Shedding Light on the Translation of Idioms: A Study Based on American TV Series

Abstract

[Abstract] In recent years, experts in the field of Translation have become interested in idioms, as they represent a significant challenge in the search for correspondence between the source and target language. It has been shown that equivalence can be total, partial, or null and that different strategies such as substitution, paraphrasing and literal translation are used. The main aim of this work is to demonstrate the difficulties faced by translators with idiomatic expressions. For this purpose, I have selected several idioms from eight American series released in different years, and I have paid special attention to the Spanish subtitles. Besides, it has been essential to consult different bibliographic sources to learn more about the characteristics of this type of expressions, as well as the strategies used for their interpretation. In this way, I analyse the suitability of translations and suggest other possible alternatives on some occasions. As for the results, although there are many cases of full equivalence in which literal translation is used because of cultural and social factors, my research shows that partial equivalence is the most frequent and that the translation methods par excellence are substitution and paraphrasing. In addition, two groups can be distinguished: those which have an image of the same domain and those whose image differs in the semantic field. For the first group, the examples analysed correspond to the substitution strategy whereby the translator not only retains the same term —or at least one from the same domain— but also preserves the metaphorical character of the idiomatic expression. Furthermore, a curious aspect I have observed is that there is a wide variety composed of nouns related to different parts of the human body to express a figurative sense. As for idioms whose image differs in the semantic field, the examples presented correspond to the use of the strategies of substitution and paraphrase. Through the latter, the translator expresses the meaning in a more direct way, but the figurative sense is lost. Besides, some special cases have been presented where no idiomatic phrases are used in L1, but wherethe message is translated using them into L2, and also an example that illustrates the difficulty that can arise when translating certain idioms, as sometimes there is no option in English that fully captures the meaning of the original. Therefore, this paper highlights the difficult task of translators who must have a great knowledge of both languages, that is, master them to perfection in order to make the translation as effective, efficient and appropriate to the situational context as possible.