Audiovisual Translation

Verbally expressed humor does not only transpire in the form of jokes and asides recounted by comedians and in naturally occurring conversation any more than it does in comic literature or printed collections of jokes. A great amount of verbal humor takes place in an assortment of audiovisual texts that range from films, TV programs, DVDs, and videogames, to theatrical plays and opera. These texts are polysemiotic in nature; in other words, their verbal content is inextricably bound to a series of images and extralinguistic acoustic features, which together form a meaningful whole. Needless to say, the interlingual translation of humorous occurrences within audiovisual texts is especially problematic owing to the tight interdependence of more semiotic systems, [Page 72]according to Delia Chiaro. Audiovisual translation (AVT) ...