WORDPLAY AS A MEANS OF CREATING HUMOUR IN JAPANESE MANGA: A TRANSLATION-ORIENTED APPROACH

Abstract

The paper examines wordplay as a tool for creating humour in Japanese manga, based on the first volume of Kohei Horikoshi’s manga 「僕のヒーローアカデミア」 / boku no hīrō akademia/ (2014). The relevance of this study lies in the growing interest in Japanese culture, particularly its pop culture segment, as well as the complexity of conveying wordplay in translation into Ukrainian. The aim of the study is to identify the main methods of creating a comic effect, to analyse them, and to define strategies for translating such textual elements. The study examines the concepts of ‘humour’ and ‘wordplay’ in contemporary linguistics, particularly approaches to interpret them as dynamic communicative phenomena. It has been shown that the perception of humour depends on the reader's individual cognitive, cultural and psychological characteristics. Japanese humour is often expressed through wordplay, puns, intertextual references, onomatopoeia at the phonetic-graphic level, as well as the use of borrowed terms – gairaigo. Examples of wordplay at lexical-semantic, pragmatic and situational levels are analysed. It is found that wordplay fulfils not only humorous but also stylistic and narrative functions. It is established that, depending on the context, the comic effect may not always stem from linguistic means alone; consequently, not every instance of wordplay produces a humorous effect. From a translation perspective, the main difficulties in conveying wordplay have been identified: the loss of emphasis, phonetic and culturally determined features, and possible translation strategies have been considered, including transliteration, adaptation and equivalent translation. Translation options depend not only on the context but also on the translator’s personal choice. The findings can be applied in further research into Japanese humour and manga translation.