Playing On Sounds/letters And Senses: The Challenge Of Translating Phraseological Wordplay From English Into Bulgarian
Playing On Sounds/letters And Senses: The Challenge Of Translating Phraseological Wordplay From English Into Bulgarian

Summary/Abstract: Wordplay is a multi-dimensional phenomenon which poses serious problems to translators when crossing languages and cultures. The playful manipulation of sounds/letters and respectively senses is used to create a number of different effects and to perform various functions – humorous, persuasive, thought- provoking, attention drawing, aesthetic pleasure yielding, etc. The present article focuses on phraseological wordplay as a special type of play on words which involves certain semantic and structural transformations resulting in a double interpretation. These stylistically motivated transformations present a dual challenge to translators because they have to deal not only with the original phraseological unit’s culture specificity, distinctive national colouring and metaphorical meaning but also with the wordplay itself. Considering the complexity and specificity of phraseological wordplay, the article examines and systematizes different translation strategies employed by the Bulgarian translators. This leads to the conclusion that translatability of wordplay should be regarded as a relative and not as a binary or absolute category.

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