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7514402
On interpreting'ironic wordplay'
I
, v,CvtrL((d k
1[6{iCrrR
luvt"t I\(( L'c('^t,{c'"" ,' tr $Il!,tiil,t/*e/ while.oJi#iu"r, widelydiscussed Thetranslation ofirqnyhasbeen fewerresearchif#uon.-*t
,"rp..$*e
interpretation ori.*v(rony iJ itselfa verycomplex
phenomenonbut for the purpose of analysis,this essaywill be limited to the discussionof irony used in the wordplay in Obama's remarks atWhittllouse Correspondent'sAssociation Dinner and i+^
:- ^:*,,1+ ^- ^^,,^ +^**^+i- ^ -^ -l i +i ^ in simultaneous:-interpretin its rendition
il',]'ilf,|. r" Thetext chosenhereiMdrbssed du*ingtheannualWhite HouseCorrespondent's -/
Association(WHCA) Dinnerparty in 2009.According to the offrcialwebsiteof WHCA, the dinneris a traditionthat started"in 1920"andsincethenit hasbeenthrougha seriesof changes, including"the first president[attendance]in1924,the drop[ping]of the banon wynf
in 1962,
by proceedsfrom the annualdinney''f,h9qhinethat [andits recent]effort [to offer] scholarships ggltgg:yte
is the natureof the dinner,which aimsat entertaining.Given the fact that the
presidentis the first speaker,the "typical cyxfiNicative function"of his speechwould be "setting 2002).The!1aredifferentconvep.s which speakersof the scene"(PavlicekandPdchhacker differentculturalgrou$tum to in the effort of achievingthis functiorilFor"Anglo-American speakers... [they] often seekto ease... tensionby startingoffwith ajoke or an anecdoteso asto createa relaxedatmosphere"(PavlicekandPdchhacker 200Mi'J utro notedby Raphaelson-West to tell whatever (1989: 34)that"[i]n the UnitedStates,peoplearepermitt.iurra oftenencouraged ... will get togetherfor a satirical type ofjoke they wish. EvenleadingWashingtoqpoliticians - -z'' , BlrNt6:c-1',^7-rL.. l989Jlln this particular$eech, PresidentObama eveningof fun everyyear."(Raphaelson-West Ul -J twelve minutes of his sixteen-minute-speech, madsuse of various forms of humour during the first and this part of his speechwill be the material thatthis essayfocuseson-ffr-/to arnlyze the language specific diffrculty in interpreting it into Chinesi.fo take into accountthe doubt of whether this/&
valid casefor interpreting,onecouldarguethat asraisingfun{ for scholarshi(isoneof the functions of this dinner, all celebrities (who might as well be non-English speakers)that are influential in this respectmight be invited and attfnd. Interpretation,as a result, would Ae crucr!--though more possibly in the mode of chuchotageor simultaneous,rather than consecutive. been done cpncerning the rendition of humour in simultaneous Since someresearchpszhas
ih,t"ti;;rtfr.
(2002:8) PavlicekandPdchhacker -uii; in conference settingsby its functionanarurnf-tfavingdefinedthefunctionof categoizehumour
will dru* theanalysis interpreting,
the humorous utterancesin the sourcetext to be scenesgfing, the categorizationof tlpse could
pur; asthreemainforms:self-irony, tunherbedistinguished
I
i';[];:t" *a *orapf"ffi----------------f*ri, _\1
:
7514402
the speaker'sabilipzto*l?"SOf*, him- or herselfandinvitesa sympatheticattitude"(Pavlicekand prichhacke r 2002\.[il";
Ul"Y""nwhenPresidentObamasays:"TonightI wantto snealfrBm the
heart. I'm goingto speakoffthe cuff/', reflectingSe public criticismof his relianceon prompteS('. Also, it is well knoq4that none of the three Commerce Secretarieshe named stayedin the post for
is usedhereself-ironically:"You know,it's beena whirlwind of activity long.The embarrassment thesefirst n*r&adays. ... andno Presidentin historyhasevernamedthreeCommerceSecretaries "giving ,___e a_ distortednr^ctqeof a perso;ra4d _ o_ this quicklyT"fParod !$:n*nb"a r, *v^...v__v verbalcaricature _l _\ . ;/ vr,lui< 41.t, k used in statementSsuch as, listeners' entertainment",lis for the traits exaggerating-egative character 'oAfter all, we have a lot in common. He [John Boehner] is a person of color. Although not a color that appearsin the natural worl{and
