Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Pavla Zelinková “And Quiet Flows the Don” in English: Distribution of Diminutive Forms Master ’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek 2009 1 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature 2 Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor for his patience, his precious advice and also his support and encouragement in the course of writing of this thesis 3 Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 5 2. Aim of the thesis ........................................................................................................ 6 3. Material for analysis .................................................................................................. 8 3.1 “And Quiet Flows the Don” .................................................................................... 9 Brief history of the Don Cossacks and notes on the English translation ...................... 9 4. Diminutives .............................................................................................................. 14 4.1 Comparison between Slavonic languages and English .................................... 19 4.2 English diminutive forms and suffixes ............................................................. 21 4.3 Russian diminutive suffixes ............................................................................. 27 4.4 Czech diminutive suffixes ................................................................................ 31 5. Excerpts from the texts ............................................................................................ 35 5.2 Diminutive forms expressing attitudes of speakers .............................................. 45 5.3 Christian names and their forms ........................................................................... 50 5.4 Diminutive forms without the attributes of diminutivity ...................................... 55 5.5 Songs and folklore................................................................................................. 59 6. Quantitative view ..................................................................................................... 63 6.1 Distribution of diminutive suffixes in the English translation ......................... 66 6.2 Distribution of adjectival modifiers in the English translation ........................ 66 6.3 Distribution of base form equivalents in the English translation ..................... 67 6.4 Distribution of Christian name forms ............................................................... 67 6.5 Another word – different from the original .......................................................... 68 7. Conclusion................................................................................................................... 69 Works cited ..................................................................................................................... 72 Excerpted literature ......................................................................................................... 75 4 ….One must translate that what cultural organism, in which it is being translated, needs . To translate is not the right word, to transplant is more suitable…. To translate means to take the whole tissue with the roots from one cultural organism and carefully plant it in the other organism. A good translator ought to rape the author…. help that poor soul actually. (Levý, 1996, 189) 1. Introduction Russian classical literature is a world phenomenon and therefore it is only natural that many novels and other pieces of writing have been translated into other languages. English and Czech is not an exception. Majority of Russian world-famous writers’ and playwrights’ masterpieces can be found and read in English translations. One can find not only novels by Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and other writers of the most famous period of Russian literature; the period called the Golden Age of Russian literature which dates back to the 19 th century. Many books written in the 20 th century have been translated as well, even though one can find not a little reference to communist ideology, socialistic world views and more or less apparent propaganda of Socialist Realism. Those books are still translated for art can never be directed to mere propaganda (Buck, 1942, 246). One of those writers is definitely Mikhail Sholokhov who has been of concern to not only literary scholars but to translators as well; Sholokhov is a representative of Russian Socialist Realism and a representative of Russian literature orientation in the first half of the last century. It is natural to find many Russian novels and other pieces of writing in Czech translations; this is also due to the similar social and historical context of both countries in the previous regime and emphasis on the superiority of Soviet cultural perceptiveness. Nevertheless, English readership is fascinated by Russian writers as well and majority of their works are available to the English speaking and English reading audience. 5 2. Aim of the thesis I would like to focus on the comparison of the differences between Russian original work and translation into a similar language system in terms of word-formation – especially formation of diminutive forms –, i .e. another Slavonic language, and translation into a different language system, i.e. West Germanic language. It is, of course, impossible to touch upon all aspects and nuances in this thesis, therefore I have decided to highlight the shift in the means of expressions to achieve at least similar, if not the same effect as the original work. What I have in mind is the vast amount of diminutives typical of Slavonic languages, and Russian language especially. Diminutives are very frequent in Sholokhov’s books as well, not only as the inherent and inseparable part of the folklore, but also in direct speech of the Cossack people. There has been a large amount of materials gathered and scholarly studies written on the diminutiveness in Slavonic languages and only a few in Germanic languages, especially English where nominal diminutiveness seems to be rather marginal in comparison with Slavonic languages and the theoretical background is scarce. My aim is to use the materials dealing with diminutives on a general, theoretical basis and apply this to see the different approaches in language systems in question. In my thesis I would like to focus on diminutives, their production and function in the language systems mentioned above, with particular focus on distribution of diminutives in English and Russian version of one of the M. Sholokhov’s masterpieces. Also, because I am well aware of the fact that in English diminutive forms are rather rare compared to Slavonic languages, I would like to show how sensitive the translator had to be when he was dealing 6 with the notions and aspects conveyed by diminutives while translating the novel and what different tools and vehicles of expression might be employed to convey the notions of diminutiveness. In this thesis I will study how the English and Czech translators were dealing with the phenomenon of diminutive forms; whether it was possible to provide a similar diminutive, or compensate for it using other tools etc. In the final part of the thesis I will attempt to show the distribution of diminutives and diminutive features. The limitations of this work are obvious; as I have chosen to compare one book by one author and the translation of this book there is not enough heterogeneous data available to draw a general conclusion about the tendencies in translating diminutive forms. Nevertheless, some of the general tendencies might be indicated in a detailed scrutiny of this limited sample. Before I start focusing on diminutives as such and their formal aspects, let’s have a brief look at the novel itself and its English translation 7 3. Material for analysis The main sources for comparison are Russian original and its English translation by Stephen Garry and Robert Daglish. Nevertheless, I would like to touch upon one of the Czech translations by Vlastimil Borek as well. I do not want to use the Czech translation of the book as an equivalent material for making comparison with the English translation; Czech language should be back-grounded in my thesis. Nevertheless, looking at the English translation through the prism of other two languages that are quite similar in this particular respect might offer an interesting insight into the area of diminutiveness as such. My aim is to put the English translation into the centre and compare it with the original language of the book; the Czech translation should be more or less a supportive tool to show the differences and different strategies in translation practice of this particular book. Doing this, we shall keep in mind that we are dealing here with one author and one translator, or more precisely one translation and its revision, into English and Czech, which means there is not space and arguments enough for broader generalizations of any kind regarding the use of diminutives as such in other literary writings or utterances. However, even this limited area may indicate some interesting features prevailing in the respective languages and the way they are