Open navigation menu

Scribd Logo
Search

Search
Problems of Stylistic Devices Translation in Literary Text
Show full title
Uploaded byOlga Smochin
100%
(1)
100% found this document useful (1 vote)
400 views
4 pages

AI-enhanced title

Document Information
click to expand document information
Original Title
PROBLEMS OF STYLISTIC DEVICES TRANSLATION IN LITERARY TEXT.docx
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Share this document
Share or Embed Document
Sharing Options
Share on Facebook, opens a new window
Facebook
Share on Twitter, opens a new window
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn, opens a new window
LinkedIn
Share with Email, opens mail client
Email
Copy Link
Copy Link
Did you find this document useful?

100%100% found this document useful, Mark this document as useful

0%0% found this document not useful, Mark this document as not useful
Is this content inappropriate?Report this Document

Download now

SaveSave PROBLEMS OF STYLISTIC DEVICES TRANSLATION IN LITE... For Later

PROBLEMS OF STYLISTIC DEVICES TRANSLATION IN LITERARY TEXT. Budnic Ana,

dr. conf., Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University
Smochin Olga,
lector superior, Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University

În articol sunt identificate şi analizate procedeele de traducere în limba română a figurilor de stil
selectate din textele literare. Astfel, încercăm să prezentăm într
-
o manieră explicită felul în care

procedeele de traducere directe şi indirecte, printre care traducerea literală, transpoziţia,

modularea şi calchierea, afectează figurile de stil şi influenţează rezultatul
traducerii acestora. E
ste important să stabilim rolul, funcţia şi impactul pe care îl au
instrumentele retorice lexicale asupra cititori
şi să observăm în ce măsură imaginea, sensul
elementelor verbale în
contextele concrete sunt transferate din textul sursă în cel ţintă prin
intermediul diferitelor tehnici de traducere. Cuvinte-cheie:

procedee de traducere, figuri de stil de nivel lexico-semantic, text

sursă,

text ţintă
.

In the process of literary communication, authors’ styles

bear the imprint of their individuality and artistry. Along the processes through which they establish
and reinforce authorial identity, it is their artistic tools that carve a text into whatever shape is
desired. However, if the result is a technically flawless text that does not stir emotion, it resembles
the work of artisan, who is very crafty and, to some extent, original, but simply replicates objects to
be exhibited in a museum or sold in a gift shop. It follows that the stylistic identity of a text should be
“an expression of potential

unity/uniqueness in diversity”[1,p73]
, given by its prominent stylistic features. Another indispensible element that writers need to
consider when shaping textual identit
y is the text’s impact upon the
reader as targeted addressor. Last but not least, readers themselves can be identified in terms of
their styles of reading. They may simply read for pleasure, use their intuition and senses to express
the sheer joy of exploring and discovering a text. Professional readers such as stylists, critics etc.
perform systematic explorations, which involve identification, description, interpretation,
comparison within textual bodies, as they seek to understand and explain the technical
performance scientifically. In the process of translating literary texts, the translator deals with
particular categories that allow him/her to examine the relations between the source text and the
target text. These
categories are widely known as ‘translation procedures’ or ‘translation techniques’
and they are used for sentences and the smaller units of language. Translation procedures are
discursive and contextual by nature; they affect both the micro-units of text and the result of
translation. Subsequently, for a better rendering of the message and for achieving and transmitting
the desired impact on the target audience, it is important to choose appropriate and adequate
translation procedures. In this respect,
P.Newmark devoted an entire chapter to ‘the translation of
figurative
language’. He c
haracterizes figurative concepts
as ‘partly culture
-bound, mainly value-laden, historically conditioned in spite of continuous
efforts to concretize them’ [3, p.149].
Since many linguists determined and studied techniques and strategies of translating literary text,
we made use of their theoretical background to assert the translation procedures used in different
literary texts on the example of stylistic devices. Morneau, for instance, states five techniques for
translating figures of speech present in texts: the stylistic devices are translated exactly, that is,
word-for-word; re-
phrasing one stylistic device as another one, let’s
say metaphor as simile; translating one figure of speech into its equivalent in the target language;

