CC BY
59UDC 811.112.2'255.2
DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSLATING STYLISTIC FUNCTIONS OF ANGLO-AMERICANISMS FROM GERMAN LANGUAGE PROSE INTO RUSSIAN
A.V. Moreva
Department of English Philology, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation).
E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract. The article addresses stylistic functions of Anglo-Americanisms in German prose, such as creating a speech portrait of a hero, self-expression of the author and rendering the local colour. It substantiates the idea that Anglo-Americanisms used in such functions can present difficulties in translation into Russian.
Keywords: Anglo-Americanisms; stylistic function; literary text; problem of translation.
Anglo-Americanisms in the German language have recently become a popular topic, especially with regard to the language of mass media and advertising [1, 2]. According to some researchers, there is a tendency to use fewer Anglo-Americanisms in recent years as the result of language policy at government level and a conscious choice of German's speakers who are worried by the grotesque forms of substitution of German words by Anglo-Americanisms [3: 3-4]. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Anglo-Americanisms have penetrated many spheres of German life.
Leaving aside the issues of the causes of penetration, typology of Anglo-Americanisms, etc. we will consider the question of what should a translator do if such words occur in a literary text. Like other deviations from the literary norm of a language (dialects, jargon, slang, etc. [4: 194-195]) Anglo-Americanisms can present a serious problem for translation. It is worth noting that this problem has not yet received due coverage in works about translation from German: we know only rather fragmentarily studies connected with difficulties of translating English words in some text genres, e.g., in advertising [5: 104-107]. For a translator of fiction the situation is aggravated by the fact that it is necessary to somehow render that 'special stylistic effect from the clash of different language worlds' described by A.V. Chirikov in Notebooks of a Translator, who analyzed ways of translating foreign insertions in literary texts [6: 113]. The situation is different if we translate a modern medical text for instance, which also has many Anglo-Americanisms but as a rule they have a terminological nature [7]. Such language units of all scientific and technical texts have their own well-established translation techniques (transliteration, calque, descriptive translation, etc.). Literary translation can hardly make use of these techniques, and we will try to show it.
To conduct our research we analyzed the novel Lila, Lila written by a modern Swiss writer Martin Suter [8]. The novel was published in 2005, and in
2007 it appeared in Russian translated by N.N. Fedorova [9]. Though the author comes from Switzerland, Lila, Lila is not regional literature: there are no dialectal words there; the book is written in a live modern German; the scene is laid in Switzerland and Germany. This is a novel about the world of modern literature, about the creation of a novel, and also about its background, the book industry.
An abundance of Anglo-American words in the novel is something that catches the reader's eye from the very first pages. These words have a different degree of adaptation in the German language: from words that have unified spelling, pronunciation and gender, e.g., der Lifestyle, das Revival, to words that have different variants of spelling, pronunciation and gender, which are recorded in the regularly updated dictionary the Duden [10], e.g., der / das Blackout, das / der Countdown/Count-down, etc. Anglo-Americanisms are used in both direct speech of heroes and in the words of the author. Many of them are used in the purely nominative function: das Callgirl, das Swimmingpool, der Wellnes Club, etc. However, we will focus our attention first of all on those words that perform a certain stylistic function in the text of the novel. Under 'stylistic function' we will understand 'the purpose, the role of specially organized linguistic devices possessing stylistic meaning while fulfilling a certain stylistic task' [11: 128]. It should be noted that stylistic meaning, or according to M.N. Kozhina stylistic colouring or connotation [12: 70], can be both inherent in linguistic units having respective usage labels in dictionaries, and acquired by linguistic units in context. It is very important for a translator to discern these stylistic connotations already at the stage of pre-translation analysis in order to retain the so-called framework norm of translation, which requires stylistic consistency as an essential condition for creating a certain aesthetic impression [13: 126].
Foreign lexis is customarily regarded as lexis of a different stylistic layer in comparison with synonymous lexis of the original language. Among stylistic functions of foreign lexemes we distinguish: the function of creating local colour, the function of creating a speech portrait of a hero, evaluative, euphemistic functions, and the function of play on words and of the author's self-expression [14: 30-32]. So, we need to find out which stylistic effect is added by English words to a German text and how it can be conveyed into Russian (if it is possible to convey it at all).
Let us consider several examples from the novel:
Glauben Sie an ein Revival des Geistes der fünfziger Jahre? (p. 190) Do you believe in the revival of the spirit of the fifties?
Weshalb diese Fifties-Nostalgie? (p. 191) Where does this nostalgia for the fifties come from?
Das gibt immer schönes Material für OffKommentare... (p. 191) It always gives excellent material for comments off screen...
