Realia in Steven King’s novel "The Outsider": translation aspect

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Polytechnic National University

Realia in steven king's novel “the outsider”: translation aspect

Baranovska L.M., Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor at the Applied Linguistics Department Lviv Albota S. M. Student at the Applied Linguistic Department Lviv

Abstract

The article focuses on the ways of reconstitution realia in Stephen King's novel “The Outsider” and analysis of its translation into Ukrainian. Translation is an important aspect of human life and intercultural activity. Translation of interlingual realia is one of the most complicated sections of translation studies, because such words and phrases define objects, concepts, phenomena that have no direct equivalents in the target language. Therefore, the translator's activity should be aimed at overcoming the linguistic and ethnic barrier in order to understand this version of the target language by native speaker of the culture, national psychology of the source languages. One of the most important conditions for the appropriate formation of realia is their deep knowledge. When a translator has a correct notion about realia and its contextual use, it is easier for him to find an adequate equivalent of implementation in translations. Translators need to be perfectly aware of the system of methods of reproducing realia, which are described in the translation literature. In order to suggest variant of a new translation's version to be quite successful, the choice of ways to translate the words of realia plays a substantial role. The demand for adequate translation is due to the fact that success in this activity is possible only with the use of lexical and grammatical transformations, because vocabulary equivalents cannot always correctly reflect the realia in translation.

S. King's novel “The Outsider” (published in 2018) is full of a significant number of realia, which was subjected to detailed analysis in order to achieve a successful translation of the target language. The Ukrainian version of this work was introduced by the Kharkiv publishing house Book Club “Family Leisure Club” (KDS). The translation was done by Anastasia Rogoza, who is familiar to readers with translations of the novels “The silence of the Lambs”, “Hannibal” by Thomas Harris and other works by Stephen King. She is a well-known specialist, her works are considered highly qualified, which gives grounds to point out that the variants of translation realia are successful. Transcoding and calquing are the most productive ones, while descriptive translation and hypero-hyponimic substitution - less productive.

Key words: translation transformations, analysis, lexical means, transcoding, transliteration, calquing, descriptive translation.

Анотація

РЕАЛІЇ У РОМАНІ СТІВЕНА КІНГА «АУТСАЙДЕР»: ПЕРЕКЛАДАЦЬКИЙ АСПЕКТ

Барановська Л. М. студентка третього курсу кафедри прикладної лінгвістики Національний університет «Львівська політехніка»

Альбота С. М. кандидат філологічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри прикладної лінгвістики Національний університет «Львівська політехніка»

Ключові слова: перекладацькі трансформації, аналіз, лексичні засоби, транскодування, транслітерування, калькування, описовий переклад.

У статті розглядаються способи відтворення реалій у романі Стівена Кінга «Аутсайдер» та проводиться аналіз їх перекладу українською мовою. Перекладацька діяльність є важливим аспектом життя людини та міжкультурної діяльності. Переклад міжмовних реалій є одним із найскладніших розділів перекладознавства, оскільки такі слова та словосполучення позначають предмети, поняття, явища тощо, які в мові перекладу не мають прямих еквівалентів. Тому діяльність перекладача має бути спрямована на подолання лінгвоетнічного бар'єру, щоб носію цільової мови були зрозумілі тонкощі культури, національної психології представників мови-джерела. Однією із найголовніших умов доцільного відтворення реалій є полюблені знання. Коли у перекладача є правильне уявлення про реалію та її контекстуальне використання, йому легше знайти адекватний відповідник цієї реалії в перекладі. Перекладач має бути досконало ознайомлений із системою способів відтворення реалій, котрі описані в перекладацькій літературі. Для того щоб запропонований варіант перекладу був досить успішним, вибір способу перекладу слів- реалій відіграє значну роль. Попит на адекватний переклад зумовлений тим, що успіху у цій діяльності можна досягти лише за умови використання лексичних та граматичних трансформацій, адже словникові відповідники не завжди можуть коректно відображати реалії під час перекладу. Роман С. Кінга «Аутсайдер» (опублікований у 2018 році) містить у собі значну кількість реалій, які було піддано детальному аналізу для досягнення успішного перекладу мовою перекладу. Український варіант цього твору був запроваджений харківським видавництвом Книжковий клуб «Клуб сімейного дозвілля» (КДС). Переклад здійснила Анастасія Рогоза, яка знайома читачеві перекладами романів «Мовчання ягнят», «Ганнібал» Томаса Гарріса та низкою інших робіт Стівена Кінга. Вона є широковідомим фахівцем, її праці вважаються висококваліфікованими, що дає підстави стверджувати, що варіанти перекладу реалій, які вона запропонувала, є успішними. Найбільш продуктивними виявилися транскодування та калькування, менш продуктивним - описовий переклад та родо-видова заміна.

