From "Miss Bennet" to "Dearest, Loveliest Elizabeth!" - Translating Directness in Directive Speech Acts from the Perspective of Gender Roles

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Od "gospođice Bennet" do "najdraža, najljepša Elizabeth!" - prijevod izravnosti u direktivnim govornim činovima s gledišta rodnih uloga
• Author: Nika Ćurlin
• Mentor: Marina Grubišić (mentor)
• Mentor: Vinko Zgaga (mentor)
• Committee member: Anda Bukvić Pažin (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2023-07-12, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

This paper deals with the translation of directive speech acts in Croatian renditions of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. Although some research on pragmatics in Austen’s writing has been conducted, there appears to be little research done on the relationship between pragmatics and translation. This study looks at the original text and two Croatian translations and examines the degree of directness expressed in directive speech acts made by male speakers as opposed to female speakers. Assuming that male and female characters in the original text show a significant difference in their degree of directness when expressing directive speech acts, this disparity was expected to be reflected in the Croatian translations as well. However, the Croatian translations were also expected to be generally ‘more direct’ taking into account the linguistic differences between English and Croatian. The original text was coded according to the type of speech act and the gender of the speaker, and the ‘true’ directive speech acts and their translation equivalents were extracted and evaluated according to the degree of directness shown in the utterance. The collected data was qualitatively analyzed and the findings show that female characters exhibited a greater degree of directness than the male characters across all three texts. Although there wasn’t a great difference between the translations and the original text, Odlešić’s translation was found to be more direct compared to the original and to Petrović’s translation. These findings point to the value of pragmatic analysis as a translation tool to either avoid or faithfully depict the relationships between genders, depending on what is required by the source text.

Abstract (croatian)

Ovo se istraživanje bavi prijevodom direktivnih govornih činova u hrvatskim prijevodima romana Ponos i predrasude autorice Jane Austen. Premda već postoje istraživanja govornih činova u ovom i u drugim romanima iste autorice, gotovo da nema istraživanja koja bi se bavila prijevodom govornih činova. U ovom će se radu usporediti izvorni tekst s dvama hrvatskim prijevodima te promotriti stupanj izravnosti u izražavanju direktivnih govornih činova s obzirom na rod govornika. Polazeći od pretpostavke da u originalnom tekstu postoji znatna razlika između načina izražavanja muških i ženskih likova u svrhu oslikavanja rodnih odnosa, očekivalo se da će se te razlike odraziti i u prijevodima, iako je za očekivati da će zbog razlika u hrvatskom i engleskom jeziku hrvatski prijevod općenito biti ‘izravniji’ u odnosu na izvornik. Od izvornika te dvaju prijevoda izrađeni su korpusi koji su zatim kodirani s obzirom na svrhu govornog čina, rod govornika te stupanj izravnosti te su dobiveni se podatci kvalitativno analizirali. Rezultati ovog istraživanja pokazuju da jezik utječe na oslikavanje rodnih odnosa te ukazuju na korisnost pragmatičke analize pri prijevodu. Na temelju zaključaka budući se prevoditelji mogu orijentirati pragmatičkom analizom kako bi u svom prijevodu ostvarili ili izbjegli određene slike rodnih odnosa, ovisno o tome zahtjeva li to izvorni tekst.

• Keywords: translation studies; Pride and Prejudice; directive speech acts; pragmatic analysis; gender
• Keywords (croatian): znanost o prevođenju; Ponos i Predrasude; govorni činovi; pragmatička analiza; rod
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:183505
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Translation; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2023-07-20 08:12:32