Dann würde ich noch gerne ein paar Statements von Ihnen zu David Kern drehen, Herr..? (p. 193) Then I would gladly film a couple of your statements to David Kern, Mr.
All these statements belong to one person, namely a journalist interviewing the main character of the novel. Anglo-Americanisms are used here to create the speech portrait of the speaker. A speech portrait or speech description of a hero is understood as 'a particular choice of words, expressions, figures of speech, etc. used as a means of artistic portrayal of characters in a work of literature [15: 385].
Techniques used in the creation of literary portraits reveal the characters' life experience and their belonging to certain social or professional groups. By means of English words often used among journalists (their high frequency in mass media has already been mentioned above) the author shows that his hero is well-informed about fashionable, prestigious and progressive things and wishes to demonstrate it in his dialogue with a person from a different social group. It is interesting that the words Revival and Statement, for example, have their perfect analogues in German: Wiederaufleben and Erklärung [10], which are not even colloquial, but the speaker deliberately chooses the English words. It is difficult to convey this stylistic function (that of creating a speech portrait) in translation, so N.N. Fedorova simply translates these words into Russian for the sake of clarity of meaning. Usually, in cases with other deviations from the norm in literary translation it is recommended to compensate them with certain means of the language of translation: e.g., dialectal words can be rendered by means of colloquial language; jargon, argot, swearwords, by means of words with the same stylistic colouring [16: 168].
To find Anglo-American equivalents in Russian is also possible but it should be done carefully and is only possible for some contexts and genres (advertisements, mass media, politics, etc.). It is well known that English words swiftly enter the modern Russian language, which has been repeatedly mentioned in Russian studies [17: 4]. But in the context of the situation described in the novel it is impossible. Besides, it should be taken into account that Russian speakers do not accept the English language as readily as Germans because of a different degree of affinity between languages and a number of other extralinguistic factors. Moreover, the Cyrillic alphabet also impedes the penetration of English words. Thus, neutralization of the stylistic effect of Anglo-Americanisms here appears inevitable.
Another instance of a speech characteristic of a hero is illustrated by the following example:
Hier laufen die wichtigen Deals. ...Hier! Hier triffst du die wichtigen Leute. Hier knüpfst du die Kontakte (p. 212)_
It is here that the most important deals are concluded. ...Here! Here you'll meet important people. Here you'll make the contacts
The speaker accompanies the protagonist at a book fair, where many important meetings take place, deals are concluded, etc. It is not a young man but a rather elderly man of no fortune who longs to become part of this
busy and luxurious life, join the ranks of literary society and conduct all affairs of the protagonist. In this context the word Deal has no negative connotation fixed in the Duden dictionary: der Deal - '[zweifelhafte] Abmachung, Vereinbarung; [zweifelhaftes] Geschäft' [10], i.e. 'doubtful, suspicious deal'. Here the meaning is neutral. Partly the English word is synonymous to die wichtigen Leute and die Kontakte. Nevertheless, we see a foreign word instead of its possible German analogue Geschäft. The use of an Anglo-Americanism in the speech of the hero is connected with his idea of prestige, belonging to a certain social group (the literary elite), where English plays an important role, probably serves as a means of every-day communication because of frequent meetings on the international level, etc. It is quite difficult to convey this function in translation.
Now let us turn to a different context. Unlike the previous examples it is not the direct speech of one of its heroes. It is a newspaper review of the novel described in the book, or more exactly an extract from it:
"Lila, Lila ist keiner dieser Beziehungs- und Post-beziehungs geschichten über das Trauern des Protagonisten über den Verlust der Freundin und dessen Versuche, darüber wegzukommen mit Sex und Drugs und Drum'n'Bass" (p. 162)_
"Lila, Lila has nothing in common with a romantic or postromantic novel about the suffering of the protagonist because of the loss of his girl-friend and his endeavours to overcome them with sex, drugs and Drum'n'Bass"
This abstract is interesting in its own right because it presents a typical example of modern German press, which abounds in Anglo-Americanisms performing various functions [1]. Sex und Drugs und Drum'n'Bassis an allusion to the famous winged phrase 'Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll', which was born in the depths of West European rock music in the seventies of the last century. The journalist merely substitutes the last component according to the epoch as the action takes place in our time, and music is already different. In our opinion, Anglo-Americanisms here also have the function of creating a speech portrait, and at the same time they have a socio-stylistic function [14: 31], as they characterize the journalist as a person from a certain social group whose members tend to use foreign (English) words to make their speech sound more expressive and modern, to raise their social prestige, etc. A German reader, especially a young one, will probably understand what is implied here, while a Russian reader might not. So, it is necessary to translate the English words into Russian, though the original phrase ('Sex and Drugs andRock and Roll') is already known to Russian readers in translation. However, it seems necessary to correct the translation of N.N. Fedorova: Drum'n'Bass is not the 'music of the jungle', as she put it in Russian, but electronic dance music with fast rhythm and deep bass. It would be better to transliterate this word, especially as it has already taken root in the musical world, and give a comment.
