Shakespeare's use of malapropisms and their translation into Spanish

Abstract

The purpose of mis study is to delve into the most representative Spanish versions of Romeo andJ uliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and The Merry Wives of Windsor in order to analyse and evaluate the way malapropisms are rendered and whether the Spanish equivalents or the other solutions successfully or unsuccessfully convey their original function embedded in the English discourse. Since the main function of the malapropism is to generate hilarity in the audience or readers, in Spanish, as a romance language, it is very easy to find a great deal of equivalent malapropisms reflecting the comic effect of the original text, thus the lack of this literary device in the Spanish versions is unforgivable.