David Gaider's Dragon Age: the Calling – Translation and Analysis
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature David Gaider’s Dragon Age: The Calling – Translation and Analysis Bachelor Thesis Brno 2021 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. Petr Prokop Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this bachelor thesis and that all the sources used are listed in the bibliography. Prohlášení „Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou práci (bakalářskou, diplomovou, rigorózní, závěrečnou práci CŽV) vypracoval/vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“ In Brno, 2021 ………………………… Petr Prokop Annotation This bachelor thesis deals with the comparison of the chosen parts of the two translations of Dragon Age: The Calling and translation of specific names, words, and expressions connected to the Dragon Age universe found in the book. The thesis is divided into two parts: the theoretical part contains a brief description of translation and translation methods, further a short chapter about the importance of the context, a part about the subject of lexical equivalence, and a description of the Dragon Age series, its world, the issues with canonicity and a short chapter about the Dragon Age: The Calling itself. The Practical part consists of two parts: the first part compares the selected parts of the official Czech translation to the translation of the author of the thesis with the focus on illogical and non-sensical parts, mistakes in meaning, parts that diverge from the original book, and parts that mislead the reader based on the context of the book and the whole Dragon Age universe. The second part contains the description of the chosen names, words, and expressions connected to the Dragon Age universe found in the book. Furthermore, the author of the thesis provides the translations of the chosen expressions and approved official versions found in the official Czech translation and offers explanations for why those versions are suitable. Key words Dragon Age: The Calling, translation, analysis, David Gaider, fantasy, corpus, lexical equivalence, Dragon Age series, literature Anotace Tato práce se zabývá porovnáním vybraných částí dvou překladů knihy Dragon Age: The Calling a překladem specifických jmen, slov a výrazů spojených s Dragon Age univerzem obsažených v této knize. Práce se dělí na dvě části: teoretickou, která obsahuje krátkou charakteristiku překladu a překladatelských metod, dále krátkou kapitolu o důležitosti kontextu, část o podstatě lexikální ekvivalence a popis Dragon Age série, světa, problémů s kánonem a krátkou kapitolu o Dragon Age: The Calling. Praktická část se skládá ze dvou částí: první porovnává vybrané části oficiálního českého překladu s překladem autora práce a zaměřuje se na nelogické a nesmyslné části, chyby ve významu, na části, které se bez důvodu odchylují od originální knihy a části, které mohou mást čtenáře na základě odlišeného kontextu v knize a celého Dragon Age univerza. Druhá část obsahuje popis vybraných jmen, slov a výrazů spojených s Dragon Age univerzem, které se nacházejí v originální knize. Autor dále poskytuje překlady těchto výrazů a jím schválené oficiální překlady z české verze a vysvětluje, proč jsou tyto verze přijatelné. Klíčová slova Dragon Age: Volání, překlad, analýza, David Gaider, fantasy, korpus, lexikální ekvivalence, série Dragon Age, literatura Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. for his patience and guidance during the process of writing the thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to my family and friends for their never-ending support. Table of contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 7 1. Theoretical part .................................................................................................................. 8 1.1 About translation .......................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Methods of translation ............................................................................................... 10 1.3 Semantic, pragmatic, and contextual aspects of texts ............................................. 12 1.4 Lexical Equivalence .................................................................................................... 13 1.4.1 Absolute counterparts ......................................................................................... 14 1.4.2 Partial Equivalents ............................................................................................... 14 1.4.3 Formal differences ............................................................................................... 15 1.4.4 Denotational differences ...................................................................................... 16 1.4.5 Connotational differences ................................................................................... 18 1.4.6 Pragmatic differences .......................................................................................... 20 1.4.7 Zero Equivalents .................................................................................................. 21 1.5 Description of Dragon Age series .............................................................................. 21 1.5.1 World of Thedas .................................................................................................. 23 1.5.2 Canon and continuity .......................................................................................... 24 1.5.3 About Dragon Age: The Calling ......................................................................... 25 2. Practical part: Translation and analysis of the differences in the meaning ............... 26 2.1 Translation, comparison, and analysis ..................................................................... 26 2.2 Translation, comparison, and analysis of specific Dragon Age names, words, and expressions ........................................................................................................................... 72 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 89 References ............................................................................................................................... 91 Introduction I am personally interested in fantasy literature and particularly the Dragon Age series. I sporadically read the Czech translations. However, I wanted to review the translation for my friends who would like to read Dragon Age books and get into the series. After the first read, the translation seemed passable. Overall, it was quite good. However, after a close analysis and comparison with the original, I discovered a lot of mistakes that I missed. The main reason to choose the second book in the series is that it is my personal favorite and I feel like it is the one plagued with mistakes. I believe this book deserves slightly better treatment than it gets. I went through a few reviews of this book, and no one mentions the illogical things or mistakes in the meaning in the Czech version. The readers mostly focused on the lore inconsistencies related to the timeline and certain details disagreeing with Dragon Age: Origins. One of the reasons why I chose this topic is that I wanted to work with translation and find out whether it is the subject worth pursuing for me or I should rather focus on different things in the future. The first part of the thesis presents the translation and its methods, lexical equivalence theory, and description of the Dragon Age series. The second part deals with the mistakes in the official Czech translation, their comparison with my translation, and analyzes the differences between them. The last (but not the least) part describes and analyzes the particular words, names, and expressions connected to the Dragon Age universe. The author of this paper provides his own versions and alternatives of the words together with the approved versions from the official Czech translations and supplies the reasons for the chosen versions. My goal is to analyze crucial mistakes and things that changed in the official translation seemingly for no reason and determine their cause. Furthermore, I extract specific Dragon Age vocabulary from the original book, analyze it and provide my own version and alternatives combined with the approved version from the official Czech translation - I expect that some versions will remain the same, some will need to adjust, and some will be replaced. I believe this paper might provide an insight into the process of translation and inspire people who want to know more about translating. It could also prove to be a useful tool for publishing houses to get an idea of how to translate a specific vocabulary connected to a particular universe. 7 1. Theoretical part 1.1 About translation There are numerous points of view and opinions on how to define translation. To this day, new theories and knowledge enter the field of translation, which is exceedingly broad and develops alongside new languages. One could say that translation is merely the process of changing words of