Fidelity to the original in literary translation: Microand macro-analysis of translational phenomena

María Antonia Alvárez

U.N.E.D.

Translation involves language switching to solve constraints and linguistic interference between the source language and the target language. In order to analyse the micro-structural level of the corpus, which will permit a higher analysis at a macro-structural level, quality parameters should be established to measure semantic fidelity, linguistic correctness and stylistic acceptability.

Traducir implica cambios lingüísticos para resolver las presiones e interferencias que se producen entre la lengua fuente y la lengua término. Para efectuar un análisis a nivel microestructual del corpus -que permita el análisis a nivel macroestructural- hay que establecer unos parámetros cualitativos a fin de evaluar la fidelidad semántica, y si es correcta desde el punto de vista lingüístico y estilístico para que pueda ser aceptado en su sistema literario.

INTRODUCTION

Most readers read for pleasure, and when they cannot read a foreign language they demand that the translation read like the original. Thus the role of a literary translator is to create a text which will produce the same pleasure for his reader as the source text did. This can be done after an analysis of the translational phenomena to evaluate the fidelity to the original, using the translational norms which will make the new text acceptable in its literary polysystem. Thus, a systematic study of translation phenomena should consider the notion of norm as a category for descriptive analysis, paying attention to target-oriented operational linguistic and literary norms with regard to acceptability in the literary polysystem, and also to the adequacy to the original.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to make some generalizations concerning the operational linguistic and literary norms of acceptability in Spanish prose translation, by studying the characteristics and role of norms and their position in translation theory. In order to achieve this purpose and formulate a theory about the modes of distributing linguistic material from the models and norms governing acceptability in the Spanish literary polysystem, a systematic collection of data was necessary, and this will be illustrated by reference to my translation of some passages of the short novel «A Good Man is Hard to Find», by Flannery O’Connor.

1 DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION STUDIES

Translation Studies is concerned with the characteristics and problems of translation as a phenomenon but, as Kitty M. van Leuven-Zwart (1991:25) has stated, this does not imply that the discipline and its theories, methods and models cannot serve practical ends. A better understanding of the phenomenon of translation, its process and its product, leads to the production of better translations. These may be the by-product of theories and methods developed by scholars of Translation Studies.

If the aim of Descriptive Translation Studies is, in the first place, to describe and explain empirical phenomena and then to test the hypotheses and models supplied by the theory: «The theoretical branch of our discipline», as Gideon Toury has stated, «can hardly be expected to be brought back to its proper track by simply divorcing it from the applied branch» because «there is simply no other way of verifying, refuting, and especially amending these hypotheses, and without a constant testing of this sort the theory is bound to lose contact with the empirical phenomena, or to lead to stagnation, or - most likely - the two unhappy results at once, as is the case with contemporary translation theory.» (1980:80)

Descriptive Translation Studies cannot be reduced to Contrastive Linguistics, since communication has to do with cultural meaning, textual conventions, pragmatic considerations, and there are different possible ways of rendering a text - it is a matter of choosing between doing justice to one aspect or another of the text. For this reason, a study of the translation techniques and methods used by other translators is most relevant and useful. Kitty van Leuven (1991:26) insists on the relevance of this method for translation description, both for the practice and also the teaching of translation.

Since translation implies variability, the general conclusions regarding the process could only be drawn on the basis of observation covering a wide range of variables and parameter values, which implies that empirical studies - both observational and experimental - need to be numerous before data can be representative. For this reason, according to Jose Lambert (1993), only the theorists who accept the advantages of Descriptive Studies make a distinction between translation criticism and translation research.

2 TRANSLATIONAL NORMS

Norms are the key in any scientific approach to the study and description of social phenomena. For sociologists and social psychologists norms are the translation of general values or ideas shared by a certain community - if a norm is really active and effective it allows us to distinguish regularity of behaviour in recurrent situations of the same type.

