Translation : stylistics and grammar in a modular approach

Abstract

This thesis develops further the Form-Meaning-Style (FMS) model, proposed in my own article ‘Translation: stylistics and grammar in a modular approach’ from 2014. By representing a translation model in a rich graphical format, I hope that this thesis can be used by any translator as a toolkit for recognizing grammatical features that affect the reader’s interpretation, but which are not necessarily shared between source and target language.

The discussion departs from the assumption that we can construe text as an ordered set of FMS packages. A text string of the form F carrying the meaning M and having the style S, translates to a new FMS in the target language. A translator needs to understand which M needs to be instantiated by which F in order to generate a desired S. A grammatical function of a certain grammatical form is an objective feature, but its interpretation is not. A translator needs to recognize the potential of the stylistic feature in the context of the original text, and try to get it across in the translation. When this is not possible within a certain FMS, it can be realized at some other point and with some other linguistic means, given that this is not in discrepancy with the original.

The thesis studies the model's constituents in detail, discusses the relationship between them, and then further supports and develops it, taking into account pre-existing stylistic and translation approaches. The model is tested on examples from ‘Melancholia I’ by Jon Fosse, which is in style quite different from the style the model was developed for. The FMS packages are further compared to the FMS packages in the Slovenian translation of equivalent examples, in order to see whether the model can work as a toolkit for literary translators.