The Pragmatics of Stereotypical Speech. Loss of Identity Through Translation Compromise

Abstract

"The Pragmatics of Stereotypical Speech. Loss of Identity through Translation Compromise. This article explores the possibility of translating stereotypical language markers, from Japanese (source language) into Romanian (target language). The case study is conducted on a Japanese comic book (manga) titled Rurōni Kenshin -Meiji Kenkaku Roman Tan-, analysed in terms of pragmatic sense conveyed through the translations of certain deictics and appellatives used to differentiate between the two identities assumed by the main character. The translation compromises oftentimes required due to the lack of pragmatic equivalence lead to loss of pragmatic meaning, blurring out the differences in the personalities of the main character. Keywords: stereotypical speech, multimodal text, pragmatics, linguistic politeness, deictics "