"Dick Cheneywas supposedto be here but he is vybusf
working on his memoirs, tentatively titled, 'How to Shoot Friends and InterrogatePeopleT"'.The first instancealludes to John Boehner's fake tan, and the secondalludes to Cheney's hunting
\ \ :s ,t'
) (
!l
.,)
"hisderense orthe:frecttlffA'.:fr*t? and incident - ffi'lll;$;,,flt",:r111i'5tf991y;ryEi.,Y'h [rr,lr(r)l[Otr LLt'i,L-^t.(* f-0 Yti Lq-l "Fbf wordplayin the
suchaswaterboardinf' (CNNlh"*
initionof L$ihalme:
m{rjg?tv',Bv :lgsuatlv_!91qsj&gui{c .!iq:91t":,.. ther:
theauthormeanstlt/r,u'/,c,, modification
lexical substitution of keyword in thd frame. Segmentsof the text such as, "She's even begun to -{
i '\
bridee the differencesthat have divided us for so long, -.''becauseno matter which party you belong to
Y,
we can all agreethat Michelle has the right to bare a{ms,r'and "... this is a tough holiday for Rahm
t
)--/u''
J"1 I
oday'after 'mother"' exemplifywordplayas dt ['( Emanuelbecausehe'snot usedto sayingthe word '/t|^t abovedefu. T{q#h the tfuee forms of humouraredifferent on the surface,pragmatically,they ft*t v--uttz r?' irony. of rony. classificationoI the classrltcatlon couldaftt'fitfider the could 'L-," . ,. fdcr+< l f.rR ,fl a-K_ "tfUi-,ffit i/ u . . t, ,/(l(LK/"___ | ,^AA^.o\ r--^--r^c-^:*^--,
tS ) ^,- Austinvand to define irony. Segrle's'theories ^--^.r-Vlt.^^-r^'.V-rl^^-r^*^ Pelsmaekersand Van Besjen (2002:8) draw on ! j 'lt-<. *r '-;^ Lenu-(' o.l'+1--: yL a--.-_ Ir-L 'First '',---\ They j from the threea'ctswhich constitulesan utterance.First is "locutionary - - - at irony - - - - j look wl* c q i *' l
\
.:
v s
\.,
6t
to "[t]he incongruitybetweenwhat is saidand i, { | incongruity",alsocalled,"inferencetrigger",lrfefers perspective...t ..., .nr an rtironic an llluuutlulraly illocutionaryPErsPEULrvt; . DggOnqry, "[f]rom observe'isecondly, interlocutors canODSerVe Can whattne the lnteflOCUIOfS { I| Wnat }< -r lrlruIll all ". ?.7J{l l '* 'r'-L l utteranceis - - -a-speech r ----- act whose essentialcondition is that it is meant to count as an expressionof '/ ' r- t l i't .* I a ... evaluativeattitude.Typically,it is meantto countascriticisrgr"Thirdly,the rcalizationof two ",1 \ j$ perlocutionaryeffectsareintendedby the ironist:"that thetargetis chidedand/orcriticizedandthat
tu .*-
F{
R" X
is * I
andVanBesien2002LAll in the audiencg)t'(Pelsmaekers is generated somegoodwill or amusement fix examplesextractedfrom the speechin question fit into the description illustrated above. Of the three categ.ories,wordplay could possibly pose greaterchallenge for an interpreter becauseto be c'f-
l
capable)6r""ogrrirll{e incongruities,not only is world andlinguisticknowledgerequired,but also specificculturalbackgroundknowledge. -/--'
l,r i.
7514402
jta
61,.t,.Qs', r,
To analyze,thd-tronic wordplay'shallbe brokendown into two levelsNiriguisticlevel and 1tspragmaticlevel.Amonglh5'iri* factorsaffectinsthe renditio! of stylisticmarkers"thatViaggio (:ut r/ rlCvr rflt.( [u lt'.-tr r.lf..cr-[Llr( (1996)listedlth6-firsttwo couldbe uJedto analyzethe linguisticdiffrcultiesthe 'ironic wordplay'
poses forinterpretation@Nu$""gtirtt"tlilht.ne obviously prepared{uduun""which,
remarks are Thehumorous original":
o'evenless in Viaggio's (1996) words, would make it
manageable"to interpret. Fortunately,with Obama's intentional pausefor laughter andaqVlp, the interpreter could put more effort on productivity while the constraint of time is reduced.Second,
lexicaldifferences O.mt and/or "structural
t".*.t*tt" l"tp6f^k,il,n"
of ironic firstinstance
wordplay', th9"Iâ&#x201A;Źxicalitem 'bear'is replacedby 'bare'. The homophonesallow this utteranceto be ,./
fl-r &r
-/ Somehow,equivalent pair does not exist in Chinese,which meansthat one can only ambiguous.
sacrificeoneword for the other'ssake.The interpreterthenhasthe optionto decideifgloss is (.)
