Interpersonal relationships in translation: Address terms in the English and Polish translations of Henning Mankell's The Dogs of Riga

Abstract

This paper looks at the translation of address terms from the perspective of the pragmatics of fiction and interpersonal pragmatics. It aims to offer some insights into how choices made by translators in this respect affect the presentation of relationships among fictional characters. The analysis focuses on the address terms used between the main characters of Henning Mankell's novel The Dogs of Riga, Kurt Wallander and Baiba Liepa, in the original Swedish version and in its English and Polish translations. The study examines how the relational work done by the characters in the source text (selection of address terms, address terms negotiations, shifts in address use) is recreated in the two translations. The identified dissimilarities are shown to result both from the differences between Swedish, English and Polish address systems, particularly concerning ways of expressing the T-V semantics, and from the translators' interpretation of the relational work done by the characters in the source text. Misinterpretations result in the use of unnatural and contextually inappropriate address forms, which disrupt the interactional coherence of the novel and are inconsistent with the characters' non-verbal behaviour.