A comparative analysis of functions served by characters’ proper names in Terry Pratchett’s “The Fifth Elephant” and its Polish translation

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This study is devoted to the issue of the functions served by characters’ proper names in novels and their translations. The works of art chosen for analysis are Terry Pratchett’s “The Fifth Elephant” and the Polish translation of this book entitled “Piąty Elefant”. The main thesis of this article is that some characteronyms no longer serve the onymic functions in the translation which they perform in the original. Moreover, some proper names receive additional functions in the translation that they do not serve in the original. The author’s aim is to compare the functions served by characteronyms in the two books and identify which functions are preserved in the translation, which are lost, and which are added as well as to determine the reasons why some onyms lose their functions. The method chosen to conduct the research is the theory of two acts in which the functions of characteronyms are recognized and defined on the basis of the naming act and the act of using a name in the novel. Thus, they are divided into two groups of functions: permanent and momentary. The examination showed that both onymic sets serve twelve permanent and eleven momentary functions, so no function is entirely lost in the translation. Nevertheless, four permanent and four momentary functions are partly lost in the translation.