MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature
John Green's Writing Style in Young Adult Literature: Analysis of Original Books and Official Slovak Translations
Master's Thesis
Brno 2019
Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. Bc. Lujza Valúšková Bibliography
Valúšková, Lujza. John Green's Writing Style in Young Adult Literature: Analysis of Original Books and Official Slovak Translations: master's thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature. 2019, 85 pages. The supervisor of the master's thesis: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D.
Abstract
Master's thesis deals with the analysis of John Green's writing style in his Young Adult Literature novels. The thesis focuses on specific features, which define this style, and their translation in Slovak works. The theoretical descriptions of these features and translation strategies are summarised in the theoretical part of the thesis. The practical part consists of two main chapters. The first one introduces the specific elements and their translations divided into groups (anagrams, idioms, slang, vulgarisms, etc.), while the other one focuses on the analysis of visual features (capital letters, italics, punctuation, etc.) and their occurrence in Slovak translations. The aim of the thesis is to find out if, and to what extent the author's style is rendered into Slovak translations, and how it is influenced by various features, such as different translators' perceptions or constantly changing trends of the society.
Key Words
translation, analysis, translator, style, equivalence, visual features, anagrams, figurative language, translator's interpretation, puns, vulgarisms, slang, Green, Knittlová, Newmark
Bibliografická identifikácia
VALÚŠKOVÁ, Lujza. John Green's Writing Style in Young Adult Literature: Analysis of Original Books and Official Slovak Translations: master's thesis. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury. 2019. 85 strán. Vedúci magisterskej práce: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D.
Anotácia
Predmetom diplomovej práce je analýza štýlu písania amerického autora Johna Greena v literatúre pre deti a mládež. Práca je zameraná na konkrétne prvky, ktoré tento štýl vytvárajú a ich preklad v slovenských dielach. Popisy jednotlivých prvkov a prekladateľských stratégií sú zhrnuté v teoretickej časti práce. V praktickej časti sa práca venuje dvom hlavným kapitolám: v prvej možno nájsť konkrétne prvky a ich preklady rozdelené do skupín (prešmyčky, idiómy, slang, vulgarizmy, atď.), zatiaľ čo v druhej sa práca venuje analýze vizuálnych záležitostí (veľké a malé písmená, kurzíva, interpunkcia, atď.) a ich výskyt v prekladoch. Cieľom práce je zistiť či, a do akej miery sa štýl písania tohto autora zachováva v slovenských prekladoch, a akým spôsobom naň pôsobia faktory, ako sú napríklad vnímanie rôznych prekladateľov alebo stále sa meniace trendy spoločnosti.
Kľúčové slová
preklad, rozbor, prekladateľ, štýl, ekvivalencia, vizuálne prvky, prešmyčky, prenesený význam, interpretácia prekladateľa, slovné hračky, vulgarizmy, slang, Green, Knittlová, Newmark
Prehlásenie
Prehlasujem, že som diplomovú prácu vypracovala samostatne, s využitím len citovaných prameňov, ďalších informácií a zdrojov v súlade s Disciplinárnym poriadkom pre študentov Pedagogickej fakulty Masarykovej univerzity a so zákonom č. 121/2000 Zb., o práve autorskom, o právach súvisiacich s právom autorským a o zmene niektorých zákonov, v znení neskorších predpisov.
Declaration
I hereby declare that I worked on my Master's thesis independently and that all the used sources are listed in the bibliography.
I agree with the work being stored in the library of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University and made accessible for study purposes.
Brno, November 2019 ......
Bc. Lujza Valúšková
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. for guidance that he provided me as a supervisor, for his patience, advice and valuable help.
Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION ...... 8 2 YOUNG ADULT FICTION ...... 10 3 JOHN GREEN AND HIS BOOKS ...... 11 3.1 John Green ...... 11 3.2 John Green's Books ...... 11 3.2.1 Looking for Alaska ...... 12 3.2.2 An Abundance of Katherines ...... 12 3.2.3 Paper Towns ...... 12 3.2.4 The Fault in Our Stars ...... 13 3.2.5 Turtles All the Way Down ...... 13 4 WRITING STYLE ...... 14 4.1 Literary Communication ...... 14 4.2 Style and Content ...... 14 4.3 John Green's Writing Style ...... 15 5 THE THEORY OF TRANSLATION ...... 16 6 EQUIVALENCE...... 18 6.1 Theoretical Introduction ...... 18 6.2 Analysis of Selected Features ...... 22 6.2.1 Anagrams ...... 22 6.2.2 Figurative Language...... 27 6.2.2.1 Metaphors ...... 27 6.2.2.2 Idioms ...... 28 6.2.2.3 Similes ...... 32 6.2.3 Puns ...... 34 6.2.4 Proper Names and Nicknames ...... 37 6.2.5 Slang ...... 41 6.2.5.1 “Cool” ...... 42 6.2.5.2 Figurative Sense ...... 43 6.2.5.3 Intensifiers ...... 44 6.2.5.4 Addressing ...... 48 6.2.6 Vulgarisms ...... 50 6.2.6.1 Mild Vulgarisms ...... 50 6.2.6.2 “Screw” ...... 52
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6.2.6.3 “Shit” ...... 54 6.2.6.4 Strong Vulgarisms ...... 56 6.2.7 Translator's Interpretation ...... 58 6.2.7.1 Referential Mistake ...... 59 6.2.7.2 Linguistic Mistake ...... 60 6.2.7.3 Intention of Equivalence ...... 61 6.2.7.4 Translator's Unawareness ...... 63 6.2.8 Pragmatic Differences ...... 64 6.2.8.1 Adding Information ...... 65 6.2.8.2 Omitting Information ...... 65 6.2.8.3 Substitution by an Analogy ...... 67 7 VISUAL FEATURES ...... 70 7.1 Italics ...... 70 7.2 Capital Letters ...... 71 7.3 Short Sentences ...... 72 7.4 Omission of Commas ...... 73 7.5 Omission of Spaces ...... 74 7.6 Messages ...... 74 8 FINAL EVALUATION ...... 77 9 CONCLUSION ...... 80 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 82 10.1 Printed ...... 82 10.1.1 Primary ...... 82 10.1.2 Secondary ...... 82 10.2 Online ...... 83
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1 INTRODUCTION The master's thesis deals with the analysis of John Green's writing style in his books, which can be defined as young adult literature. In order to gain a better insight into the theory of translation, I decided to base my work on the translation analysis. The main aim of the work is to find out whether John Green's style is preserved in the Slovak translations, and to what extent. To be more specific, the thesis focuses on two main aspects: the linguistic aspect and the visual aspect.
The choice of the topic for my work was quite simple as I have been dealing with the topic since I first started to be interested in the translation. It began with the seminar of Introduction to Translation Theory with Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D, where I decided to work on John Green's second book, An Abundance of Katherines, which contains a wide range of interesting elements that are very challenging for translators, and I subsequently developed the seminar work into my bachelor thesis. There I focused on the problematic areas for translation, I provided my own alternatives to the translation and finally analysed and compared the original text, the official Slovak translation and my translation. However, I knew there was much more to be looked into, and that is why I decided to go a bit further and elaborate on the matter.
John Green has written six novels and one short story, but I decided to leave out those that were written in cooperation with different authors in order to be sure that I am analysing the work of John Green exclusively. Almost each translation is a work by a different translator. The translation of Looking for Alaska is Monika Kostelníková's work, An Abundance of Katherines was translated by Jana Melcerová, Milan Kopecký translated Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars, and Turtles All the Way Down was translated by Diana Ghaniová. These five novels that are being analysed have a lot of common features that create a specific style and attract a specific audience. Apart from the themes, it is the language that makes it unique and the visual aspect that supports the linguistic part of the work. The linguistic part includes elements, such as puns, idioms, slang, swear words, anagrams and nicknames, while the visual one focuses on italics, capital letters and unusual punctuation. The rendering of such features is almost never easy and I wanted to find 8 out how different translators work on the challenging areas of the books and if the translations change together with changing trends of the society.
The thesis starts with a short introduction of young adult literature followed by a brief chapter focused on the author and selected books. The next two chapters concern the theory of style in general, John Green's style and some basic information about the theory of translation. The following and most important chapter is divided into two parts. The first one includes the theoretical background to the aspect of equivalence in the translation by Knittlová, and the other part contains the linguistic features selected for the analysis. There is always a short theoretical introduction to the specific element and a subsequent analysis of the translation and translation methods. Moreover, the examples from the original books, the official Slovak translations and sometimes my own translation are provided to illustrate the problematic matter. The last but one chapter deals with the visual aspect of books, which is also divided into parts concerning different features that are being analysed and compared. The last two chapters consist of the final evaluation of the Slovak works and techniques used by different translators and the conclusion to the whole thesis.
The methods of analysis vary according to the feature that is being analysed. However, most of them include the use of both printed and online dictionaries and the theory of equivalence by Knittlová. Newmark's books were also a valuable source of the theoretical knowledge, while various websites and forums were helpful in more complicated parts of the analysis.
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2 YOUNG ADULT FICTION Young adult fiction is a genre of fiction that can be described as a transition between children's and adult literature. It is mainly aimed at young people who are from 12 to 18 years old. The beginning of this genre dates back to the nineteenth century where, even though the category did not exist, and it was not the authors' intention, many books were attractive for groups of young people. The genre as such has its origin in 1950s and 1960s, when adolescent life became the main topic of some novels. The genre and its features have been developing in the following years until the present day. Young adult fiction in the 21st century continues to speak about life of adolescents and deals with a number of topics, such as relationships, first love, school, identity, individuality and social life (“Young Adult Fiction”). The genre of young adult fiction is often mistaken with adult fiction. Despite some similar features, there are a few differences that make each genre distinctive. The main characters in young adult novels are usually teenagers and their story is told in a very specific voice. Their thoughts, intentions, inner speech, motivation and topics of interest are different that those of an adult. Nevertheless, the readers of young adult fiction consist of both young adults and adults (Johnson, online).
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3 JOHN GREEN AND HIS BOOKS
3.1 John Green John Michael Green is an American author known mainly for his young adult fiction novels sold worldwide. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with his family, but used to live in different American cities throughout his life, which resulted in setting his novels in these exact places. He was born in 1977 and has accomplished a lot during his life despite the obsessive-compulsive disorder or the fact that his teenage years were rather difficult. Aside from being a writer, John Green is also active in many different spheres. A few years ago, he was added to The 100 Most Influential People in the World, which is a list produced by the magazine Time (“John Green (Author)”) . He and his brother Hank started to communicate via videoblogs posted to their YouTube channel vlogbrothers. People watching these videos share an identity known as nerdfighters who try to make this world a better place by defending intellectualism and helping people and the nature in various ways. Another project of theirs is an educational YouTube channel Crash Course that introduces a wide range of courses, such as Literature, World History, Physics, Biology, Economics, etc. to a large number of subscribers. People also know them for different projects, such as The Art Assignment, SciShow or Healthcare Triage (“Bio”).
John Green is the winner of several awards including for example Michael L. Printz Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award or Children's Choice Book Awards (“John Green (Author)”).
3.2 John Green's Books John Green is the author of novels Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down. He also wrote two stories in cooperation with other authors. Will Grayson, Will Grayson was written with David Levithan and Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle.
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3.2.1 Looking for Alaska Looking for Alaska is John Green's first novel, which was published in 2005. The main character, Miles, starts a new life in a boarding school where he meets new people including Alaska Young. He discovers the meaning of true friendship, experiences his first love and the first pain of losing someone close. He is fascinated by famous people's last words and seeks the Great Perhaps. The novel is not only a free time reading for adolescents and adults, but also a part of high school and college curricula in the USA. In reviews, the comparison to Haulden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye can be found (“Looking for Alaska”). There is a recent adaptation of the book on Hulu. It is a mini-series consisting of eight episodes which was released on 18 October 2019 (“Looking for Alaska Limited Series on Hulu”).
3.2.2 An Abundance of Katherines The second novel from this author was published in 2006. Colin Singleton is a child prodigy who loves anagrams and girls named Katherine. As every Katherine he dated broke up with him, he leaves on a road trip with his best friend to heal his broken heart and create a theory that would help future relationships. The book won several prizes and has been evaluated in many reviews as a detailed, intelligent and entertaining story (“An Abundance of Katherines”).
3.2.3 Paper Towns The novel Paper Towns was published in 2008 and has the same name as the film adaptation that was released in 2015. Quentin Jacobsen, a high school senior, is about to graduate and start a new life that comes after. His last weeks on high school get an unexpected turn when his secret crush Margo disappears and leaves some clues behind. Quentin is convinced that she left them for him and he sets off on a journey full of unanswered questions and great adventures that bring him closer to his best friends and make his end of high school life unforgettable. As with Looking for Alaska, it is taught in American schools and colleges (“Paper Towns”).
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3.2.4 The Fault in Our Stars The book was published in 2012 and was also adapted as a film released in 2014. This novel deals with more serious themes including death and serious illnesses. The main character, Hazel, has thyroid cancer that causes her breathing issues and complicates her life in general. Her stereotypical life changes when she meets a handsome and interesting boy, Augustus. They become close very soon and with the awareness that this is not forever, they enjoy the time they have together to the fullest. The book was named number one on The New York Times bestseller list and was described as a triumph and an explosion of romance in various reviews (“The Fault in Our Stars”).
3.2.5 Turtles All the Way Down The most recent book written by John Green was published in 2017. It tells the story of Aza who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which affects her whole life. Even though she would love to be like a regular teenager, she cannot and she gets into serious trouble thanks to her health issues. She spends most of the time with her friend and with a boy from the past that becomes something more for her. The novel features rather serious themes, such as losing your parent or mental disorder. It is a bit different from the other books as it is a detective story in a way, but it still contains the typical John Green's writing style (“Turtles All the Way Down”).
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4 WRITING STYLE
4.1 Literary Communication Literary work presents a type of communication, in which the author communicates with his or her reader. It includes not only the real subjects, but also the interaction of textual constructs. Several theoretical approaches have studied the triad consisting of the author, the reader and the text throughout the years and each of them emphasizes a different element of the triad. Until the end of the 19th century, it was the author and his intention that were considered to be the most important for style. However, a lot of doubts came a bit later when it was said that the author's intention is not that important and that readers can find their own meanings in the text, which is completely beyond the writer's control. The movements of the 20th century emphasized the text as the main agent of literary communication. The structure of the work and its language and formal features were given a significant importance. It was not until the early seventies that the reader was attributed the most important role in the triad. Different movements had different opinions, but they shared the idea of an active reader who brings his or her own interpretation on the basis of his or her experience, skills, education and intention. The perception of the subjects of the triad have been changing in the course of time and it has been set that there are many elements which influence the literary work. Literary pragmatics, a branch of the theory of literary communication, sees the literary discourse as interaction taking place in a specific historical, social and cultural context which affects the use of language in literary communication. This branch also focuses on how the literary work affects the reader and how the reader's feedback toward the author works (Hoffmannová 1997: 70-75).
4.2 Style and Content Literary style can be seen as a distinctive aspect of the form. It is a specific organisation of work elements in which the language has a binding function. This, however, does not mean that the language is always the main element. Nevertheless, the language structure is a necessary feature of literary work and it carries the factual meaning (Kožmín 1967: 13). Knittlová (1990: 7) describes the style as a specific use 14 and organisation of language means, such as lexical, grammatical and phonological ones, together with extra-linguistic means including the graphic features, pace and timbre. To put it in simple words, the style is the manner in which an author writes. It includes an individual technique, which consists in the language, word choice, syntax or tone. All these features create a concept that might be termed “voice” to which the readers listen to (“Style”).
4.3 John Green's Writing Style Like every writer, John Green has a specific style of writing that creates his own “voice”. Each work of this author is unique, but they all have something in common. They share certain values, features and the idea of what they represent. Main characters are always teenagers struggling with adolescent issues, such as first love, first heartbreak, problems with parents, being an outcast, seeking the meaning of life, etc. This is what teenage readers find attractive and why they love John Green's books so much. However, the themes of the books are not the only reason why the audience always find their way to these books. It is also the language that is appealing and the way Green's messages are presented and received. There are two distinctive features that adequately define John Green's style in writing: the linguistic and the visual aspect of the text. The uniqueness of the linguistic level of Green's books consists in the use of figurative language, puns, slang, vulgarisms, anagrams, or names and nicknames derived from a further context. The graphic level supports and emphasizes the linguistic aspect by using capital letters, italics and unusual ways of punctuation for specific purposes.
