Theoretical and applied aspects of audiovisual translation of puns (based on the material of the American television series “The Office”)

The purpose of the study is to identify the theoretical and applied features of the audiovisual translation of one of the types of wordplay “pun” from English into Russian within the framework of the film text – the American television series “The Office”. In the course of the work, examples of puns in English from the film text of the designated television series are selected by continuous sampling and systematized. The foundations of the construction of puns (polysemy, homonymy, etc.) are determined and their linguistic features in English are analyzed in detail. The features of the translation of puns from English into Russian within the framework of the film text of the television series “The Office” are determined and described, taking into account the linguistic and cultural context and assessing the success of the transfer of a humorous effect. The article discusses the key strategies, methods and techniques of translating puns from English into Russian. The scientific novelty of the research consists in finding translation solutions that are frequently used in the audiovisual translation of fragments of the film text of the television series “The Office” from English into Russian, which was done for the first time. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the majority of puns in the TV series are based on homonymy and consonance, however, there are examples of other types of wordplay. The key strategies in translating puns from English into Russian are adaptation and localization for the Russian-speaking audience, and the methods and techniques of translation are omission, compensation and tracing, often used in combination with other translation solutions.