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Article published In: FORUM
Vol. 18:2 (2020) ► pp.231–250

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The Prologue to Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil in translation into German and Polish

A cognitive-linguistic analysis

 | University of Szczecin
Published online: 11 November 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.19025.zyg
Abstract
The novel Narcopolis and its translations into German and Polish start with a prologue which consists of one long sentence. The aim of this paper is an analysis of this sentence with the use of a combination of three approaches: (1) the translation theory proposed by Barańczak (1992), (2) the approach posited by 2006. “Art, Science, and Ste. Emilie’s Sunsets: a Haj-inspired Cognitive Approach to Translating an Emily Dickinson Poem into Japanese.” Style 40.1–2: 109–127.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, and (3) the DIMEAN model by Warnke, Ingo H., and Jürgen Spitzmüller. 2008. “Methoden und Methodologie der Diskurslinguistik – Grundlagen und Verfahren einer Sprachwissenschaft jenseits textueller Grenzen [Methods and methodology of discourse linguistics – Principles and procedures of linguistics beyond text boundaries].“ In Methoden der Diskurslinguistik [Methods of discourse linguistics], ed. by Ingo H. Warnke, and Jürgen Spitzmüller, 3–54. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar with the view to check their usefulness for translation criticism and as support in a text analysis preceding translation. In the first step, the conceptual schemata of key importance for the text are sought. Subsequently, language features of key importance which allow for the schemata to materialize are identified in the original and the translation equivalents of these are compared. The results of the analysis indicate that the eclectic approach presented in the paper appears to be quite efficient and user-friendly.
Résumé
Le roman Narcopolis et ses traductions en allemand et en polonais commencent par un prologue qui se compose d’une seule longue phrase. Le but de cet article est d’analyser cette phrase en combinant trois approches de recherche : (1) la théorie de la traduction formulée par Barańczak (1992) (2) la démarche proposée par M. H. Freeman et (3) le modèle DIMEAN postulé par Warnke, Ingo H., and Jürgen Spitzmüller. 2008. “Methoden und Methodologie der Diskurslinguistik – Grundlagen und Verfahren einer Sprachwissenschaft jenseits textueller Grenzen [Methods and methodology of discourse linguistics – Principles and procedures of linguistics beyond text boundaries].“ In Methoden der Diskurslinguistik [Methods of discourse linguistics], ed. by Ingo H. Warnke, and Jürgen Spitzmüller, 3–54. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, afin de vérifier leur utilité dans la critique des traductions et dans l’analyse du texte de départ qui précède la traduction. La première étape consiste à retrouver les schémas conceptuels qui sont d’une importance capitale dans le texte. Ensuite, nous identifions dans le texte source les élements linguistiques cruciaux en permettant de réaliser les schémas retrouvés. Quant aux équivalents de traduction de ces éléments linguistiques – ceux-ci sont comparés les uns aux autres. Les résultats de l’analyse montrent que l’approche éclectique présentée dans cet article semble être efficace et facile d’utilisation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical basis
  • 3.The method and material
  • 4.The analysis
    • 4.1The conceptual schema and the language
    • 4.2Man vs. / as woman
    • 4.3Man vs. / as pipe
    • 4.4Repetition as something stable in the flow of speech
    • 4.5Repetition: A special case of the conjunction “and”
    • 4.6Double nature – duality at the language level: Xenolectality vs. sophistication
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (27)
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