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5 THE THEORY OF TRANSLATION Translation is a process of rendering a text from one language into another while preserving the author's intention. Translating words from the source language into the target language is an important part of the process, yet it is not enough due to the fact that some elements cannot be reproduced, or at least not exactly as in the original text (Newmark 2008: 5). Levý (1983: 42) holds the view that translation can be understood as a communication. The translator decodes the message from the original text and encodes it into the target language. Before the translation itself, the translator has to become familiar with the original text. This involves general and close reading after which they are able to understand what the text is about, what problems they might come across and what translation methods and strategies could be applied. They also need to focus on the intention of both the text and the author. It is important to be aware of the type of language or grammatical structures used in the original text as well as of the message the author wants to send. What also cannot be omitted is the readership for whom they translate. The age, sex and level of education of the target audience need all to be taken into consideration when preparing for the translation. (Newmark 2008: 11- 16). In his other book, Newmark (1991: 1) emphasizes the purpose of the translation, which is the reader's apprehension of the rendering of moral and factual truth of translation. Text styles, stylistic scales, the author's attitude, setting and the quality of the writing are other necessary principles that need to be analysed before starting the translation (Newmark 2008: 11-16). Levý (1983: 51) divides the process of translation into three phases: understanding, interpretation and rewriting of the original text. Newmark (2008: 22-29) advises to keep in mind all four levels of the text ‒ the textual, the referential, the cohesive and the natural level. In the textual level, you think about the text in the literal way trying to find the grammatical and lexical elements in the target language. At the same time, it is very important to think about what the text should be saying and what the reality behind it is, which happens on the referential level that goes hand in hand with the textual one. To connect the previous two levels, there exists the cohesive level, which deals with the structure of the text by the use of connective words, and mood by the feeling tone. The last level is the level of naturalness in which the translator makes sure that his translation is
16 natural and makes sense. It needs to be stressed that natural language does not necessarily mean ordinary language.
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6 EQUIVALENCE
6.1 Theoretical Introduction Grammatical features are difficult to translate, but lexical items tend to be much more problematic from two basic reasons: the translator is not familiar with their meaning; or they do know the meaning, but have difficulties with the translation (Newmark 2008: 32-33). Concerning the lexical level, Knittlová et al (2010: 39) find the difference in the field of denotative, connotative and pragmatic components. For the analysis of the lexical units, it is necessary to distinguish the standard from non- standard language, the terms from common expressions and the centre from the periphery. It also takes into consideration the functional style, the specific unit and the system, the relation between the language and the text and the theory and practice. Translators also need to bear in mind four types of meaning of words, which are physical, figurative, technical and colloquial meaning (Newmark 2008: 33). According to Knittlová et al (2010: 39), there are three types of equivalence in translation: absolute equivalence, partial equivalence and zero equivalence.
Absolute Equivalence Absolute equivalence appears with words from the centre of vocabulary, especially concrete nouns that have an unambiguous denotative meaning representing the same or at least very similar extra-linguistic reality, such as nose : nos. It can be a bit more complicated with other word classes, such as verbs, adjectives or adverbs, which, in connection with further context, might lead to a more expressive equivalent in the target language (40-41).
Partial Equivalence Languages differ from the social, geographical, cultural and historical point of view. That is why there is a larger number of partial equivalents than of the absolute ones. The partiality consists in a range of differences (41-42).
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Formal Differences One-Word and Multi-Word Units The fact that English is an analytic language, while Slovak or Czech are synthetic languages, affect the number of words that are in the original text and in the translation. In most of the cases, synthetic languages are able to name the reality by using only one or two words. These include for example common defining nouns, nouns with expressive tone and phrasal verbs. Synthetic languages can, however, act like analytic languages when there is no equivalent or there is a need to intensify the meaning (42-44).
Explicitness and Implicitness Explicitness of the text is presented by a larger number of expressed information, which is usually an extra in the other language. It can be found in both analytic and synthetic languages and translators need to compensate the extra information in the translation by omitting other pieces of information (44-45).
Noun Groups and Prepositional Phrases The use of pre-modifiers in English, which can often be composed of more than one word, results in the use of a preposition in Slovak or Czech, because it determines the relation between the defined and the defining (45-47).
Denotative differences The denotative difference comes from a different naming attitude in a language and the tendency to emphasize different characteristics while the reality being described is the same (47).
Specification Translators tend to explain more when there is an extra semantic element in the source language. It is mainly reflected in Slavic verbs, which are, in general, more specific and carry more information than those of analytic languages, such as emotional and expressive information (47-59).
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Generalization This strategy of translation is less frequent when translating from English to Czech/Slovak. It concerns mainly nouns, the specificity of which is not known in the target language. Proper nouns are very often generalized to common nouns (59-60).
Semantic relation ‒ Contiguity This method deals with expressions which contain the same basic semantic element in both languages, but some semantic features are being changed, but not by addition or removal. It usually includes replacing a whole by a part, or a cause by a result and vice versa (60-61).
Connotative Differences Each language has its own unique connotative system of words, which is connected to the emotional part of human consciousness. The aspect of emotiveness in English is very often only understood from the context. Czech or Slovak, on the contrary, use a variety of morphological structures or words with inner expressivity. The translation, therefore, is not simple, and translators need to make a huge effort trying to find a suitable equivalent in the target language (61-64).
Expressive Connotation There are various situations in which translators need to find the most convenient expressive equivalent to an expression from the source language. Czech/Slovak languages offer the possibility of diminutives, pejorative expressions or interjections (64-72).
Vulgarisms This group of words might be tabooed in a specific period of time or society. Translators need to be very careful when working with these expressions. The topic of vulgarisms will be discussed further on (72).
Intensification The spoken language largely consists of intensifiers which emphasize attitudes, feelings and opinions without further specification. They are both positive and
20 negative, and the translation depends on the frequency of their use in the spoken language, which constantly develops (72).
Stylistic Connotations English neutral expressions are in many cases translated using non-neutral Czech/Slovak equivalents which can be associated with the aspect of familiarity, dialect, slang or professionalisms (80-91).
Pragmatic Differences The pragmatic aspect of translation is another crucial part of the process as the reader's experience and habits of society are very likely not to coincide with those of English people. That is why we can find the occurrence of additional information, omission of information, use of analogy and substitution of analogies in the process of translation (92-96).
Non-traditional use of language Contemporary literature makes use of the whole richness of language including elements that are highly problematic for translators. Among these, we might name for instance African-American English, slang, foreign language in the original text or intentional deformation of standard language. Some of those will be analysed further on in the thesis (96-113).
Zero Equivalence Zero equivalence expresses the fact that there is an expression that has no equivalent in the target language. Translator has to replace this word by a convenient method, such as adoption of the foreign word, generalization or omission. After that, we can already talk about partial equivalence again (113-114).
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6.2 Analysis of Selected Features
6.2.1 Anagrams According to Oxford Ilustrovaný anglický výkladový slovník (2011: 39), the word anagram has its origin in Greek gramma, which means letter. It is a word or an expression created by rearranging the exactly same number of letters of another word or expression. Anagrams are largely used in John Green's second novel, An Abundance of Katherines. The main character is Colin, who is absolutely fond of making anagrams and could be considered an anagram master in some parts of the book. As the definition of the word indicates, anagrams are highly complicated for translation for various reasons. First of all, we obviously work with different letters in the target language, which results in a creation of a completely new word that is very distant from the one created in the original text. This changes the meaning of the sentence and subsequently affects the following context, which is the second reason. John Green loves basing the context on his newly anagrammed words, so this presents a really huge obstacle in the process of translation. The last reason of complication is the wider range of letters in Slovak, which means that translators have to distinguish between short and long vowels and deal with sounds that do not exist in English, such as ä, ô, ľ, ĺ, ŕ, č, ď, ň, š, ť and ž. That is why translators might make slight changes in the process of translation, for example adding and removing letters, changing the words in the translation in order to make the anagramming easier, or simply ignoring the anagram. I analysed all anagrams from the novel and compared the original text, the Slovak translation and my own alternative translation. The detailed analysis can be found in my bachelor thesis. Here I present only a brief summary of what has been analysed and discovered with a few examples. The anagrams can be divided into four categories based on their common features:
1. The first group consists of anagrams created from a name. The first one can be found in the very beginning of the book, where John Green uses several lines of anagrams created from his wife's name in a form of a poetic dedication. The
22 translator decided to keep the anagrams, which is admirable, but the dedication lost the poetic function a bit and there were some strange words included, such as O.K. In my own translation, I decided to keep the meaning rather than anagrams. The example of the first half of the dedication is provided below:
English original:
Her great Russian
Grin has treasure—
A great risen rush.
(Green 2013)
Official Slovak translation: Usmieva sa z plných líčok.
Sluch zaplavený čímsi O.K.
dáva K.O. rutine,
(Melcerová 2015)
My translation: Jej veľkolepý ruský
úsmev skrýva poklad.
Mocný dvihnutý nával.
(Valúšková 2017: 38-40)
Another example is an anagram created from a name of a character - Katherine Carter who became Katherine Carterová in the process of translation. There are two Slovak anagrams created and one of them has a mistake ‒ the letter á is missing. I replaced this anagram in my translation as it can be seen in the example:
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English original: “Um, okay. Her karate cretin—um, oh. I like this one: their arcane trek.” (Green 2013: 77)
Official Slovak translation: „Hmm, tak dobre. Napríklad – trenie charakterov. A tento sa mi páči – Aká Richterova neter?“ (Melcerová 2015: 94)
My translation: „Hmm, tak dobre. Napríklad – ITC retro herne a káva. A tento sa mi páči – Aká Richterova neter?“ (Valúšková 2017: 47)
2. The common feature of the second category is that there are multiple anagrams created from a single word or phrase. I believe this is an important thing as readers suddenly realize the main character is a real genius. Slovak readers are not that lucky, because there is a lower number of anagrams provided in the translation. In the following example, there are three anagrams in the original text and two possible translations, the official one with one anagram and my translation with three anagrams:
English original: ... maybe you don't have a right to go and think anything odd. And he was busy anagramming anything odd—any odd night, handy dog tin, doing thy DNA—when Colin did his DNA proud: he stumbled on a a molehill and fell. (Green 2013: 31)
Official Slovak translation: ... možno ani nemáte právo pokladať niečo za čudné. A okrem toho ho práve plne zamestnávala tvorba prešmyčiek: niečo vyzerá čudne, C.S. ‒ čučo? dnes nie, C. vyzerá! Vo chvíli, keď Colin poskytoval priamy dôkaz o tom, že možno vyzerá čudne, ale určite taký nie je, zakopol o krtinec a spadol. (Melcerová 2015: 41)
My translation: ... možno ani nemáte právo sa niečomu čudovať. A okrem toho ho práve plne zamestnávala tvorba prešmyčiek: čudovať sa niečomu – času mu dať,
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čo on vie?; čuť časovanie domu; vedu sa (m)učiť, no a čo? – o chvíľu už sa mučil on sám, keď zakopol o krtinec a spadol. (Valúšková 2017: 43)
3. The anagrams from the following group also share a common feature ‒ the translator decided to make a slight change in the process of translation in order to make the work easier. The changes vary, but they usually include adding and omitting letters. The example illustrates the addition of letters/words in the official translation. It is a very understandable technique, but the meaning of the added words is not clear. In my translation, I am aiming for keeping the meaning clear without adding unnecessary letters at the cost of a slight change of the original meaning.
English original: Colin went to the bathroom (there graffiti in the stall read: CALL DANA FOR BLOW. Colin wondered whether Dana provided fellatio or cocaine, and then, for the first time since he'd been lying motionless on the carpet of his bedroom, he indulged his greatest passion. He anagrammed: Call Dana for blow; Ballad for a clown. (Green 2013: 20)
Official Slovak translation: Colin sa vybral na toaletu (kde mu grafity na stene oznamovali: FAJKU? NO TAK VOLAJ DANE JÁNI K. Colin chvíľu uvažoval, či Dana ponúka orálny sex alebo trávu, a potom sa prvý raz odvtedy, čo ležal ako bez duše doma na koberci, oddal svojej veľkej vášni, tvorbe prešmyčiek. A z nápisu FAJKU? NO TAK VOLAJ DANE. JÁNI K. vytvoril odkaz: TAK LAJKUJ FAJNOVO, INAK NEDÁ. (Melcerová 2015: 29)
My translation: Colin si zašiel na toaletu (kde grafity v kabínke oznamovali: CHCEŠ SI PICHNÚŤ? VOLAJ DANE. Colin chvíľu uvažoval, či Dana poskytuje sex alebo heroín, a potom sa po prvý raz odvtedy, čo ležal ako bez duše na koberci vo svojej izbe, oddal svojej najväčšej vášni. Z nápisu „Chceš si pichnúť? Volaj Dane.“ vytvoril prešmyčku „Šiestich chlapcov nenajdú.“ (Valúšková 2017: 42)
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Another set of examples can be added to this category. There are also situations, in which there is a whole anagram omitted in the translation. It is not clear whether it was overlooked by the translator or it was done on purpose, but there is a compensation in a different part of the book, where there is an anagram in the translation, while there is none in the original text. The example illustrates the situation with the omitted anagram:
English original: They'd been walking home together from the RadioShack* when she recorded the message.
*A roach disk. (Green 2013: 101)
Official Slovak translation: Keď nahrávala odkaz do odkazovej schránky, kráčali spolu domov z obchodu s elektronikou.*
*To je jedno z ktorého. (Melcerová 2015: 123)
My translation: Keď nahrávala odkaz do odkazovej schránky, kráčali spolu domov z obchodu RadioShack.*
*Iskra a chod. (Valúšková 2017: 49)
4. The last category of anagrams includes situations in which the anagram affects the following context in the book. The translation can be quite complicated, and keeping the same meaning is a challenging task. However, the official translation and my alternative translation offer different perspectives on the development of the action. The example is as follows:
English original: “Can sushi be anagrammed?” she asked. “Uh, sis,” he answered immediately. “Sis is three letters; sushi is five,” she said. “No. ‘Uh, sis.’ The uh and the sis.” (Green 2013: 35-36)
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Official Slovak translation: „Dá sa vytvoriť prešmyčka aj z maki suši?” spýtala sa. „Uši, Simka,” odpovedal okamžite. „Simka ako SIM karta, alebo dievčenské meno?” opýtala sa. „Myslel som dievčenské meno, ale vyber si.” (Melcerová 2015: 47)
My translation: „Dá sa vytvoriť prešmyčka aj zo slova sushi?” spýtala sa. „Si hus,” odpovedal okamžite. „Čože? Veď sa len pýtam na prešmyčku.” bránila sa. „Ale nie. Myslím ‚Si hus’ ako prešmyčku.” (Valúšková 2017: 44)
6.2.2 Figurative Language
6.2.2.1 Metaphors According to Newmark (2008: 104-105), every figurative expression can be defined as a metaphor. Figurative expressions are based on a transmission of meaning from literal to the figurative one. The aim of using metaphors in texts or speeches is to emphasize something and therefore, draw people's attention to it.
Metaphors as such work on the principle of resemblance between objects and ideas. They are not always transparent in the text, and translators might analyse the text a bit in order to find a figurative sense. There are several types of metaphors, such as dead metaphors, cliché metaphors, standard metaphors, adapted metaphors, recent metaphors and original metaphors (Newmark 2008: 106-113). The translation procedures vary. Newmark (1998: 144) proposes six possible methods including the use of the same or a different image, the reduction to non-figurative sense, the conversion to simile, the use of the combination of sense and image, or the adaptation of standard metaphor.
