Translation of humoristic wordplays in children’s literature into Spanish: PJO

Abstract

[eng] Wordplay is a versatile rhetoric device, making it challenging to provide a clear definition, much less a comprehensive classification. A wordplay may function to brief the text, to embellish it, or even in common-day situations. However, this analysis focuses on the humoristic function of wordplay, which is why, throughout the dissertation, both wordplay and pun are used interchangeably. More precisely, this study focuses on the banter wordplays in a specific book series – PJO – belonging to children’s literature. While this kind of literature has problems with its definition, this study takes the one declaring that it is any work of literature targeted at children. Selecting these Riordan’s novels adds complexity to gathering examples and the different translation categorizations that present Delabastita in relation to Piaget’s theory (1972) that, depending on their age, children comprehend humor differently. The analysis of the gathered examples will provide, on the one hand, an exclusion of six of Belabastita’s eight wordplay translation methods and, on the other hand, an inclusion and consideration of aptronyms. After closely examining the wordplays’ translations, the Spanish translation of Riordan’s PJO book series faithfully recreates the author’s staple humor.