Abstract
[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian]
 The aim of this article is to observe how semantic peculiarities travel across languages and cultures. The original book, The Big Fat Giant, by Roald Dahl lends itself perfectly to such a comparative study due to its linguistic and semantic features that need to be explored in order to understand how they were brought to the Albanian language and culture. Classifications of several levels at which mismatches occur are mentioned, such as mismatches at the level of syntax, semantics and phonetics. Examples are given to illustrate each level. The discussion is enriched with observations and examples from the intertextual level. The paper concludes with findings which refer to this tale in particular and recommendations for further research.
Highlights
The Big Fat Giant is one of the greatest children’s books of all time
There is a shift to the nature of the “mistakes” from English into Albanian: in the examples above in ST we have illustrated mistakes that derive from the incorrect conjugation of the verbs, whereas in TT the verbs are conjugated correctly, but some of the words are turned into spoonerisms or humorous idiomatic phrases are used, which conveys the intentions of the original writer: making the speech of the giant sound strange
This strategy of compensation is used by the translator who succeeds in transmitting the purposes of the original writer, even though there is not always a match between the type of device used by the writer and the translator to mark the distinctive nature of speech of the BFG and GJMM respectively; in most of the cases, we can observe that the efforts of the translators have been towards matching the intentions of the writer through the use of different devices or techniques
Summary
The Big Fat Giant (the BFG further on) is one of the greatest children’s books of all time. Being among giants and reading dialogues that give voice to the characters involves readers in a world of fascination in which language reflects actions and vice. Children readers have always enjoyed this book and have laughed at the “gags” of the BFG and other inhabitants of the fantastic world. The reading purposes are enriched by scholars and translators who discover peculiar elements of style and meaning beyond the mere process of reading for pleasure. This empirical research has been carried out from a qualitative perspective, with the main goal of highlighting cases of semantic peculiarities of the original and the way they travel through languages, by trying to determine whether there are (mis)matches on different levels. Considerations will be proffered about the intended purpose of the original author and whether that purpose has been carried across successfully by the translator
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