A few examples of metaphor as such can be found in John Green's books. They are illustrated in Table 1:
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Table 1
English Original Slovak Translation chicken legs špáradlá 1. (Green 2005: 23) (Kostelníková 2012: 21) I'm not much of an outside cat... Keďže netrávim veľa času vonku... 2. (Green 2017: 24) (Ghaniová 2018: 26) the spawn of Satan diablovo semä 3. (Green 2005: 24) (Kostelníková 2012: 21) “Like, you were this scrawny little „Kedysi si bola len kosť a koža a 4. lightning bolt...” rýchla ako blesk...“
(Green 2017: 34) (Ghaniová 2018: 35)
Only one of those expressions, example no. 2, is translated in a non-expressive way and reduced to sense only. The rest of the table is translated by using the figurative expressions. Example no. 3 is based on the same word ‒ the same image. One of the meanings of the word spawn is according to Cambridge Dictionary (online), “a young animal or child”, often in a disapproving sense. The Slovak word semä, could therefore be considered an absolute equivalent in compliance with the theory of equivalence by Knittlová.
Example no. 4 is very interesting as its translation can be divided into two parts. The expressive English word scrawny, means, according to Urban Dictionary (online), skinny and underweight in rather a pejorative way. The translator used an idiom byť kosť a koža, which is very often used exactly for this purpose. The second part of the expression is converted to a simile using the same word (blesk) as in the source language (lightning bolt).
6.2.2.2 Idioms Newmark (2008: 104) considers idiom an ‘extended’ metaphor. According to Cambridge Dictionary (online), an idiom is defined as an expression composed of words which as separate units have a certain meaning, but together create a unique meaning that can be difficult to understand as it is figurative. In a different book, Newmark (1998: 40) characterizes idioms as extended standard metaphors and
28 proposes three possible translation procedures. Translators might translate them by using a metaphor in the target language, by choosing a non-figurative expression, or simply by using a literal translation. At the same time, it is necessary to bear in mind that a frequent use of idioms might lead to undesired clichés, so it is really important to choose a convenient method of translation (55-56).
In the process of analysis, I did not find any example of literal translation. However, it was possible to find various examples of the first two translation methods ‒ using an idiom or an expressive translation, and reducing the aspect of expressiveness.
Every language has its own specific idioms and figurative expressions, so translators have a wide range of possibilities they can choose from. On the other hand, the final translation needs to fit into the period, register and genre of the book and it should avoid creating clichés.
The first group illustrates the case where translators managed to find a convenient metaphor or idiomatic expression. The examples from books and their analysis can be found below:
Table 2
English Original Slovak Translation So Support Group blew, and after a Na stretnutiach podpornej skupiny sa few weeks, I grew to be rather mi teda nepáčilo od úplného začiatku a kicking-and-screaming about the po niekoľkých týždňoch sa mi otváral 1. whole affair. nožík vo vrecku, len čo som o nich začula.
(Green 2012: 6) (Kopecký 2014: 11) Generally, your parents pull you Vo všeobecnosti, len čo rodičia out of school at some point if they zavetria, že nadchádza vaša posledná 2. expect you to bite it. hodinka, vezmú vás zo školy.
(Green 2012: 23-24) (Kopecký 2014: 24)
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“Want a smoke?” I had never „Dáš si cigu?“ Ešte nikdy som 3. smoked a cigarette, but when in nefajčil, ale keď chceš s vlkmi žiť...
Rome...
(Green 2005: 23-24) (Kostelníková 2012: 21) “That dog won't hunt, boy.” „Z toho mračna nezaprší, chlapče.“ 4. (Green 2005: 114) (Kostelníková 2012: 95) “Seriously,” she said. “We bring „Je to tak, doriti,“ pokračovala. the fucking rain down on our „Roznesieme našich nepriateľov na enemies.” kopytách.“
5. (Green 2008: 47) ... (Kopecký 2015: 48) ...
“We bring the fucking rain, Q. Not „Na kopytách, Kvéčko. Nie sme nijaké the scattered showers.” poníky.“
(Green 2008: 49) (Kopecký 2015: 50) “... and I started screaming bloody „... rozvrešťala som sa na celé murder...” kolo...“ 6.
(Green 2008: 37) (Kopecký 2015: 39) “Total radio silence,” Isaac said. „Mlčí ako hrob,“ odvetil Isaac. 7. (Green 2012: 226) (Kopecký 2014: 172) “Hair of the dog,” she said. „Klin sa klinom vybíja,“ poznamenala. 8.
(Green 2005: 150) (Kostelníková 2012: 125)
All of the expressions quoted in the table are idiomatic with figurative meaning. The explanation of the more standard ones, such as when in Rome or that dog won't hunt can be found in online dictionaries. For example Cambridge Dictionary (online) explains the idiom when in Rome (do as the Romans do) as an adaptation to the customs and habits of those whose place you visit or inhabit. The same meaning is hidden in the Slovak expression kto chce s vlkmi žiť, (musí s vlkmi vyť).
Most of the expressions are less standard and could be rather defined as slang idiomatic expressions. Therefore it's possible to find them in an online slang dictionary called Urban Dictionary (online). For instance, the expression bring the rain has several explanations in this dictionary. It has a military connotation with the meaning of attacking someone or something, excelling in something after average
30 performances, or intensify an action in order to bring it to an end. The first meaning is the closest to the context of the book, where Margo, one of the main characters from Paper Towns, seeks revenge on everyone who hurt her. Rozniesť niekoho na kopytách is a good Slovak equivalent as it means to break or to destroy according to Springer (online).
The Slovak translator found the idiomatic equivalent for the expression no.6 from the table as well. However, it is disputable to what extent the meaning is equivalent. According to Cambridge Dictionary (online), the phrase the hair of the dog (that bit you) is used when you take in an alcoholic drink as a cure in the morning after you have drunk a lot. Vybíjať klin klinom in Slovak or vyrážet klín klínem in Czech has a different meaning, though. It is about solving one problem by creating another problem. The more convenient English equivalent for this Slovak/Czech expression is To rob Peter to pay Paul. The better alternative might be to find a different idiom in Slovak or to use a non-figurative translation.
The other group of idioms depicted in the table are translated in a less expressive way. The reasons may vary, either there are no idiomatic equivalents in the target language or the translators wanted to avoid using a redundant amount of idioms in the translation. The examples are as follows:
Table 3
English Original Slovak translation If I had a nervous breakdown every Keby som sa nervovo zrútil zakaždým, time something awful happened in keď sa na svete stane niečo hrozné, už 1. the world, I'd be crazier than a by som v blázinci visel za nohy. shithouse rat.
(Green 2008: 6) (Kopecký 2015: 10) “He just bit it.” „Práve šiel pod zem.“ 2. (Green 2008: 210) (Kopecký 2015: 203) Have a good time, he'd said. Yeah, I Užite si to, povedal. Hej, pomyslel som 3. though. I had a ball. si. To som si teda užil.
(Green 2005: 36) (Kostelníková 2012: 31) “Pudge got his hog smoked.” „Rambo si nechal vyfajčiť vtáka.“ 4. (Green 2005: 156) (Kostelníková 2012: 130)
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“That rings a bell.” „Čosi mi to vraví.“ 5. (Green 2008: 190) (Kopecký 2015: 184) “You doing OK, Noah?” „Si v pohode. Noah?“ “Kickin' ass and takin' names,” „Mám sa úžasne,” odvetil... 6. he said.
(Green 2017: 111) (Ghaniová 2018: 97)
Some of these expressions could be translated using the idiomatic equivalents. For instance the sentence He just bit it, which is the short version of He has just bit the dust (Urban Dictionary, online), could be translated as Práve strepotal kopytami. The problem here was probably the register. The translator was aware of the fact that it is much more natural to hear a young American say bit it than a young Slovak say strepotať kopytami. The Slovak expression is more common for the elderly generation. This might have been the reason for which the translator decided to use the non-idiomatic alternative.
Some of the English idiomatic expressions from Table 3 are used in order to provoke the sense of irony in the reader. The irony in the Slovak translation is not visible through the expression itself, but through the context. To illustrate this, we can use the example no. 3: To som si teda užil. The reader has the whole context when reading this part of the book and therefore should be able to recognize that this sentence is ironic. However, there is also a lexical tool that helps to create the irony ‒ the word teda, which is often used to express depreciation and disdain (Springer, online).
6.2.2.3 Similes Similes are figurative expressions which are used by writers in order to compare two or more things using the words “like” or “as” (Cambridge Dictionary, online). Newmark (1993: 19) views similes as distant relatives of metaphors. Should they be compared, similes are less powerful than metaphors, used simply to illustrate and make the text more interesting. Their translation is less complicated than the one of idioms and metaphors as they are very likely to be translated literally.
Examples of similes from John Green's books are stated in Table 4:
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Table 4
English Original Slovak Translations “I mean, I like this interstate as „Myslím tým, že sa mi táto much as the next guy, but medzištátna diaľnica páči rovnako ako the farther south we go, the hotter it tá, čo príde, ale čím južnejšie ideme, 1. gets, and I'm already sweating tým je väčšia horúčava a už teraz like a whore in church.” sa potím ako filcka v kostole.”
(Green 2013: 25) (Melcerová 2015: 34) I walked over to the pink shirt. It Podišiel som k ružovej košeli. Bola was wrinkled like an old woman dokrkvaná akoby ju prežúvalo stádo 2. who spent her youth sunbathing. kráv.
(Green 2005: 45) (Kostelníková 2012: 39) “She hasn't walked all over you „K tebe sa desať rokov nespráva ako 3. like a doormat for a decade.” k handre.“
(Green 2008: 101) (Kopecký 2015: 101) Anyway, my dad didn't go to A okrem toho, ani môj otec nechodil college, and he's rich as balls. na univerzitu a pritom je bohatý ako 4. gule.
(Green 2013: 30) (Melcerová 2015: 41) It's cheesy, but that's what they Ide o pukance. Ale oni dvaja si always said to each other: "I love hovorievali: „Ľúbim ťa ako cucance“ 5. you like crazycakes; I miss you alebo „Chýbaš mi ako cucance,“ atď. like crazycakes;" etc.
(Green 2013: 85) (Melcerová 2015: 104)
Translating similes is not very complicated, yet there is a certain danger. Translators need to be particularly careful when distinguishing between a simile and a metaphor (Newmark 1993: 19). The first two examples can be without bigger doubts considered similes as they only compare two realities. The first one is almost translated literally, except for the word whore, which is replaced by the Slovak word filcka. I believe this expression could be translated fully literally and that is why I proposed this in the alternative translation in my bachelor thesis: potím sa ako prostitútka v kostole (Valúšková 2017: 68).
The example no. 2 is translated as a simile that might be considered an idiomatic expression as it is a common set phrase in Slovak.
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The last three examples in the table are more disputable when deciding whether the expression is a simile or a metaphor. They all contain words “like” or “as”, but their meaning is stronger and more figurative. Example no. 3 is also translated idiomatically, but it is more interesting to see examples no. 4 and 5. Urban Dictionary (online) defines as balls as an expression used when emphasizing something. It is a case of intensification by Knittlová, and therefore I think it's better to translate this expression as A okrem toho, ani môj otec nechodil na univerzitu a i tak je mega bohatý (Valúšková 2017: 68) rather than in the literal way. The procedure is quite similar to the last example from Table 4. The expression is used in surprising or bizarre situations (Urban Dictionary, online), and might be also translated through the process of intensification. The translator used a rather unconventional method in which she used the words cucance and pukance and converted the English expression to a simile. My alternative translation is based on the principle of intensification: Ľúbim ťa ako blázon; chýbaš mi ako blázon (Valúšková 2017: 69).
6.2.3 Puns Newmark's definition (2008: 217) supported by Cambridge Dictionary (online) defines a pun as a word or a group of words with the same or similar sound or a word with several meanings, used with the purpose of raising entertainment and laughter. It is sometimes confused with interference, because one of its characteristics is that it combines two different meanings (Newmark 1991: 79).
English as a language is very open to puns, but the translation might be problematic. There are often close equivalents in the original and target language, such as with animals or colours, though the puns are usually lost when appearing for example in a poem. One of the possible solutions in translation process might be creating another pun in the target language, or in a situation, where the sense is more important than the amusement, the pun can be explained and translated in both senses (Newmark 2008: 217).
Puns have a place in John Green's style as well. They are mostly used by young adults to mock each other, but also when expressing deep messages about life. The examples are illustrated in Table 5 below:
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Table 5
English Original Slovak Translation
“Well, come on, Miles To Go „Tak poď, Miles. Mám si ťa pripnúť 1. Halter. We got shit to do.” na remienok? Ideme sa vyvenčiť.“ (Green 2005: 19) (Kostelníková 2012: 17) “Blow really hard on to it for at „Silno doň fúkaj aspoň dve sekundy, least two seconds,” I said. He akoby si fajčil,” povedal som. looked up at me. 2. “Is that what you told Lara in the TV room? Because, see Pudge, they only call it a blow job.” “Shut up and blow,” I said. (Green 2005: 214) (Kostelníková 2012: 178) “Although getting you a date to „Hoci zohnať tebe babu na ples bude prom will be harder than turning ťažšie než premeniť olovo na zlato.“ lead into gold.” „Zohnať ti babu na ples je také ťažké, 3. “Getting you a date to prom is so že by to nezodvihol ani Chuck hard that the hypothetical idea Norris,“ pridal som sa. itself is actually used to cut diamonds,” I added.
(Green 2008: 16) (Kopecký 2015: 20) We are all going, I thought, and it Všetci raz odídeme, pomyslel som si a applies to turtles and turtlenecks, týka sa to kohútov aj vodovodných 4. Alaska the girl and Alaska the kohútikov, Aljašky dievčaťa, aj place... Aljašky štátu...
(Green 2005: 233) (Kostelníková 2012: 194) Off topic, but: What a slut time is. Trochu odbočím, ale čas je veru 5. She screws everybody. riadny brúsič. A potom sa čuduje, že sme naňho nabrúsení.
(Green 2012: 112) (Kopecký 2014: 89) You don't know a father's weight Hodnotu otca spoznáš až vo chvíli, 6. Until it's lifted. keď ho stratíš.
(Green 2017: 190) (Ghaniová 2018: 162)
The examples in Table 5 could be divided into two groups. The first half of the table contains puns used with their primary purpose, which is to make people laugh. Slovak translators selected various procedures when translating, succeeding in keeping at least the partial meaning in most of the cases. The pun in example no. 1 is
35 based on a main character's last name. Halter is a noun expressing a piece of rope which is tied around an animal's head in order to lead it (Cambridge Dictionary, online). In this case, the writer was probably thinking about a dog that is about to be walked. To provide a further context, The Colonel, one of the main characters from Looking for Alaska, leaves his room and expects his roommate to follow him, but it does not happen. He therefore comes back to the room and pronounces the sentence. The translation is not based on a pun, but Kostelníková did a very good job using the context as a starting point for this joke.
Example no. 2 is one of the cases where the pun was completely ignored in the translation. The English word blow is an equivalent to the Slovak word fúkať, but the problem is in the phrase blow job, which has an offensive and sexual meaning. To explain the context, two friends are working on an experiment, which consists in one of them getting drunk to a certain level. To check the blood alcohol content, Miles tells the Colonel to blow on the breathalyser, and his friend uses this situation to mock him for a sexual experience he had some time before. The whole joke is unknown to the Slovak audience as the pun is ignored. I believe that the situation offers a solution, for example using the word fajka in the translation. Since this word has two meanings: the literal one with the sense of a tobacco pipe, and the colloquial one with the meaning of a blow job, the original pun could be replaced by another pun coming from Slovak. If I was supposed to offer an alternative translation, it would be the following:
„Vezmi ho do ruky a aspoň dve sekundy silno fúkaj,“ povedal som. Pobavene sa na mňa pozrel. „To je to, čo si povedal Lare vtedy v spoločenskej miestnosti? Lebo vieš, Rambo, je to fajka, ale nefúka sa pri nej.“
The Slovak pronoun ho refers to the word prístroj or tester, which was used in the translation before this quote. The whole phrase vezmi ho do ruky implies a sexual meaning and that enables us to make the joke in almost the same meaning as the original text does.