Formulation of the research problem

The term “translation” is a rather complex type of interlingual communication through a translator, who reproducing a certain message from the source language to the target language, invests his own experience into the text of the translation. Translation is not only a mechanical transmission of words, but also a direct reproduction of concepts and ideas that are typical of a particular nationality, but may be completely incomprehensible to people from other nationalities.

Many studies by authoritative linguists of the twentieth century and modern translators are dedicated to the problem of translating non-equivalent vocabulary, namely realia. In Ukrainian translation studies, this problem has not been studied in great detail, but the scientific works of O. Burdeina, R. Zovir- chak, N. Novikova, I. Korunets, M. Kochergan, and N. Myropolska are of great importance. Among foreign scientists, the contribution of O. Bruno, S. Vla- hov, V. Komissarova, V. Rossels, A. Superanska, S. Floryn and E. Shyriaiev should be noted.

Usually, translators face with two main difficulties in translating realiа: 1) the lack of an equivalent in the target language due to the absence of a phenomenon or object in the people's life consciousness; 2) apart from studying semantics of realia, to convey the national and historical colour of the text. But researchers have found a way to solve this problem and have developed certain methods of translating realia: 1) transcription; 2) translation of realia with the introduction of neologism (calquing, half-calquing, assimilation, semantic neologism); approximate translation (hypero-hyponimic substitution, functional analogue, descriptive translation); 3) contextual translation [1, p. 88-93]. However, the difficulty of adequately selecting one of these methods is a problematic issue. The translator should choose the most appropriate method of translation in order to avoid losing of the linguistic and cultural colour of a particular concept and to correctly reflect the subject content.

The purpose of this article is to study in detail the grammatical and lexical transformations during the translation of realia from English into Ukrainian by Anastasia Rogoza in Stephen King's novel “The Outsider”. The solution of the suggested purpose is reached by performance of a number of objectives:

to analyze the translation transformations used in the process of translation realia; translation intercultural reality

highlight the difficulties that arise during rendering realia from English into Ukrainian;

to analyze the transformations of realia in Stephen King's novel “The Outsider”.

The object of the study is realia on the material of the novel “The Outsider” by the American writer Stephen King in Ukrainian. The subject of the research - realia peculiarities, lexical and grammatical transformations used in the process of translating interlingual realia.

Outlining the main findings of the research

An integral requirement for a translator when translating the works of S. King is the establishment of translation decisions, when the equivalent of the word from source language is unavailable in the target language. S. King writes only for the American reader and does not take into consideration another audience. His texts are full of American realia that they are often skipped over by translators. S. King uses everything absolutely American: names, historical figures, facts.

Such researchers as E. Vereshchagina and V. Kostomarov studied realities not only in terms of linguistics. They emphasized their linguistic expressive colouring. They claim that realities are a complex element of culture and language, which contains a number of ethnocultural information, incomprehensible to objective reality [2].

Canadian linguists and translators J.-P. Vine and J. Darbelnet have contemplated that adaptation is one of the translation methods. It is used in cases when the original objects, concepts, phenomena do not exist in the target language and must be transmitted through another word that the translator considers equivalent [3]. It takes place exactly when rendering realia, which reflect elements of the fantasy world. Ukrainian researcher A. Yakymchuk regarded one of the operative methods of translation - translation-domestication, which means replacement of specific cultural elements of the derived text with elements of the recipient culture. As for the transfer of proper names, one of the strategies she considers to be “adaptation to the target culture” [4].

However, one of the most common methods to render realia is transcoding. This is a method of translation in which the sound or graphic form of the source language word is transmitted by means of the alphabet of the target language. Types of transcoding include transcription (letters of the target language convey the sound form of the word source language), as well as transliteration (the word of the source language is transmitted by letters) [5]. The first in terms of frequency of use is the technique of tracing, the essence of which is that words and expressions of one source language are translated into target language by accurate reproduction by means of the target language, their morpheme or verbal structure [6, p. 56]. This method is solely significant for translating fantasy literature that contain proper names more than it is needed that involve hints or play on words. Descriptive translation is also used, it is a process of which a word, phrase or phraseology is replaced in the language of translation by a phrase that adequately conveys the meaning of the word or phrase. Descriptive translation must meet a number of requirements. In particular, the descriptive translation must accurately convey the main content of the concept source unit. The description should not be excessively verbose and complex, as well as the structure of the phrase should not be complex [7, p. 41].

The author's works, permeated by his worldview, are created on the basis of certain the author's own feelings and become clear to the reader precisely due to realia. The incredible popularity of Stephen King's works adds more responsibility to the translator's activity, making him show himself as an expert of the Ukrainian and English languages. Serhii Kvit remarks that “only a translator who can give linguistic expression to the subject that opens the original text to him, e. finds a language that will be his own and, at the same time, correspond to the original” [8, p. 69].

