TRANSLATION AND MEANING: A CULTURAL- COGNITIVE ...

every other character that has ‘Duck’ in his/her name, but using only the
phonological adaptation of the name. With Thursday, translated in Serbian
as Četvrtko, we have a case of translation based on literary allusion.
Četvrtko is a duck who lives on an uninhabited island, like Robison Crusoe
and Friday. Only he cannot be Friday but Thursday. In Hungarian, the
characters of Moby Duck and Thursday seem to be unknown, and in
German, Moby Duck remains in the original and Thursday’s name could not
be traced.
4. Unmotivated character names
There are proper names which neither in the original nor in their
translated versions acquire any special characteristic of either descriptive or
allusive names. They are to a large extent unmotivated. Translators of
cartoons and comic strips use phonological adaptation or lexical translation
or replacement of foreign names with familiar ones: Minnie/ Mini/ Minnie/
Minni; Olive/ Oliva/ Olive/ Olivia; Daisy/ Pata/ Daisy/ Daisy, Speedy
Gonzales/ brzi Gonzales/ Speedy Gonzales/ Speedy Gonzales, Hewy, Dewy,
Louie/ Raja, Gaja, Vlaja/ Niki, Viki, Tiki/ Tick, Trick, Track.
5. Conclusion
On the basis of the examples mentioned above, it can be concluded
that when translating from English into Serbian, there are two basic
methodological procedures: verbal and visual. If the visual image is taken as
the starting point, the translation equivalent more often than not seems
lexically opaque in relation to its original (e.g. Duško Dugouško), or vice
versa, by preserving the lexical component of the name, the picture often
remains blurred. As the examples illustrate, Hungarian and German often
retain the name in its original form or only adapt it phonologically. The
motivation for this is probably the wish to leave the names closer to their
original.
The nature of comic books and cartoons as a means of artistic
expression is such that the full meaning that they convey can only be
revealed by the interaction between the levels of picture and word.
Consequently, any successful translation of the names that appear in them
should represent a simultaneous effect achieved by both sound and picture.
Depending on the extent to which we are able to preserve the balance
between these two elements, and they complement each other, they will
serve their purpose more or less well or will be more or less clear. As a
result, the translation, i.e. adaptation of the text and the names which form