Example no. 3 is very interesting because the pun is based on a word that has several meanings in both English and Slovak, but not all of them are absolute equivalents. It is the word hard, which can be translated to Slovak as ťažký. This
36 allows the translator to make use of the literal translation in the first part of the joke: will be harder than turning lead into gold ‒ bude ťažšie než premeniť olovo na zlato. The second part, however, is based on another meaning of hard, which is tvrdý. So hard that the hypothetical idea itself is actually used to cut diamonds cannot work in the translation, so Kopecký used again the word ťažký, but this time in the sense of heavy: také ťažké, že by to nezodvihol ani Chuck Norris. The meaning of the translation is a bit different, but it does the same trick as the original text.
Even though the purpose of pun is usually to amuse, there are also parts in Green's books, where they are used in serious situations. The last three examples from Table 5 are illustrating this case. For instance the sentence no. 4 is based on the offensive meaning of the word screw, which is to have sex (Cambridge Dictionary, online), and that is why the time is called a slut. Kopecký frees the text from vulgarisms using the similarity between the Slovak words brúsič and nabrúsení. If we wanted to stick to the vulgar version, I would propose the following one: Čas je veru poriadna štetka, vyjebe so všetkými.
Another example from the category of serious puns is the last example from the table. The pun is based on the double meaning of the word lift, which is to pick something up or to steal in the colloquial language. The character's father left and he realizes how difficult it is without him ‒ his weight was lifted. The Slovak translator did not find any convenient pun or means of language that would fill in for this English expression. The translation is therefore less attractive, simply expressing the general truth, which is that we only start to value something when we lose it.
In conclusion to this subchapter, it is essential to say that puns make the text more appealing, either for the aspect of amusement or the intensification of a serious or sad message.
6.2.4 Proper Names and Nicknames Proper nouns can be defined as names of particular people, objects or places (Cambridge Dictionary, online). Depending on the element we analyse, we need to be careful about the translation complications and traps, for instance about political situation when translating geographical terms, or differences in medication in various countries when working on medical texts (Newmark 2008: 35-36). 37
The readership needs to be taken into consideration, especially when translating encyclopaedia terms ‒ the items should be glossed or at least explained in the text (Newmark 1998: 89-90). In another book, Newmark (1993: 15) focuses on proper names in literature. In his view, it is important to find out if the name is real or invented. Concerning people's names, they are usually transferred with the exception of for example the names of rulers or saints. The problem occurs when the name has a connotation, such as in an imaginative literature. In that case, it is advisable to translate the base of the source language name into the target language and then let the word go through a process of naturalisation (Newmark 2008: 214-215). The examples of proper names and nicknames are stated in Table 6 below:
Table 6 English Original Slovak Translation Harmony Springs Young Harmónia Studienka Youngová 1. (Green 2005: 67) (Kostelníková 2012: 57) The Colonel Plukovník 2. (Green 2005: 21) (Kostelníková 2012: 19) Pudge Rambo 3. (Green 2005: 21) (Kostelníková 2012: 19) Q Kvéčko 4. (Green 2008: 18) (Kopecký 2015: 21) Benners Bendži 5. (Green 2008: 65) (Kopecký 2015: 65) “You've got the regular boarders, „Máš tu stálych študákov, ako som ja, like me, and then you've got the a potom tu máš týždňových sráčov. Weekly Warriors; they board Oni sú síce tiež na internáte, ale sú to here, but they're all rich kids who všetko bohaté decká z Birminghamu. 6. live in Birmingham and go home to Každý víkend chodia domov do their parents' air-conditioned klimatizovaných zámočkov svojich mansions every weekend.” rodičov.“
(Green 2005: 20) (Kostelníková 2012: 18-19) Smoking Hole fajčiarsky brloh 7. (Green 2005: 54) (Kostelníková 2012: 46)
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The Ringolator ringolátor 8. (Green 2008: 4) (Kopecký 2015: 8) The Omnictionary Omnipédia 9. (Green 2008: 15) (Kopecký 2015: 15) drinking a Dr. Pepper popíjala Dr. Pepper 10. (Green 2017: 2) (Ghaniová 2018: 8) I was a sliver of the Orlando Bol to kúsok z novín Orlando 11. Sentinel... Sentinel...
(Green 2008: 134) (Kopecký, 2015: 132) Truth or Dare Vadí ‒ nevadí 12. (Green 2005: 158) (Kostelníková 2012: 131)
The table shows a variety of names and nicknames including both people and objects. Even though people's names are in most cases just transferred into the target language in the original form, example no. 1 shows the opposite. The mother wanted to name her daughter Harmony Springs, and she probably really meant these two ideas. Therefore the translator had to translate the name almost literally. Concerning nicknames, there are diverse techniques the translators have used. The example no. 2 is based on a literal translation. However, there is a different procedure in the example no. 3. It is known from the context that Miles, the main character of the book, is very skinny. In order to tease him in a friendly way, his friend makes up an ironic nickname Pudge. According to Urban Dictionary (online), pudge means the amount of fat surrounding your muscles, or a short and fat person. The translation is also based on the irony of opposite characteristics as Rambo is the opposite of a skinny person. However, the translation is not equivalent as such. Examples no. 4 and 5 are based on the familiarity of people using these nicknames. Q is a short version of Quentin and Benners is, by contrast, a longer version of Ben. I believe both translations are good as they work on the similar principles and sound quite natural in Slovak. There were various techniques used in the translation of proper names, such as specification, adaptation or borrowing. The example of specification is illustrated in examples no. 6 and 7, where the translation contains an extra-semantic aspect in comparison to the original text. Smoking hole becomes fajčiarsky brloh, where brloh is slightly more specific than a 39 hole. The same process applies to the example no. 6, in which the specification is so strong that it makes the whole sentence more expressive and even offensive. Example no. 8 has zero equivalent in Slovak as it is a word that describes an invention which does not exist. The translator decided to borrow the English word ringolator and adapt it to the Slovak diacritic: ringolátor. Almost the same procedure applies on example no. 9, only with minor changes. The last three examples from Table 6 are treated according to the pragmatic differences by Knittlová. We see an example, where the name of a lemonade is kept without adding or omitting information ‒ Dr. Pepper. The example no. 11 is a case of adding information (noviny) so that the readers know how to classify the name. The last line of the table contains an analogy, where the same reality has different names in the source and the target language (Knittlová 2000: 82-83). Therefore Truth or Dare becomes Vadí ‒nevadí.
As it was mentioned in the theoretical introduction to this chapter, proper names with which the readers are probably not familiar with, are usually replaced by a general noun (Knittlová et al 2010: 59). The process of generalization can be seen in the examples illustrated in Table 7 that follows:
Table 7 English Original Slovak Translation SUV džíp 1. (Green 2005: 12) (Kostelníková 2012: 12) ... a couple dozen pairs of shoes, ...s niekoľkými tuctami topánok ‒ od 2. from Mary Janes to prom heels. balerínok po lodičky na ihlách.
(Green 2008: 112) (Kopecký 2015: 111) “Hey,” I say, grabbing at Ben's „Hej,“ poviem a schmatnem Bena za 3. New Balances. tenisky.
(Green 2008: 271) (Kopecký 2015: 260) a Dixie cup do papierového pohára 4. (Green 2012: 8) (Kopecký 2014: 13) the Ziploc bag do uzatvárateľného vrecka 5. (Green 2017: 7) (Ghaniová 2018: 12)
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your Kool-Aid dye job tie tvoje amatérsky prefarbené vlasy 6. (Green 2017: 8) (Ghaniová 2018: 12)
In these cases, the problem of the unfamiliarity lies in the fact that all those products are not in the Slovak market, and therefore are also absent in people's active vocabulary or passive vocabulary. It's easier to use for instance the word tenisky in the translation than New Balances.
6.2.5 Slang Slang can be defined from different points of view since there are many interpretations of the feature. Cambridge dictionary (online) views slang as a “very informal language that is usually spoken rather than written, used especially by particular groups of people.” Oravec (2014: 6) proposes more detailed definition in his dictionary of Slovak slang. The particular groups of people can be professional, social and interest-oriented, such as doctor's or military slang. The broader definition includes informal speech covering the area of colloquial language, expressive vocabulary, non-standard language and words connected to social and professional groups of people. The purpose of the slang is to provoke, incite shock and express a certain rebellion. The typical features of slang, the bizarreness and an overreacted gesture, are promoted in the text through various linguistic means, such as colloquial metaphors, irony, expressivity, comicality and puns (Miko 1976: cited in Knittlová 2010: 105). Slang is a very specific linguistic feature, since it is not a part of standard English, nor it equals the colloquial language. Writers use it to make their style more expressive and interesting. Another very important aspect is the period in which the text was written as each period has different trends (Knittlová et al 2010: 105). Translation of slang should be adjusted to the modern language regardless the period in which the original was set. However, it is also important to avoid the bizarreness that might be created with such principle (Newmark 1993: 74). John Green's books feature, as it was mentioned before, mainly teenagers and young adults, which is obviously connected with the enormous use of slang. I chose
41 some examples from the books and divided them into four categories that are to be illustrated and analysed below:
6.2.5.1 “Cool” The word cool is very common in English in everyday life. It is mostly used as an adjective by young people in all kinds of situations. According to Cambridge Dictionary (online), there are several meanings of the word. The primary and formal ones are those expressing something that is slightly cold, such as temperature and weather, or person who is either very distant and unfriendly, or very calm without worries. There are, however, more meanings, which are informal, with the sense of excellent, acceptable or fashionable in an admirable way. In the informal way, this word is very often used as an exclamation in order to express a consent or an opinion that something is good. Slovak and Czech have both a richer variety of synonyms that might be used when translating a text, and that is why we can find different words in different translations. Moreover, the differences between analytic and synthetic languages also play an important role in the translation of these expressions. They are illustrated in Table 8 below:
Table 8 English Original Slovak Translation I laughed and nodded my head at Zasmial som sa, kývol som mu hlavou 1. him (that's cool, right? the nod?)... (to kývnutie je dobré, čo?)...
(Green 2005: 16) (Kostelníková 2012: 15) “I like them baggy,” I said, „Mne sa páčia voľné gate,“ povedal embarrassed, and pulled them up. som v rozpakoch a vytiahol som si ich. 2. They had been cool back home in Doma na Floride boli špicové. Florida. (Kostelníková 2012: 20-21) (Green 2005: 23) “They're cool.” „Hm, nie, sú v pohode.“ 3. (Green 2008: 20) (Kopecký 2015: 24)
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“Is it still cool to to go to the mall?” „Ešte vždy fičí chodiť do nákupného “I take quite a lot of pride in not centra?“ spýtala sa. 4. knowing what's cool,” I answered. „Dosť si zakladám na tom, že netuším, čo fičí,” odvetila som.
(Green 2012: 40) (Kopecký 2014: 37) “You think that's cool?” „Chceš vyzerať ako frajer?” 5. (Green 2012: 19) (Kopecký 2014: 21)
The first two examples from the table show us the helpfulness of synonyms that make the text more vivid and interesting. One English adjective can be translated using various Slovak synonyms, such as dobré or špicové. Translators here keep the official meaning from the dictionary in the first case, and make use of the Slovak slang word ‒ špicový, which is derived from the noun špica and has the meaning of very good or excellent (Oravec 2014: 256). When analysing the other three examples from Table 8, it is important to mention the grammatical level of translation. Since there are differences in the complexity of word classes in different languages, translators often change the word class in the target language in order to make the text sound more natural (Knittlová et al 2010: 121). The simple and always the same structure in English, to be + cool, can easily be replaced by an adverb, a verb, or a more figurative linguistic feature, such as a simile. We can find all these examples in the table, no. 4 being a very good example as it is also a slang term according to Oravec and his dictionary (2014: 63). The growing tendency of using and adopting international words into other languages leads translators towards the same process in translation. Je to strašne cool would therefore be an appropriate translation in many situations as well.
6.2.5.2 Figurative Sense It was rather difficult to name this category as the examples are not all primarily based on the figurative sense. Yet they are not meant literally so I decided this might be an appropriate name. The examples are again mentioned in the following table:
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Table 9 English Original Slovak Translation The room surprised me: I'd pictured A aj izba samotná ma zaskočila. plush carpet, wood-panelled walls, Predstavoval som si štýlový perzský Victorian furniture. Aside from one koberec, steny obložené drevom a 1. luxury - a private bathroom - I got viktoriánsky nábytok. No okrem a box. jediného luxusu ‒ vlastnej kúpeľne ‒ som nafasoval väzenskú celu.
(Green 2005: 12) (Kostelníková 2012: 12) And there's no sugar-coating it... A vôbec to neprikrášľujem... 2. (Green 2005: 260) (Kostelníková 2012: 217) Ben was absolutely gaga over the Ben sa z plesu išiel pominúť. 3. idea of going.
(Green 2008: 12) (Kopecký 2015: 16) ... thinking about that too long ... a keď o tom budeme ešte chvíľu 4. could make a girl bonkers. premýšľať, asi mi preskočí.
(Green 2008: 28) (Kopecký 2015: 31) “We're both going stag.” „Ani jeden nemáme partnerku.“ 5. (Green 2008: 164) (Kopecký 2015: 159)
Since there already is a chapter dealing with a figurative language, it might be disputable whether these examples should not be included there. However, these expressions are all used by young people and, I assume, have a specific purpose, which is to incite irony and a teenage scepticism. We can see again more than one translation procedure. There are examples of equivalent translation, where translators tried to find at least a partial equivalent in Slovak slang, such as in no. 3, where to be gaga over something means, according to Urban Dictionary (online), to be very excited about something. The opposite process can be seen for instance in the example no. 5, where stag means to be alone (Urban Dictionary, online). The figurative aspect is therefore lost and the translation is rather explicite.
6.2.5.3 Intensifiers Intensification is, in general, used to express a certain degree of a feeling or attitude. The language constantly develops and the intensification goes with the
44 trends of both the language and the society. The overuse of intensifiers may result in the loss of the original sense and expressivity (Knittlová et al 2010: 72). Green's works are full of various intensifiers, but hell and damn are definitely those that prevail in the text. Here is the table of sentences containing the intensifier hell:
Table 10 English Original Slovak Translation “Well, it was a helluva night,” I „Bola to bohovská noc,“ vyhŕkol som 1. said finally. napokon.
(Green 2008: 81) (Kopecký 2015: 80) ...and principled hate is a hell of a ... a zásadová nenávisť je 2. lot stronger... sakramentsky silnejšia...
(Green 2005: 60) (Kostelníková 2012: 51) “Hell, yeah it is.” „Jasné, boha, tak to je.“ 3. (Green 2005: 89) (Kostelníková 2012: 75) “Hollis Burnis Chase ‒ hell of a „Hollis Burnis Chaseová ‒ príšerné 4. name for a woman.” meno pre ženu.
(Green 2005: 91) (Kostelníková 2012: 76) What the hell is in swan saliva that Čo má, dopekla, tá labuť v slinách, že 5. burns so badly? to tak strašne páli?
(Green 2005: 130) (Kostelníková 2012: 108) “What the hell is that?” „Ty kokos, čo to je?“ 6. (Green 2005: 127) (Kostelníková 2012: 105) “What the hell?” I asked „Čo ti šibe?“ 7. (Green 2008: 30) (Kopecký 2015: 33) ... and I couldn't understand the Vôbec som tým hlasom nerozumel. voices for some reason, couldn't Nechápal som, prečo tam sú, a vlastne, understand why there were any koľko je, dopaže, hodín? 8. voices at all, and what the hell time was anyway?
(Green 2005: 34) (Kostelníková 2012: 29) The Support Group, of course, was Podporná skupina bola, pravdaže, 9. depressing as hell. hotové depresívne peklo.
(Green 2012: 4) (Kopecký 2014: 9)
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“Thanks for not trying to see me „Ďakujem, že si nechcel ísť za mnou, 10. when I looked like hell.” keď som vyzerala ako strašidlo.“
(Green 2012: 110) (Kopecký 2014: 88)
The word hell is used in various ways and the same can be said about the translation. We may find examples of sentences where this word has an attributive function and is translated in the explicit way, like in the first four examples of the table, where we can see that the explicit translations, which are either more or less equivalent (bohovská, sakramentsky) or rather offensive (boha). It is equally interesting to see the wide range of possibilities in Slovak when translating the exclamation What the hell? The examples are illustrated in sentences no. 5-8, where the translation is using expressive words, but not slipping into the offensive aspect of language (dopekla, ty kokos). As it can be observed in the last two examples, the intensifier hell is very often used as a part of comparison. The example no. 9 is, however, translated with addition of the word hotové, which replaces the function of the English intensifier. The last example, on the contrary, is translated as a simile which is at the same time a common set phrase in Slovak.
