Translation, iconicity, and dialogism
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Susan Petrilli
Abstract
Translation across languages is a specific case of translation across sign systems, internally and externally to the same historical-natural language. But translation across languages is possible on the basis of language understood as a modeling device, an a priori and condition for verbal language which came into being for the sake of communication thanks to the predominance of iconicity in the relation among signs. If we understand by a literary translation that is should be faithful to the original in terms of creativity and interpretation and not just be an imitation or repetition, the translatant text — the text that is the target of the translation — must establish a relation of alterity with the source text. The greater the distancing in terms of dialogic alterity between two texts, the greater is the possibility of creating an artistic reinterpretation through another sign interpretant in the potentially infinite semiotic chain of deferrals from one sign to the next. If we approach translation from Charles S. Peirce’s general theory of signs, in particular his triad of icon, index and symbol, the relation between the source and the target text must be dominated by iconicity if a translation is to be successful in terms of creativity and interpretation. A translation must be at once similar and dissimilar, the “same other” (see Petrilli 2001). This is the paradox of translation. Therefore a text is at once translatable and untranslatable. This is the paradox of language.
Abstract
Translation across languages is a specific case of translation across sign systems, internally and externally to the same historical-natural language. But translation across languages is possible on the basis of language understood as a modeling device, an a priori and condition for verbal language which came into being for the sake of communication thanks to the predominance of iconicity in the relation among signs. If we understand by a literary translation that is should be faithful to the original in terms of creativity and interpretation and not just be an imitation or repetition, the translatant text — the text that is the target of the translation — must establish a relation of alterity with the source text. The greater the distancing in terms of dialogic alterity between two texts, the greater is the possibility of creating an artistic reinterpretation through another sign interpretant in the potentially infinite semiotic chain of deferrals from one sign to the next. If we approach translation from Charles S. Peirce’s general theory of signs, in particular his triad of icon, index and symbol, the relation between the source and the target text must be dominated by iconicity if a translation is to be successful in terms of creativity and interpretation. A translation must be at once similar and dissimilar, the “same other” (see Petrilli 2001). This is the paradox of translation. Therefore a text is at once translatable and untranslatable. This is the paradox of language.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction: Signergy 1
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Part I. Theoretical approaches
- Literary practices and imaginative possibilities 23
- The bell jar, the maze and the mural 47
- Iconicity as meaning miming meaning and meaning miming form 73
- A view from the margins 101
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Part II. Visual iconicity
- Iconic and indexical elements in Italian Futurist poetry 129
- Taking a line for a walk 157
- Iconicity and naming in E. E. Cummings’s poetry 179
- Bunyan and the physiognomy of the Wor(l)d 193
- From icon to index and back 211
- The poem as icon of the painting 225
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Part III. Iconicity and historical change
- Iconicity and etymology 243
- Iconicity typological and theological 259
- An iconic, analogical approach to grammaticalization 279
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Part IV. Iconicity and positionality
- Iconic signs, motivated semantic networks, and the nature of conceptualization 301
- Iconicity and subjectivisation in the English NP 319
- Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures 347
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Part V. Iconicity and translation
- Translation, iconicity, and dialogism 367
- Iconicity and developments in translation studies 387
- Author index 413
- Subject index 417
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface and acknowledgements vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction: Signergy 1
-
Part I. Theoretical approaches
- Literary practices and imaginative possibilities 23
- The bell jar, the maze and the mural 47
- Iconicity as meaning miming meaning and meaning miming form 73
- A view from the margins 101
-
Part II. Visual iconicity
- Iconic and indexical elements in Italian Futurist poetry 129
- Taking a line for a walk 157
- Iconicity and naming in E. E. Cummings’s poetry 179
- Bunyan and the physiognomy of the Wor(l)d 193
- From icon to index and back 211
- The poem as icon of the painting 225
-
Part III. Iconicity and historical change
- Iconicity and etymology 243
- Iconicity typological and theological 259
- An iconic, analogical approach to grammaticalization 279
-
Part IV. Iconicity and positionality
- Iconic signs, motivated semantic networks, and the nature of conceptualization 301
- Iconicity and subjectivisation in the English NP 319
- Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures 347
-
Part V. Iconicity and translation
- Translation, iconicity, and dialogism 367
- Iconicity and developments in translation studies 387
- Author index 413
- Subject index 417