Translational norms should be the basic concept in any study of literary translation, since the norms determine the actual position of a translation, or a certain corpus of translations, between adequacy and acceptability. Gideon Toury (1980:53-54) establishes two kinds of translational norms: preliminary norms -the choice of the work to be translated- and operational norms - the actual decisions made during the traslation process. He also states that the value behind the norms of literary translation may be described as consisting of two major elements: (1) being a worthwhile literary work in TL -occupying the appropriate position in the target literary polysystem; and (2) being a translation- constituting a representation in TL of another preexisting text in some other language, that is to say, occupying the appropriate position in the source literary polysystem.

The study of norms -according to Jose Lambert (1993)- applies to all kinds of translational activities including any kind of utterances on translation, and the analysis ofliterary translations can be part of scientific research so that scholars can link theory and practice.

3 THE ROLE OF NORMS IN LITERARY TRANSLATION

Translation -a way to understand other cultures, other ways of thinking and behaving- and mainly literary translation enables us to break the walls of incomprehension and approach a wider world that belongs to all of linguistic, and its translation needs the actual combination of adequacy - adherence to the norms of the original - and acceptability - adherence to the norms of the target literary polysystem - , since using a text of a literary work is not only a linguistic fact, but also an emotional message that needs a certain response from the reader. As Walter Benjamin has affirmed:

Just as fragments of a broken vessel which to be put together have to be complementary to but not identical with each other - and that even in their smallest parts - the translatation lovingly and minutely has to echo the mode of intention of the original in its own language - instead of making itself similar to the intended sense of the original - and it does this in order to reveal both as fragments of a greater language as if they were fragments of a vessel. (1972:18)

The use of a translation as source for the reconstruction of translational norms has been suggested by Toury (1980:58), who affirms that even though we can arrive at several conclusions by examining a translated text by itself, it would be more interesting to make a comparative study of phenomena encountered in translations with the corresponding phenomena in original work. Nevertheless, he establishes an indispensable prerequisite: the development of a theoretically based and explicit method for the comparison of one translation and its original, taking into account general linguistic and literary theories, and involving complete and accurate systematic descriptions of the source and the target language, and of the two respective literary polysystems.

In literary translation, form cannot be separated from content, since form itself carries so much meaning. This joining of form and content has led Eugene Nida (1991:25) to suggest that more serious attention be given to the major functions of language - informative, expressive, cognitive, imperative, performative, emotive, and interpersonal -, including the 70 recognition that the information function is much less prominent than has been traditionally thought, since it probably accounts for less than twenty per cent of what goes on in the use of language.

In order to arrive at the understanding of the literary text which is to be translated, these steps should be followed for a good and successful translation: (1) consulting with the author, but if this is not feasible, researching the critical literature on the author and his work: the original does not exist in a vacuum and must be viewed within its frame of reference, which is the literary polysystem that it belongs to; (2) a semantic, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, etc., analysis of the source text, and (3) the contrastive analysis of the source and target languages and cultures, limited to those aspects, categories and levels which the author has made use of.

On the other hand, in literary translation one of the most important elements is the stylistic level, and in describing stylistic acceptability, the key point to measure it is the creative input. There are very many interesting studies on translation as re-creation or, in other words, on the role of the translator as a creator of a new text:

Barbara Folkart (1989) sees translation as a creative input, a creative process that extends the interpretive potential; adding virtualities and resonances of its own to the source text. She establishes four levels: compensation or introducing an item that is stylistically or rethorically more marked than the correspondent segment of the source text; adaptation, where the segments of the target language replace segments of the source language - thus, the functionally relevant forms in the source language are preserved by reinvesting them in such a way as to favour constructive assimilation by the target polysystem; transfiguration, or a translation that surpasses the original in stylistic quality or in emotional scope -it is the input of creativy which accounts for this, and trans-recreation, where the input of creativity is so considerable as to make of these target texts the residue of an autonomous act of writing. The prime intent of such an enterprise is to recreate in the fullest sense; to trans-create it. It imposes new orderings of pre-existing ones.

