Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research

Volume 2, Issue 6, 2015, pp. 73-79

Available online at www.jallr.ir
ISSN: 2376-760X

Translation Strategies of Proper Nouns in Children’s

Literature

Mozhgan Sabzalipour *
MA Student of English language Translation, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas Branch, I.R. Iran

Kian Pishkar
Faculty member of Islamic Azad University, Jieroft Branch and PhD Candidate of ELT, University of Isfahan, I.R. Iran

Abstract
Translation of proper names are challenging task of a translator as there are not any
consensus among translation scholars about their translatability or untranslatability. To
tackle the problem, the present study attempted to apply Fernandes (2006) and Farahzad’s
(1995) model of translating strategies of proper nouns in children’s literature from English
into Persian. In order to conduct this study according to the translation strategies of proper
names, the data (proper names) were extracted from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince and then analyzed based on these strategies. The results of thepresent research
showed that the translator has applied transliteration strategy, suggested by Farahzad more
than other translation strategies (62.37%) and also all of Fernandes (2006) strategies were
used by the translator except transcription, transposition and conventionality.
Keywords: children’s literature, proper names, translation strategy, transliteration

INTRODUCTION

Without language communication is impossible, yet every language defines and limits
the speaker's sense of what human life actually consists of as it contains a complex set
of largely unexamined cultural assumptions. Being able to move between languages,
comprehending other cultures provide the exciting possibility of an expanded world
view and fresh ways of thinking and feeling (Woolf, 2005).

According to Vermes (2001), the translator may be faced with a preliminary question
concerning the transliteration of names in a text. He also noted that although personal
names and geographical names can be translated theoretically, the most significant
solution is to mirror them into the target text, that is, to preserve them in the original
form.

In other words, there exist so many contradictions and exceptions in the process of
translating proper names. According to Soltesz, there is one reason of contradictions
that is a clash between two opposing principles: the untranslatability of names which is
* Correspondence: Mozhgan Sabzalipour, Email: [email protected]
© 2015 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research
Translation Strategies of Proper Nouns in Children’s Literature 74

connected with their identifying function and, on the other hand, the requirement of
intelligibility. As the two principles cannot be satisfied simultaneously, one of them has
to be sacrificed in any particular case (Verms, 2003). Simply, proper names are not like
other words translation of which can be easily found in dictionaries. Therefore, their
translation will not be able to transfer the exact or at least approximately exact local
color and nationality of source text into target text. (Hadi & Eyvallah, 2011)

In this paper the researcher tries to analyses proper names translation in one of Harry
Potter series in terms of Farahzad (1995) and Fernandes (2006) model of translation as
follow:

Table 1. Farahzad’s model of proper names translation

Transliteration It occurs when the letter of the target language shows the pronunciation of the
PN in the source language.
Transcription It is the replacement of one letter of the alphabet in the source language (SL)
by another letter in the target language (TL).

Table 2. Fernandes’s model of proper names translation

Rendition: When the in the ST is enmeshed in the TL, the meaning is rendered in the
TL.
Copy: In this case, the name of the ST is exactly replicated in the TT—without
any orthographic adjustment.
Transcription: This is a method in which a name is transcribed in the equivalent
characters of the TL.
Re-creation: A newly-created name in the ST is recreated in the TT so that it
reproduces the similar effects in the TL.
Substitution: A TL name replaces the SL name, although they are formally and/or
semantically unrelated.
Deletion: In this type of strategy, the name in the ST is, partially or totally, omitted
in the TT.
Addition: Extra information is added to the SL name so that it can be more
understandable and desirable to the target readers.
Transposition: This is a change of one part of speech for another one without any shift in
the meaning.
Phonological In this procedure, a TL name, which has a similar sound to the SL name,
Replacement: replaces the original name.
Conventionality: This strategy is defined as the acceptance of a typical translation of a
name in the SL. Conventionality is often used with historical or literary
individuals as well as geographical names.

Different Strategies of Translating Proper Names

There are different translation techniques in translating proper names introduced by

researchers and linguists to the public. It is important that translators should be
familiar with the culture of both target and source language; usually cultural awareness
could potentially lead to the most accurate translation of a proper name. And also, there
are thus plenty of techniques of translating a proper name, but it is appropriate if
translators should mention the original name in the footnotes, in order to guide
Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2015, 2(6) 75

researchers or readers understand the complexities of translating a proper name.

Vermes (2001) explained that according to Tarnoczi, the translator may choose
transliteration of names in a text. He distinguished between the transliterations of
letters and of phonetic values, suggesting that between different scripts only the former
should be applied and that the latter is also best avoided between languages using the
same script. He paid attention to the importance of being consistent throughout a
translation. He further pointed out that although personal names can theoretically be
translated, the most appropriate solution is to mirror them into the TT, that is, preserve
them in the original form. This matter also applies to geographical names and titles of
works of art.

And Solteszdistinguished three main types of proper names with respect to their
meaning.

a) Sign names, like 'John', 'Duna', etc. which have no meaning in the way that a common
name does and are non-descriptive, non-connotative and unmotivated.

(b) Word names that she characterizes them as motivated, connotative, and mostly
descriptive. Such as 'Kreml', 'Lanchid', 'Mont Blac' that with passing of time many of
these names have lost their descriptive character and have become opaque in this
respect.

(c) Names which are combinations of sign names and elements from the common word
classes.

