Diminutives in three Slovene translations of Hamlet

contrastive analysis of the original and the translations

Urša Marinšek (Author), Tomaž Onič (Mentor)

Abstract

The use and formation of diminutives in English and Slovene differ to a considerable extent. The main categorization of diminutives into two groups according to their morphological structure classifies them into analytic and syntactic diminutives. On the one hand, it seems that in the English language it is difficult to find syntactic diminutives; this language apparently favors the analytical ones. On the other hand, there is a high frequency of syntactical diminutives in Slovene. These general characteristics of the two languages are expected to be replicated in literary works, therefore, also in drama, which - at least in theory - comes as close to spoken discourse as possible. These differences will therefore become evident in the contrastive analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet and its three Slovene translations. Furthermore, it will be interesting to see how the diminutives, their structure, function and even existence will vary in the process of translation from one language into the other. This thesis thus explores diminutives in four versions of this famous play by William Shakespeare: the original Hamlet and its three Slovene translations, which were completed over a relatively long time span by three different Slovene translators. Contrastive analysis shows that there are significant differences when it comes to the usage of diminutives. It is not just their presence, absence or modification that is interesting, but more importantly it is their stylistic function. Diminutives in the traditional sense mark "smallness", but several other important functions emerge within dramatic texts. Emotional nakedness proved to be one of the most important roles and functions. In this role, they can express endearment, sarcasm, irony, facetiousness and many other stylistic and semantic nuances. If a diminutive is present in the original and carries emotional markedness, it is highly important for the translator to do his or her best to preserve this markedness (or compensate for it with a similar type of markedness) in the translation and thus retain the style of the original. If the translator is unsuccessful in this undertaking, regardless of whether objective reasons for such translation shifts exist, the translation inevitably loses. Questions related to changes in the interpretative potential of the translation versus the original represent one of the central issues in this Master's thesis. Shakespeare has a long tradition in the Slovene cultural space and, therefore, in the Slovene context - and vice versa: Slovene readers and theatregoers have been acquainted with his plays for a long time. Hamlet has been translated into Slovene more than five times, and even more adaptations exist. The first translation of Hamlet dates back to the late 19th century, and the most recent to 2013 (translated by Srečko Fišer), which makes a time span of more than a hundred years. Because of multiple existing translations, this drama is a perfect candidate for a contrastive analysis such as this thesis and its research into the preservation of stylistic elements in translation. Only three translations are examined in this thesis, but they differ from each other in many respects. Considering their core characteristics, we could afford to label each of them with a distinctive adjective: Oton Župančič's translation could be seen as the "traditional" one, Janko Moder's as "experimental" and Milan Jesih's as "modern". Each translator has his own approach to the translation of diminutives, their employment, function and even formation; in some cases (but not all), one could even call it strategy. This means that if there is a diminutive in the original, it is not necessary that all (if any) of these translators will preserve it.