'--:=:-;------neededforthe@ltyoffindinganequivalentpairofhomophones,different 6j<_collocationsi(also an obstaclethat one faces.iln the secondinstanceof the 'ironic wordplay', the problem lies in what 'mother'collocates with in the two languagesin question. 'Mother'could be followed by 'day'and'fuck'in English. In Chinese,'mother's day'is EHFff (mu qin jie) and 'mother-fuck'is #{filfl
(gan ni niang) or itiEH! (ta ma de). 'Mu qin', 'niang', and 'ma'are
synonyms,but none of them;ollocates both with'day'and 'fuck'. Thus, literal translation would not work in this case. -/
If someaspectsof meaningarealreadylost from the $lqtstic point of view, couldthe irony , which is basedon the wordplay,be conveyedunderthi.vcircumstancdIn the first instance of ironic wordplay', locutionary incongruity occurs w^henObar.nasays"... we can all agree..." ,, while the audiencemay not have the sameobservation.This overstatdmentis assertinginsincerely, and by meansof which justifies the freedom of dressingand criticizes the media's opinions. The 'l
wordplay works the sameway as *"ll'-t1=ti"..t" t"]_gT:p-jlt"g
lntentery{_
utt.rtion i
e time and enough
ttyt..Th""t"ti
-Wt knowledge, the intention of the speakercould be conveyedwhile the effect shall be reduced,if not /-\ ,'/ all at once. disappear Viaggio (1996) emphasizes"the importance of a correct assessmentof relevance."With the
Ct\S<ss
emphasis,he proposesthree essentialstepsfor on interpreterto assthe relevancecorrectly. First ... the interpretermust decide what is the propositional content of the segmentin question or its contribution to intended sense,i.e. to what the speakerreally - or mainly - meansto say, since,barring extremes,this is the
whetherstylistic non-negotiable elemefffeco.rd, the interpretermustassess
(- -7514402 lossesor compromisesare acceptable,or advisable,and if so to what degree. On the basis,thirdly, s/hemust proceedto think of an adequatetranslation, recreationor compensation,be it a complete, partial, or zerorendition. u/ /{ Another problem appearswhen assessmentof relevanceareto be done correctly. The processof analyzingtheintention of a speakerwho, when introducing people in an openirr, ,O"""f,tti;''l solely irony to yield humorous effect, could prove itself challenging or even frustrating. It is not comparablewith analyzing the intention of speakerswho openf a speechwith "a joke or an anecdoteso as to ... establish...a rapport between speakerand listeners ... [or even] reducethe distancebelueen the participants and createa senseof community-?'(Pavlicekand P<ichhacker 2002) Pavlicek and Pcichhackerfurther statef that the use of irony'omay be wielded as a weapon, or a shield againstverbal attackl'.And the use of it may be a "subtle way in which speakersmay demonstratetheir intellectual superiority to others{ (Pavlicek and Pdchhacker2002) Hence, to correctly assessthe relevance,it is not enoughto have cultural background knowledge, world knowledge and linguistic knowledge. It might be crucial to know the power relationship within a community.
/
The multiple layers of meaningsand intentions that lies withinf verbal irony could be subjectively conveyedto the client (or user) but the effect will remain unpredictable.The effect of irony on receiversis not unlike the that of wordplay. The effect, as Leppihalme (1996: 2) states, might be that "itmay)eave somereaderscold while others may register a strong feeling of rapport \"/ o'Intersubjectivedifferencesin responsesmake geg;relization difficult and the with the author" and source-languagecommunity cannot be assumedto be homogeneous'iNor can the target-language community be assumedto be homogeneous.Nowadays, even with the information flow of the Internet, and the increaseof globalization, one that is cullg$I::t:ii.j
in traditional Chinese-
speaking-Asianideology may still find it shocking being'i"rranoccasionsuch as the one discussedin V
this essay.Rarely could one seepoliticians using humour publicly, whether during press conferenceij or Chashi ( *fn
) [back translation: tea talk (more or less like the occasiondiscussedhere)] in
Taiwan.
