Translation of language game in fiction texts (based on the English prose of the XXth century)
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Introduction 4
Chapter 1 Language game as a lingual and stylistic phenomenon 7
1.1 The history of the development of the notion of ‘language game’ within the framework of different linguistic concepts 7
1.2. Linguistic mechanisms and types of language game realization 18
1.3 Common and distinctive features of postmodern literature and ludic poetics 24
1.4 The specifics of a language game in postmodern ludic fiction 27
1.5 Strategies for translating language games 30
Conclusions on the first chapter 33
Chapter 2 Strategies for translating language games in the postmodern fiction text 35
2.1 Translation strategy of transference 35
2.2 Translation strategy of direct copy 46
2.3 Translation strategy of omission 62
2.4 Translation strategy of addition 68
Conclusions on the second chapter 71
Conclusion 74
References 77
Chapter 1 Language game as a lingual and stylistic phenomenon 7
1.1 The history of the development of the notion of ‘language game’ within the framework of different linguistic concepts 7
1.2. Linguistic mechanisms and types of language game realization 18
1.3 Common and distinctive features of postmodern literature and ludic poetics 24
1.4 The specifics of a language game in postmodern ludic fiction 27
1.5 Strategies for translating language games 30
Conclusions on the first chapter 33
Chapter 2 Strategies for translating language games in the postmodern fiction text 35
2.1 Translation strategy of transference 35
2.2 Translation strategy of direct copy 46
2.3 Translation strategy of omission 62
2.4 Translation strategy of addition 68
Conclusions on the second chapter 71
Conclusion 74
References 77
Since prehistoric times the game has been one of the leading activities that predetermined cultural and historical development of humanity. It is no coincidence that the game as a socio-cultural phenomenon is of increasing interest to scholars of various disciplines (philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, art, etc.).
In linguistics and literary studies, a specific type of gaming activity is a language game which has relatively recently entered the scientific vocabulary of language disciplines. At the moment, the term ‘language game’ expands into all spheres of language functioning, what indicates its importance (Gridina 2008:52). Despite the fact that the number of studies of the phenomenon of language game is growing, most of them are descriptive, generalizing in nature (Voronin 2015:1354). Researchers "unreasonably continue to identify language game with the poetic function of language, thereby limiting the scope of its manifestation and function in language" (Lebedeva 2014:53).
This necessitates a more detailed study of language game, determining its essence, features and variability of application to reality.
The widest range of variations of language games is found in the literary text (Lebedeva 2014:53). At the present stage of literary studies, the characterization of English postmodern literature of the 20th century is particularly difficult, since language games in it acquire not only a stylistic, but also a metatextual character. This reveals the need to study the functioning of language game in postmodern fiction texts of the 20th century.
Within the framework of translation theory and practice, our study is of high importance and novelty, as it allows to determine the typological methods of translation of language games and their transmission in the target text from English literature of the 20th century, as well as the nature of language contacts between the English and Russian languages with the indirect influence of a language game as a condition for productive language interaction.
The theoretical basis for the research includes the works of philosophers L. Wittgenstein, J. Deleuze; linguists and philologists V. Z. Sannikov, T. A. Gridina, E. A. Zemskaya, M. V. Kitaygorodskaya, E. N. Shiryaeva, A. A. Riflina, M. S. Ryzhkov, R. A. Voronin, A.M. Luxemburg, O. A. Kornienko, N. V. Kireeva and others.
Goal of the study is to define specific features and types of language games in English fiction texts of the 20th century and ways of their translation into Russian.
Study subject is language game as a lingual and stylistic phenomenon of the language.
Subject matter is ways of translation of language game in a postmodern fiction text.
Objectives of the study:
1) define the stages of development of the concept ‘language game’ and approaches to its explication;
2) study the typological features of the postmodern English fiction text and ludic fiction text as its subtype;
3) identify types, structural and stylistic features of language games in the English postmodern fiction text;
4) identify strategies and ways to adequately convey the language game when translating from English into Russian.
Study methods:
- study of linguistic literature on the raised problem;
- analysis of theories and hypotheses on the raised problem;
- selection of relevant examples of language games;
- stylistic analysis of fiction texts of the corresponding direction (novels “Pale Fire”, “Ada, or Ardor” by V. Nabokov; “Cat's cradle” by K. Vonnegut; “A clockwork orange” by E. Burgess; “For whom the bell tolls” by E. Hemingway; “Catch-22” by J. Heller) and their official Russian translations;
- pragmalinguistic analysis of selected language games in the original and target texts;
- semantic analysis of selected language games in the original and target texts;
- generalization of the data obtained to identify patterns of functioning of the language game and ways of its translation into Russian...
