Issues Arising From the Analysis
8.4 Issues Arising From the Analysis
As I have mentioned in Chapter 4 (Section 4.4) and throughout the chapters of data analysis (Ch.5, 6 and 7), I had some methodological and analytical problems during the categorisation of my data. Its systematic classification was seldom straightforward. For example, some instances of humour could fall into the wordplay as well as the metaphor group (e.g. Joey’s “I fold like a cheap hooker…” in example (7.4) above). In addition, it was sometimes difficult to establish the distinction between FEI-based puns and culture- specific key-phrases (KPs). Since I have already explained how I have tackled these problems in Chapter 4, I devote the following subsections to other issues. Firstly, I consider some limitations of this study, with particular reference to the size of the data analysed and its peculiarities. Secondly, I comment on the use of canned laughter in the ST and the TT. I have chosen to return to this point because canned laughter is the criterion I used to select the data I analysed.
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8.4.1 Limitations of this Study The amount of data analysed in this thesis may appear small if compared to the total size of each dataset (56,861 words for the ST and 57,043 for the TT). A clarification is therefore in order here. As I pointed out earlier, I selected Friends because of its potential funniness and the translation problems that it may cause. Moreover, I chose to concentrate on those instances of potential humour in the ST which are supported by canned laughter (cf. Section 4.4 Subsection 8.4.2 below). However, my preliminary investigation demonstrated that not all humour in the ST poses translation problems (cf. Section 4.4). Hence, only the main mechanisms of humour creation that satisfy this criterion have been included in this study, i.e. wordplay, culture-specific allusions and metaphor.
Despite their apparent sparseness, I believe that the analysis of these three phenomena has produced interesting results. Firstly, it has revealed recurrent patterns in humour creation in Friends. Moreover, it has demonstrated that wordplay, culture-specific allusions and metaphor are used to convey peculiar clues about the six main characters. Finally, it shows how the production crew and the scriptwriters exploited them to enhance the themes of the series. These key factors also seem to contribute to the entertainment function of the series and its success.
8.4.2 Humour and Canned Laughter As I have often pointed out during this thesis, I used canned laughter as a criterion to establish the production crew’s intention to convey potential humour in the ST. I have chosen this approach because there is no consensus about the nature of humour, as
As may be evident from the analysis of the data, many instances of potentially humorous wordplay and culture-specific allusions are embedded in conversational exchanges delivered mostly by the six main characters. As a consequence of this, an instance of potential humour can often contain more than one recording of canned laughter. This also explains why the total number of instances of potential humour does not match exactly the total number of recordings of canned laughter in the ST.
In Table 8.8 below I have summarised the total number of recordings of canned laughter that are directly connected to the instances of wordplay, culture-specific allusions and metaphor in the ST and TT:
Instances of Canned Laughter for
Wordplay 37 9 Culture-Specific Allusions
Table 8.8: Instances of canned laughter for Wordplay, Culture-Specific Allusions and Metaphor in the ST and the TT