Aleksandra Pilipović Contact Linguistics

Tamara Stanković 2021/2022

ANALYSIS OF MISTRANSLATIONS IN A SUBTITLED SITCOM

This project specifically deals with the analysis of mistranslations in the first five episodes of season one of the sitcom
Friends (1994–2004), by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. It is an American television sitcom which lasted ten seasons starring
Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courtney Cox (Monica Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani),
Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing), and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller). The entire sitcom follows the six friends, as they go
through ups and downs in all spheres of their lives. We should note that we are dealing with a subtitled translation as one of the
types of audiovisual translation. Additionally, subtitling can be restricted both temporally and spacially, therefore, subtitled
translations will sometimes be shortened and certain omissions, like discourse markers, are going to be tolerated. Furthermore, we
are going to concentrate on six aspects of analysis: lexical (collocations, idioms, false pairs, culture-specific words, mistranslated
descriptive meanings, and unnecessary omissions), grammatical (sequence of tenses, the passive voice, conditionals, the use of
determiners, and tense-aspect combinations), orthographic (transcription of names, capitalization, and punctuation), semantic
(where grammar rules are used properly, but the utterance is meaningless from the semantic point of view), stylistic (wrong
selection of register), and pragmatic aspect (wrong use of language due to the wrong selection of units in a particular context).

The following table contains an analysis of the six aspects given above, through representative examples at each level:

Type of error Text in English Mistranslation/Error Correction of error

Lexical - mistranslated So does he have a hump? A Ima li grbu? Grbu i herpes? Je l’ ima grbu? Grbu i tupe?
descriptive meaning hump and a hairpiece?
Lexical - mistranslated Strip joint! Striptiz! Striptiz klub! ili Striptiz bar!
descriptive meaning
Lexical - mistranslated And I know that you and I I znam da smo se nas dve nekako I znam da smo se nas dve na neki
descriptive meaning have kinda drifted apart. razišle. način udaljile.
Lexical - mistranslated Me and Chandler live across Čendler i ja stanujemo tu preko Čendler i ja stanujemo tu preko puta.
descriptive meaning the hall. hodnika.
Lexical - mistranslated I just pulled out four Upravo sam iščupala lažne Upravo samo iščupala četiri
descriptive meaning eyelashes. trepavice. trepavice.
Lexical - mistranslated I can't believe you didn't Ne mogu da verujem da nisi znala Ne mogu da verujem da nisi znala da
descriptive meaning know it was a line! da je to "priča". je to fora!
Lexical - mistranslated Do you promise to buy me a Obećavate mi veliku šećernu Obećavate da ćete mi kupiti palac za
descriptive meaning big thumb finger? vunu? navijanje?
Lexical - mistranslated Well, guess who my dad's Pogodi koga moj tata uzima za Pa, pogodi koga moj tata uzima za
descriptive meaning making partner in his firm? ortaka u firmi? partnera u firmi?
Lexical - mistranslated I write the specials on the Pišem specijalni meni na tabli... Pišem nazive specijaliteta na tabli za
descriptive meaning specials board... specijalitete...
Lexical - mistranslated predicament room čekaonica nezgodna situacija/položaj
descriptive meaning
Lexical - mistranslated I’m gonna be dating leather- Izlaziću sa alkoholičarima u koži i Zabavljaću se sa alkoholičarima u
descriptive meaning wearing alcoholics and tebi kukati na njih. kožnim jaknama i tebi ću se žaliti na
complaining about them. njih.
Lexical - mistranslated That guy, he burns me up! Stvarno je dosadan! Kako me taj čovek ljuti/nervira!
descriptive meaning
Lexical - mistranslated They are attracted to dryer Privlače ih sušilice. Privlače ih tkanine koje upijaju
descriptive meaning sheets. vlagu.
Lexical - collocation That would be a judgment To traži nezavisnu procenu. To zavisi od tebe/Kako ti odlučiš.
call.
Lexical – omission ...doorbells and sleigh bells ...zvona na vratima i nešto s …zvona i nešto s rukavicama (sa
and something with rukavicama s jednim prstom... spojenim prstima)…
mittens...
Lexical - omission You, me, Joey, ice, guys' Ti, ja, Džoi, veče na ledu... Ti, ja, Džoi, led, izlazak s
night out... momcima/momački izlazak...
Lexical - omission Green. To the green. Na zeleno. Grin. Na zeleno.
Lexical - idiom Not after your cousin who Ne nakon onog tvog rođaka koji Ne nakon tvog rođaka koji je
could belch the alphabet. je podrigivao... ispodrigivao alfabet.
Lexical - culture-specific Western omelette Vestern omlet Omlet s paprikom
words
Lexical - culture-specific I worked in a Dairy Queen, Ne, u Dejri Kvin. Zašto? Radila sam u Deri kvinu, zašto?
words why?
Orthographic - transcription Oh my God, Angela! Zaboga, Angela! Pobogu, Andžela.
of names
Orthographic - transcription You’re breaking up with Raskidaš s Tonyjem? Raskidaš s Tonijem?
of names Tony?
Orthographic - transcription Dear Ms. Buffay. Draga gospođice Bafe. Draga gđice Bafej.
of names
Orthographic - transcription Now I don't feel so bad Sad me ne grize savest što sam Sad se ne osećam loše što sam
 Aleksandra Pilipović
Tamara Stanković
of names about sleeping with Jason
Hurley.
Orthographic - transcription Talk to Barry?
of names
Orthographic – capital Eleven days before
letters Halloween...
Grammatical - conditional If I don't input those
numbers,... it doesn't make
much of a difference.
Grammatical - tense My mom had just killed
herself...
Grammatical - grammatical ... everyone I know is either
gender and passive getting married, or getting
promoted, or getting
pregnant...
Grammatical - preposition And he lived in a village,
and you live in the Village.
Grammatical - English Guys can do so many mean
structure things and not even care.
Pragmatic Oh my God!
Stylistic - wrong register Sweet 'n' Low?
Stylistic – wrong register Excuse me!?
Semantic -Do you have a plan?
-I don’t even have a ’’pl’’.
Semantic See buddy, that’s all you
need.
Semantic I was kinda hoping that
wouldn't be an issue.
Lexical, orthographic gravy boat
Lexical, orthographic This really gorgeous
Lamauge gravy boat.
Lexical - collocation + Ugly naked guy is laying
mistranslated descriptive kitchen tiles.
meaning
Orthographic + Lexical - Mercedes convertible
mistranslated descriptive
meaning
Grammatical (aspect) + Be a man, just stop calling
Lexical - omitted object) her.
Semantic + Lexical - idiom, I believe Julia’s on the
omission table?
Lexical - idiom + omission Look, there are people like
Ross who need to shoot for
the stars.
Lexical - mistranslated We thought we'd have kinda
descriptive meaning + like a slumber party thing.
culture-specific word
Orthographic – transcription Well, the biggest news is
+ Grammatical still you dumping Barry at
the altar!
Contact Linguistics
spavala s Džejsonom Hurlijem.
Pričala si sa Berijem?
11 dana do Noći Veštica...
Moram da unesem ove brojeve, i
nema neke razlike.
Mama mi se upravo bila ubila...
... sve koje poznajem se ili udaju
ili su trudne ili bivaju
unapreðene...
Živeo je u selu (vilidžu), i ti živiš
u Vilidžu.
Momci mogu da prave razne
gadosti i nije ih briga.
O moj Bože!
Sa saharinom?
Izvini?
-Imaš li ti plan?
-Nemam.
Vidiš zeko, to je sve što ti treba.
Nadam se da nećemo sad o tome.
čamac-činija
Tu bajnu Lamarovu čamac-
činiju.
Ružni goli frajer polaže pločice u
kuhinji.
Mercedes coupe
Budi muško, samo prestani
nazvati.
Na stolu je - Džulija?
Ima ljudi kao što je Ros, koji
visoko ciljaju.
Mislile smo da napravimo žensku
žurku.
Najveća novost i dalje - tvoje
ostavljanje Berija pred oltarom!
2021/2022
spavala sa Džejsonom Herlijem.
Je l’ si pričala s Barijem?
11 dana do Noći veštica...
Ako ne unesem one brojeve,...
zapravo nema neke razlike.
Mama (samo što) se ubila...
...svi koje znam se ili venčavaju ili će
dobiti unapređenje ili su u drugom
stanju...
I on je živeo na selu, a ti živiš u
Vilidžu.
Momci/Muškarci mogu da budu jako
zli a da ih uopšte nije briga.
Gospode Bože!
S veštačkim zaslađivačem/stevijom?
Šta si rekla!?
-Je l’ imaš ti neki plan?
-Nemam ni ’p’ od plana.
Vidiš druže, to je sve što ti treba.
Nadala sam se da to neće biti
problem.
posuda za sos
Tu predivnu Lamaž posudu za sos.
Ružni goli lik postavlja pločice u
kuhinji.
Mercedes kabriolet
Budi muško, samo prestani da je
zoveš.
Pretpostavljam da je Džulija i dalje u
igri.
Pazi, ima ljudi poput Rosa koji treba
da pucaju na visoko.
Mislile smo da napravimo nešto nalik
pidžama žurki/partiju.
Pa, najveća vest je i dalje ta što si
ostavila Barija pred oltarom.

To conclude, the translator made no errors regarding false pairs and sequence of tenses. The majority of errors are those
that have to do with the lexical aspect (mistranslated descriptive meaning) followed by errors on orthography and transcription of
names. There was only one case when the name was not transcribed; other times it was, but incorrectly. Furthermore, there are not
many errors regarding pragmatic, stylistic, and semantic aspects. When it comes to the grammatical aspect, the translator most of
the time had difficulties with translating prepositions. Moreover, although it was expected, omission did not occur that frequently.
Finally, it should be noted that the above listed examples of mistranslations do not represent the entire corpus of errors extracted
from the five episodes.

Source: Friends, 1994–2004 , David Crane and Marta Kauffman, USA

References:
Jerković, J., Pižurica, M. & Pešikan, M. (2010). Pravops srpskoga jezika. Matica srpska, Novi Sad.
Prćić, T. (2016). Semantika i pragmatika reči. Treće, elektronsko izdanje. Filozofski fakultet, Novi Sad.
Prćić, T. (2018). Novi transkripcioni rečnik engleskih ličnih imena. Treće, elektronsko izdanje. Filozofski fakultet, Novi Sad.