Тема дипломной работы: Проблема передачи стиля диалогической речи героев в романе В.С. Моэма «Театр»

ДИПЛОМНАЯ РАБОТА по специальности “Перевод и переводоведение”

Тема: «Проблема передачи стиля диалогической речи героев в романе В.С. Моэма «Театр»

Дипломная работа написана на английском языке.

DIPLOMA PAPER

Speciality: “Translation and Translating Techniques”

Subject: «A problem of conveying the style of the characters’ dialogical speech in the novel «Theatre» by W.S. Maugham»

The purpose of the work accounts for a number of other issues, which are to be further developed in the work, such as: to describe functional styles of the English language; to consider features of the belles-lettres style; to investigate the problem of a character's speech translation; to track a character's speech preservation in translation. The
object of the research is W.S. Maugham's novel "Theatre".

CONTENTS

Introduction..................................................................................................... 5

Chapter 1. General notes on the translation theory and the style of dialogical speech

1.1. Aspects of the translation theory................................................................ 9

1.1.1. Methods of translation.......................................................................... 14

1.2. Types of a dialogue and its features......................................................... 18

1.2.1. The problem of translation of character’s speech.................................... 22

1.3. The novel "Theatre" and W.S. Maugham’s biography............................... 38

Chapter 2. Peculiarities of conveying the style of the characters’ dialogical speech

2.1. Analysis of the examples with the dialogical speech................................. 42

Conclusion.................................................................................................... 60

Literature...................................................................................................... 64

Appendix...................................................................................................... 67

Glossary........................................................................................................ 69

1.1. Aspects of the translation theory

The need for translation has existed since time immemorial and translating important literary works from one language into others has contributed significantly to the development of the world culture. Ideas and forms of one culture have constantly moved and got assimilated into other cultures through the works of translators. The history of translation is related to the history of often invisible cross cultural interactions of the world. Ideas and concepts from the East notably India, China and Iraq have influenced the Western culture since as early as the sixth century B.C. when trade ties were first established between India and the Mediterranean countries. Many medical theories of Plato and Galen of Greece had considerable influence from those of India. Many of the philosophical and scientific works of ancient Greece were rendered into Arabic as early as the ninth century A.D. This knowledge spread to Europe via Spain which was a predominantly a Muslim country then [2:16].
6. Reduction and expansion
These two procedures are usually used in poor written texts, and lead to a change in lexical and stylistic aspects. Expansion refers to the case when the translator exceeds the number of words of the SLT in translation.
Further, expansion procedure also occurs when the translator tries to move from the implicit into the explicit.
In reduction procedure, the translator is more likely to reduce in the number of elements that form the SLT. This procedure should respect the principle of relevance, that is, the translator should make sure that no crucial information is dropped in translation [9:75].
"Dolly, there\'s something I want to talk to you about. I want advice and you\'re the only person in the world whose advice I would take. I know I can trust you."
"Of course, darling."
"It appears that people are saying rather disagreeable things about me. Someone\'s been to Michael and told him that there\'s a lot of gossip about me and poor Tom Fennel."
"I\'m so glad you\'ve asked me, darling. You know how I hate to interfere in other people\'s business and if you hadn\'t brought the matter up yourself nothing would have induced me to mention it."
"My dear, if I don\'t know that you\'re a loyal friend, who does?"
"Surely you don\'t imagine that I\'m keeping him," said Julia, with a ringing laugh.
"I don\'t imagine anything, darling. Other people do."
"But in that case, for your own sake, drop him."
"Oh, I couldn\'t do that. That would be an admission that people were right in what they thought. After all, my conscience is clear. I can afford to hold my head high. I should despise myself if I allowed my behavior to be influenced by malicious gossip." "Долли, мне надо с вами кое о чем поговорить. Мне нужен совет, а вы - единственный человек на свете, к которому я могу обратиться за советом. Я знаю, что вам я могу доверять. "
"Ну, конечно, дорогая. "
"Оказывается, обо мне ходят грязные сплетни. Кто-то приходил к Майклу и сказал ему, что в городе ходят слухи обо мне и несчастном Томе Феннеле."
"Я так рада, что вы обратились ко мне, дорогая. Вы прекрасно знаете, что я ненавижу вмешиваться в дела других людей, и если бы вы сами не завели бы об этом речь, ничто не заставило бы меня его начать."
"Милая моя, только я и знаю, каким верным другом вы являетесь для меня? "
"Вы, конечно же, не думаете, что я его содержу?" - сказала Джулия, громко при этом смеясь.
"Не я воображаю, дорогая, а люди."
"В этом случае, ради всего святого, брось его."
"Вряд ли бы я смогла сделать это. Это лишь подтвердит, что люди были правы, когда думали о нас с Томом. В конце концов, мне скрывать нечего. Я могу позволить себе высоко держать голову. Я бы возненавидела себя, если бы ненавистные слухи стали управлять моими действиями."

The following extract presents the negotiation dialogue, the goal of which is to achieve a compromise and get a piece of advice on Julia’s part from her friend.
This extract contains a number of phrases, which constitute various problematic issues of the conveying the style of the dialogical style.
The first thing to mention is that there are two characters, participating in the dialogue: the main character and her friend. That accounts for the peculiarities of their verbal expressions, like the vocabulary they employ and constructions they build, which seem rather similar as they both belong to the same social level.
In these examples we come across the so-called label words, which are frequently used by both characters. Thus, Dolly constantly repeats in her speech the words “darling” and “dear”. So as to escape repetition in case of the first lexeme we employ word-for-word translation and in case of the second one we use adaptation and substitution with a more adequate in the TL variant “милая моя”.
Julia’s speech is marked by the use of the label word “poor” into her lover’s address. The most suitable translation variant is modulation and substitution with the word “несчастный”, because, of course, Tom is far from rich, but poor he is not.
There is one more problematic issue, which concerns the use of the conditional mood “advice I would take”, which, in its turn, is replaced with the indicative mood in TL “я могу обратиться за советом”, which makes the dialogue more realistic; and passive voice “behavior to be influenced by malicious gossip”, which is also replaced with the active one “слухи стали управлять моими действиями”.
We also observe contractions, when one sentence is presented in TL “Не я воображаю, дорогая, а люди” instead of two in SL “I don't imagine anything, darling. Other people do”. That is accounted for the existence in TL of a more equivalent colloquial construction, which allows to preserve the meaning of the phrase.
There exists another problem of conveying the style of the dialogical speech, which is recognized in the use of the verbs, which are better translated with substitution of the words, more adequate in the colloquial style in TL, such as “to be” is translated as “приходить”; “to imagine”, translated as “думать”; there are cases, when conversion is used and the noun “admission” is translated by means of the verb “подтвердить”.
The use of colloquialisms in SL and neutral words, which are colloquial in TL also constitute a problematic issue.
Thus, the neutral word-combinations in SL “disagreeable things” and “malicious gossip” sound more equivalent and add expressiveness to the phrases, when they are replaced by the Russian variants: “грязные сплетни” and “ненавистные слухи”.
The problem takes place in translating idiomatic expressions, as the best equivalent variant in TL should be selected, e.g.: “there's a lot of gossip” is adapted and substituted with the Russian set-phrase “ходят слухи”; “for your own sake” is translated by “ради всего святого”.
Some slang words are presented without any change, as it help to preserve the meaning, e.g.: “to drop somebody” is translated as “бросать кого-либо”.