In linguistics and literary studies, a specific type of gaming activity is a language game which has relatively recently entered the scientific vocabulary of language disciplines. At the moment, the term ‘language game’ expands into all spheres of language functioning, what indicates its importance (Gridina 2008:52). Despite the fact that the number of studies of the phenomenon of language game is growing, most of them are descriptive, generalizing in nature (Voronin 2015:1354). Researchers "unreasonably continue to identify language game with the poetic function of language, thereby limiting the scope of its manifestation and function in language" (Lebedeva 2014:53).
This necessitates a more detailed study of language game, determining its essence, features and variability of application to reality.
The widest range of variations of language games is found in the literary text (Lebedeva 2014:53). At the present stage of literary studies, the characterization of English postmodern literature of the 20th century is particularly difficult, since language games in it acquire not only a stylistic, but also a metatextual character. This reveals the need to study the functioning of language game in postmodern fiction texts of the 20th century.
Within the framework of translation theory and practice, our study is of high importance and novelty, as it allows to determine the typological methods of translation of language games and their transmission in the target text from English literature of the 20th century, as well as the nature of language contacts between the English and Russian languages with the indirect influence of a language game as a condition for productive language interaction.
The theoretical basis for the research includes the works of philosophers L. Wittgenstein, J. Deleuze; linguists and philologists V. Z. Sannikov, T. A. Gridina, E. A. Zemskaya, M. V. Kitaygorodskaya, E. N. Shiryaeva, A. A. Riflina, M. S. Ryzhkov, R. A. Voronin, A.M. Luxemburg, O. A. Kornienko, N. V. Kireeva and others.
Goal of the study is to define specific features and types of language games in English fiction texts of the 20th century and ways of their translation into Russian.
Study subject is language game as a lingual and stylistic phenomenon of the language.
Subject matter is ways of translation of language game in a postmodern fiction text.
Objectives of the study:
1) define the stages of development of the concept ‘language game’ and approaches to its explication;
2) study the typological features of the postmodern English fiction text and ludic fiction text as its subtype;
3) identify types, structural and stylistic features of language games in the English postmodern fiction text;
4) identify strategies and ways to adequately convey the language game when translating from English into Russian.
Study methods:
- study of linguistic literature on the raised problem;
- analysis of theories and hypotheses on the raised problem;
- selection of relevant examples of language games;
- stylistic analysis of fiction texts of the corresponding direction (novels “Pale Fire”, “Ada, or Ardor” by V. Nabokov; “Cat's cradle” by K. Vonnegut; “A clockwork orange” by E. Burgess; “For whom the bell tolls” by E. Hemingway; “Catch-22” by J. Heller) and their official Russian translations;
- pragmalinguistic analysis of selected language games in the original and target texts;
- semantic analysis of selected language games in the original and target texts;
- generalization of the data obtained to identify patterns of functioning of the language game and ways of its translation into Russian...
Language game is a lingual and stylistic phenomenon that has aesthetic and epistemological functions in a fiction text and creates an experimental field for the manifestation of associative potentials of linguistic units in the organization of the literature.
The analysis of the historical development of approaches to the phenomenon of language game as a linguistic object made it possible to establish the main characteristics of the language game, identify its types and means of implementation, and also identify its specific characteristics in the postmodern prose of the 20th century and ludic (gameful) texts.
In particular, it can be concluded that the ludic text is organized in such a way to realize textual and meta-textual playing with the reader, in which the latter becomes a co-author of the text and decides for oneself what the main idea of the text is. The analysis of the postmodern ludic texts of the 20th century also showed that language game in ludic poetics functions at two levels: 1) at the textual level as a stylistic and linguistic phenomenon that reveals deviations amid linguistic patterns and gives additional meaning to the fiction text in terms of its style and constructing plot; 2) at the structural and compositional level as a way of organizing the storyline and (or) atypical reconstruction of the chronotope. At the structural and compositional level, the language game reflects the author's strategy and determines the dominance of one or another type of language games.
During the analysis of the claimed material, 474 of the most representative language games were identified and selected, among which the largest number are syntactic language games, followed by morphological language games, lexico- semantic and phonographic, respectively. The ratio of the number of language games by type is presented heterogeneously in the considered postmodern texts.
