(Re)Creating the Power of Language: A Comparative Analysis on Pun Translation in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and Its Variants in Albanian

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore on the power of language to express implied meanings and to compare the original effect to the effect (re)created through translation. The focus of the present comparative analysis will be puns, all extracted from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its variants in Albanian. These Albanian variants will be compared not only to the original, but also among themselves. The comparison will serve not only the aim of deciding what changes in the type and composition of the original puns versus their translations, but also the effect transmitted in each case, i.e. whether the humor or irony intended in the original is still felt in Albanian. The comparative analysis will highlight some ways of translating puns in the corpus selected. The paper will be completed by some conclusions referring to the corpus analyzed and overall to the translation of puns in general.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2012.v2n4p211