Investigating the Manipulation of Slang language in Subtitling: the Case of SpongeBob out of Water

This study attempted to investigate the manipulation of slang expressions, the genre of children literature i.e. cartons, the case of SpongeBob out of Water in terms of the strategies which the subtitlers adopted in its subtitling from English into Persian. Further, it has been attempted to determine the types of slangs which were used in both English and Persian versions of this cartoon in a bottom-up way. To do so, the researcher did not act based on any predetermined model of slang terms and strategies of manipulation of slang terms, but the Persian and English versions of SpongeBob out of Water were studied and reviewed to extract the slang terms and expressions and tabulate them; further, the type of slangs were identified and a model of slangs was developed. In the case of manipulative strategies, the researcher identified the applied strategies and developed a model of slang translation/subtitling. However, the strategies of TSE, TCE, TSW, LT, SE, TSWW, TRW, TNSW, TSWE, IDT, TRE, C, MT, TDEUE, TUE, TNSE, TUW and E were recognized as the suitable strategies of slang translation. The most frequent used strategies were “translation using slang word and expression”, “translation using literal translation”, “translation using common words and expressions”, “translation using related word” and “translation using swearing words and de-euphemistic expressions”. Besides, the developed model of slangs in this study was composed of the sexual slang, pejorative slang, military slang, war slang, food slang, idiomatic slang, swearing slang and animal slang.