'Ze willen grieven eten'-- teorie en praktyk van die vertaling van 'n Nederlandse kinderboek

Abstract

This research project was undertaken with the aim of exploring the problems experienced in the translation of a Dutch children's book (Otje by Annie M.G. Schmidt) into Afrikaans, classifying these problems and examining the solutions arrived at. After reflection on the type of translation most suitable for child readers, the translation itself was done mainly in accordance with the intuition of the candidate. In a few instances analyses were made to come to a decision. The rest of the research was done only after the completion of the translation. It was then agreed by the candidate and promotors that no more alterations would be made to the translation. Part One is introductory. After stating the problem and the motivation for the study (Chapter 1), Chapter 2 is devoted to an overview of the question of equivalence in translation, and what the candidate set for herself as an ideal in the translation of Otje. Chapter 3 deals more generally with children's books and their translation. Part Two is devoted to problems of a sociolinguistic nature, arising from the difference in the cultures of the source and target texts (Chapter 4). It was found that these could be solved by inserting a metatextual element like a classifier, or by transposing it to a cultural equivalent known to the target language users, or by substituting a rough equivalent. A flow chart was devised for the procedures followed here. Part Three deals with purely linguistic problems. The syntactical problems covered are the translation of the Dutch present participle into Afrikaans (Chapter 5) and the translation of the Dutch verbs (Chapter 6). The present participle was found to have a much higher frequency in the Dutch text. Approximately half of the present participles in the source text were translated by present participles in the target text. The rest were translated by means of other syntactic structures, 13 different types of which were used. These are classified according to the grammatical functions the participle had in the source text.

In describing the translation of verbs ( Chapter 6) the overall conclusion was reached that the expectation that the marked pattern should be used for the Dutch imperfect, perfect and pluperfect, is not realized in the case of the imperfect. A further conclusion was that Afrikaans verbs largely resemble spoken Dutch. The translation of proper names posed a lexical problem (Chapter 7). It entailed finding translations for some proper names probably created by the author to evoke certain associations. Perspectives on these nicknames were obtained from linguistics, psychology, onomastics, reception aesthetics, literary convention and narratology. These all pointed to the necessity of expounding, in the target text, the characteristics highlighted by the nicknames. Part Four contains a summary of conclusions and points out the less successful instances of translation brought to light by the theoretical reflection. The appendix, bound separately, contains the complete Dutch source text as well as the Afrikaans translation in side by side paragraphs. At the end of Chapters 4-7 general strategies are set out for dealing with the different types of translation problems encountered in these chapters.