Horst Turk has analysed Derrida’s thesis of translatibility in a poetic text, which is based on linguistic creativity:

The question of translatability is not a question of how to translate texts, meanings or intentions from one language into another or of how to transfer one language into another within one text, but the question is how to translate one language into another by translating texts. The possibility of translation cannot be taken for granted if the original combines a minimum of linguistic creativity with a maximum of information or sense; yet it can be taken for granted if the original combines a minimum of distinct information and sense with a maximum of linguistic creativity. Obviously, such a conception of translation in a literary form is not a restricting but rather a stimulating condition. (1991:126-7)

Besides, in «Des Tours de Babel» (1985) Derrida has tried to change the binary oposition between the original and its translation -production vs re-production-; he prefers what he calls the double union, which considers translation as a mutual collaboration where the author and the translator work together. Both need each other because, without the translator, a book written in a specific language could not enter another culture. A good analogy that can describe this odd relationship between the translation and his writer is the difficulty one usually experiences walking with another person, i.e. walking together.

4 THE SHORT STORY AS REPRESENTATIVE TEXT TYPE

In an empirically based study the size of the corpus is an important parameter since, as Woods has stated (1986:80), the sample size may make an impact on the validity of the results. Nils Erik Enkvist affirms that it is important to expose students «to a spectrum of representative text types, and also of teaching them to worry about, and to respect, possible rhetorical traditions even in text types they are not themselves familiar with.» (1991:15) It seems more suitable to use a short story for teaching literary translation - and also for taking some samples or data for empirical studies - than fragments from a long novel. This was the main reason why we chose for our analysis the well-known short story «A Good Man is Hard to Find», whose text is no more than seven pages.

As Edgar Allan Poe has affirmed in his Review of Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales (1842): «The ordinary novel is objectionable from its length, for reasons analogous to those which render length objectionable in the poem. As the novel cannot be read at one sitting, a stop in reading would, of itself, be sufficient to destroy the true unity. In the brief tale the author is enabled to carry out his full design without interruption.» In this way, it is easier to be continously conscious of the whole text both in teaching translation - because the students have to apply the strategies they choose to the whole story - and also in observational research since, even when we approach single units to examine them, we are textually motivated because our main concern is for what happens in the whole text. As Poe concludes: «During the hour of perusal, the soul of the reader is at the writer’s control. A skillful artist has constructed a tale. He has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents, but having deliberately conceived a certain ‘single effect’ to be wrought, he then combines such events, and discusses them in such tone as may best serve him in establishing this preconceived effect. If this very first sentence tends not to the outbringing of this effect, then in his very first step has he commited a blunder. In the whole composition there should be no word written of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one preestablished design. And by such means, with such care and skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction. The idea of the tale, its thesis, has been presented unblemished, because undisturbed - an end absolutely demanded, yet in the novel altogether unattainable.»

Edward Kessler has also insisted on his preference for the condensation of the short story, much closer to poetry, and he considers Flannery O’Connor mainly a writer of short stories:

The short story remained O’Connor’s congenial form. Its single moment made possible her escape from the trap of time, the cause and effect of conventional narrative, and allowed her to assume a position from which initial action and denouement connect, necessitating little intermediate traffic with the quotidian. Resembling the Biblical parable, the short story intimately combines narrative with a metaphysical process. Thus any single narrative is a microcosm: the everpresent, ever-varying conjunction of the known and the unknown.» (1986:12)

Martha Stephen also agrees with Kessler’s opinion about O’Connor: «She seemed to need, in other words, a short form that she could bring utterly under control; she did not want something that was liable - as she herself might have put it - to run away with her, to get her in too deep, to get her in a fix that she could’t get out of.» (1972:44) And Bleikasten adds: «What engages most deeply O’Connor’s imagination - and this, incidentally, may account for her feeling more at home in the short story than in the novel - is not so much time as the sudden encounter of time with the timeless, the decisive moments in a man’s existence she would have called moments of grace.» (1985:151-2)

5 ANALYSIS OFTHE CORPUS

The analysis of the corpus consists of a comparison of the two texts: the translation and the original. In order to find the relationships between the two texts, we have to elaborate an appropriate model. In this sense, Dirk Delabastita suggests that «it would be most helpful, in view of the present fragmented condition of the discipline, for translation scholars to carefully consider alternative explanations and theories within the field, and, whenever it seems appropriate, to integrate elements of them into their own model.» (1991:139) Thus, our own method, based on Vinay & Dalbernet’s model -which can be taken as a descriptive tool- will be supplemented with K. van Leuven’s descriptive model, and M. Jovanovic’s and J. House’s descriptive categories.

