Literary Style in Translation: Slang in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye

Loreta Ulvydienė,Brigita Abramovaitė

doi:10.5755/j01.sal.0.20.1776

Abstract

Translation of slang is one of the most controversial translation issues. There are no certain rules how to translate slang words and expressions, therefore, it is the translator who has to set priorities and choose the most suitable translation strategy. The aim of the paper is to reveal the effect of translation strategies employed in the translation of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and evaluate the success of the translation in accordance with E. A. Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence. The authors of the article discuss characteristics of slang and E. A. Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence in translation, with the main stress laid on slang translation. Further on, they group the discussed examples of slang translation according to the approved translation strategies and reveal the effect of the translation strategies employed by the translator. Most often slang words and phrases are translated by employing stylistic comepensation, literal translation and softening. In each translation strategy examples from J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and its Lithuanian translation Rugiuose prie bedugnės by P. Gasiulis are organised according to their caused effect and further specified in terms whether each example succeeds to achieve dynamic equivalence. The authors also propose a model for slang translation.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.20.1776

Highlights

Slang is one of the most contarversial consepts in language
Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence in translation, with the main stress laid on slang translation
They group the discussed examples of slang translation according to the approved translation strategies and reveal the effect of the translation strategies employed by the translator

Summary

Introduction

Slang is one of the most contarversial consepts in language. Quite often it is called — “the other English language”. Educators have been fighting slang for centuries. Hunsinger in his analysis of slang suggets that despite different attitudes toward slang “as a concept it seems that slang is here to stay” (Hunsinger, 2011). J. Green, in the introduction to his massive new dictionary of slang (2011) calls slang “a ‘counter-language’, the desire of human beings, when faced by a standard version, of whatever that might be, to come up with something different, perhaps parallel, perhaps oppositional” (Green, 2011)

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