Keywords

master theses;Hamlet;contrastive analysis;translations;stylistics;diminutives;emotional markedness;Shakespeare;William;1564-1616;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2018
Typology:	2.09 - Master's Thesis
Organization:	UM FF - Faculty of Arts
Publisher:	[U. Marinšek]
UDC:	821.111-2Shakespeare W.(=163.6):811.163.6'367.622.22:81'25(043.2)
COBISS:	24055560
Views:	690
Downloads:	74
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
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Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Manjšalnice v treh slovenskih prevodih Hamleta
Secondary abstract:	Manjšalnice kot lingvistična kategorija so največkrat raziskovane morfološko. Eno najbolj celostnih in hkrati koherentnih študij na področju manjšalnic v angleškem jeziku je delo z naslovom Manjšalnice v angleščini (Diminutives in English) iz leta 2003. Avtor monografije Klaus Schneider zagovarja stališče, da bi manjšalnice morali preučevati hkrati z morfološkega in pragmatičnega vidika. Pričujoče magistrsko delo se sicer do neke mere posveča analizi manjšalnic z morfološkega vidika, a glavni cilj raziskave je, da manjšalnice obravnava s pragmatičnega vidika, tj. z vidika njihove rabe v kontekstu, še posebej se ukvarja s stilistično vlogo manjšalnic v dramskih besedilih. Primarna funkcija manjšalnic, ne glede na jezik, je izražanje majhnosti, vendar se njihova vloga v besedilih nikakor ne konča z denotacijo, ampak imajo lahko še več drugih funkcij. V zvezi s tem obstajajo različne teoretske podlage, ki jih povzema in komentira Schneider (2003, 12). Teoretike je mogoče razdeliti v 3 skupine, ki o vlogi manjšalnic menijo naslednje: manjšalnice po eni strani izražajo samo "majhnost"; druga skupina meni, da izražajo "majhnost" in odnos; in tretja, da izražajo zgolj odnos. To magistrsko delo se ob posameznih študijah, ki spadajo v te tri skupine, ter Schneiderja, ki povzema večino relevantnega in do nastanka monografije obstoječega gradiva, opira tudi na nekatere slovenske študije (prim. npr. Sicherl, Žele, Vidovič Muha idr.), predvsem pa v duhu kontrastivne analize Shakespearovega Hamleta in treh slovenskih prevodov glede na funkcije manjšalnic, ki se v njih pojavijo, oblikuje štiri kategorije, ki so se že v predhodnih raziskavah podobnega gradiva izkazale za uporabne (prim. Onič in Marinšek 2015). To so naslednje možnosti: 1. izražanje majhnosti ali mladosti, 2. zapolnitev semantične praznine, 3. okrepitev govorčeve moči, 4. izražanje čustvene zaznamovanosti. Glede na to, da sta prvi dve kategoriji denotativni, in tako rekoč standardni povsod, kjer se pojavljajo manjšalnice, ju lahko pričakujemo tudi v teh besedilih. Okrepitev govorčeve moči se je v predhodnih študijah pojavila predvsem v sodobnih dramah, zato tudi v tej raziskavi takih primerov pričakujemo manj, glavna skupina, v kateri pričakujemo največ primerov, pa je četrta skupina, to so manjšalnice, ki so uporabljene z namenom (oz. vsaj s potencialom) izražanja emocionalne zaznamovanosti. Le-ta je nadalje opredeljena v naslednjih osmih podkategorijah (povzeto po Slovarju slovenskega knjižnega jezika): ekspresivno, evfonično, ironično, ljubkovalno, slabšalno, šaljivo, vulgarno in temporalno. Raziskovanje manjšalnic v drami v okviru te študije seveda presega zgolj kategorizacijo le-teh, ampak razišče tudi njihov slogovni vidik in potencialne interpretativne možnosti. Uporaba in tvorjenje manjšalnic se med angleščino in slovenščino zelo razlikujeta. Glede na tvorbo lahko manjšalnice uvrstimo v dve glavni skupini: na analitične in sintetične manjšalnice. Analitične so opisne, kar pomeni, da jih dobimo z uporabo pridevnikov, katerih nabor je razmeroma omejen. V slovenščini lahko sem štejemo besedo majhen z vsemi njenimi izpeljankami. V angleščini je ta nabor nekoliko širši (small, little, tiny, wee, miniature, young itd.), predvsem pa je za angleščino pomemben zaradi bistveno manjšega obsega možnosti pri tvorjenju sintetičnih manjšalnic. Slednje se namreč tvorijo s specifičnimi deminutivnimi obrazili, kar pa je v angleškem jeziku veliko manj prisotno. Na prvi pogled se zdi, da v angleščini skorajda ni najti manjšalnic oziroma da so zelo redke. Taka ocena bi bila verjetno preveč pavšalna, drži pa, da angleščina po večini manjšalnice tvori s pridevniki, ki izražajo majhnost, in posledično so te manjšalnice v angleščini sestavljene iz več besed (npr. little house). Sintetične manjšalnice se tudi tu tvorijo z določenimi obrazili, nekatere pripone so, na primer, -ette, -let in -ling, ravno obrazila pa so vzrok za nesoglasja med različnimi avtorji (npr. Schneider, Jurafsky, Vrabie).
Secondary keywords:	magistrska dela;Hamlet;kontrastivna analiza;prevodi;stilistika;manjšalnice;emocionalna zaznamovanost;
URN:	URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS):	Master's thesis/paper
Thesis comment:	Univ. v Mariboru, Filozofska fak., Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko
Pages:	57 f.
ID:	10961543