translating a stylistic device using literal language; using a stylistic device but providing all the
necessary referents so that any reader will understand it [2, p.176]. Analyzing British and American
literary texts we found out that the most used lexical rhetorical tools are
metaphors
,
metonymies
and
epithets
. The author makes use of stylistic devices in the text with a certain purpose, aiming to highlight
attitudes and opinions; to make them more vivid; to convey a clear and understandable point to the
reader; to arouse sympathy for a particular situation; to impress the reader or to make a more
obvious train of thought to the audience
.
The metaphoric choices available to a user are subject to a filter related to the value and belief
systems existing in the cultural community the text is translated into. According to Lakoff and
Johnson[ 1, p.
12), “a culture may be thought of as providing, among other t
hings, a pool of
available metaphors for making sense of reality”; “to live by a metaphor is to have your reality
structured by that metaphor and to base your perceptions and actions upon that structuring of
reality”(
ibidem
). That is people of a given culture use language to reflect their attitudes towards the world in
general and the life of the community they live in, in particular. So, when translating metaphors we
should consider the cultural beliefs and values especially when dealing with culturally distinct
languages, like English and Romanian. Therefore, as distinct cultures organize the intricacies of the
world distinctively, translations from one language to another are often very difficult. This difficulty
is augmented when we enable the transfer between two cultures where all traditions, symbols, life
conditions and methods of experience representation are different. In English if you refer to
someone as
big-headed
, you say that the man is
arrogant
, while in Romanian the expression
to be big-headed
is mostly used with the meaning
to be stubborn
. However, there are some universal metaphors, produced by the semantic field of human body,
which are conceptualized identically in different cultures. Consider the following examples in English:
(1)

to give someone a hand

, which means ‘to help someone’
(2)

to keep an eye on something, which means ‘watch or pay attention to something’.

The Romanian translation raises no difficulty, as there are the same conceptualizations in Romanian
as well:
1) a da o mână de ajut
or
2) a fi/a sta cu ochii pe, a nu slăbi din ochi
Therefore, translation entails a process of cultural de-coding, re-coding and en-coding. Translation
should be conceptualised as ceaselessly involving the transposition of thoughts expressed in the SL
by one social community into the appropriate TL expression of a similar or dissimilar community. The
process of transfer should subsequently take into account re-coding across cultures and systematic
correspondences between SL and TL notions and formulations, meant to ensure credibility in the
eyes of the target readers. The cultural appurtenance of the text is weightier than ever, given that
cultures are increasingly brought into greater contact with one another. Multiculturalism, apparently
a ubiquitous phenomenon nowadays, plays an important role in this respect since it has borne an
undeniable impact on linguistic and cultural phenomena worldwide as well as on the international
relations emerging from current developments. Cultural, ethnic and linguistic boundaries are
disappearing and distinctions among communities engaging in language-based social practices are
being increasingly blurred. As a result, transcoding should focus not merely on language transfer, but
also on cultural transposition. Such transposition involves translating not only language structures
but mental representations from SL into TL,
from the author’s cognitive environment to the receptor’s rational and cultural background.

Transposition
is the translation technique used to transfer the source language expression unit into Romanian. It is
a translation procedure used in rendering the image of the following compound epithet into
Romanian:
“In his
warm-hearted and generous speech
[...]” –

“În
discursul
său
cald
şi
generous
[...]”

