Salman Rushdie’s iconic syntax and its translation into French
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Mariane Utudji
Abstract
Among the varied stylistic liberties that characterise Salman Rushdie’s baroque writing style, two opposite syntactic peculiarities stand out. The ‘syntax of continual flow’, which is achieved through psychological sequencing and juxtaposition, tends to mimic the protagonist’s inner state, while the ‘syntax of restraint’, which consists of very short and elliptical constructions, reflects the tense atmosphere of the depicted scene. Both mark exophoric iconicity in that they mirror the diegesis of Rushdie’s narratives. This paper aims to discover how this diagrammatic iconicity can be translated into French. It consists in an analysis of two selected extracts from Midnight’s Children (1981), Rushdie’s second novel, and their French translations by Jean Guiloineau. It turns out that, owing to the discrepancies between the English and the French syntactic systems and constraints, the translator cannot simply mimic the syntax of the original text. Yet its iconicity can be preserved through an approach based on custom-made strategies. Rushdie’s iconic syntax of continual flow can only be preserved if the translator compensates for its lack of punctuation marks by resorting to small syntactic and semantic modifications aiming to ensure that his version is comprehensible enough. As for the syntax of restraint, although its main device, the zero article, generally cannot be retained in French, the translator may manage to recreate its iconicity through an appropriate and consistent combination of determiners.
Abstract
Among the varied stylistic liberties that characterise Salman Rushdie’s baroque writing style, two opposite syntactic peculiarities stand out. The ‘syntax of continual flow’, which is achieved through psychological sequencing and juxtaposition, tends to mimic the protagonist’s inner state, while the ‘syntax of restraint’, which consists of very short and elliptical constructions, reflects the tense atmosphere of the depicted scene. Both mark exophoric iconicity in that they mirror the diegesis of Rushdie’s narratives. This paper aims to discover how this diagrammatic iconicity can be translated into French. It consists in an analysis of two selected extracts from Midnight’s Children (1981), Rushdie’s second novel, and their French translations by Jean Guiloineau. It turns out that, owing to the discrepancies between the English and the French syntactic systems and constraints, the translator cannot simply mimic the syntax of the original text. Yet its iconicity can be preserved through an approach based on custom-made strategies. Rushdie’s iconic syntax of continual flow can only be preserved if the translator compensates for its lack of punctuation marks by resorting to small syntactic and semantic modifications aiming to ensure that his version is comprehensible enough. As for the syntax of restraint, although its main device, the zero article, generally cannot be retained in French, the translator may manage to recreate its iconicity through an appropriate and consistent combination of determiners.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- Introduction ix
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Part I. Iconicity in language
- Modality-specificity of iconicity 3
- The relationship between iconicity and systematicity in Korean ideophones 21
- Iconicity of Telugu ideophones and full word reduplications 39
- Morphosyntactic integration of ideophones in Japanese and Korean 57
- Pathways of de-iconization 75
- System-internal and system-external phonic expressivity 105
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Part II. Iconicity in literature
- On the expressive and iconic value of enjambment from Homer to Milton 125
- Language that thinks us 137
- Levels of iconicity in classical and modern English-language haiku 153
- Salman Rushdie’s iconic syntax and its translation into French 167
- Heart without ‘ the ’ 183
- Crisscrossing James Joyce’s Ulysses 199
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Part III. Iconicity in visual media
- Show me how you feel 213
- In the kingdom of shadows 231
- Iconicity in branding 245
- Resemblance metaphors and embodiment as iconic markers in medical understanding and communication by non-experts 265
-
Part IV. Iconicity in semiotic analysis
- The cognitive function of iconicity 293
- The iconic, indexical, and symbolic in language 307
- INDEX 327
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- Introduction ix
-
Part I. Iconicity in language
- Modality-specificity of iconicity 3
- The relationship between iconicity and systematicity in Korean ideophones 21
- Iconicity of Telugu ideophones and full word reduplications 39
- Morphosyntactic integration of ideophones in Japanese and Korean 57
- Pathways of de-iconization 75
- System-internal and system-external phonic expressivity 105
-
Part II. Iconicity in literature
- On the expressive and iconic value of enjambment from Homer to Milton 125
- Language that thinks us 137
- Levels of iconicity in classical and modern English-language haiku 153
- Salman Rushdie’s iconic syntax and its translation into French 167
- Heart without ‘ the ’ 183
- Crisscrossing James Joyce’s Ulysses 199
-
Part III. Iconicity in visual media
- Show me how you feel 213
- In the kingdom of shadows 231
- Iconicity in branding 245
- Resemblance metaphors and embodiment as iconic markers in medical understanding and communication by non-experts 265
-
Part IV. Iconicity in semiotic analysis
- The cognitive function of iconicity 293
- The iconic, indexical, and symbolic in language 307
- INDEX 327