The following table illustrates the examples of the intensifier damn:
Table 11 English Original Slovak Translation “I'd shake your hand, but I think Podal by som ti ruku, ale myslím, že you should hold on damn tight to by si ju mal sakra pevne držať na tom 1. that towel till you can get some uteráku, kým si nedáš niečo na seba.“ clothes on.”
(Green 2005: 16) (Kostelníková 2012: 15) “I know the leather's got some „Koža je trocha popraskaná, ale mám cracks, but come on. That's a damn to v paži. Je to brutálny gauč.“ Gauč nice coach.” The leather had more však nebol iba trocha popraskaný ‒ asi than a few cracks - it was about 30 tretinu zahaľovala svetlomodrá 2. per cent baby-blue faux leather and koženka a zvyšok bol molitan ‒ ale aj 70 per cent foam - but it felt damn tak som sa na ňom cítil nenormálne good to me anyway. príjemne.
(Green 2005: 20) (Kostelníková 2012: 18)
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I figured that if everyone else could Dospel som k záveru, že ak všetci smoke a cigarette without vedia fajčiť a nerozkašlať sa z toho, 3. coughing, I could damn well too. tak to, sakra, dokážem aj ja.
(Green 2005: 26) (Kostelníková 2012: 23) “Why do you smoke so damn „Prečo fajčíš tak brutálne rýchlo?“ 4. fast?” I asked. opýtal som sa.
(Green 2005: 57) (Kostelníková 2012: 48) Both my parents are therapists, Moji rodičia sú psychológovia, čo which means that I am really znamená, že som bol bohovsky 5. goddamned well adjusted. duševne vyrovnaný, veď ako inak.
(Green 2008: 6) (Kopecký 2015: 10) ... so goddamned many of them...... je svinsky veľa... 6. (Green 2008: 105) (Kopecký 2015: 104) “That is one sad goddamned swing „To je svinsky smutná hojdačka.“ 7. set.”
(Green 2012: 122) (Kopecký 2014: 97) And you have no idea how hard Neveril by si, aké je ťažké vypadnúť z they've made it to get out of that toho poondiateho domu. 8. goddamned house.
(Green 2008: 29) (Kopecký 2015: 32) “... stop being so goddamned „... prestať vyvádzať ako trafený... 9. terrified... Grow some nuts.” To si chlap?“
(Green 2008: 69) (Kopecký 2015: 69) And since she drove to work every Čo pri jej dennom dochádzaní do práce morning, I could only use the car znamenalo, že som ho mohol používať on weekends. Well, weekends and iba cez víkendy. Teda cez víkendy a 10. the middle of the goddamned uprostred noci, nech ma aj roztrhne. night.
(Green 2008: 28) (Kopecký 2015: 31) “Goddamn Weekday Warriors. It „Skurvení týždňoví sráči. Určite ich was probably one of them that bonzol niekto z nich a potom to hodil 11. ratted out Paul and Marya and then na mňa, aby zahladil stopy.“ blamed me to cover their tracks.”
(Green 2005: 50) (Kostelníková 2012: 42) “Damn!” „Doriti.“ 12. (Green 2005: 56) (Kostelníková 2012: 48) Damn it. Doboha. 13. (Green 2005: 183) (Kostelníková 2012: 152)
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“GODDAMN IT!” „DO PIČE!“ 14. (Green 2005: 174) (Kostelníková 2012: 145)
As the table illustrates the word damn is used in various situations in various ways. Approximately the first half of the table shows the use of damn with the purpose of intensifying the following adjectives or adverbs. Similarly to the intensifier hell, the translation varies depending on the translator. However, they all consider the theory of translation, which states that the intensifiers damn and goddamn are usually translated with the use of adjective or adverbial horroratives (Knittlová et al 2010: 75). The final translation is often more diverse and includes different adjectives and adverbs, such as brutálny, nenormálny, poondiaty, bohovsky or svinsky. A very frequent solution in translation, which is simple but distinct, is the use of the word sakra, which can be seen for instance in example no. 1 or 3. The other half of the table is more expressive and in some situations even offensive. Examples no. 9 and 10 are translated with the use of figurative language, which helps translators to avoid the overuse of intensifiers in the target language. The translation of the last four examples (the last three being rather exclamations than intensifiers) is much more expressive than the original text. According to Cambridge Dictionary (online), damn is in most cases defined as an informal expression, even though there is a note explaining that it might be perceived offensive by some people. The translation is very offensive mainly in example no. 11 and 14, where Slovak swear words are used.
6.2.5.4 Addressing Another category of slang to be analysed is the form of addressing among the main characters in Green's books. The examples are illustrated below:
Table 12 English Original Slovak Translation “And people are moody, dude.” „A ľudia sú náladoví, kamoško.“ 1. (Green 2005: 41) (Kostelníková 2012: 36)
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“Sorry. Don't worry, dude,” he „Sorry. Netráp sa, kráska,“ povedal. 2. said.
(Green 2005: 88) (Kostelníková 2012: 74) “Although, man, the Culver Creek „Aj keď, ty brďo, futbalový tím v football team would be a thing of Culver Creeku by bola poriadna 3. beauty.” pecka.
(Green 2005: 58) (Kostelníková 2012: 49) “You just gotta tell her, man,” I „Mal by si jej to povedať, chlape,“ 4. said. poznamenal som.
(Green 2008: 22) (Kopecký 2015: 26) “We ain't drinkin' out the bottle „Dnes večet tú fľašu nevypijeme, 5. tonight, hun,” the Colonel said. miláčik,” vyhlásil Plukovník.
(Green 200: 157) (Kostelníková 2012: 130) “Bro, you should just hit that. „Brate, neser sa s tým. Kašli na Jasa. Forget about Jase. God, that is one Boha, veď je to šťanda ako z 6. candy-coated honeybunny.” rozprávky!“
(Green 2008: 14) (Kopecký 2015: 17) “Bring it on, baby,” I said. „Tak sa ukáž, moja,“ povedal som. 7. (Green 2005: 140) (Kostelníková 2012: 116) “That doesn't answer my question, „To sa nevylučuje, ty prasa.“ 8. perv.”
(Green 2008: 25) (Kopecký 2015: 28)
The translation of addressing among young people can be in some situations explained through a theory of translation, more specifically with the help of expressive connotations. According to Knittlová et al (2010: 70), there can be a positive or negative form of addressing and they both express the attitude of a person towards the one who is being addressed (examples no. 7 and 8). The equivalents in the target language are selected functionally. The translator needs to decide about the translation after considering the context. Their purpose should be the same meaning of both the source and target language. To illustrate this on a practical example, we can have a look at example no. 1 and 2. The original word is dude and its translation depends on the addressed person. In these cases, it was the gender and the relation between the people that played an important role. A similar theory applies on the following two examples in the table. However, the word man is only once translated as a form of addressing. The other translation makes use of a Slovak slang 49 exclamation Ty brďo that is usually used to express a surprise or astonishment (Oravec 2014: 28). Example no. 6 is very interesting as from the lexical point of view, the words are absolute equivalents. The slight problem is in the way the Slovak word is declined. The form of addressing in Slovak is in the nominative, but here the archaic case, the vocative, is used. Nevertheless, it works quite well and it is used a lot throughout the whole story.
6.2.6 Vulgarisms A vulgarism is in general defined as a non-standard word or expression that originated from the language of illiterate people. It may also be perceived as an obscene expression connected with sexual meaning. However, in common situations nowadays, it is mainly understood as an expression of scolding or swearing (“Vulgarism”). Vulgarisms are also so called taboo words and their translation needs to be thought through really well, since translators need to take into consideration the period, society and boundaries within them. The overuse of swear words leads to the weakening of their sense. It is necessary to bear both linguistic and extra-linguistic context, as well as the pragmatics (Knittlová et al 2010: 72). John Green uses swear words a lot in his books as the main characters are young adults who simply cannot express themselves without them. The interesting thing in the translation is the variety of possible procedures and the tendencies specific translators have. The vulgarisms from the books can be divided into four categories, which cover both mild and strong vulgarisms. They are described and illustrated in the following part.
6.2.6.1 Mild Vulgarisms It is disputable to say what can be defined as a mild vulgarism as each society and even each individual has their own idea and perception of what a vulgarism is, and what it represents. My representation of mild vulgarisms includes words that are not meant to offend or insult people, but have rather friendly and teasing purpose among friends and relatives, or if they insult, it is in a gentle manner. Their another
50 characteristics might be that they are used in common life when expressing the feeling of irritation. They are illustrated in Table 13 below:
Table 13 English Original Slovak Translation “It's about depression, dumb-ass.” „Všetko je to o depresii, somár.“ 1. (Green 2005: 110) (Kostelníková 2012: 91) “If you're pissed at me, just say „Ak si na mňa nasratý, tak mi to 2. so.” rovno povedz.“
(Green 2005: 183) (Kostelníková 2012: 183) “Crap,” he said finally. „Doriti,“ hlesol napokon. 3. (Green 2008: 21) (Kopecký 2015: 25) dumb bastard ten debilný sviniar 4. (Green 2008: 39) (Kopecký 2015: 41) “I don't know crap about poetry” „Aj tak viem prd o poézii.” 5. (Green 2008: 122) (Kopecký 2015: 120) “Your party kicked so much ass! „Zorganizovala si najsamtotálnejší žúr! Even though you suck so much! It's Aj keď sama si krava. Tebe hádam 6. like instead of blood, your heart namiesto krvi koluje v žilách pumps liquid suck! kravacina.“
(Green 2008: 187) (Kopecký 2015: 181) But she is not as big an asshole as Ona však nie je taká dementná ako 7. Paul. Paul.
(Green 2005: 32) (Kostelníková 2012: 28) “Right,but he didn't need to be a „Fajn, ale nemusel kvôli tomu 8. jerk about it.” vystrájať ako debil.“
(Green 2005: 52) (Kostelníková 2012: 45) “I can't be mad at you, you „Nedokážem sa na teba ani naštvať, ty 9. harmless skinny bastard.” neškodný vychudnutý hajzlík.“
(Green, 2005, p.83) (Kostelníková, 2012,p.70) “And she caught him, and she got „Prichytila ho pri nevere, nasrala sa, a 10. pissed, so he hit her.” tak ju udrel.“
(Green 2005: 142) (Kostelníková 2012: 118) “No, you idiot.” the Colonel said. „Nie, ty idiot,“ odvetil Plukovník. 11. (Green 2005: 120) (Kostelníková 2012: 100)
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“Come here, you little bastard,” „Poď sem, zasran akýsi,“ 12. Ben said...
(Green 2008: 107) (Kopecký 2015: 107) “Listen, douchepants,” I said. „Počúvajte ma, vy starigáň,“ zaútočila 13. som naňho.
(Green 2012: 193) (Kopecký 2014: 147) “What an assclown,” Augustus „Trtko,“ zhodnotil Augustus. 14. said.
(Green 2012: 205) (Kopecký 2014: 156)
There are various translation procedures to be found in this part, but all examples have one thing in common ‒ they are translated in a mild way, so the aspect of equivalence is kept at least in this sense. To explore the equivalence in the examples a bit further, there are diverse results in the translation. There is an absolute equivalent in example no. 11, where the same word is used in both languages. There are numerous examples of partial equivalents, where translators needed to consider the context and the target audience. In most cases, they found a similar connotation in the target language and used an example that suited the most also from the pragmatic aspect. This applies more or less to the first ten examples from the table. The last free examples are interesting to analyse since their translation included a more complicated process. They are more expressive and proceed from the context. For example, sentence no. 13 is from The Fault in Our Stars, where an old man is being insulted because of his inappropriate behaviour. He is called a douchepants, which is in figurative sense a synonym for idiot or asshole (“douchepants”). The Slovak translation keeps the meaning of insult and adds the aspect of the age, and therefore uses the offensive expression starigáň (Springer, online).
6.2.6.2 “Screw” This expression is used a lot throughout the books, so it is essential to have a look at it in a separate chapter. A few examples are provided in the following table:
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Table 14 English Original Slovak Translation ... it was Margo who had stopped ... že to bola Margo, kto zariadil, aby Chuck Parson and his ilk from nám Chuck Parsons a jemu podobní 1. screwing with us. prestali robiť zle.
(Green 2008: 28) (Kopecký 2015: 31) I don't care if you screw up your Je mi jedno, ako si pokazíš život... 2. life...
(Green 2008: 29) (Kopecký 2015: 32) ‘You shouldn't screw Margo's ‚To sa nerobí, rozdávať si to v 3. boyfriend in the basement.’ suteréne s Marginým priateľom.‘
(Green 2008: 41) (Kopecký 2015: 43) “Screw you too!” the Colonel „Aj ty si trhni nohou!“ zareval 4. shouted. Plukovník.
(Green 2005: 49) (Kostelníková 2012: 42) Screw this. Seriem na to. 5. (Green 2005: 197) (Kostelníková 2012: 164)
According to Cambridge Dictionary (online), the word screw exists in several word classes and has multiple meanings. The meaning we are interested in here is the informal and in some cases, offensive one, which is either to have sex or to deceive someone. The table illustrates five examples, the translation of which goes from the least to the most expressive ones. We can again come to a conclusion that Slovak enables more varied translation, such as in example no. 3, where the sexual act is named in a gentle non- offensive way, which, on the other hand, is evident enough. The last two examples from the table nicely illustrate the expressivity that can be changed in the target language. The same word in the source language undergoes the process of translation by considering the context and the purpose, which results in two completely different translations. The first one is offensive, but keeps the meaning mild and acceptable, while the other one is more direct and more offensive.
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6.2.6.3 “Shit” This word, similarly to the previous one, is very frequent in Green's books, and is used in several contexts and in various forms. The examples are stated in the following table:
Table 15
English Original Slovak Translation “How do you think Alaska would „Čo myslíš, aký by mala Aljaška názor 1. feel about this shit?” na takéto chujoviny?“
(Green 2005: 227-228) (Kostelníková 2012: 189-190) “It's a little charitable to call this „Je dosť odvážne nazvať túto 2. shit wine,” Takumi cracked. močovku vínom,“ vyprskol Takumi.
(Green 2005: 139) (Kostelníková 2012: 115) “I don't like them and they don't „Nemám ich rád a oni nemajú radi like me, and so if you came here mňa. Takže, ak si sem prišiel s tým, že thinking that you were hot shit at sa chceš na tejto škole hrať na public school so you'll be hot shit rovnakého frajera ako na štátnej, 3. here, you'd best not to be seen with nemal by si sa ukazovať so mnou“ ... me” ... “Yeah, I went to public „Áno, Chip, chodil som na štátnu school. But I wasn't hot shit there, školu. Ale nebol som tam drsný Chip. I was regular shit.” frajer. Bol som taký správny frajer.“
(Green 2005: 20-21) (Kostelníková 2012: 19) “Take the can you spit in, you „Vezmi si so sebou tú plechovku, do 4. unhygienic shit.” ktorej si naflusal, ty zasraný dement.“
(Green 2005: 152) (Kostelníková 2012: 126) “That's such bullshit,” the Colonel „To sú také sračky,“ povedal said as we walked to lunch. “As if Plukovník, keď sme šli na obed. 5. Brooke Blakely gives two shits „Brooke Blakelyová na Aljašku about Alaska.” zvysoka srala.“
(Green 2005: 190) (Kostelníková 2012: 158) “I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. You „Prepáčte, ale to je sprostosť. 6. can't just throw him out of class.” Nemôžete ho len tak vyhodiť z triedy.“
(Green 2005: 52) (Kostelníková 2012: 44) It's a shitty job, but someone's got „Je to nahovno džob, ale niekto ho 7. to do it,“ Ben answered, smiling. musí robiť,“ odvetil Ben s úsmevom.
