Malapropism as a Literary Device and Its Translation into Persian

Abstract

Malapropism in literature refers to the wrong use of one word by substituting a word with a similar sounding form that has a different often unrelated meaning, especially one that creates a funny change of meaning. As a literary device and a subcategory of wordplay, malapropism has received little attention in translation studies though wordplay itself has been studied in several works. Regarding the dual functions it has, both as a literary device to create hilarity in the audience or readership and as a tool in characterization, its translation, which is of paramount importance, poses problems to translators. The purpose of the present study is thus to investigate the Persian translation of a selection of malapropisms used in some of the greatest literary masterpieces. To this end, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2006) and its Persian translation by Daryabandari (2001), Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado about Nothing (Wells & Taylor, 2005), all translated by Pazargadi (2010) have been chosen to see how they have been treated in translation. In this study, due to the lack of space, only one translation of each work is presented.