Translating English slang into Ukrainian: A study of Pulp Fiction and Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood

Abstract

This research focuses on translation strategies and techniques for rendering slang in Quentin Tarantino’s films “Pulp Fiction” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. The material of the research was the original scripts for the films and their translations into Ukrainian. Defining translation strategies when transferring English slang into Ukrainian involved: frequency analysis of the slang words; semantic decomposition of the slang words to establish their meanings; and comparison of the words to reveal consistent patterns of translating English slang into Ukrainian. Slang words fucking, fuck, shit, goddamn, motherfucker make up 3.6% of the total wordcount in “Pulp Fiction” and 1.33% in “Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood”. They mainly function as exclamations, nominations for something inferior, as euphony, or to denote a despicable adversary. Literal translation has been registered in 31.73% in “Pulp Fiction” and 30.98% in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, explicitation (6.07% and 26.03%,) substitution (39.75% and 48.8%). Slang words were neutralised in 15.45% and 16.8%, omitted in 21.34% and 21.72%. The study hypothesises that the techniques involved show a correlation between the semantic transparency of the slang word and the strategy chosen.