Translation and Analysis of Unconventional Language in Lisey’S Story by Stephen King
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Masaryk University Brno Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature Translation and Analysis of Unconventional Language in Lisey’s Story by Stephen King Bachelor Thesis Brno 2009 Supervisor: Mgr. Martin Němec Written by: Eva Petláková I declare that I worked on my thesis on my own and that I used only materials that are listed in the bibliography. ………………………. Eva Petláková 1 Acknowledgements I would like to thank to Mgr. Martin Němec for his help, useful advice and especially for his patience. 2 Content 1. Introduction .....................................................................................................................4 2. About Stephen King ........................................................................................................5 3. Practical Part ...................................................................................................................6 4. Theoretical Part ...............................................................................................................40 4.1 Foreign language in the text ...........................................................................40 4.2 Intentional orthographic and grammatical errors ...........................................42 4.3 Translation of dialect .....................................................................................44 4.3.1 Louisiana dialect ..........................................................................46 4.3.2 Southern dialect ..........................................................................47 4.3.3 Dialect of Maine ..........................................................................48 4.3.3.1 Ayuh ...........................................................................49 4.3.3.2 Puffickly huhyooge...................................................50 4.4 Corruption of language ..................................................................................51 4.4.1 Baby talk ......................................................................................51 4.4.2 Family language ...........................................................................52 4.4.2.1 SOWISA ....................................................................53 4.4.2.2 Smuck and smucking .................................................54 4.4.2.3 Bool ............................................................................55 4.4.2.4 Babyluv ......................................................................56 4.5 Puns ................................................................................................................56 4.5.1 Plug .............................................................................................57 4.5.2 Lisey’s father’s rhyme .................................................................59 4.5.3 Puns with bool..............................................................................60 4.5.4 Clutterbuck ...................................................................................60 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................62 6. Résumé ............................................................................................................................63 7. Bibliography ...................................................................................................................64 8. Appendix .........................................................................................................................66 3 1. Introduction Being a fan of Stephen King’s work, I have always wanted to translate one of his books. I chose Lisey's Story not because it was my favourite book but for a great challenge it represents to a translator. In my bachelor thesis, I decided to deal with unconventional language used in the book a great deal. Stephen King is said to be a master of words and he revels in using dialects; he even creates his own words, deforms language and expresses himself as multifariously as possible. Unconventional language is used in fiction quite often nowadays as every author wants to be original. Such a language creates a special atmosphere and also has an aesthetic function in the text. However, the translation of unconventional language is very difficult. „Jazykové prostředky dvou jazyků nejsou „ekvivalentní“, a proto nelze převádět mechanicky. Nekryjí se přesně významy a jejich estetické hodnoty. Proto je překlad tím obtížnější, čím větší je úloha jazyka v umělecké výstavbě textu.“ (Levý 1998: 67) My thesis consists of two parts, practical and theoretical. The practical part consists of the translation of chosen chapters of the book Lisey’s story. The theoretical part deals with unconventional language, namely, intentional errors, foreign language, dialect, corruption of language (baby talk and family language) and puns. I also compared my translation with a Czech translation by Linda Bartošková and German translation by Wulf Bergner. 4 2. About Stephen King Stephen King is a worldfamous author of horror, fantasy and science fiction. He has written more than 40 novels and almost twice as many short stories. He is also an author of quite a number of novellas, novelettes, screenplays and textbooks. Many of his books were adapted for movies and he has won numerous awards for his works. Stephen Erwin King was born in Portland, Maine on 21 st September in 1947. He studied at the University of Maine at Orono where he wrote for the school newspaper and took an active part in student politics. He graduated in 1970, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and with a qualification to teach on a high school level. ‘The Glass Floor’ which appeared in Startling Mystery Stories in 1967, was his first published short story. He sold many of such stories to men’s magazine and quite a few of these were later published as the ‘Night Shift ’ collection. His first published book was Carrie. It was an enormous success later made into a movie that as popular as the book. Ironically, it was saved by his wife Tabitha from being thrown away. After this, Salem’s Lot (1975), The Shining (1977) and The Stand (1978) followed. 1 He has also written 7 novels under the pen name Richard Bachmann – Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982), Thinner (1984), The Regulators (1996) and Blaze (2007). His fans and horror fiction experts recognized them as his work because of the style and some references he made to his own person. For his books, he is both criticized and praised. He takes pleasure in playing with various dialects some of which are his own, untraditional forms of language and neologisms. Not everyone, of course, considers this particular style interesting. Some of his works are connected through places, characters and hints of events in his other books. 2 1 See appendix for the complete list of his works 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_king http://www.stephenking.com/the_author.html 5 3. Practical part Lisey and Amanda Lisey a Amanda (Everything the Same) (Vše při starém) To the public eye, the spouses of well- Manželky slavných spisovatelů jsou pro known writers are all but invisible, and no veřejnost téměř neviditelné, a tohle neví one knew it better than Lisey Landon. Her nikdo lépe než Lisey Landonová. Manžel husband had won the Pulitzer and the získal Pulitzera a cenu za nejlepší knihu National Book Award, but Lisey had given roku, ale Lisey poskytla jen jediný rozhovor only one interview in her life. This was for v životě. Byl pro velice známý časopis pro the well-known women's magazine that ženy publikující sloupek „Ano, jsem za NĚJ publishes the column ‘Yes, I'm Married to vdaná!“ Zhruba polovinu článku Him !’ She spent roughly half of its five- sestávajícího z pěti set slov strávila hundredword length explaining that her vysvětlováním, že se jí jméno rýmuje se nickname rhymed with ‘CeeCee.’ Most of „Sísí“. Druhá půlka byla z větší části o jejím the other half had to do with her recipe for receptu na pomalu dělanou hovězí pečeni. slow-cooked roast beef. Lisey's sister Liseyina sestra Amanda prohlásila, že Lisey Amanda said that the picture accompanying vypadá na fotce připojené k článku tlustě. the interview made Lisey look fat. None of Lisey's sisters were immune Ani jedna z Liseyiných sester to the pleasures of setting the cat among the nedokázala odolat potěšení a nedělat rozruch pigeons (‘stirring up a stink’ had been their (táta tomu říkal „prudit“) anebo si pořádně father's phrase for it), or having a good nezadrbat, ale jen jedné z nich neuměla natter about someone else's dirty laundry, Lisey přijít na chuť a tou byla právě but the only one Lisey had a hard time Amanda. Nejstarší (a také nejpodivnější) z liking was this same Amanda. Eldest (and někdejších Debusherovic holek z Lisbon oddest) of the one-time Debusher girls of Falls teď žila sama v domě, který pro ni Lisbon Falls, Amanda currently lived alone, Lisey opatřila. Byl to malý, proti špatnému in a house which Lisey had provided, a počasí odolný domek nedaleko Castle View, small, weather-tight place not too far from kde na ni mohly Lisey, Darla a Cantata Castle View where Lisey, Darla, and dohlížet. Lisey ho pro ni koupila před sedmi 6 Cantata could keep an eye on her. Lisey had lety, pět let předtím než umřel Scott. Zemřel bought it for her seven years ago, five mladý. Zemřel příliš brzy, jak se říká. Lisey before Scott died. Died Young. Died Before pořád nemohla uvěřit, že je mrtvý už dva His Time,