When approaching our corpus, consisting of the short story «A Good Man is Hard to Find», by Flannery O’Connor, the translator should start by a conscious, linguistic analysis of the text; there is no translation without understanding. The emphasis upon the functions of language has also served to emphasize the importance of discourse structures. It means that any judgement about the validity of a translation must be judged in terms of the extent to which the corresponding source and target texts adequately fulfill their respective functions since, as Roda P. Roberts states: «the justification for considering the functions of translation independently of the functions of source texts lies in the fact that the reasons for translation are independent of the reasons for the creation of any source text. The functions of translation - and thus the form and type of the translation - can vary considerably on the basis of several factors; among them are the status that a translation is to have in the target society and the initiator of the translation.» (1992:7)

«One of the main points in the coupling of the pairs of problem + solution pertinent for the corpus under study», as Gideon Toury affirms, «is to enable the translational relationships obtaining between the members of these pairs to be described, which cannot be significantly dealt with before the appropriate units (appropriate, that is, for the comparative study in question) have been defined.» (1980:86) The elements which are necessary to describe these relationship -formal or functional- between the target and the source texts should be supplied by translation theory, which has a long tradition of research into the concept of translational equivalence.

According to Eugene A. Nida (1991:26), the requirements of equivalence point to the possibilities and limitations of translating various text types having diverse functions. On the one hand, a maximal requirement for the translational adequacy would mean that the readers of the translation would respond to the text both emotively and cognitively in a manner essentially similar to the ways in which the original readers responded. On the other hand, a minimal requirement for adequacy of a translation would be that the readers would be able to comprehend and appreciate how the original readers of the text understood and possibly responded to it. This would apply to texts which are so separated by cultural and linguistic differences as to make equivalent responses practically impossible.

5.1 The Title as an Integral Part of the Rhetoric of the Text

The title A Good Man is Hard to Find poses an open question to the reader, that he cannot solve even after finishing reading the story: who is that good man who is so hard to find? Is he Red Sam (the veteran, the happy American man) who embodies the American dream? On the other hand, is he The Misfit (the convict who is released from the Federal Penitentiary) as redeemer? This may be based on the main theme developed by O’Connor throughout her story, that «violence is necessary to shock modern man out of his secular complacency and into an awareness of good and evil, salvation and damnation.» This is clearly seen in The Misfit’s justification for the murder:

«She (the grandmother) would of been a good woman if somebody had been there to shoot her every minute of her life.»

The title of a fictional work - according to Richard Sawyer- «is an integral part of the rhetoric of the whole text. It is distinct, however, from the narrative proper for, like the chapter-heading, the marginal rubric and the epigraph, the title is unmediated by a narrative voice. It may in fact be as close as we come within the text to a direct authorial voice.» (1993:55)

In fact, O’Connor first implicitly encourages us to discover her purpose before we get immersed in the story, and then explicitly, when there is an allusion to the title by the main feminine character (the grandmother), who imprints firmly on the reader’s mind to whom the title refers:

«Because you’re a good man!» she told the veteran.

«Yes'm, I suppose so,» Red Sam said, as if he were struck with this answer.

Here the title seems to perform a nominal role, serving to identify a character in the story and giving way to a thematic or symbolic allusion, and afterwards, there is a repeated use of the title words:

«You've got good blood!»

«I just know you're a good man,» she (the grandmother) said desperately.

«None, I ain't a good man,» The Misfit said.

And there is even a last explicit allusion to the title at the end of the story; in this case referring to the contrary sex:

«She would of been a good woman,» The Misfit said pointing to the grandmother.

In all the contexts in which the title appears the implications refer to the affective or rhetorical aims of the story, hence the title phrase can be said to have a formalistic significance since the title divulges the theme or symbol pivotal to an understanding of the work, in modern fiction perhaps necessary to a degree unheard of in the past.

