O perfil estilístico de quatro tradutores de Heart of Darkness para o espanhol: uma investigação de mudanças de tradução (shifts in translation) baseada em padrões de itens lexicais de um corpus paralelo

Abstract

This research aims at investigating the style of four translators (FOLCH, 2007, HERRERO, 2007, GIESCHEN, 2010, INGBERG, 2010) and the style of four Spanish translations of the novel Heart of Darkness ([1902] 1994) by describing patterns of recurring shifts in translation and lexical item patterns formed by the search nodes alg* and parec*. These items are used to construct the uncertainty meaning in the translations. This research is based on the perspective of Corpus-Based Translation Studies (CTS), in particular studies of the style of the translation and the style of the translators. This study investigates textual microlevel shifts in translation, that is, in a linguistic level at first. Then, it identifies the effects caused by these shifts in a textual macrolevel, the whole text, with an intermediate analysis of the Style Factors based on Narratology elements of analysis (PEKKANEN, 2010). This research is motivated by Stubbs studies (2003, 2005) that bring a quantitative corpus analysis in order to identify lexical items as stylistics traits of Heart of Darkness (HOD), not investigated by literary researchers until then. This study also has as principal base the methodological approach of Pekkanen (2010) who identifies optional formal shifts in translation in the textual microlevel in order to explain the stylistic impacts in the textual macrolevel, verifying all the changes in the narrative. This study also considers the Translational Stylistics methodology (MALMKJAER, 2003, 2004), that aims at the description of stylistic traits of the translated texts (TTs) compared to the source text (ST), intending to explain the motivated choices in the translation. The style is considered as textual and personal attribute (SALDANHA, 2011). The style was analysed through the observation of textual linguistic traits by using the Corpus Linguistics methodological tools, specifically the use of the program WordSmith Tools© 6.0. The frequencies of the lexical items formed by the search nodes alg* and parec* were investigated in the four Spanish translations of HOD in order to pull data related to the recurring derived words from alg* and inflected forms of the verb parecer, as well as the collocational patterns and/or lexical bundles formed by these search nodes. Furthermore, the optional formal shifts of TTs related to the translation of some*/any* and seem* from the ST were analysed in order to identify which effects caused by these shifts and lexical preferences in the TTs were relevant for the construction of a stylistic profile of the translators. The findings showed that the translators presented different lexical choices among them, and related to the ST, to the translation of some*/any* and seem*. The translators presented different frequencies and collocational patterns at the beginning of the first phase of analysis. It was also possible to verify preference patterns related to the use of certain shifts as strategies used by the translators. Folch was the translator that used more reduction as strategy and Gieschen was the translator characterized by the use of expansion. As a result, both translators were the ones with more changes in the degree of specification in the narrative of their TTs, affecting directly the uncertainty topic. Folch was the translator with the highest number of total shifts, resulting in a more distant text related to the ST. Folch tends to mitigate the reiteration appeal used by Conrad in the ST. On the opposite side, Ingberg was the translator who presented the least number of total shifts among the translators and his choices were closer to the ST, and his principal strategy was the calque of the syntax of the ST.