(Green 2008: 20) (Kopecký 2015: 23) “I am shit sure...” „Je mi skurvene jasné..“ 8. (Green 2005: 174) (Kostelníková 2012: 145) 54
“I just did some calculations and „Práve som to vyrátal a zistil som, že I've been able to determine that trepeš.“ 9. you're full of shit.”
(Green 2005: 97) (Kostelníková 2012: 81) “You reek of smoke, Pudge.” „Páchneš po cigaretách, Rambo.“ 10. “Ask me if I give a shit.” „Vieš, kam si to môžeš strčiť.“
(Green 2005: 188) (Kostelníková 2012: 157) “Keep your shit together.” „Len to teraz neposerte,“ šepla som 11. pľúcam.
(Green 2012: 128) (Kopecký 2014: 101) “Don't shit me around,“ he „Neosieraj,“ zavrčal. 12. growled.
(Green 2008: 17) (Kopecký 2015: 21)
As the table indicates, the use of the word shit is really diverse. According to Cambridge Dictionary (online), most of the meanings are offensive. It is often used to describe a nonsense, an unpleasant person or something of low quality. This is illustrated in the first four examples, where Slovak translation again allows a more expressive tranaslation using for example a slang word (chujoviny) and specification (močovka, frajer or dement). There are also words composed of several components, the word shit being one of them. Sentences no. 5 and 6 feature the word bullshit with the offensive meaning of a complete nonsense or a lie (Cambridge Dictionary, online). The second translation is a nice Slovak equivalent, while the first one is more expressive because of the use of a more offensive word. The word shit exists in other categories than nouns exclusively, as we can see in examples no. 7 and 8, where it stands for an adjective and an adverb. The translation is equivalent concerning the word classes, but the meaning is again affected by the context. Example no. 8 is much more offensive using a strong Slovak vulgarism. Collocations with the analysed word are quite common as well. The examples from the books are provided in the last four lines of the table. They all have fixed meanings, which again can be translated in various ways. Slovak translators use the diverse possibilities of the Slovak language, and even though the translated versions
55 are not fixed phrases, they include interesting and varied slang or slightly offensive words.
6.2.6.4 Strong Vulgarisms The last category concludes the chapter of vulgarisms. It contains the most offensive words, which might be common for some groups of people, but are definitely not appropriate. The table 16 contains an overview of these words:
Table 16 English Original Slovak Translation “Bar mitzvah money, bitch.” „Prachy z bar micva, debo.“ 1. (Green 2008: 30) (Kopecký 2015: 33) “I don't mean to sound like a „Nechcem vyzerať ako krava.“ 2. bitch.”
(Green 2017: 140) (Ghaniová 2018: 122) “That's weird, since she was such a „To je čudné, keďže sa minulú noc bitch last night,” I blurted out. správala ako totálna krava,“ vyhŕkol 3. som.
(Green 2005: 41) (Kostelníková 2012: 35) ... and my girlfriend is a bitch. ... a moja frajerka je piča. 4. (Green 2005: 48) (Kostelníková 2012: 41) “...The school doesn't want your „... Škola nechce, aby si mysleli, že sa parents to think you became a fuck- tu z teba stal gauner, pokiaľ ty sám up here any more than you want nebudeš chcieť, aby si to mysleli.“ 5. your parents to think you're a fuck- up.”
(Green 2005: 25) (Kostelníková 2012: 22) “The fuckers flooded my room. „Tí zmrdi mi vytopili celú izbu. They ruined like a hundred of my Zničili mi asi stovku kníh! 6. books!
(Green 2005: 88) (Kostelníková 2012: 74) “Fuck it. I'm not going anywhere „Jebem na to. Nikam s tebou nejdem, 7. with you,” the Colonel said. “ odsekol Plukovník.
(Green 2005: 47) (Kostelníková 2012: 40) We fucked everything up. Všetko sme posrali. 8. (Green 2005: 132) (Kostelníková 2012: 110)
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“Fuck you, dude.” „Naser si, kámo.“ 9. (Green 2005: 140) (Kostelníková 2012: 116) “Fuck you.” „Choď do piče!“ 10. (Green 2005: 204) (Kostelníková 2012: 170) “The best day of my life is the day i „Najlepší deň môjho života je, keď buy my mum a huge fucking kupujem mame kurevsky veľký dom.“ 11. house.”
(Green 2005: 141) (Kostelníková 2012: 118) “I'm so fucking glad to see that „Doriti, ešte nikdy som nebol taký dead fucking racoon.” svinsky šťastný, že vidím mŕtveho 12. medvedíka.“
(Green 2008: 142) (Kopecký 2015: 140) “...she said ‘Let's play Truth or „... a vtedy povedala: ‚Poďme si Dare,’ and then you fucked her.” zahrať Vadí ‒ Nevadí‘ a potom si si to “Wait, you fucked her? In front of s ňou rozdal.“ 13. the Colonel?” takumi cried. „Počkať, ty si s ňou šukal? Pred “I didn't fuck her.” Plukovníkom?“ vykríkol Takumi. „Nie, nešukal.“
(Green 2005: 223) (Kostelníková 2012: 186)
The first four examples in the table illustrate the translation of the word bitch. The definition in the dictionary defines the word as an informal and offensive with the meaning unpleasant or unkind (Cambridge Dictionary, online). As the table shows, it can be applied to both sexes and have mild or strong meaning (krava vs. piča). The second group of examples contains the word fuck, which is used very frequently by young adults in the books. Again, the translators manage to use various techniques in their works, including both avoiding and keeping the vulgarisms. The example no. 5 is a nice example of a slight taboo, where the vulgarism disappears from two reasons. The first word is translated as a mild non-offensive word gauner and then follows the omission, which enables the translator avoid the repetition of the same word or the use of another possibly more expressive and offensive word. The rest of the examples with the f-word is more or less expressive in the translation, some sentences being more offensive than the others (jebem vs. posrali, naser si vs. choď do piče).
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This word in a form of an adjective can function as a modifier which intensifies the meaning. However, the adjective in the translation does not automatically sound natural. That is why translators need to be careful and change the translation a bit, such as in the example no. 11, where the modifier does not modify the word dom like in the original, but the adjective veľký. The overuse of the intensifiers might lead to an undesirable redundancy and unnatural sentences, such as the example no. 12, where the word svinsky definitely intensifies the meaning of šťastný, but might not sound very natural to some people. The last example from the table is in the form of a verb with the meaning of have sex. There are again numerous synonyms that can be used in Slovak and that is why the translator uses both non-offensive and offensive expressions (rozdať vs. šukať).
6.2.7 Translator's Interpretation As it was mentioned several times already, a translation is a complicated process based on complex procedures and phases. The translator's intention is very important, and usually coincident with the author's intention (Newmark 2008: 12). However, it highly depends on the translator's decision as well. There are numerous aspects that need to be considered before producing the final translation. The translator has to think about the source language and its important issues, the target audience, the target language and his own thinking, which reflects his personality and his points of view (174). The last thing is very important since the readers then read the text from the translator's point of view. If we compare both the source and the target text, we may find our that there are some important differences, which can vary. It might be a case of misinterpretation or a mistake. Newmark (1993: 29-30), distinguishes misleading and ‘nuanced’ mistakes, each of them consisting of further categories. Misleading mistakes can be referential or linguistic, and the ‘nuanced’ ones are stylistic and lexical.
Different interpretations are common in the works of translation and we can find many of them in the translations of John Green's books. It is difficult to divide them into specific groups as it is not always clear whether the difference between the source and target language was intentional or not.
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I managed to organize the selected examples into several categories, but sometimes the nuances are very little or even insignificant. Therefore someone else might see it from a different point of view and have a different interpretation.
6.2.7.1 Referential Mistake Newmark (1993: 30) defines referential mistake as a “misstatement of fact”. The examples from Green's books are illustrated below:
Table 17 English Original Slovak Translation The Dean of Students Výchovný poradca 1. (Green 2005: 24) (Kostelníková 2012: 22) champagne poppers konfety v tvare šampanského 2. (Green 2005: 9) (Kostelníková 2012: 9)
Both of the English expressions can be defined as collocations, the first one being stronger than the other one. The first example balances on the edge of a referential mistake and partial equivalence when looking for the category of misinterpretation. The word dean is, according to Cambridge Dictionary (online), an official in a secondary school or university who leads a certain department or group of people. Bilingual dictionaries provide a Slovak equivalent dekan, who is, on the other hand, an employee of a university exclusively in Slovakia. The Slovak výchovný poradca would be rather a guidance counsellor in English (“Výchovný poradce”). Nevertheless, if we google the competencies and responsibilies of the Dean of Students in the USA, we find out that it coincides with the responsibilities of výchovný poradca in Slovakia. This translation could therefore be also considered a partial equivalent, which confirms the theory of the translation depending on various aspects and translator's point of view. It is more difficult to support the definitions of example no. 2, since I did not find any in dictionaries. According to various pictures and websites selling this product, champagne poppers could be described as champagne bottles which instead of champagne contain confetti which pop when you open them. It is disputable whether some of the confetti is in a shape of a champagne bottle, but according to the
59 websites, it seems they are not. If I was supposed to propose my own translation, I would say that vystreľovacie konfety is a good equivalent.
6.2.7.2 Linguistic Mistake Linguistic mistake is, according to the name, a mistake related to language. The examples are provided below:
Table 18 English Original Slovak Translation ... my chest lacked any hint of Na hrudi chýbal akýkoľvek náznak either fat or muscle, and I felt tuku či svalov. Cítil som sa trápne a embarrassed and wondered if uvažoval som, či náhodou nie je niečo 1. something could be done about so zrkadlom. the mirror.
(Green 2005: 15) (Kostelníková 2012: 14) ... because I just felt like ... lebo som skrátka cítil, že s ňou disagreeing with her. nesúhlasím. 2.
(Green 2005: 44) (Kostelníková 2012: 38) A two-toned Chevy Bronco Z opačného smeru sa k nim priblížilo approached from the other dvojtonové terénne vozidlo. 3. direction.
(Green 2013: 118) (Melcerová 2013: 142)
The first two examples are rather debatable. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online), to do something about something means “to take some sort of action to correct (a situation)”. This implies that the main character wants to do some action about the mirror, such as move it somewhere else or cover it. The translation, though, evokes the impression that the mirror is problematic. If the Slovak expression niečo je so zrkadlom was supposed to be translated into English, we would rather say: There is something wrong about the mirror.
A similar problem can be detected in the second sentence. To introduce a further context, Miles actually agrees with Alaska, but does not want to admit it because he is angry with her. The expression feel like doing something is defined as wishing to do something at a specific moment (Cambridge Dictionary, online),
60 which is not the same thing we see in the Slovak translation. Therefore I propose the following translation: ... leba sa mi skrátka nechcelo or len tak z princípu.
Example no. 3 was already analysed and discussed in my bachelor thesis, so I will only provide a short summary of the matter. After searching the meaning in the dictionary, I found out that the meaning of the word toned is connected to a shade of colour and not weight. That is why I proposed the word dvojfarebný in my translation (Valúšková 2017: 57-58).
6.2.7.3 Intention of Equivalence This subchapter consists of examples that might be considered misinterpreted, but at the same time, translator's might have had their reasons for using these particular expressions and considered them partial equivalents:
Table 19 English Original Slovak Traslation My uncles had told me stories Strýkovia mi často rozprávali príbehy about how famous my dad had been o tom, aký bol na kampuse známy, ako on campus for having prehýril dni a noci, a pritom v pohode 1. simultaneously raised hell and zvládal všetky skúšky. aced all his classes.
(Green 2005: 11) (Kostelníková 2012: 11) “... That was the worst day.” „... Toto bol môj najhorší deň.” Lara was laughing. “I'm sorry, Lara sa rozosmiala. „Prepáč, Miles.“ 2. Miles.”
(Green 2005: 143) (Kostelníková 2012: 119) I'd wouldn't have cared if my Vôbec by mi nezáležalo na tom, či je girlfriend was a Jaguar-driving moja frajerka kyklop s dlhou chlpatou Cyclops with a beard - I'd have bradou jazdiaci na jaguári ‒ bol by 3. been grateful just to have someone som šťastný, že si mám s kým vrznúť. to make out with.
(Green 2005: 32) (Kostelníková 2012: 28)
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“Could the two people who are „Mohli by sa láskavo utíšiť tí dvaja, making out please be quiet?” the ktorí si to práve rozdávajú?“ spýtal sa Colonel asked loudly from his nahlas Plukovník zo svojho spacáka. 4. sleeping bag. “Those of us who are „Tí z nás, ktorí nešukajú, sú opití a not making out are drunk and unavení.“ tired.
(Green 2005: 149) (Kostelníková 2012: 123) “Dad's not in the picture?” „Otec s vami nežije?“ “He's dead.” „Zomel.“ 5. “Oh. I'm sorry.” „Aha. Úprimnú sústrasť.“
(Green 2017: 174) (Ghaniová 2018: 149)
The table provides a variety of examples that in some cases change the meaning a lot. Example no. 1 shows a partial equivalent where the translation is more specific. However, I believe the meaning is a bit different, since to raise hell means to behave in an uncontrolled way (Cambridge Dictionary, online). The Slovak translation went throught the process of specification expressing only the aspect of drinking and partying all days. The second example from the table needs to be given a further context to be understood. Miles describes his worst day to his friends and everybody is laughing as it is quite funny. Lara says she is sorry and the word prepáč is definitely a good equivalent in general. However, I think there is another possibility, since the word sorry is also used when you pity someone, and Lara probably feels sorry for Miles and his bad day. The following two examples involve the use of the phrasal verb make out. Some disctionaries define this expression as long kissing or a physical act which, however, does not include the intercourse itself. Other dictionaries include also the meaning of having sex. Both translations are therefore equivalent, but the context does not imply the same thing. In the example no. 3, Miles, who is a good boy and wishes to love someone, only wants to have somebody to kiss. In the following example, there is a group of people in the same room and two of them are making out, meaning kissing and maybe touching only. There are further details in the book and none of them imply that there is an actual act of having sex. The alternative translation might include the word bozkávať or oblizovať.
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The last example from Table 19 is again about the word sorry. The translation containes the expression Úprimnú sústrasť, but I do not find it convenient in this situation, since the person has been dead for a long time already. The person asking about the father is either sorry for asking about it or wants to express their sympathy. The more appropritate expression in Slovak might be prepáč or to je mi ľúto.
6.2.7.4 Translator's Unawareness The last category of this chapter summarizes examples which were translated in a way that differs from the author's intention. The examples are to be seen below:
Table 20 English Original Slovak Translation “Sometimes I don't get you,” I said. „Občas ti vážne nerozumiem,“ ... “You never get me. That's the prehovoril som nakoniec. ...„ Nie, ty 1. whole point.” mi nikdy nerozumieš. To je ten problém.“
(Green 2005: 69) (Kostelníková 2012: 59) “Why didn't you ever tell me?” the „Prečo si mi to nikdy nepovedala?“ Colonel asked, his voice soft. spýtal sa Plukovník tlmeným hlasom. “It never came up.” And then we „Nikdy sa to nedostalo na pretras.” 2. stopped asking questions. What the Vtedy sme sa prestali pýtať. Čo tým, hell do you say? dopaže, myslela?
(Green 2005: 146) (Kostelníková 2012: 121)
“I think I'm gonna stay at home „Asi dnes ostanem doma,“ povedala a tonight,” she said, and then turned pozrela na Colina. „Choď s nimi ty,“ her head to Colin and said, “Go.” povedala mu. „Ajaj, Lindsey, veď ja 3. “Aww, Linds. I was just screwing som doteraz spával s tebou.“ with you.” “Go,” she said again, „Poďme,“ pokynula Colinovi, ktorý and Colin hit the gas and shot off. šliapol na plyn a vyrazil.