5.2 Linguistic and Extralinguistic Features

An approach to translation based on communication theory - which, according to Peter Newmark, «addresses itself solely to the second reader, who does not anticipate difficulties or obscurities, and would expect a generous transfer of foreign elements into this own culture as well as his language where necessary» (1981: 39)- must give considerable attention to the paralinguistic and extralinguistic features of any message; such features as tone, peculiarities of enunciation, style of type, format, quality of paper, type of binding.

The text structure of the short story «A Good Man is Hard to Find» can be represented in this way:

As Flannery O’Connor herself explained in Mystery and Manners, this was the story «of a family of six which, on its way driving to Florida, gets wiped out by an escaped convict who calls himself the Misfit. The family is made up of the Grandmother and her son Bailey, and his children, John Wesley and June Star and the baby, and there is also the cat and the children’s mother. The cat is named Pitty Sing, and the Grandmother is taking him with them, hidden in a basket.» (1969:109)

The whole story is built on contrasts: the scene in Red Sam’s inn is opposite to the main scene which takes place in the country when the family meets The Misfit; these two male characters also contrast with each other: the one is satisfied with his past and his present life, being totally happy and integrated in his own society, and the other has been rejected by his family and the whole society:

«My daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters».

Like the typical O’Connor characters, he is conscious of class, religion, and cannot see any positive future but degradation in his own interpretation of the carpe diem:

«Then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can - by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness.»

Michael O. Bellamy considers The Misfit a representation of an Anti-Christ: «Their executor, The Misfit appears on the road above them in his hearse-like automobile, an AntiChrist in his chariot, announcing the apocalypse. The Misfit’s role as an Anti-Christ is subsequently maintained in other ironic inversions of divine characteristics. Unlike Christ, who suffered little children to come unto Him, The Misfit shuns John Wesley and June Star, for children make him nervous. His reference

to the fact that he was a different sort efdog from

his brothers and sisters is similarly indicative of his satanic nature, for dog is, of course, God spelled backwards, and demonology is based on inverting the sacred.» (1979:117)

Bailey, the father of the children, also contrasts with this evil character: he has always been a good son and a good father, but as his name suggests (Bailey = the exterior wall of a castle, which makes communication impossible with the world) he cannot communicate with other people, he cannot even communicate with his family and utters only a few words in the whole story, always in a bad mood:

«Will you all shut up? Will you all shut up for one second? If you don’t shut up, we won’t go anywhere.»

The two women - the grandmother and the mother of the children - also contrast with each other: while the latter is unconscious of her appearance:

The children’s mother, a young woman in slacks, whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like rabbit’s ears.

The former always dresses herself in such a way that everybody could see that she was a lady:

The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves... the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet.

There are important keys about human attitudes, mainly of those who have accepted unhappy lives:

«Maybe they put you in by mistake,» the old lady said vaguely.

«Nome,» he said. «It wasn't no mistake. They had the papers on me.»

«You must have stolen something,» she said.

The Misfit sneered slightly. «Nobody had nothing I wanted,» he said.

There are foreshadowings that make the reader conscious of the unhappy circumstances which are going to happen at some point of the story, and which change the comedy into a dark-comedy:

... and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it.

«Did you read about that criminal, The Misfit, that’s escaped?» asked the grandmother.

«I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he didn’t attack this place right here,» said the woman.

«If he hears about it being here, I shouldn't be none surprised to see him. If he hears it’s two cent in the cash register, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he...»

«...we're in a predicament! We’re in...»

«... nobody realizes what this is,» and his voice cracked.

And also references to the Southern context:

They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it, like a small island.

«Look at the graveyard,» the grandmother said, pointing it out. «That was the old family buring ground. That belonged to the plantation.»

Where is the plantation?» John Wesley asked.

«Gone With the Wind,» said the grandmother, «Ha. Ha.!»