The novel “The Outsider” was chosen to be a basis of the study because it is a modern work (published in the United States in 2018 [9]) and popular among fans of the work of S. King. KDS Publishing House, translated by Anastasia Rogoza, firstly published the work in Ukrainian.

In the course of the research, the results of the usage of certain methods of translation of realia into Ukrainian produced results that are proved to be successful. For instance, consider the translation of the realia чубчик Альфальфари:

Even the little Alfalfa cowlick sticking up from the back of his head added to the role the man had slipped into: untried youth, just happy to be here [10].

Навіть той маленький чубчик Альфальфари, що стирчав на його потилиці, довершував образ, що його набув прокурор, - недосвідчений молодик, який радіє самій нагоді тут опинитися [11, p. 65].

The translator, in this case, applies to tracing, but the reader may not understand what the author means by using this phrase. This notion spread in 1935 s, after the release of the American film “Going my way”, in which the actor Carl Switzer or “Alfalfara” had a small growth of hair on the back of his head, sticking out [12].

During the rendering ofthe realia chinos A. Rogoza used the method of transliteration:

Well, I'm not sure about the pants - Riley might remember, they could've been chinos - but the shirt was white [10].

Ну, щодо штанів я не певен, може, Райлі краще бачив, таке як чінос, але сорочка біла [11, p. 35].

However, in the footnotes she gave an explanation of this concept as вільні легкі штани з бавовни чи льону [11, p. 35]. The submitted translation can be regarded successful only in combination with an explanation, as the word used for translation is hardly familiar to the Ukrainian reader.

One of the biggest problems in translating notions that do not exist in the culture [13] of target language is concepts that are related to a certain situation known only in the country of the source text, for example:

If the glove does not fit, you must acquit, Johnnie Cochran had said. Gold's version, almost as catchy, might be, since he didn't know, you must let him go [10].

«Як рукавичка та на руку не налазить, виправданий вирок подавайте зразу», - сказав тоді Кокрен. Ґолд може трохи переінакшити цю фразу, але також заримувати: «Оскільки Террі не пізав нікого, йому на волю полотном дорога» [11, p. 81].

The translator uses tracing, but it does not at once become comprehensible what the author is really trying to say in this sentence. In fact, the expression refers to the trial of O.J. Simpson, who was accused in murder, but the guilt was not proven because the glove, which was one of the pieces of evidence, did not fit him [14]. The author, using this phrase, meant that there was no evidence, and therefore the accused (Terry Maitland) should be released from guard. This translation is not entirely appropriate, because there is no explanation for the sentence, and therefore it will be difficult for the reader to understand why such a translation is used.

It should be mentioned that the first few chapters of the novel are full of concepts related to the baseball, as the main character is a baseball coach. Not everyone knows these terms, so in most cases the translator uses descriptive translation, which is a good solution because it gives the reader a sufficient idea of baseball terms:

At the baseball field, the crowd began to cheer and clap rhythmically as the Flint City Golden Dragons came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, one run down [10].

Глядачі на бейсбольному полі заохотливо скрикнули й ритмічно заплескали в долоні - «Золоті дракони Флінт-Сіті» стали до битки в другій половині дев'ятого інінгу, вже відстаючи на одне очко [11, p. 8].

In footnotes A. Rogoza interprets the meaning of інінг and стати до битки: «Інінг - період бейсбольного матчу, за який обидві команди по черзі грають у захисті й нападі; усього в матчі дев'ять інінгів; «стати до битки» - вивести на поле бетера, який, граючи в нападі, має можливість заробляти очки» [11, p. 8]. Descriptive translation allows to convey the meaning of the baseball terms quite accurately, but in the text a word-for-word explanation complicates the syntactic construction of the sentence, changes the quantitative composition of the translation. In this case, it is most appropriate to explain the term or concept in the footnotes.

Conclusions and prospects for further development

This study showed that despite the sufficient number of methods of reproducing the realia in the process of translation, the interpreter needs to make a lot of effort for adequate and clear translation.

Although the analyzed translation belongs to the well-known and professional translator Anastasia Rogoza, the variants for reproducing the realia were considered. They were proved to be used by the translator by transliteration and tracing, and the appropriate translation of the baseball, to which the descriptive translation was applied, was also regarded. Anastasia Rogoza's detailed comments and footnotes helped the reader better understand concepts that were close to Americans.

With regard to this research, it was possible to better understand and evaluate how the translator used particular methods of translating realia in the process of translation of the novel by Stephen King “The Outsider” and, based on this, in perspective, to analyze translations of his other works.

The perspective of the study is a further analysis of the reproduction of realia in the novels of Stephen King, and the improvement of methods of reproduction of realia in fiction.

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