april 28th and 30th

7/30/2019 April 28th and 30th

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April 28th text register in translation and text,

genre and discourse shifts in translation

Units 10 and 11 are connected.

They both relate to text from two perspectives,register and culture.

Socio-linguistic varieties: language changes if thecontext/situation change.

Translation must take into account all variations.

G.B. Shaw Pygmalion:

The flower girl: I am a good girl, I am.The flower girl: Aint no call to meddle with me, he

aint.


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The Flower Girl is a CocKney user, her

variation is a dialect, it has geographic

origins.

Variations in the use of language are called

registers.

One person may use different registers.

Use-related varieties have to do with ones

occupation and the situation in which

language is used.

So we have USE or USER dimensions.


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Field, mode and tenor

These variables are important to remember:

FIELD = for ex. legal, journalistic, scientific, literary etc.

MODE = written or spoken language.

TENOR = level of formality (style) which is the crucial aspect.

Levels of formality: casual, informal, formal, frozen. Translate the following:

CASUALComing down the pub?

INFORMAL

What about going to the pub?

FORMAL

You are invited to accompany me to the pub.

FROZEN/FIXED

PLEASE ORDER PUB LUNCHES AT THE FOOD COUNTER.

Legal or scientific language for instance, can be expressed in different ways dependingon levels of formality


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LEVELS OFFORMALITY

(TENOR)

LAWYERS DOCTORS EFL TEACHERS THE THREEO N THE LEFT

ARE FIELDS

(REGISTER)

FROZEN QUEENS BENCH

DIVISION

ENTRANCE

BLOOD BANK

CLOSED ON BANK

HOLIDAYS

CAE PRACTICE

MATERIALS ARE

AVAILABLE AT

CLA

FORMAL I put it to you

mlud

Scalpel! Stop writing now

and put your

pens on your

desk.

INFORMAL Did you do it? This wont hurt Say it again,

Anne.

CASUAL His words are a

total basket case.

These bloody

radiographers are

useless

You advanced?

Fat chance!

To sum up schematically:


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How many registers do you usually use?

List possible situations which make your use(s) oflanguage different.

Also within a single genre or text we can identifydifferent uses of language.

Exercise:

Read pp. 78-79 in 10 mins.

The situational setting is the same in all texts.Topic: Maastricht Treaty by the EU.

Can you state that here we have ONE register?

Try to highlight possible differences in terms of:

- what is being communicated, by whom, to whom;- what is intended to be achieved;

- what kind/genre of other texts you are reminded ofwhile reading each of these texts.


6/21

Lets get back to Pygmalion

The cinematic version of P is My Fair Lady,

starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Dolittle (the

Cockney flower girl).

The story revolves around a bet made by the

male protagonist who wants to change Eliza

into an educated and refined person.

Translating social varieties and dialects is always

challenging.


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In English, beyond regional (geographic) varietieswe have very marked social varieties.

The British need one or max. two sentences todecide if their interlocutors belong to the upperclass, middle class or the many other classes inbetween.

Eliza Dolittle is a working class Londoner (twoconnotations, social and geographic).

Her Cockney was rendered into Italian through astrange mixture of South Italian dialects andaccents, without any precise belonging.

The purpose was to highlight Elizas bad use oflanguage and the fact that Prof. Higgins wantedher to speak a good language (upper classaccent).


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However, social class Englishes are English.

A mixture of Neapolitan, Apulian and Sicilian are notItalian.

So?

Whats the problem with dubbing and meaning?

Eliza, at the beginning, says to her prof. that she wontpay him much money because she already knowsEnglish. She only needs phonetic help. Thats why

we have the famous sentence used all over the filmto train her right pronunciation: THE RAIN IN SPAINSTAYS MAINLY IN THE PLAIN.

This makes sense in English where she has to improvejust her accent, but in Italian?

Its not a question of accent only, but of dialect too.

How is it possible to learn a good Italian by repeatingover and over again the sentence: la rana in Spagnagracida in campagna?


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MoreoverThere are some songs sung by Eliza which have been

dubbed into Italian. The problem is that this Italian isperfect also at the beginning of the film when shecant speak properly.

Another problem relates coherence.

During a horse-race, Eliza answers the question Will it

rain do you think?by using the famous sentence therain in Spain pronounced in a perfect way.

