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The Case of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights

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The Case of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights Translating and Adapting Fictional Speech: the Case of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2013 Andrew Read School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Contents List of figures ....................................................................................................6 Editions used and abbreviations.....................................................................8 Abstract .............................................................................................................9 Declaration ......................................................................................................10 Copyright statement .......................................................................................10 Dedication........................................................................................................11 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................12 Statement about the author ...........................................................................13 1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................... 14 1.1 Background to the study.....................................................................14 1.2 The distinctive nature of fictional speech..........................................16 1.3 Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy........................................19 1.3.1 The trilogy and its translations and adaptations in context..............19 1.3.2 The plot of His Dark Materials.........................................................22 1.3.3 Themes and intertextual references................................................25 1.3.4 Speech in Northern Lights...............................................................26 1.4 The scope and aims of the study........................................................28 1.4.1 Focus and boundaries.....................................................................28 1.4.2 Aims and research questions..........................................................30 1.4.3 Key definitions.................................................................................31 1.5 Structure of the thesis .........................................................................33 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.............................................. 35 Introduction.....................................................................................................35 2.1 Authentic speech, fictional speech and dramatic dialogue .............37 2.1.1 Authentic speech as the basis for fictional speech..........................37 2.1.2 Fictional speech in English prose....................................................42 2.1.3 Fictional speech in French prose ....................................................43 2.1.4 Dialogue in English drama ..............................................................46 2.1.5 The classification of variation ..........................................................49 2 2.2 The translation and adaptation of children’s literature.....................52 2.2.1 The translation of children’s books into other languages ................53 2.2.2 The adaptation of children’s books for other media ........................60 3 METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK AND PROCEDURES .. 65 3.1 Literary stylistics: a guiding approach...............................................65 3.2 A three-level framework for analysing fictional speech ...................70 3.3 Quantitative analysis procedures (Chapter 4) ...................................72 3.3.1 Data selection .................................................................................73 3.3.2 Selection of appropriate variables and sub-variables......................74 3.3.3 Presentation and evaluation of the findings ....................................78 3.4 Qualitative analysis procedures (Chapters 5 and 6) .........................79 4 A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF FEATURES OF SPOKEN STYLE AND VARIATION IN LYRA’S VOICE............................... 82 Introduction.....................................................................................................82 4.1 Overall patterns....................................................................................83 4.2 Variable A: incomplete sentences ......................................................85 4.2.1 Variable A in the source text ...........................................................86 4.2.2 Variable A in the French translation ................................................88 4.2.3 Variable A in the stage adaptation ..................................................90 4.3 Variable B: graphical markers of prosody or interaction .................92 4.3.1 Variable B in the source text ...........................................................93 4.3.2 Variable B in the French translation ................................................96 4.3.3 Variable B in the stage adaptation ................................................100 4.4 Variable C: morphosyntactic or phonetic irregularities..................105 4.4.1 Variable C in the source text .........................................................106 4.4.2 Variable C in the French translation..............................................108 4.4.3 Variable C in the stage adaptation ................................................110 Conclusions ..................................................................................................113 5 A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF USER-RELATED VARIATION IN LYRA’S VOICE .......................................................................114 Introduction...................................................................................................114 3 5.1 Markers of orality ...............................................................................116 5.1.1 Markers of orality in the source text ..............................................116 5.1.2 Markers of orality in the French translation ...................................119 5.1.3 Markers of orality in the stage adaptation .....................................123 5.2 Non-standard features.......................................................................126 5.2.1 Non-standard features in the source text ......................................126 5.2.2 Non-standard features in the French translation ...........................129 5.2.3 Non-standard features in the stage adaptation .............................132 5.3 The stylistic overlap between Lyra’s and Roger’s idiolects...........135 5.3.1 The stylistic overlap in the source text ..........................................135 5.3.2 The stylistic overlap in the French translation ...............................138 5.3.3 The stylistic overlap in the stage adaptation .................................140 5.4 Childish features and content...........................................................143 5.4.1 Childish features and content in the source text ...........................143 5.4.2 Childish features and content in the French translation ................145 5.4.3 Childish features and content in the stage adaptation...................148 5.5 Indicators of Lyra’s dominance ........................................................149 5.5.1 Indicators of Lyra’s dominance in the source text .........................149 5.5.2 Indicators of Lyra’s dominance in the French translation ..............153 5.5.3 Indicators of Lyra’s dominance in the stage adaptation ................158 5.6 Other features evident in the dialogues...........................................161 5.6.1 Specification of speech-report verbs in the French translation......161 5.6.2 Features exclusive to the stage dialogue......................................162 Conclusions ..................................................................................................164 6 A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SITUATION-RELATED VARIATION IN LYRA’S VOICE...................................................166 Introduction...................................................................................................166 6.1 Variation connected with activity type .............................................167 6.1.1 Lyra’s storytelling style in the source text......................................168 6.1.2 Lyra’s storytelling style in the French translation...........................176 6.1.3 Lyra’s storytelling style in the stage adaptation.............................186 6.2 Other situation-related variation and its treatment in the different versions .........................................................................................................193 6.2.1 Variation connected with the relationship between participants ....194 6.2.2 Variation connected with temporary features of a participant........199 Conclusions ..................................................................................................204 4 7 FINAL CONCLUSIONS .........................................................206 7.1 Summary of findings..........................................................................206 7.2 Limitations and options for complementary research....................209 7.3 Further implications for research and practice ...............................212 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................216 APPENDIX: SCENES FOR QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS ..............229 Scenes discussed in Chapter
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