A Foreign Accent of Literary Characters as a Translation Problem

Abstract

Abstract. The article deals with reproducing contaminated speech of literary characters in the Ukrainian translations of J. Steinbeck’s novel "East of Eden" and the play "Hysteria" by Т. Johnson. Contaminated speech (a foreign accent) is a wide-spread stylistic means of characterizing literary characters. The specific nature of the accent remains under the dispute among researchers in translation studies. Some scholars regard the accent as a phonetic phenomenon only. However, our research is based on V. Vinogradov’s statement that accent covers the speech deviations on all language levels. In addition, the important aspect of investigating accents is understanding that an accent is a product of language interference. The literature review contains the works of theoreticians and practitioners of translation studies (A. Fedorov, S. Florin, V. Komissarov, O. Kopyl’na, T. Nekryach, O. Rebrii, S. Vlakhov, etc.). The research relevance is determined by anthropocentric approach to text interpretation, which allows to investigate literary characters as language personalities. The object of the research is the constituents of Spanish and Chinese accents of literary characters. The subject of the research comprises the translation tactics of reproducing the foreign accents.

The purpose of the research is to reveal the specific traits and components of the foreign accent of literary characters and to single out the optimal translation tactics for its faithful reproduction in translation. To achieve the aim, the following objectives have been set: to examine the specific features of foreign accents of literary characters and to highlight the specific translation tactics of rendering foreign accents.

Results of research. Creative writers resort to imitating foreign accents to create original characters and emphasize their foreign identity. The specific traits of a foreign accent can be represented in fiction in the form of deviations from the literary norm on the phonetic, grammatical, and lexical levels. Reproducing these specific traits can be regarded as a translation challenge difficulties and requires special skills on the part of translator. According to V. Komissarov, the natural sounding of a foreigner’s speech should be the top priority in accent reproduction. The Ukrainian translations of T. Johnson’s play "Hysteria" and J. Steinbeck’s novel "East of Eden" demonstrate successful reproducing of the Spanish and Chinese accents. While creating the Spanish accent of his character T. Johnson resorted to incorrect use of words, grammatical mistakes, distortion of the phonetic and morphological structure of words. These features of the character’s speech make an integral component of his language personality, which is carefully conveyed by the Ukrainian translator. In order to preserve all motivated deviations from the literary norm, the translator uses the parallel translation. In the absence of appropriate equivalents the translator resorts to compensation by applying distortion of phonetic, morphological, and syntactic norms. All the translation means represented in this translation seem to be optimal for creating a stage dialogue. Salvador Dali’s Spanish sounds natural and easy for audial perception, which is the most important in drama translation. While translating the Chinese accent, Tetiana Nekryach resorts to the parallel translation of phonetic distortions of words. The translation tactics of compensation is applied for rendering the grammatical mistakes in the character’s speech. All translation means are used for embodiment the author’s intent and increasing the impact on readers. Thus, the Chinese accent are reproduced on all language levels, including phonetic, grammatical, and lexical.

Originality. The study of approaches to conveying foreign accents of literary characters, considering the specific nature of the accent, represents the research originality. Thus, the phonetic, grammatical, and lexical components of the foreign accents were investigated, and the optimal translation tactics of their rendering were singled out.

Conclusions. In conclusion, it should be mentioned that due to the differences in structures of the target and source languages, it is impossible to fully reproduce contaminated speech on the all language levels in translation. Therefore, the translator should find the functional analogues for faithful reproducing a foreign accent. Among the optimal translation tactics of accent reproduction, the parallel translation and compensation are singled out. The perspective of the research lies in further investigation of contaminated speech and comparison between the translation tactics applied in drama and prose translation.