Translation theory and non‐standard speech in fiction

Abstract

The article focusses on the aspect of untranslatability which is connected with the use of non‐standard language by some literary characters. In individual dialect usage many translators would apply the technique of compensation. It is not the only way of dealing with this kind of literary material, though. Many cultures have developed a phenomenon, a ‘scenic dialect’, which is a number of stereotyped forms used by authors to portray characters with non‐standard language. These cultural phenomena are not language‐specific but culture‐specific, which can be demonstrated by translation into different national variants of same language. In a Russian context, however, there is no such ‘scenic dialect’. Instead, Russian translators use so‐called ‘general non‐standard Russian’, that is, forms which are outside the accepted literary standard but do not belong to any particular local dialect, urban or rural. In Russian this kind of language is termed: prostorechie, literally, ‘common speech ‘ (unfortunately, but understandably, no such term exists in English). There are two major theoretical problems connected with this practice. One belongs to the linguistic theory of translation, the other is partly a problem of linguistics proper, partly of psycholinguistics. Both are discussed in the article.