The following examples of Anglo-Americanisms have a different stylistic function:
Jede Bewegung eine Anspielung. Auf ein Love Mobil, auf eine Chorus Line, einen Turniertänzer, einen Rockgitarristen, einen Tangokönig (p. 30)_
Every movement like hint. At a Love Mobile,
at a Chorus Line, at a professional dancer, a rock-guitarist, at the king of tango
In this extract we read the inner monologue of the protagonist David who watches a frequent customer of the restaurant Ralf dancing and talking with the girl David likes. He is irritated by Ralf; he is jealous. The first word combination, 'Love Mobile', is a bright and capacious metaphor; the second one, 'Chorus Line', is an allusion to the famous American musical about corps de ballet, which apparently is known to the reader. In the context of enumeration alongside with other words they produce an ironic effect. It is possible to speak here about the function of the author's self-expression, which "helps the writer to express his thoughts more precisely, show the knowledge of other languages and avoid using trite clichés" [18: 103]. But for a Russian reader the associations connected with Anglo-Americans from this extract are not quite clear, so it is impossible to leave them without translation. There is a need for some kind of compensation here, and the translator succeeds in finding it by using a French word 'gigolo' which is also of foreign origin and has similar associations (disapproval) for Russian people.
An interesting word for translation is der / das Blackout, that came from the sphere of medicine, where it means a short period of unconsciousness, and passed into colloquial speech, especially youth jargon. In the text of the novel by M. Suter this word occurs several times.
Was er fürchtete, war das komplette Blackout (p. 124) What he feared most was complete blackout
Spätestens nach zwei, drei Sätzen hätte er den Faden verloren und - Blackout (p. 124) After two or three sentences at the most he would lose the thread; and that's all, blackout
The Anglo-Americanism in these contexts is a manifestation of the author's self-expression, his endeavor to use colloquial words of foreign origin for a vivid and colorful description. This word is left unchanged in the text of Russian translation though there is an absolutely adequate equivalent to it in Russian (отключка), with the same stylistic connotation, which N.N. Fedorova gives in translator comments. As it has already been mentioned above, colloquial and slang words are usually rendered by words from the same register, with a similar connotation in the language of translation. Here, we have a case when the stylistic function of the Anglo-Americanism could be conveyed by means of the Russian language quite well. Interesting-
ly enough, in another context the translator does not keep this word but translates it into Russian.
...Er las ohne Blackout, ohne sich selber lesen zu hören, las einfach so gut er es konnte... (p. 125)_
...He was reading without switching off, without hearing himself reading, just as well as he could.
It is possible that the use of an equivalent in this context is conditioned by the necessity to use a special form for the Genitive case of this word according to the rules of Russian grammar, though it cannot be considered a satisfactory explanation. From our perspective, it was quite possible and even necessary to translate this word by the Russian equivalent in all contexts to facilitate the comprehension of the text, because it is common knowledge that translator comments are extreme measures, which should not be overused, as they interrupt the reader.
Sometimes, Anglo-Americanisms in the novel by M. Suteroccur as inclusions like in the following example:
Die Türsteher ließen nur noch members und beautiful people herein (p. 30)_
The guards allowed only members u beautiful people in_
The writer does not often use such inclusions, i.e. words or word combinations which do not change their original graphic form [19: 126]. As a rule, their function is to create local colour. The present extract describes an exclusive night club, which was open only for its members and the so-called 'beautiful people' or the elite. The Anglo-Americanisms here are meant to convey the lifestyle of a European city with its ethnically diverse public (the scene is laid in the multilingual Switzerland). The English language in such places as night clubs is a means of communication uniting different people. All signboards, advertisements and announcements are also written in English. On these grounds, the translator leaves the English words unchanged, explaining their meaning in comments, in order to preserve local colour and authenticity in rendering the announcements.
Thus, Anglo-Americanisms in German-Language prose can convey additional information from the stylistic point of view, which accounts for their pragmatic potential: they are capable to produce big impression and draw the reader's attention. As we have shown by means of one novel it is not always possible to convey this additional meaning in translation. In most cases, N.N. Fedorova is driven by the striving to make the content clear and easy to understand, as the associations that an English word arouses in German readers may not appear with Russian readers for a number of reasons. It should be noted that this range of problems is a topical issue which has not yet received serious coverage in Germanic studies.
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