Meanwhile, all language games cover the lexical and semantic level and play off the asymmetry of the linguistic sign in relation to its form and expression of the signified. Most of the language games also embrace several levels of the language with the predominance of the main one, the patterns and discrepancies of which are being played out. This proves that the language game is a complex phenomenon that affects not only the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations of language, but also the subject-logical level of language realization and generation of new meanings. On the whole, language play increases the entropy of language. At the same time, this complicates the precise identification of the type of textual language games.
The most common strategy for translating language games is transference, followed by direct copy, omission and addition respectively.
Typological analysis of the translation of language games has shown that the direct copy strategy is mostly used for translating syntactic language games, what indicates similar mechanisms of syntactic stylistic enhancement of an image and sentence construction in English and Russian. Conveying other types of language games with the direct copy strategy is possible only when the language game operates on similar or identical lexical units of Russian and English, or when the game is based on these two languages.
Transference is implemented if the lingual relations of the English language are played out, which have no analogues in the Russian language, as well as if the language game is based on phonographic, morphological and semantic relations between the lexical units of English and other languages. At the same time, most often the language level of a language game is shifted during translation. In this regard, in Russian, the norms of inflectional change and a number of exceptions among them are considered the more productive ways to create a language game. In these cases, it is possible to use an omission strategy, which is critical in relation to language games of the postmodern ludic text, since this may lead to the loss of a microelement associated with the plot or structure of the text, as it is important for preserving the semantic or compositional cohesion of the text. In this case, it is also important that the transference of the language game preserves its pragmatic effect, embedded in the dialogic scene between the characters, and its semantic cores...
The analysis of the historical development of approaches to the phenomenon of language game as a linguistic object made it possible to establish the main characteristics of the language game, identify its types and means of implementation, and also identify its specific characteristics in the postmodern prose of the 20th century and ludic (gameful) texts.
In particular, it can be concluded that the ludic text is organized in such a way to realize textual and meta-textual playing with the reader, in which the latter becomes a co-author of the text and decides for oneself what the main idea of the text is. The analysis of the postmodern ludic texts of the 20th century also showed that language game in ludic poetics functions at two levels: 1) at the textual level as a stylistic and linguistic phenomenon that reveals deviations amid linguistic patterns and gives additional meaning to the fiction text in terms of its style and constructing plot; 2) at the structural and compositional level as a way of organizing the storyline and (or) atypical reconstruction of the chronotope. At the structural and compositional level, the language game reflects the author's strategy and determines the dominance of one or another type of language games.
During the analysis of the claimed material, 474 of the most representative language games were identified and selected, among which the largest number are syntactic language games, followed by morphological language games, lexico- semantic and phonographic, respectively. The ratio of the number of language games by type is presented heterogeneously in the considered postmodern texts.
Meanwhile, all language games cover the lexical and semantic level and play off the asymmetry of the linguistic sign in relation to its form and expression of the signified. Most of the language games also embrace several levels of the language with the predominance of the main one, the patterns and discrepancies of which are being played out. This proves that the language game is a complex phenomenon that affects not only the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations of language, but also the subject-logical level of language realization and generation of new meanings. On the whole, language play increases the entropy of language. At the same time, this complicates the precise identification of the type of textual language games.
The most common strategy for translating language games is transference, followed by direct copy, omission and addition respectively.
Typological analysis of the translation of language games has shown that the direct copy strategy is mostly used for translating syntactic language games, what indicates similar mechanisms of syntactic stylistic enhancement of an image and sentence construction in English and Russian. Conveying other types of language games with the direct copy strategy is possible only when the language game operates on similar or identical lexical units of Russian and English, or when the game is based on these two languages.
Transference is implemented if the lingual relations of the English language are played out, which have no analogues in the Russian language, as well as if the language game is based on phonographic, morphological and semantic relations between the lexical units of English and other languages. At the same time, most often the language level of a language game is shifted during translation. In this regard, in Russian, the norms of inflectional change and a number of exceptions among them are considered the more productive ways to create a language game. In these cases, it is possible to use an omission strategy, which is critical in relation to language games of the postmodern ludic text, since this may lead to the loss of a microelement associated with the plot or structure of the text, as it is important for preserving the semantic or compositional cohesion of the text. In this case, it is also important that the transference of the language game preserves its pragmatic effect, embedded in the dialogic scene between the characters, and its semantic cores...
The history of the development of the notion of ‘language game’ within the framework of different linguistic concepts