AffirdY ; Lgoo
a.ovals
7514402 References
cNN website:http://www.cnn.com/2009/PollTlCS/08/31/chene)''cia'interrogations/index'html '-/ fiastaccess8 December2009]. Leppihalme,Ritva (1996)'Caughtin the Frame:a fare;1!-lultureViewpointon Allusive Wordplay',TheTranslator2(2) ,199-218. (2002)'Humour in Simultaneous ConferenceInterpreting', Pavlicek,Maria andFranzPochhacker -'//
TheTranslator8(2):385-400.
DebraS. (1989)'On the FeasibilityandStrategiesof TranslatingHumour', Raphaelson-West, Translators' Journal34(l ): 128-141. Time website:http://thepage.time.com/obama-remarks-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/ fiast access8 December20091.
-//
Interpreting',The Viaggio,Sergio(1996)'The Pitfallsof MetalingualUsein Simultaneous s 2(2),179-198. Translator WHCA website:http://www.whca.net/history.htrn fiastaccess8 December2009]. /
Appendix
Written transcript of Obama Remarks at White House Correspondents'Dinner (extract of the first 13 minutes) http://thepage.time.com/obama-remarks-at-white-house-correspondents-dinner/ "Good evening. You know, I had an entire speechpreparedfor this occasion. But now that I'm here, I think I want to try something a little different. Tonight, I want to speakfrom the heart. So, I'm not going to use this script. I'm going to speakoffthe cuff. [TWo teleprompter shieldsrise slowly from beneaththe podium, to musical accompaniment.Laughter.] Good evening . [huge laughterl "I'd like to welcome you all to the ten-day anniversaryof my first one hundred days. I'm Barack Obama. Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me. Apologies to the Fox table. [He peers into the distancestageleft, doing his Chris Rock thing of grinning at his own funny.l I have to confessI really didn't want to be here tonight, but I knew I had to come. Just one more problem I inherited from GeorgeBush. . "Sashaand Malia aren't here tonight becausethey are grounded.You can'tjust take Air Force One on a joyride around Manhattan. I don't care whose kids you are.And that reminds me: Tomorrow is
7514402 Mother's Day. This is a tough holiday for Rahm. He's not usedto saying the word'day' after 'mother.' [Brings the housedown.] "David Axelrod is here. We've beentogether a long time. I can still rememberwhen I called Ax a few years ago and said, 'You and I can do wonderful things together." And he said to me the same thing that partnersacrossAmerica are saying to one anotherright now: 'Let's go to Iowa and make it offrcial.' "Michael Steeleis in the housetonight. Or as he would say, 'in the heezy.'. Dick Cheney was supposedto be here, but he's very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled, 'How to Shoot Friends and InterrogatePeople.' "You know, it's been a whirlwind of activity, these first one hundred days. We've enactedan economic recovery package.We've passeda budget. We've forged a new path in lraq. And no Presidentin history has namedthree Commerce secretariesthis quickly. By the way, if Judd Gregg is here, your businesscards are ready. On top of that, I've also reversedthe ban on stem cell research,signed an expansionof children's health insurance,and just last week, Car and Driver magazine named me Auto Executive of the Year! "We've also begun to changethe culture in Washington.We've even made the White House a place where people can leam and grow. Just yesterday,Larcy Summersasked if he could chair the White House Council on Women and Girls. And I do appreciateLarry coming tonight, becauseit is seven hours past his bedtime . "That brings me to anotherthing that's changed- my relationship with Hillary. We may have been rivals during the campaign,but thesedays we couldn't be closer. In fact, the secondshe got back from Mexico she greetedme with a big hug and a kiss - told me I really oughta get down there myself. "As I said during the campaign,we can'tjust talk to our friends. As hard as it is, we have to talk with our enemies.And I've begun to do exactly that. [Image of the Presidentin the Oval Office, shaking handswith an elaborately costumedpirate.] But let me be clear: Just becausehe handedme a copy of Peter Pan, doesn'tmean I'm gonna read it. . "During the secondhundred days, we will design,build, and open a library dedicatedto my first hundred days. In the next hundred days, I will learn to go offprompter - and Joe Biden will learn to stay on it. In the next hundred days, our bipartisan outreachwill be so successfulthat even John Boehner will consider becoming a Democrat.After all, we have a lot in common. He is a person of color.
7514402 Although not a color that appearsin the natural world. . In the next hundred days, we will house train our dog Bo - becausethe last thing Tim Geithner needsis someoneelse treating him like a fire hydrant. In the next hundred days, I will also strongly consider losing my cool. [mugs serenely] Finally, I believe that my next hundred days will be so successful,I will be able to complete them in 72 days.And on the 73rd day, I will rest."