(Green 2013: 118-119) (Melcerová 2015: 142)
All of these examples need a further context to be understood and analysed. To explain the first situation, Alaska is a very mysterious person and makes it really difficult for people to understand her. Miles complains about this feature of hers and she says that the whole point of the matter is that you never understand and that is the way it should be. The translation, though, implies that she actually wants
63 him to understand her and expresses irritation. My alternative translation would be: Mne sa nedá rozumieť. A o tom to je. The second example is from the day where the closest friends tell each other about their best and worst days. Alaska's worst day includes her mother dying and Alaska not helping her because she was a child, and did not realize she needed to call an ambulance. It is the first time they learn this thing about her and the Colonel, who has known her for some time already, is surprised, and asks her why she did not tell him before. She says there was no occasion and then everybody stops asking questions. Miles in his head says: What the hell do you say? because there is nothing they could say to make the situation better, and I think that the Slovak translation should be as follows: Vtedy sme sa prestali pýtať. Veď čo k tomu, doriti, povedať? It might be more logical than the official translation where Miles does not understand the meaning of Alaska's previous sentence. The last example was mentioned and analysed in my bachelor thesis, so I wil only summarize my findings and my interpretation. In this situation, Lindsey gets angry with her boyfriend for calling her by a nickname she does not like. He wants to justify his behaviour and says: I was just screwing with you. Even though the word screw has several meanings and one of them is to have sex, here the situation implies that he was only teasing her in a friendly way, which is not even partially equal with the official Slovak translation (Ajaj, Lindsey, veď ja som doteraz spával s tebou.). I therefore proposed an alternative translation: Ale, Linds, veď ja som len žartoval (Valúšková 2017: 58-59).
6.2.8 Pragmatic Differences It is undeniable that native speakers of different languages have different linguistic and extra-linguistic experience, which results in the pragmatic differences translators have to deal with. There are various translation procedures that are used in this case, such as adding or omitting information, substitution by an analogy or an extra explanation (Knittlová et al 2010: 92). The chapter is divided into three subchapters analysing and illustrating examples from John Green's books.
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6.2.8.1 Adding Information This translation procedure helps the reader classify and possibly understand a meaning of a word or phrase. It is mostly used with proper names of states, tribes, magazines, shops, etc. (Knittlová et al 2010: 92-93). The example from the book is as follows:
Table 21 English Original Slovak Translation “I'm Miles Halter. Nice to meet „Volám sa Miles Halter. Teší ma.“ you.” „Miles, ako v ‚miles to go before I “Miles as in ‘to go before I sleep’?” sleep‘?” opýtal sa ma. he asked me. „Hm?“ “Huh?” „To je báseň od Roberta Frosta. Nikdy “It's a Robert Frost poem. You've si ho nečítal?“ never read him?” Potriasol som hlavou, že nie. I shook my head no. „Šťastný to človek. Tu ťa na “Consider yourself lucky.” He angličtine neminie.“ smiled.
(Green 2005: 16-17) (Kostelníková 2012: 15)
The example from the table is based on a pun, which means it could also be included in the chapter 6.2.3. Miles is a male name and, at the same time, it is a plural noun meaning a unit of distance. ‘Miles to go before I sleep’ is a line from a poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by an American poet, Robert Frost (“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”). I believe it is a part of the school curricula in the USA, so it is more common for American teenagers to be familiar with this author and poem than for Slovak ones, who would probably have to study American literature at university to come across this information. The translator kept the line from the poem in English and added the information about English classes, which justified her choice of the translation procedure.
6.2.8.2 Omitting Information The basic principle of this technique is leaving out the specifying semantic element and replacing the word in the source language by a more general equivalent in the target language (Knittlová et al 2010: 92-93). The examples are illustrated below:
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Table 22 English Original Slovak Translation “WE GOT HIGHER S-A-TS” ... „DÍVAME SA NA VÁS Z VÝŠOK.“ “YOU'LL BE WORKING FOR US ... „OTROCKÝ ŽIVOT NA VÁS 1. SOME DAY!” VOLÁ!“
(Green 2005: 62) (Kostelníková 2012: 53) “You're such a Debbie Downer,” „Tebe ťažko vyhovieť,“ povedala 2. his mom said. mama.
(Green 2012: 27) (Kopecký 2014: 27) “Do you feel drunk?” „Si už konečne opitý?“ “If drunk were cookies, I'd be „Mhm...“ Famous Amos.” 3. We laughed.“Chips Ahoy! would have been funnier,” I said. “Forgive me. Not at my best.”
(Green 2005: 214) (Kostelníková 2012: 178)
The first example contains the word SAT, which is an abbreviation for Scholastic Aptitude Test. It is a test American students have to pass before leaving for college (Cambridge Dictionary, online). The partial equivalent for this test might be maturita, and this translation will be analysed further on in the subchapter of substitution by an analogy. In this situation, Kostelníková decided to use rather a generalized expression leaving the mention of SAT out. It is also interesting to look at the following sentence of the example no. 1. It is more expressive using the expression otrocký život, which could not work in the original text, since it might be considered offensive taking the historical context into account. The example no. 2 is based on a name of a character from the Saturday Night Live show. Debbie Downer was played by Rachel Dratch, and was a typical pessimistic person seeing the worst in things, which always resulted in spoiling the positive mood and atmosphere. This has been transmitted into real-life situations, so if a person acts in the similar way as this character, they are often called Debbie Downer (Urban Dictionary, online). There is no such connotation in Slovak that could be considered at least a partial equivalent. The translator decided to omit this information and replace it by a general statement.
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The illustration no. 3 is an example of a complete omission, where a part of the text was fully left out in the translation, not even attempting to generalize or substitute the meaning. A young boy compares his stage of drunkenness to the quality of different brands of cookies. It is difficult to find the equivalent in Slovak, even thought we have plenty of types of biscuits. However, the problem is we do not use comparison in such way, so it might sound very unnatural to a Slovak reader.
6.2.8.3 Substitution by an Analogy The last translation technique is the most common when dealing with pragmatic differences. Translators seek to find a convenient functional equivalent to the word from the source language, which describes a different reality. It is usually used with units of measurement, interjections or forms of addressing (Knittlová et al 2010: 93-95). There are various examples of this technique in the following table:
Table 23 English Original Slovak Translation SAT maturita 1. (Green 2005: 22) (Kostelníková 2012: 20) As she drove, Mom was asking me V aute sa ma mama vypytovala na 2. about classes and finals and prom. vyučko, maturitu a ples.
(Green 2008: 11) (Kopecký 2015: 15) GED maturitu 3. (Green 2012: 26) (Kopecký 2014: 26) graduation na maturitu 4. (Green 2008: 23) (Kopecký 2015: 26) “You're a solid B-plus. If you can „Presne. Si tak na dvojku. Ak dokážeš build a B-plus city with C-minus vybudovať mesto na dvojku v 5. geography, that's pretty great.” trojkovej oblasti, je to slušný výkon.“
(Green 2017: 243) (Ghaniová 2018: 207) The speed limit drops from fifty- Najvyššia povolená rýchlosť klesne five to forty-five and then to najprv z deväťdesiatky na 6. thirty-five. sedemdesiatku a potom až na päťdesiatku.
(Green 2008: 279) (Kopecký 2015: 267) 67
I Spy with my little eye Hádaj, na čo myslím 7. (Green 2008: 246) (Kopecký 2015: 238) “He wasn't your fairy-tale Prince „Nebol princ na bielom koni alebo 8. Charming or whatever.” čosi také.“
(Green 2012: 302) (Kopecký 2014: 227) drawing straws ťahať zápalky 9. (Green 2017: 49) (Ghaniová 2018: 48)
Also, it was glaringly, bubble- A navyše bol krikľavo žuvačkovo 10. gummingly, Pepto-Bismolly pink. ibalginovoružový.
(Green 2013: 56) (Melcerová 2015: 71) “Ashes to ashes. Garage sales to „Popol sa na popol obráti. Z garage sales,” I said. antikvariátu do antikvariátu,“ 11. povedal som.
(Green 2005: 185) (Kostelníková 2012: 154)
The first four examples look into the English words and expressions that can be translated by using the same Slovak equivalent. The definition of SAT was already given in the previous subchapter, where the translation procedure was based on the generalization. American SAT and Slovak maturita are both final tests taken at the end of the secondary school, the result of which is important for the acceptance to the university. The other three examples illustrate different equivalents of the word maturita, finals being a slightly closer one than the graduation. GED is an abbreviation for General Equivalency Diploma, a certificate confirming that a student who did not finish high school has passed an exam covering the same skills as SAT (Cambridge Dictionary, online). As far as I am concerned, there is no such thing in Slovakia, so maturita is probably the best possible translation. To remain in the topic of school and education, we can analyse the example no. 5, which uses the American system of grading to evaluate someone's skills. Since the Slovak school system uses numbers instead of letters to evaluate students, the translation makes use of this fact. Illustrations no. 6 and 7 are typical examples of the technique of analogy. The first one concerns the equivalent of miles and kilometres, while the second one deals with a game, the name of which is completely different in both languages. However,
68 the principle of both games is the same, and therefore the Slovak translation contains a good equivalent. The rest of the examples illustrate the substitution by an analogy exactly as it was defined in the theoretical part. The translators had to take the described reality and find the same or a very similar reality in the target language (fairy-tale Prince Charming : princ na bielom koni, drawing straws : ťahať zápalky, Pepto-Bismolly pink : ibalginovoružový). Only the translation of the last example is a bit more distant, but it is understandable, since there are no garage sales in Slovakia. Garage sales are events during which people sell things they do not need anymore. As the name implies, they often take place in garages (Cambridge Dictionary, online). As there are no such events in Slovakia, the word antikvariát is a good equivalent.
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7 VISUAL FEATURES John Green's style has been defined in the chapter 4.3. It is unique by the use of specific linguistic features, which are supported by various visual elements. I find this graphic aspect very important as it makes the reading easier for the reader. It facilitates the understanding of the text, since the dialogues become more vivid and real, and the reader feels fully immersed in the action. There are six subchapters explaining the features, illustrating the examples and comparing the translations:
7.1 Italics The use of italics in Green's books can be divided into two categories according to the purpose of their use. The first purpose is to distinguish the inner monologues and thoughts from the dialogues with other characters, such as in the following example:
Table 24 English Original Slovak Translation As we drove silently down I-4, I found Keď sme mlčky pokračovali po po I- myself thinking about the day that the štvorke, spomenul som si, ako sme vtedy guy in the gray suit showed up dead. našli toho mŕtveho v sivom obleku. Maybe that's the reason she chose me, I Možno preto si ma vybrala, vravel som thought. si.
(Green 2008: 70) (Kopecký 2015: 70)
As it can be seen, there is no italics in the translation. The translators often choose not to use italics, but there are also many cases, where they keep it:
Table 25 English Original Slovak Translation He smiled a little and then shrugged. Slabo sa usmial a pokrčil plecami. “Okay. I'm thinking, I wish she wasn't „Okej. Myslím na toto: Kiežby jej nešlo after the reward.” o odmenu.“
(Green 2017: 32) (Ghaniová 2018: 33)
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The other use of italics in the books is for emphasis. It emphasizes the words that would be emphasized via intonation if it was a real-life situation. It helps a lot when reading, because you have the feeling that you hear the dialogues, and you understand the text more. The table illustrates both cases ‒ italics preserved and omitted in the translation.
Table 26 English Original Slovak Translation It's the perfect day to call in sick. Štvrtok je dokonalý deň na 1. predstieranie choroby.
(Green 2006: 115) (Melcerová 2015: 139) The fact that Augustus made me Ak sa pri Augustovi cítim mimoriadna, feel special did not necessarily to ešte neznamená, že ma tak budú 2. mean that I was special. vnímať všetci.
(Green 2012: 27) (Kopecký 2014: 26-27)
7.2 Capital Letters We distinguish two letter cases, a lower case and an upper case. The upper case, or in other words, capital letters are used at the beginning of sentences or proper nouns. However, they can also be efficient for a stylistic usage, for example when using capital letters only (“Letter case”). It is mostly applied for emphasis, usually when expressing shouting or being very strict and serious about something. John Green loves to use capital letters in situations that require a proper emphasis. Not all translators stick to the same rule, though. The table again illustrates both variants:
Table 27 English Original Slovak Translation “NO! UP! NOW!” „NIE! VSTÁVAJ! HNEĎ!“ 1. (Green 2005: 102) (Kostelníková 2012: 86)
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“Everybody, hey, shut up, hold on, „Hej, decká, držte huby, počkaj, držte shut up‒‒QUENTIN JACOBSEN! huby ‒ Quentin Jacobsen! Mám ho na IS INSIDE MY PHONE!” There príjme!“ Nasledoval jasot a hlas opäť 2. was a cheer then, and Ben's voice zosilnel. returned.
(Green 2008: 176) (Kopecký 2015: 171)
7.3 Short Sentences Another possibility of expressing emphasis is a combination of linguistic and visual features. As it was already mentioned, John Green uses italics when he wants to emphasize a word in a sentence. There are, however, situations where every word in the sentence needs to be emphasized. That is why the author uses short sentences, most of them consisting of one word exclusively. Different translators solve this using different techniques. Some have tendecies not to render it at all, while some use different stylistic means. The examples are provided below:
Table 28 English Original Slovak Translation “I know. I'm pretty well up-to-date „Viem. Mám o tvojom živote pomerne on your life, because Gus never. aktuálne informácie, lebo Gus 1. Talks. About. Anything. Else.” nerozpráva o ničom inom.“
(Green 2012: 130) (Kopecký 2014: 103) “I.Don't. Cheat.” „Ja. Ne-pod-vá-dzam.“ 2. (Green 2005: 81) (Kostelníková 2012: 69) That I like your body. I like your Že sa mi páči tvoje telo. Tvoj brucho, stomach and your legs and your tvoje nohy, tvoje vlasy. Páči sa mi... 3. hair and I like. Your. Body. tvoje... telo.
(Green 2017: 171) (Ghaniová 2018: 146)
The first translation completely omits the emphasis expressed in the original text. Translators of the other texts try to keep the emphasis and apply different techniques. Kostelníková wanted to keep the same principle using one-word sentences. The problem is that the Slovak verb is much longer than the English one, and the effect would be lost. She therefore decided to divide the verb into syllables
72 using hyphens. Ghaniová, similarly to Kostelníková, wanted to follow John Green's examples, which she managed to do applying a slight change ‒ using three dots instead of one.
7.4 Omission of Commas In some situations, there are commas omitted. It might sound a bit chaotic, but it is done in order to increase the dynamics of the situation. John Green emphasizes the excitement or the lack of time. Translators again have different methods of dealing with this feature. The illustrations can be found in Table 29:
Table 29 English Original Slovak Translation But I lacked the courage and she Chýbala mi však odvaha. Ona mala had a boyfriend and I was gawky frajera a ja som bol nemotorný. Ona and she was gorgeous and I was bola nádherná a ja zúfalo nudný. A 1. hopelessly boring and she was bola neskutočne očarujúca. endlessly fascinating.
(Green 2005: 109) (Kostelníková 2012: 90-91) “Okay, I get off work at six. „Okej, v práci končím o šiestej. Applebee's. Might have to Stretnime sa v Applebee's. Možno sa multitask, though, because I'm budem venovať viacerým veciam trying to finish a story‒don't take it naraz, lebo sa snažím dopísať príbeh... 2. personally okay he's calling I have Okej, neber to osobne, ale práve mi to go thanks love you bye.” volá, už musím ísť, vďaka, maj sa, čau.“
(Green 2017: 115) (Ghaniová 2018: 100) “That was the best night of my life „Bol to najlepší večer v mojom živote, thank you being there oh my God ďakujem, že ste tam šli so mnou, that was just th best thing that's božemôj, nič lepšie som ešte nikdy ever happened to me I feel like I nezažil, mám pocit, že by zo mňa 3. might be an artist, like a proper mohol byť ozajstný umelec. Bolo to one. That was so, so amazing. Did úžasné. Bavili ste sa dobre? you guys have fun?”
(Green 2017: 268) (Ghaniová 2018: 226)
The examples illustrate both excitement and hurry, and show us two possible translation methods. Kostelníková seeks to compensate for the technique used by Green using a different method. Instead of omitting commas, she divided a complex sentence into mutiple short sentences with the same effect. Both translations by 73
Ghaniová, though, ignore the emphasis and use commas according to the Slovak orthographic rules.