A widely used lexical stylistic device is metonymy. The example:

“I take only one drink every afternoon…”
is translated using the procedure of
explicitness
that, according to J. P. Vinay and J. Darbelnet, resides in the process of introducing information into
the target language which is present only implicitly in the source language
: “Beau un singur pahar in fiecare dupa
-
amiaza…”.
The procedure of
expansion
occurs when the translator tries to move from the implicit into the explicit used with the purpose of
not misleading the reader and be more specific:
“Those
ideals
still
light the world
[...]” –

“
Acele
idealuri luminează
şi acum
calea omenirii
[...]”.
When it comes to metaphors that have a persuasive effect on the reader, we can mention the
following example:
“The words have been spoken during
rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace
. Yet, every so often
the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms
.”
The most adequate technique to transfer the image and effect of this stylistic device is
modulation
as it has the purpose of generating a change in the point of view of the message without altering its
meaning and without generating a sense of awkwardness in the reader of the target text:
“L
-
au rostit [jurământul] când
valul
prosperităţii era în creştere şi apele calme

ale păcii se aşterneau la picioare

. Când şi când însă
jurământul este rost
it când norii stau
ameninţători deasupra capului şi furtunile se dezlănţuie
.”

All of the above mentioned techniques have some common points, as all include
substitution
,
paraphrase
,
conversion
or
deletion
which helps the translator to have knowledge of how to translate figures of speech and also how
they are dealt with in translation. In this respect, we mention an example of
paraphrase,
a translation procedure suggested by P. Newmark:
“I joined this party because
I love my country. I love our character. I love our people, our history, our role in the world
.”
The translated version presupposes the following paraphrase:
“M
-
am alăturat acestui partid pentru că
îmi iubesc ţara. Iubesc firea poporului
nostru.
Iubesc oamenii noştri, istoria noastră, rolul pe care
-l avem în lume
.”
[3, p.102]
M.Larson suggests some other techniques to translate figures of speech and namely: the figure of
speech may be kept if the receptor language permits; a figure of speech may be translated resorting
to another figure of speech; a stylistic device of the receptor language which has the same meaning
may be substituted; the figure of speech may be kept and the meaning explained; and the last
technique when the meaning of the stylistic device may be translated without keeping the figurative
imagery [3, p.55]. As it was mentioned above, stylistic devices may be translated without keeping
the figurative imagery as in the following example of epithet
“we
emerged from that
dark chapter
[…]”
. It is a good example for the case when the meaning of the stylistic device may be translated
without keeping the figurative imagery. Thus, the Romanian target language will be rather neutral
and vague from the emotional point of view
“am ieşit din
acele vremuri
[…]”.

Referring to the syntactical stylistic devices we may say that they represent widespread stylistic
devices in the English language, being preserved in the translated version and rendering the same
desired effect intended by the author.

The following repetition:

“
Time and again
[…]”
is substituted for a negation into Romanian
“
Nu o data
[…]”.
Thus, the technique used in the target language is the
antonymic translation
which renders the same meaning as in the source language but has an opposite effect on the reader.
[ 4, p.34].

Another translation technique worth to be point out in the translation of literary text is
omission
. It is obvious in translating this epithet:
“It is time […] to lighten our
punitive
tax burden.” −“Este momentul […] să uşurăm povara fiscală.”
[5,p.68].
In the result of the analysis of literary texts we concluded that the most commonly used translation
techniques in the process of rendering examples of stylistic devices from English into Romanian are
word-for- word translation, transposition, modulation, calques
.