Obviously, in the Italian version this would make nosense, theres no connection between Pensate chepiover?and la rana so this part has been deleted.

The problem is that the scene goes on with other similartongue-twisters uttered by Eliza and the result ishilarious in English, while in Italian we dontunderstand why people around her laugh.


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30 April


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Discourse in translation and

intertextuality

Discourse is the way in which language is usedsocially to convey broadhistorical/cultural/political (etc.) meanings.

It is language identified by the social conditionsof its use, by who is using it and under whatconditions.

Language can never be 'neutral' because itbridges our personal and social worlds."


12/21

Unit 10 = context of situation

Unit 11 = context of culture/discourse

Texts are means to express and convey socio-cultural meanings.

In this area the concept of intertextuality is central.

I. is the mechanism through which textual elementsconvey meaning by virtue of their dependence onother texts.


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Intertextual references can be horizontal and vertical(Mikhail Bakhtin)

H. I. is the concrete, real reference or quotation fromother texts.

V. I. is not a real quotation but allusion.Allusion means an echo effect, when we read / listen to

something and we think of other texts (biblical style,Shakesperean tone etc.)

NO REAL QUOTATIONSOMETHING IN THE TEXT REMINDS US OF SOMETHING

ELSE (RECALLS)


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For example, film adaptations, that is retellings

of a famous stories taking only some aspects

and not the real words, are examples of V. I.

All the contemporary retellings of Shakespeares

plays through films - such as 10 Things I Hate

About You, loosely based on Shakespeare's

The Taming of the Shrewand She's the Man,

based on his play Twelfth Night.

The film Last Action Hero which also features anaction retake on Hamlet uses intertextuality

throughout.


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example

Holiday high jinks (baldoria) at 5am land Euan inmore trouble

(Daily Telegraph, August 18,2000)

You dont probably catch the intertextualityhere, but many British people would.

In this newspaper headline referring to EuanBlair, Tonys son, the word Euan, especiallywhen used in conjunction with trouble, formany British people in the summer of 2000would have recalled images of a fun-lovingteenager constantly causing embarrassmentto his famous father.


16/21

Newspaper headlines are full of V.I.

Silence of the damned (from Silence of theLambs) (headline about a humanitarian crisisin West Africa)

Blame in Spain (from Rain in Spain) (headlineabout a friction between Britain and Spain)

The first headline could be easily translated inItalian with..?

Il silenzio dei dannati (the Italian version of themovie is Il silenzio degli innocenti, theres

only the replacement of one word).

And the second?

Blame Rain

???? Rana


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Prince takes arms against bad English

Can you see intertextuality here?Prince here refers to the prince of Wales, but

what follows are references to Shakespeares

Hamlet.


18/21

What about dantes inferno?

Dantes Inferno has as a primary character Virgil,the Augustan-era author of the Aeneid.Similarly, as Dante and Virgil descend through

the circles of Hell, they encounter variouscharacters from ancient literature, many ofwhich are represented in Book 4 of theAeneid, in which Aeneas visits the

Underworldfor example, Cerberus, thethree-headed dog and Medusa, the snaky-haired gorgon, just to name a few.


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PEPSI COLA COMMERCIALWHATS THE VERTICAL INTERTEXTUALITY HERE?

Pepsi Cola created this advertisement based on The

Godfather.

There are probably very few people who have not heard

about or seen the movie, The Godfather.

This epic movie has become a part of our culture. Nearly

everyone remembers the quote, "I made him an offerhe couldn't refuse," and the scene with the horse's

head.

While watching this commercial, we immediately

understand, as soon as the little girl starts talking, thatshe is imitating a scene from the movie, The Godfather.


20/21

Other examples of V.I.

Videos: Simpsons parody (X Files), parody of

Titanic, Madonnas Material Girl (Gentlemen

prefer blondes), Hitchcocks shower scene

from Psycho.

T.S. Eliots The Burial of the Dead

What are the features (visual, auditory, written

etc.) that make you think of other texts,

people, situations etc.?


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In day-to-day practice, however, theprofessional translator will not always have

time to find creative solution and, unless

inspiration comes, he/she will have tosettle for more pragmatic and many times,

less effective strategies.

april 28th and 30th

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