Transfer of linguistic and cultural specifics in the context of intersemiotic adaptation

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of intersemiotic adaptation of the fantasy novel Ein Mädchen namens Willow by S. Bohlmann (2020) and the subsequent interlingual transfer of the audiovisual work of the same title, Ein Mädchen namens Willow (2025), into the Slovak dubbed version titled Dievča menom Willow [A Girl Named Willow] (2025). On the theoretical level, the authors present approaches to understanding adaptation in a diachronic perspective, including the changes through which an adaptation differs from the original literary work. Particular attention is devoted to the specifics and constraints of dubbing translation and dialogue adaptation, which the authors categorise into three groups: pragmatic and production-related specifics, technical, content, and formal specifics, and linguistic and cultural specifics. The aim of this paper is to identify and demonstrate, through comparative analysis, selected linguistic and cultural specifics (idiolect, wordplay, rhymed passages, so-called charactonyms) in audiovisual (dubbing) translation, and to analyse the variability of translation methods and strategies that respect the linguistic and extralinguistic specifics of the text (semantic and expressive levels, the orality, synchronisation, temporal constraints, reception characteristics of the child audience).