In conclusion, we may say that the process of translating stylistic devices in the context deals with
finding appropriate equivalence in the target language with the use of adequate translation
procedures so that the message is accurate, the intention of the author and the intended effect on
the reader is not altered and the quality of the translation is not diminished. Since it is not very easy
to accomplish this task, figures of speech are considered to pose some of the most challenging
translation difficulties. Usually, these difficulties people face in the process of translating stylistic
devices reside in the informational background provided by the literary discourse and namely the
intended discourse function, the narrator, the time and the place of discourse reception; the speech
medium; the motive of the narrator to deliver his discourse and the reason it was translated.
References:
1. George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen, Metaphors we live by. London: The university of Chicago press,
2003,p.197 2. Fadee E. Translation Techniques of Figures of Speech In:
Journal of English and Literature
, vol.2, no8, 2011, p.174-181. 3.Newmark, P. About Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters,
1991. p.184 4. Nord, C.
Translation as a Purposeful Activity
:
Functionalist Approaches Explained
. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2007, p.154. 5.Shaffner, C. Strategies of Translating Text. In:
Trosborg, A.
Text Typology and Translation
. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1997, p.119-144.
Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options
Share on Facebook, opens a new windowShare on Twitter, opens a new windowShare on LinkedIn,
opens a new windowShare with Email, opens mail clientCopy Link
You might also like

Definition of Translation Translation ST

Definition of Translation Translation ST
Document
13 pages
Definition of Translation Translation ST
aceng
No ratings yet
Equivalence and Equivalent Effect
Equivalence and Equivalent Effect
Document

3 pages
Equivalence and Equivalent Effect
Virginia Gómez Rojas
75% (8)
CIT-01-Unit-01-Meaning, Nature and Scope of Translation PDF
CIT-01-Unit-01-Meaning, Nature and Scope of Translation PDF
Document

20 pages
CIT-01-Unit-01-Meaning, Nature and Scope of Translation PDF
Marco Antonio
No ratings yet
Magazines
Podcasts
Sheet music
The Literary Translator and The Concept of Fidelity
The Literary Translator and The Concept of Fidelity
Document

16 pages
The Literary Translator and The Concept of Fidelity
AzenithAlmoradie
No ratings yet
What Is Translation
What Is Translation
Document

5 pages
What Is Translation
Imam Syafii
No ratings yet
Studii de Traducere, Note de Curs.
Studii de Traducere, Note de Curs.
Document

26 pages
Studii de Traducere, Note de Curs.
Laura Constantinescu
No ratings yet
Katan & Taibi (2021) Introduction To - Translating Cultures An Introduction For Translators,
Interpreters and Mediators
Katan & Taibi (2021) Introduction To - Translating Cultures An Introduction For Translators,
Interpreters and Mediators
Document

4 pages
Katan & Taibi (2021) Introduction To - Translating Cultures An Introduction For Translators,
Interpreters and Mediators
Silvana Carvalho
No ratings yet
Study Material For The Students of B. A. Prog. II Year SEC-Translation Studies
Study Material For The Students of B. A. Prog. II Year SEC-Translation Studies
Document

5 pages
Study Material For The Students of B. A. Prog. II Year SEC-Translation Studies
Ayshathul Hasbiya
No ratings yet
Traducere Engleza
Traducere Engleza
Document

6 pages
Traducere Engleza
Vlad Vargau
No ratings yet
A Cognitive Approach To Translating Metaphors
A Cognitive Approach To Translating Metaphors
Document

16 pages
A Cognitive Approach To Translating Metaphors
alamirizaid
No ratings yet
Ministry of Education of The Republic of Moldova
Ministry of Education of The Republic of Moldova
Document

66 pages
Ministry of Education of The Republic of Moldova
Antonina Uzun
No ratings yet
24 63 1 PB PDF
24 63 1 PB PDF
Document

12 pages
24 63 1 PB PDF
Sheila Semi
No ratings yet
Show more
Download
Documents
Language Arts & Discipline
Linguistics
Footer menu
Back to top
About

About Scribd
Everand: Ebooks & Audiobooks
Press
Join our team!
Contact us
Invite friends
Scribd for enterprise
Legal

Terms
Privacy
Copyright

Cookie Preferences
Do not sell or share my personal information
Support

Help / FAQ
Accessibility
Purchase help
AdChoices
Social

Instagram
Instagram
Twitter
Twitter
Facebook
Facebook
Pinterest
Pinterest
Get our free apps

Documents
Language:
English

Copyright © 2023 Scribd Inc.