Alice Walker has analysed Flannery O’Connor as a Southern writer, trying to find her references to the concept of ladyhood in that context: «I sit wandering why I called Flannery a lady. It is a word I rarely use and usually by mistake, since the whole notion of ladyhood is repugnant to me. I can imagine O’Connor at a Southern social affair, looking very polite and being very bored, making mental notes of the absurdities of the evening. Being white she would automatically have been elegible for ladyhood, but I cannot believe she would ever really have joined.» (1985:73)

The reference to the plantation and the film Gone With the Wind has clear implications with the South, and also the description of the house by the grandmother:

She said the house had six white columns across the front and that there was an avenue of oaks leading up to it and two wooden trellis arbors on either side in front of it where you sat down with your suitor after a stroll in the garden.

6 FIDELITY TO THE ORIGINAL

In order to analyse the micro-structural level of the corpus - which will permit a higher analysis at a macro-structural level - quality parameters should be established to measure semantic fidelity, linguistic correctness and stylistic acceptability.

Translation involves language switching to solve constraints and linguistic interference between the source language and the target language. We must keep in mind that the translator should not supress his own individuality, but adjust or match perfectly the writer, although it is not only important his identification with the author, he also needs for distance to produce a text that is accepted in his own literary system - what Patrick O’Neill discussed as the myth of originality in his study «On Authority in Translation» (1992).

The examples presented in this paper are based on the study of the translation into Spanish of «A Good Man is Hard to Find», a text written by Flannery O’Connor, an author known for her language which is a challenge to readers, but also to translation theory in general and individual translators in particular, since as she explains in Mystery and Manners:

Much of my fiction takes its character from a reasonable use of the unreasonable, though the reasonableness of my use of it may not always be apparent. The assumptions that underlie this use of it, however, are those of central Christian mysteries. (1969:108)

According to the author, the heroine of her story, the grandmother, «is in the most significant position life offers the Christian. She is facing death. And to all appearances she, like the rest of us, is not too well prepared for it. She would like to see the event postponed indefinitely. It is true that the old lady is a hypocritical old soul; her wits are no match for The Misfit’s, nor is her capacity for grace equal to his.» (1969:108)

It is most interesting for the translator to collect as much information about the text he is going to translate as possible. Thus, he can try to know what the author or the critics think of the text he is examining. In this case, the insights given by Flannery O’Connor are most valuable:

There is a point in this story where such a gesture occurs. The grandmother is at last alone, facing the Misfit. Her head clears for an instant and she realizes, even in her limited way, that she is responsible for the man before her and is joined to him by ties on kinship which have their roots in the mystery she has been merely prattling about so far... I suppose the reasons for the use of so much violence in modern fiction will differ with each writer who uses it, but in my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace. In this story you should be on the lookout for such things as the action of grace in the grandmother’s soul, and not for the dead bodies. (1969:108-109)

Keeping in mind the difficulties of the corpus, a systematic method must be established for the purpose of describing the relationship between the translation and the original work. In the first place, we will describe the shifts in words, word-groups and sentences, which may be considered shifts occurring on a microstructural level - Van Leuven-Zwart calls it the comparative model. This data will help us to categorize and describe the consequences they produce on the level of larger units of meaning or the macro-structural level (the descriptive model).

For this systematic description of microstructural and macro-structural elements, in terms of norm priorities and value scales, van Leuven-Zwart finds three main categories: modulation (if one of the two transemes or comparable, meaningful text units has an aspect of disjunction, which may be generalization or specification), modification (when both transemes have an aspect of disjunction), and mutation (when it is impossible to establish an architranseme, which functions as the basis for comparison). These basic operations apply to lexical, stylistic, thematic or narrative text elements, and goes far beyond a description of shifts, also accounting for the strategies used.

6.1 Micro-structural level

In the corpus analysed there are many examples of modulation (specification). The reason for this kind of modulation -the disjunction appears in the transeme of the translation-, is that repetition is better accepted in English than in Spanish. Thus, the translator has tried to solve the problem with the solution of using a new lexical verb which is suitable for that situation in the target language system:

«That's when you should have started to pray,» she said.

Entonces es cuando debías haber empezado a rezar, -le aconsejó.

«If you would pray,» the old lady said.
-Si rezaras, -le aconsejó la anciana.

«Maybe they put you in by mistake,» the old lady said vaguely.
-Quizá te metieron por error, -sugirió la anciana confusa.