7.5 Omission of Spaces This subchapter looks into the omission of spaces between words which leads to the emphasis of dynamics and stressful situations. This is illustrated in the following table:
Table 30 English Original Slovak Translation “Wegottagohome,” I said. „Malibysmeísťdomov,“ vyhŕkol som. “I thought you closed your eyes „Myslela som si, že keď človek zomrie, when you died,” she said. zavrú sa mu,“ pokračovala. 1. “Margowegottagohomeandtell.” „Margomusímeísťdomovapovedaťtonaš im.“
(Green 2008: 5) (Kopecký 2015: 9) “I'mfineI'mfineQuisbleeding.” „Nikde, nikde, Kvéčko krváca.“ 2. (Green 2008: 269) (Kopecký 2015: 259)
Even though both translations are the works of the same person, the methods are different. Green's technique is preserved only in the first example. This confirms the variety that arises in the field of translation, since the techniques and methods can vary even within a single work by a single translator.
7.6 Messages The last subchapter deals with the visual form of messages included in the books. As it was mentioned several times, the main characters are young adults who love to spend time with their friends. Technologies develop really fast and it can be nicely mapped focusing on the way of communication between the protagonists. The first two books show almost no possibilities of texting and the communication happens mainly in real life. If they need to phone somebody, they use the public phones. The first signs of texting are in the third book, Paper Towns. Friends use IM (Instant Messaging), have their nicknames and share their thoughts through internet. The visual translation is basically the same:
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Table 31 English Original Slovak Translation QTHERESURRECTION: How was QTHERESURRECTION: Čo párty? the party? MALSOMZAPALMOCOVYCHCIEST: ITWASAKIDNEYINFECTION: O ničom, ako inak. Každá žúrka, kam Lame, of course. Every party I go to is idem, je o ničom. lame. QTHERESURRECTION: Škoda, že QTHERESURRECTION: Sorry I som nešiel. Si nejako skoro hore. missed it. You're up early. Want to come Neprídeš si zahrať Resurrection? over, play Resurrection? MALSOMZAPALMOCOVYCHCIEST: ITWASAKIDNEYINFECTION: Are Ti šibe? you kidding?
(Green 2008: 162) (Kopecký 2015: 158)
The interesting thing concerning translation is that Slovak is, unlike English, a diacritical language, which means it enables the translators to play more with the words. For example, in this situation, the nicknames are without diacritics, while the text itself has diacritics because it is written on a computer. We will explore on the subject of diacritics a bit more in the following examples.
The next book published was The Fault in Our Stars. In this book, we get a bit further in technologies as writing text messages becomes popular:
Table 32 English Original Slovak Translation ... Kaitlyn texted back. ... mi prišla správa od Kaitlyn.
Awesomesauce. Happy Half Birthday. Fantazia. Vsetko naj k polnarodkam. Castleton at 3.32? 15:32 v Castletone?
Kaitlyn had the kind of packed social Kaitlyn viedla taký čulý spoločenský life that needs to be scheduled down to život, že si ho musela plánovať na the minute. I responded: minúty. Odpísala som jej:
Sounds good. I'll be at the food court. Moze byt. Budem cakat pri restikach.
(Green 2012: 41) (Kopecký 2014: 37)
The visual side of the text is more distinguishable in the translation, since Kopecký decided to use italics for the messages. The diacritics is completely omitted 75 and messages are very short because people in that time tried to squeeze every information into one short message in order to pay less.
The last book, Turtles All the Way Down, was published in 2017. Blogs, texting and similar modern conveniences are a regular part of the story. Texting has advanced a bit again and main characters use this opportunity much more than protagonists in the previous books. Here is an example from the book:
Table 33 English Original Slovak Translation I took my phone and texted Daisy: I'm so Vzala som do ruky mobil a napísala sorry I haven't been a good friend. I Daisy: Veľmi ma mrzí, že som ti nebola can't stop thinking about it. dobrou kamoškou. Stále na to myslím. She wrote back immediately: It's fine. Odpísala mi ihneď: Všetko je v pohode. How are you? Ako sa máš?
Me: I do care about your life and I'm Ja: Zaujíma ma tvoj život a je mi ľúto, že sorry I haven't shown it. som to nedávala najavo. Ona: Holmesy, upokoj sa, všetko je v Daisy: Holmesy calm down everything is pohode. Mrzí ma, že sme sa pohádali, fine I'm sorry we fought we'll make up it ale udobríme sa a všetko bude, ako má will be fine. byť. Ja: Je mi to fakt ľúto. Nedokážem jasne Me: I'm just really sorry. I can't think uvažovať. straight. Ona: Prestaň sa ospravedlňovať. Dali ti nejaké oblbováky? Daisy: Stop apologizing. Are you on sweet pain meds?
(Green 2017: 226) (Ghaniová 2018: 192)
Both the author and the translator use the italics for messages to distinguish them from the rest of the text. The translator follows the trends of the modern society, using diacritics unlike the previous translator. Nowadays it is much more common and less expensive to write messages with diacritics, and the translation proves it. However, it is important to say that it might not have been the translator's intention, and the use of diactritics is only coincidental.
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8 FINAL EVALUATION The chapters 6 and 7 provide a deeper look into the translation strategies of different translators in two important aspects of John Green's writing ‒ the linguistic aspect and the visual aspect. Almost every book was translated by a different translator and the final work is always unique in a way. Even though every translation is a new work to some extent, there should be the main features and aspects preserved. Some features are more challenging than others, but they should be rendered or at least compensated for in a certain way.
I will start chronologically in the same order the books were published. John Green's first book, Looking for Alaska, was translated by Monika Kostelníková. The book is full of intensifiers, vulgarisms and other linguistic elements that make it special and vivid. In general, Monika Kostelníková finds good equivalents that are often, however, more expressive than the original text. This is reflected mainly in the translation of names and nicknames, intensifiers and swear words. The same intensifying English word has a variety of synonyms in Kostelníková's translation, but some of them might be considered less natural. She uses both mild and strong vulgarisms, even though the text is generally more offensive, and strong swear words are more common than in different translations. Some referential and linguistic mistakes can be found, as well as cases of translator's different interpretation including the possible author's unawareness. In the translation of puns and pragmatics, some examples of addition and omission can be observed. From the visual aspect, most of Green's features were kept, such as italics for thoughts and emphasis, capital letters and omission of commas. My impression of the Slovak translation was good, and even though some puns and figurative language were omitted, they were compensated by using more diverse synonyms and more expressive phrases in other parts of the book.
An Abundance of Katherines was translated by Jana Melcerová. This book is specific mainly for the enormous use of anagrams, which present a big problem and challenge for a translator. Jana Melcerová did a good job managing to translate almost all anagrams without significant changes. In my suggested translation, I was trying to adjust the translation even more in order to make as few changes as 77 possible. There were also some cases of translator's different interpretation or even misintepretation, but on the other hand, the use of figurative language and creative nicknames was quite rich. The visual side of the text was, similarly to Kostelníková's translation, preserved as in the original, using mainly capital letters, italics and graphs.
The following two books, Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars were both translated by Milan Kopecký. The two books quite vary in the main themes, which are obviously supported by different linguistic means, but the style is more or less the same. Milan Kopecký proved his creativity in the translation of puns and figurative language. The use of adaptation and a lot of generalization in the translation of names is also quite common. Concerning slang and colloquial language, he provides a wide range of Slovak expressions that sound very natural. There is a tendency to translate swear words in a less expressive way, which makes the whole work a less offensive story. There are almost no examples of mistakes or translator's unawareness in interpretation. From the pragmatic point of view, substitution by an analogy was used a lot, and some information was omitted. Some visual features were preserved in the translation, such as omission of spaces, capital letters and one- word sentences. The capital letters, though, were not preserved to the same extent as their use in the original text, and there was a strong tendency to leave out the italics for emphasis.
The latest book written by John Green, Turtles All the Way Down, was translated by Diana Ghaniová. This book is also a bit specific for its themes, but the sytle is always present. Diana Ghaniová uses a lot of generalization in the translation, for instance in the translation of names, but we can find many good figurative equivalents and idioms in the Slovak text too. Some puns lost their original meaning, some situations have different interpretations, and for the pragmatic aspect, the use of substitution by an analogy is common. The visual part of the translation is partially preserved in the translation, but in comparison with other books, the visual aspect is less supported. There are less capital letters and less italics. On the other hand, they are used together with one-word sentences in life-threatening parts of the
78 book, which emphasizes the tension of the plot and the importance and seriousness of the situation.
To summarise the chapter of evaluation, it is important to say that every translation is a bit different and has its specific features, but they all render John Green's writing style into Slovak, even though some of them a bit more than the others. According to the analysis provided in chapters 6 and 7, the final evaluation and my own impression as a reader of both the original text and the Slovak translations, it can be stated that Milan Kopecký's and Monika Kostelníková's translations were the most appropriate ones concerning the equivalents and the final picture created by the translation. Kostelníková's work was a bit more expressive in some parts, but it can be perceived as a compensation for some omitted elements in more complicated parts. Milan Kopecký's translation was, by contrast, less expressive in some parts, but used a wide range of synonyms. I personally missed the italics for emphasis in the translation, since the works that used italics were so much easier to read. Nevertheless, all books prove that a translation procedure is a complex process, which is always challenging, and that the style can be rendered and preserved despite different interpretations or unsignificant mistakes. Concerning the trends of the society, the changes and progress are mostly seen in the visual aspect of translation of messages, and in the linguistic use of adaptation of foreign words into the target language.
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9 CONCLUSION The master's thesis deals with the analysis of young adult literature books written by John Green and their rendering into Slovak. John Green has a specific style of writing in both the linguistic and the visual aspect. The thesis looks into the way different translators work with these two aspects, and analyses and compares their methods and techniques. In the past, I already worked with one of the books in my bachelor thesis, and wanted to explore the matter a bit more. The choice of the topic was therefore very clear.
The thesis is divided into ten chapters, some of them consisting of further subchapters. The first chapter is an introduction explaining the reasons behind the choice of the topic and some introductory information about the aim and the structure of the thesis. The following four chapters are rather theoretical explaining the young adult literature as a genre, John Green's life and his books including basic information about the plot and main characters. Moreover, a theory of writing style, John Green's style and the theory of translation are explained. The longest and the most important chapter is divided into several subchapters. It provides the theoretical background of the equivalence in translation by Dagmar Knittlová and the analysis of the selected features that are divided into more specific categories providing a short theoretical introduction, examples from the original text and the Slovak translation, and the analysis and comparison of methods and procedures. In some cases, my own alternative translation is proposed. The next chapter deals with the other aspect of Green's writing style ‒ the visual features of the text, the examples and their comparison. Then follows the final evaluation of the findings, conclusion and the bibliography.
The procedure of my work varied according to the analysed element, since each of them is different and specific. In general, I firstly selected the elements from the books, and divided them into several categories according to their common features. Subsequently, after a thorough study of dictionary entries, relevant websites, and several books by Dagmar Knittlová and Peter Newmark, I provided a theoretical background for each feature, and I illustrated examples from the original
80 books and the translations. Finally, I analysed the translation methods and techniques used by different Slovak translators, and occasionally suggested my own translation.
This work is based on my bachelor thesis, which can be considered a starting point for the choice of the topic and initial motivation. I managed to elaborate on the matter of John Green's writing style using elements from all novels he wrote on his own and their Slovak translations, and comparing the translation methods of different translators. As it was stated in the final evaluation, the analysis and comparison showed us that the translation is a difficult complex process that includes a wide range of translation methods and procedures. It has been proved that it is possible to preserve the style of the original book despite some changes and adjustments, maintining also the constant change of trends in both the language and the society.
I hope this work can be a source of inspiration for other students, who are new to the theory and practice of translation. My analysis and my own alternative translations might also be an interesting source of consultation for those interested in the translation of young adult literature. The topic could be therefore further elaborated in a context of the writing style of young adult literature in general. I am positive about the fact that this thesis was a valuable experience for me, allowing me to explore the theory of writing style, John Green's books and most importantly, the translation itself.
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10 BIBLIOGRAPHY
10.1 Printed
10.1.1 Primary
Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. Abbotsford, B.C.: Future Aids. Green, J. (2013). Kam zmizla Aljaška. (M. Kostelníková, Trans.). Bratislava: SLOVART.
Green, J. (2006). An Abudance of Katherines. New York: Speak. Green, J. (2015). Poučka o podstate predvídateľnosti Katherín. (J. Melcerová, Trans.). Bratislava: Ikar.
Green, J. (2008). Paper Towns. New York, NY: Dutton Books. Green, J. (2015). Papierové mestá. (M. Kopecký, Trans.). Bratislava: Ikar.
Green, J. (2012). The fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books. Green, J. (2014). Na vine sú hviezdy. (M. Kopecký, Trans.). Bratislava: Ikar.
Green, J. (2017). Turtles All the Way Down. New York: Random House Large Print. Green, J. (2018). Všade samé korytnačky. (D. Ghaniová, Trans.). Bratislava: Ikar.
10.1.2 Secondary
Hoffmannová, J. (1997). Stylistika a--: současná situace stylistiky. Praha: Trizonia. Jazykové příručky (Trizonia).
Knittlová, D. (1990). Funkční styly v angličtině a češtině. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého.
Knittlová, D. (2000). K teorii a praxi překladu. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého.
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Knittlová, D. et al (2010). Překlad a překládání. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého.
Kožmín, Z. (1967). Umění stylu. Praha: Československý spisovatel.
Levý, J. (1983). Umění překladu. Praha: Panorama.
Miko, Fr. (1976). Štýlové konfrontácie. Bratislava : Tatran.
Newmark, P. (1991). About Translation (Multilingual Matters). Multilingual Matters.
Newmark, P. (1993). Paragraphs on Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Mutters Ltd.
Newmark, P. (1998). More Paragraphs on Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Newmark, P. (2008). A Textbook of Translation. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Oravec, P. (2014). Slovník slangu a hovorovej slovenčiny. Praha: Maxdorf.
Valúšková, L. (2017). ‘An Abundance of Katherines’ by John Green (Translation and Analysis of Selected Parts): bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D.
Žačoková, A. (2011). Oxford ilustrovaný anglický výkladový slovník. Bratislava: Slovart.
10.2 Online
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Douche pants. (n.d.). Definithing ‒ Define Anything. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://definithing.com/douche-pants/.
Glosbe ‒ the multilingual online dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://glosbe.com/.
John Green (author). (2019, November 20). Wikipedia ‒ The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Green_(author).
Johnson, E., & Johnson, E. (2017, October 11). 3 Key Differences Between YA Fiction and Adult Fiction. Writer's Edit. Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/ultimate-guide-ya-fiction/.
Letter case. (2019, November 16). Wikipedia ‒ The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case.
Looking for Alaska Book. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.johngreenbooks.com/looking-for-alaska.
Looking For Alaska Limited Series on Hulu. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.johngreenbooks.com/looking-for-alaska-movie-limited-series-on- hulu.
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Paper Towns Book. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.johngreenbooks.com/paper-towns.
Springer, R. A. (n.d.). Pravopis. Retrieved from https://slovnik.aktuality.sk/pravopis.
Springer, R. A. (n.d.). Prekladové slovníky. Retrieved from https://slovnik.aktuality.sk/.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. (2019, November 16). Wikipedia ‒ The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 20, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_by_Woods_on_a_Snowy_Evening.
Style. (2017, September 3). Literary Devices ‒ Definition and Examples of Style. Retrieved October 22, 2019, from https://literarydevices.net/style/.
The Fault in Our Stars Book. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.johngreenbooks.com/the-fault-in-our-stars.
Turtles All the Way Down Book. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://www.johngreenbooks.com/turtles-all-the-way-down-book.
Urban Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.urbandictionary.com/.
Vulgarism. (2019, January 24). Wikipedia ‒ The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 28, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgarism.
Výchovný poradce – Seznam Slovník. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2019, from https://slovnik.seznam.cz/preklad/cesky_anglicky/výchovný poradce.
Young adult fiction. (2016, March 11). Wikipedia ‒ The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 20, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young-adult_fiction.
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