation can
solve the conflict.
G. Types of Humor
Before translating a humor the translator should have known the types of humor. Raphaelson-West divided humor into three broad categorizations they are
linguistic humor such as pun, cultural humor such as ethnic humor, and universal such as unexpected.
a. Linguistic Humor
Linguistic humor is a language-based humor. Jabbari and Ravisi define linguistic humor as humor that is mostly related to sounds and spellings of the
words
34
. In this case, we may infer that linguistic humor is created by manipulating the components of language such as spelling, sound and meaning.
This humor type is the most difficult to be translated. A major factor is not only the nature of the joke but the relationship of the languages in question
35
In order to translate this humor it would be necessary to have an idiomatic expression about humor which contained a word which rhymed with a word
which means something about puns or language. Raphaelson-West divided linguistic humor into two, wordplay and pun. Wordplay is the general name for
the various textual phenomena in which structural features of the language are used are exploited in order to bring about a communicatively significant
34
Lutvina, op.cit., p. 2
35
Debra S. Raphaelson-West, “On the Feasibility and Strategies of Translating Humor, Meta: Translator’s Journal 34, no. 1, 1989, p. 5
confrontation of two or more linguistic structures with more or less similar forms and more or less different meanings. According to the type and degree of
similarity puns can be further divided into the following categories: 1. Homonymy identical sounds and spelling
2. Homophony identical sounds but different spellings 3. Homography different sounds but identical spelling and
4. Paronymy there are slight differences in both spelling and sound. For instance linguistic humor found in the movie Penguins of
Madagascar: Discover Their Untold Story Thanksgiving SL: “Splash, flash, and crash is a go”
TL: “Operasi “cepat, kecipak dan hajar” dilaksanakan” The wordplay is created by manipulating its last sound and spelling. Since
the sounds and spellings are identical, it may be considered as homonymy. In the phrase “Flash, splash and crash is a go” the homonymy is the last syllable of the
word “splash, flash, and crash”. There is an identical sound and spelling of “ash” in that phrase. So, it may be conclude this phrase as the example of linguistic
humor because contains a homonymy.
b. Cultural Humor
Cultural humor is also bound to cultural elements such as reference to some customs or the name of some special places, works or people and
application of proverbs, idioms or catchphrases
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.
36
Ali Akbar Jabbari, and Z. Nikkhah Ravizi, Dubbing Verbally Expressed Humor: An analysis of American Animations in Persian Context, International Journal of Humanities and
Social Science2, no. 5, 2012, p. 265