«You must have stolen something,» he said.
-Debes haber robado algo, -siguió.

«That's right,» The Misfit said.
-Es verdad, -admitió el Inadaptado.

«The children have been to Florida before,» the old lady said.
-Los niños han estado en Florida antes,-recordó la anciana.

«It's not much farther,» the grandmother said.
-No está mucho más lejos, -aclaró la abuela.

Barley turned his head sharply and said.
Barley volvió la cabeza bruscamente y gritó.

«Now look here, Bailey,» she said.
-jEh! Oye, Bailey, -le ordenó.

The translation of said as aconsejó, sugirió, siguió, admitió, aclaró, gritó, ordenó is an example of modulation (disjunction). These transemes have a semantic common denominator that could be described as to express orally, which is the architranseme. If we compare the English transeme with the architranseme, we do not discover any aspect of disjunction. On the contrary, the comparison of the Spanish transemes has an aspect of disjunction: aconsejar, sugerir, seguir, admitir, aclarar, gritar, ordenar are not completely the same thing as to express orally.

There are also some modulations (generalization), because in some cases the translation is more general than de original:

The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse.

La anciana se puso cómoda, quitandose los guantes blancos de algodón y colocándolos junto con el bolso.

Her collars and cuffs were white, and at her neckline...
El cuello y los puños eran blancos, y al pecho...

The modulation (generalization) occurs because the possessive adjective has been translated by a determiner.

There are also some stylistic modulations:

«There never was a body that give the undertaker a tip.»
-Nunca hubo un cadáver que de propina al enterrador.

In this case, the stylistic shift takes place because the English word undertaker belongs to a different register from the Spanish translation enterrador.

«... but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can.»
- ...sino disfrutar los pocos minutos que te queden de la mejor manera posible.

In the previous example, the clear allusion to the carpe diem is present in both versions, although adapted to the Spanish norms.

The examples of modification are also numerous. Modification occurs when both transemes have an aspect of disjunction. The aspects of disjunction involved may be semantic, stylistic or syntactic. In the following sentence, there is a stylistic modification:

The way Europe acted you would think we were made of money.

Por la forma en que actuaba Europa se creería que eramos de oro.

As an example of modification, we might take the English made of money > de oro. The architranseme of these transemes could be described as very rich. Now, both made of money and de oro are hyponyms of this architranseme; they are different ways of expressing very rich.

A new category established by Mladen Jovanovic (1991:86) is deviation. He affirms that understanding deviation is like understanding figurative meaning: first you have to know the literal meaning and only then can you hope to understand the figurative (metaphorical) one. What this means is that you have first to understand the rule, and only then the meaning of breaking it.

Deviations change, or add to, or modify, the meaning of the texts they are parts of. Breaking the rules of language, or deviating from the norm, from the standard, was not understood and, probably, for this very reason, was looked down upon and proscribed, except for the deviations in poetry, known as poetic licence, which were accepted. Today we know that there are at least two large groups of deviations, both seen as natural aspects of language and throwing more light upon the workings of language: unintentional and intentional (systematic: they follow certain rules of their own, and systemic (they originate in the language system they deviate from). Deviations, if they are to mean anything, have to be consistent, systematic and systemic. If not, they cannot be used for communication.

In the following passage there is a systemic deviation because instead of saying: If you turn... If you look... , O’Connor produced only the stimulus which will force his readers to create in their minds that claustrophobic situation, and the translator -in order not to be a traitor- should also avoid the conditional and follow the source text structure:

« Turn to the right, it was a wall,» The Misfit said, looking up again at the cloudless sky. «Turn to the left, it was a wall. Look up it was a ceiling, look down it was a floor. I forget what I done, lady.

-Vuelta a la derecha, una pared -se quejó el Inadaptado, mirando otra vez hacia arriba, al cielo sin nubes-. Vuelta a la izquierda, una pared. Miras arriba, el techo; miras abajo, el suelo.