These elements may be adjectives, suffixes or most frequently, words naming a higher-
level conceptual category. Finally, she offers the following translation procedures for
the different types of names:

For the first type, she explained that these names may be substituted by a
corresponding name in the foreign language or left unchanged. For the second and
third type, she pointed out that these names may be partly or wholly translated or
substituted."(Vermes, 2003)

And Newmark (1988) distinguished between three types of proper names:

1) People’s names
2) Names of objects
3) Geographical terms

According to him, people’s names are normally transferred on the assumption that
these have no connotations in the text, whereby their nationality is preserved. In some
exceptional cases, however, a personal name may be translated, such as monarchs,
popes, saints or names which have connotations in imaginative literature. And other
names are naturalized. i. e. converted to normal target language spelling or
pronunciation which according to other scholars is transliteration. And names of
objects, including trademarks, brands and proprieties are normally transferred. (ibid)
Translation Strategies of Proper Nouns in Children’s Literature 76

But Elman identified three techniques for the translators during process of translating
proper names; first, translators can transfer them, that is, carry over the name into the
receptor language in the original form. Second, they can translate the name in the
ordinary sense of the term. Third, they can alter or modify the name which means
substituting the name by a receptor language expression which is not in direct
correspondence with it (Vermes, 2001). According to Fernandes:

1. Semantic meaning: it describes a certain quality of a given person, place, or object.

This type of meaning is often found in allegorical literature which in this kind of
literature, a character's name sums up his or her personality, gives clues about his or
her destiny or indicates the way the storyline may develop.

2. Semiotic meaning: the names in this type of meaning may generate ancient or more
recent historical associations such as Hedwig and Ptolemy, indicate gender such as
Ginny is female and Harry is male, social class such as Sir Nicolas De Mimsy-Porpington
in opposition to Harry Potter, nationality such as Padma and ParvatiPatil are Indian and
Viktor Krum is Bulgarian, religious identity such as Gabriel and Michael are biblical
names, intertextuality such as Merlin, and finally mythology such as Minerva, Dedalus,
etc.

3. Sound symbolic meaning: it has two subcategories of Imitative and Phonesthetic:

a. Imitative: it makes use of onomatopoeia and stands for a sound that can actually
be heard such as Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah which is the name of a horse
in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.
b. Phonesthetic: it is based on the use of phones themes-sounds, sound clusters, or
sound types directly associated with a meaning; for example, the cluster /gl/
occurring in words that are commonly associated with light such as glisten, glow,
glimmer, glitter” (Standowicz, 2009).

Tellinger identified three operations that the translator utilized in the process of proper
name translation:

1) and 2) when personal names and some geographical names are preserved in the
original form which he referred to this operation as Transcription.

3) Other geographical names, where possible, along with the names of cafes,
restaurants, streets, squares, bridges and cemeteries are translated, while in the case of
titles of newspapers and works of art. (Vermes, 2001)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After categorizing and analyzing data, then, the proper noun items were compared with
their translated versions to see the translation procedures preferred by the translator.
Translation procedures applied were based on Farahzad (Transliteration and
Transcription) and Fernandes translation strategy (Rendition, Copy, Transcription, Re-
creation, Substitution, Deletion, Addition, Transposition, Phonological Replacement and
Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2015, 2(6) 77

Conventionality). These classification and frequency of translation procedures applied

in translation can be seen in the following table and figure:

Table 3. Frequency of translation procedures in Harry potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Translation procedures Frequency Percentage

Transliteration 121 62.37%
Rendition 26 13.40%
Copy 81 41.75%
Re-creation 8 4.12%
Substitution 23 11.85%
Deletion 1 0.51%
Addition 27 13.91%
Phonological Replacement 12 6.18%
Total number 194 100%

Figure 1. Percentage of the employed procedures in “Harry potter and the Half-Blood
Prince”

As Table and figure A illustrate the most frequently used translation strategy was
transliteration with the percentage of 62.37% and the translation strategy of Deletion
with the percentage of 0.51% was the least applied translation strategy. The translator
utilized more than one translation strategy for some proper noun items such as follows:
Translation Strategies of Proper Nouns in Children’s Literature 78

Table 4. Examples of translating proper nouns more than one strategy

Source Text Target Text Translation Strategy

He had squinted down at the name ‫آن گاي با چشمان تىگ بً کف دست چپش وگاي‬ Copy and
in his lefthand “Lordvol” "‫کرد و ادامً دادي بود "لرد ولد‬ Transliteration
Re-creation and
Muggle dunghill ‫آشغال دووی مشىگ ٌا‬
substitution
Hogwarts school of witchcraft and Transliteration and
‫مدرسً علوم و فىون جادوگری ٌاگوارتز‬
wizardy copy
‫ریاست کل دیوان عالی قضایی جادوگران‬ Transliteration and
Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot
)‫(ویزوگاموت‬ addition
Re-creation and
Troll ‫غول غاروشیه‬
substitution

The findings show that the translator had applied one of Farahzad’s (1995) strategies of
transliteration which was the most frequent strategy with the percentage of 62.37%.
And also all of Fernandes (2006) strategies were used by the translator except
Transcription, Transposition and Conventionality. And Figure B indicates the frequency
of the translation strategies based on percentage in analyzed data.

Table 5. Frequency of translation strategies

No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8

Frequency 121 26 81 8 23 1 27 12
Total 194

CONCLUSION

The second question of the study deals with the effect of culture on translation of
proper nouns. The data gathered shows that culture affects the translation of proper
nouns as it is clear that they are culture specific items and translators must be familiar
with culture of both the source and target languages. Awareness of these culture-bound
names can lead to the most appropriate translation. Based on the foregoing information,
it is significant to stress that the influence of culture on translation of personal names is
undeniable.

REFERENCES

Farahzad, F. (1995). Tarjomepishrafteh (1). Tehran: University of Payame Nour.

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Standowicz, A. (2009).Chosen aspects of the polish translation of J.K. Rowling's Harry

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