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A Study of African American Vernacular English In A Study of African American Vernacular English in Three Novels and Colloquial Finnish in their Translations – The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, A Time to Kill and Push Tomi Paakkinen MA Thesis University of Turku School of Languages and Translation Studies English; English Translation and Interpreting October 2013 The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. TURUN YLIOPISTO Kieli- ja käännöstieteiden laitos/Humanistinen tiedekunta PAAKKINEN, TOMI: A Study of African American Vernacular English in Three Novels and Colloquial Finnish in their Translations – The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, A Time to Kill and Push Tutkielma, 139 s., 23 liites. Englannin kieli, englannin kääntäminen ja tulkkaus Lokakuu 2013 Tiivistelmä: Pro gradu -tutkielma käsittelee afroamerikkalaisen puhekielen (African American Vernacular English, AAVE) käyttöä kolmen englanninkielisen romaanin dialogissa ja suomen yleispuhekielen käyttöä romaanien käännöksissä. Tutkimus on pääasiassa kvantitatiivinen ja deskriptiivinen. Romaanit ovat Stephen Kingin The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987) (Musta torni 2, Kolme korttia pakasta 2005, suom. Kari Salminen), John Grishamin A Time to Kill (1989) (On aika tappaa 1994, suom. Kimmo Linkama) ja Sapphiren Push (1996) (Precious – harlemilaistytön tarina 2010, suom. Kristiina Drews). Alkukielisten romaanien osalta Grisham ja Sapphire suosivat lauseopillisia kielenpiirteitä, kun taas King on suosinut äänteellisiä. Sen sijaan käännöksissä piirteistä yleisimpiä ovat äänteelliset ja harvinaisimpia lauseopilliset. Vaikka käännöksissä sanastolliset piirteet ovat taajaan esiintyviä, äänteellisiä piirteitä esiintyy niitä enemmän. Poikkeuksena on On aika tappaa, jossa sanastollisia piirteitä esiintyy enemmän kuin äänteellisiä. Tulos eroaa Sampo Nevalaisen vuonna 2003 tekemästä tutkimuksesta, jossa hän sai selville, että käännöksissä käytetyt piirteet olivat enimmäkseen sanastollisia, kun taas alun perin suomeksi kirjoitetussa kaunokirjallisuudessa puhekielisyyden vaikutelma saatiin aikaan pääasiassa äänteellisin keinoin. Mahdollinen selitys tässä tutkimuksessa havaitulle erolle on se, että kahdessa romaanissa esiintyvä leimallinen AAVEn käyttö on saanut kääntäjät käyttämään samanlaisia strategioita kuin suomalaiset kirjailijat murretta kirjoittaessaan. Asiasanat: afroamerikkalaiset, englannin kieli, englanninkielinen kirjallisuus, fantasiakirjallisuus, fiktio, jännityskirjallisuus, kirjallisuuden kieli, kääntäminen, murteet, puhekieli, slangi, sosiolingvistiikka, suomen kieli, suomenkielinen kirjallisuus, variaatio, viihdekirjallisuus, Yhdysvallat Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has taken three years. The research began in 2010 with my bachelor’s thesis describing African American Vernacular English as a language variety. Throughout these three years, several people have invested their time to helping shape this thesis into its best possible form. Here, I should like to take the opportunity to thank some of those people. Let me first express my gratitude to the supervisors of this thesis, Professor Outi Paloposki and lecturer Marianna Sunnari of the University of Turku. They assisted in narrowing the focus of the thesis and tirelessly answered the questions of an eager graduate student who was conducting his first real research project. Professor Emeritus Jorma Tommola of the University of Turku supervised the writing of the section on African American Vernacular English and lecturer Damon Tringham of the University of Turku revised the language of the section. I am grateful to lecturer Paula Sjöblom and lecturer Kirsi-Maria Nummila from the Department of Finnish language and Finno-Ugric Languages at the University of Turku for helping develop and refine the section on colloquial Finnish. Thanks are in order to those participants of the thesis seminar at the Department of English Translation Studies at the University of Turku who read portions of the manuscript: Mea Aaltonen, Onerva Kivirauma, Aino Koivisto and Aino Pohjanen. Their insightful comments and suggestions were invaluable in improving the text. Another student attending the seminar, Katariina Lappi, deserves a special mention for bringing the novel Push to my attention after I had expressed my desire for more research material. I owe a debt of gratitude to my brother, who helped me with the technical aspects of writing a thesis by assisting me in preparing the tables and figures among many other things. Last but not least, I must thank my parents. Even when the project seemed a Sisyphean task, they maintained faith in its completion, especially my mother, who would have been proud of seeing this work in its finished form. September 27, 2013 Tomi Paakkinen Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 2 Language Variation ..................................................................................... 6 2.1 Dialect .................................................................................................. 6 2.2 Eye Dialect ........................................................................................... 8 2.3 Terms related to AAVE ......................................................................... 8 2.3.1 Vernacular ..................................................................................... 8 2.3.2 Pidgin and Creole .......................................................................... 9 2.4 Terms Related to Language Variation in Finland ............................... 10 3 The Two Varieties ..................................................................................... 11 3.1 African American Vernacular English ................................................. 11 3.1.1 Definition ...................................................................................... 11 3.1.2 Features of AAVE ........................................................................ 14 3.1.3 Vocabulary ................................................................................... 16 3.1.4 Syntax .......................................................................................... 19 3.1.5 Phonology .................................................................................... 26 3.1.6 Discussion ................................................................................... 30 3.2 Colloquial Finnish ............................................................................... 30 3.2.1 Definition ...................................................................................... 30 3.2.2 Linguistic Features of Colloquial Finnish ...................................... 32 3.2.3 Past Research on the Use of Colloquial Finnish in Translations .. 36 3.2.4 Discussion ................................................................................... 38 4 The Material and Methodology.................................................................. 40 4.1 The Material ....................................................................................... 40 4.2 The Authors ........................................................................................ 41 4.2.1 Stephen King ............................................................................... 41 4.2.2 John Grisham .............................................................................. 44 4.2.3 Sapphire ...................................................................................... 46 4.3 The Novels ......................................................................................... 47 4.3.1 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three .............................. 47 4.3.2 A Time to Kill ................................................................................ 51 4.3.3 Push ............................................................................................. 52 4.4 The Methodology ................................................................................ 57 5 Findings .................................................................................................... 60 5.1 General............................................................................................... 60 5.2 Features of AAVE in the Original Novels ............................................ 66 5.2.1 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three .............................. 66 5.2.2 A Time to Kill ................................................................................ 71 5.2.3 Push ............................................................................................. 73 5.3 Features of Colloquial Finnish in the Original Novels ......................... 79 5.3.1 Kolme korttia pakasta .................................................................. 79 5.3.2 On aika tappaa ............................................................................ 80 5.3.3 Precious – harlemilaistytön tarina ................................................ 82 5.4 Other Non-Standard Features in the Original Novels ......................... 86 5.4.1 The Drawing of the Three ............................................................ 86 5.4.2 A Time to Kill ................................................................................ 90 5.4.3 Push ............................................................................................. 92 5.5 Other Non-Standard Features in the Translations .............................
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