Double negation is also a systemic deviation from English language and it is found in the text as the intentional poetic licence of the writer. Nevertheless, double negation in Spanish is not a deviation but a normal use of the language. Then, can the translator ignore this marked feature and translate the expression literally? Or will it be more appropriate to look for a stylistic equivalence? In this case, the target-oriented operational linguistic norm advises to follow the first instance:

«Nobody had nothing I wanted,» he said.
-Nadie tenía nada que yo deseara, respondió.

The function of the overall discourse is realized by means of the pragmatic parameters and their linguistic correlates. Nevertheless, according to Juliane House, «a translator should not only match the source discourse in function but also employ equivalent linguistic-situational means to achieve that function.» (1991:78) That is to say, to compare the source discourse and the target discourse along these parameters: medium (simple: written to be read, complex: to be spoken) participation, social role relationship, social attitude, province.

There are many shifts on the purely syntactic, formal level, or transpositions. (Transposition is a syntactical device that is necessary to change a part of the discourse from the SL into the TL without changing the meaning). The different changes may occur at several levels:

- in the class of unit:

... trembling with delight suddenly.
... con un inesperado estremecimiento de alegría.

(The non-finite verbal phrase trembling... changes into a prepositional phrase con un inesperado estremecimiento...)

- in the structure of the unit:

Without his glasses, The Misfit’s eyes were red-rimmed
Sin las gafas, los ojos del Inadaptado estaban bordeados de rojo

(The adjectival phrase red-rimmed has these elements: modifier + head. In the translation it changes into head+ prepositional phrase)

- in the syntactical function of the unit:

... she turned red in the face.
... se le puso la cara sofocada.

(The subject changes from one version to another. In English the subject is she and in Spanish her face).

- in the emphasis or focus:

... as if a snake had bitten him.
... coma si le hubiera mordido una serpiente.

(The subject is postponed in the translation, thus, the emphasis of the focus is affected).

Many changes have also occurred in verbal tenses, but the most important ones have taken place on -ing forms. The use of gerunds is less common in Spanish, since the most suitable linguistic norm is to use the infinitive in most cases:

Red Sam said it was no use talking about it Red Sam contesto que era inútil hablar de ello

In other cases the Spanish language system uses a relative clause:

She had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead...

Se había prendido al pecho un ramito de violetas de tela morada que contenía una bolsita de perfume. En caso de accidente, cualquiera que la viera...

6.2 Macro-structural level

After studying the relationships of the SL and TL units of the corpus at a micro-structural level, now we must see globally the macrostructural translational relationships of the whole corpus, as a consequence produced on other meaningful components by the shifts previously detected.

As we have seen in the corpus analysed, there are many examples of modulation/specification, which produce a change in the textual function or the linguistic organization of the information, since the translator interprets the reactions of the characters while trying to solve the problem of repetition - less accepted in Spanish - with the solution of using a new lexical verb which is suitable for that situation in the target language system.

In the ST, the narrator tells the story in a more neutral, uninvolved way, without expresing judgments and merely registering the events which take place without giving his opinion. The translation of said as aconsejó, sugirió, siguió, admitió, aclaró, gritó, ordenó shows a concern with the characters who play a role in the fictional world. This means that in the translation the reader is given by the narrator a subjective interpretation, not permitting him his own interpretation of the events. This has important implications in the interpersonal function or the way in which communication is organized between the reader and the fictional world: the role of the narrator is less involved with the events in the ST than in the TT.

There are also several examples of stylistic modulations which have a consequence in the ideational function or the way in which the reader is informed about a fictional world with its characters and events. This stylistic modulation produces a different level of discourse in the translation, as the dialect of the characters is different, less coloquial in the TT than the ST. The consequence has serious implications in the stylistic function of the text, since The Misfit’s speech is more formal in the target text because the mark of grotesque in the character created by Flannery O’Connor is less marked in the translation.

The systemic deviations from t e English language in the source text, as the mtent10nal poetic licence of the writer, in most cases is not a deviation in Spanish, but a normal use of the language. Then, if the translator ignores this marked feature and translates the expression literally, there is no stylistic equivalence._ This even produces in some cases a loss of irony, which is one of the most important features in the original text.

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RECIBIDO EN SEPTIEMBRE DE 1997