What is comparative planetology – Answers.com

1. The objective of comparative stylistics The objective of comparative stylistics is to study the stylistic characteristics of one language in comparison with those of another one. This systematic study offers students a better and deeper knowledge of the features that distinguish one language from another. Examples: - To become penniless /aflasa/ - The Arabs have pioneered in many branches of science /kna lilc arabi assabaqu fi: Satt furuc i al mac rifati/ These are two cases of "transposition." In the first example, the verb /aflasa/ is expressed by a phrase in English, while in the second example the verb "to pioneer" is replaced with a noun /assabaqu/ in Arabic. - He was blown away /dhahaba adrja arriyhi/ This is a case of "modulation," where each language describes the situation from a different viewpoint. While English indicates the means (blown), Arabic does the opposite: the result first /dhahaba/, then the means /adrja arriyhi/. Thus, we have a "chass-crois": Means: blown /adrja arriyhi/ Result: /dhahaba/ away - Give a pint of your blood /tabarrac biqali:lin min damika/ - Before you could say Jack Robinson /fi: tarfati c ayn/ These are two cases of "equivalence" where two languages describe the same situation by using quite different structural and stylistic means. In the first example, the expression "to give a pint," "pint" being a unit of measure for liquids equal to about half a liter, is rendered into Arabic by the equivalent /tabarrac biqali:lin min/ which literally means "donate some of." In the second example, the English idiom "before you could say Jack Robinson," which means "very quickly or suddenly," has an equivalent idiom in Arabic /Fi tarfati c ayn/ which means "in the twinkling of an eye." 2. The scope and limits of comparative stylistics According to Vinay and Darbelnet (1977), the three above-mentioned cases - transposition, modulation and equivalence - in addition to four others, which are borrowing, tracing ("calque"), literal translation and adaptation, constitute the seven techniques of translation. The authors of the book "Stylistique compare du franais et de l'anglais" even consider comparative stylistics as a method of translation (notice the expression, "mthode de traduction," they put under the title on the first page). It is undeniable that comparative stylistics is beneficial to students, since it enables them to identify the characteristics which distinguish their mother language from a foreign one, and hence to perceive the phenomena that endow each languagewith a peculiar genius. Yet, it is arguable that comparative stylistics can explain the process of translation or set forth "laws valid to the two languages concerned" (Vinay and Darbelnet 1977: 20). Since the comparison of two languages requires primarily the performance of translation, we can assert that comparative stylistics is subsequent to translation and not prior to it. Therefore, the seven techniques are no more than means of comparison. If we reconsider the example "he was blown away," it appears that, to translate it into Arabic, one would immediately look for its functional equivalent rather than think of the "technique" to be used, whether it is transposition, modulation or equivalence As a matter of fact, if the translator fails to find the appropriate equivalent in Arabic, /dhahaba adrja arriyhi/, it will be useless to know that this kind of transfer is called "modulation" from a comparative viewpoint. The same thing applies, of course, to the other techniques offered by comparative stylistics. Moreover, comparative stylistics usually suggests only one equivalent among several possible equivalents of a lexical unit or expression. In the previous example, we can say in Arabic: /dhahaba adrja arriyhi/ as well as /c asafat bihi arriyhu/ or /huwa fi: mahabbi arri:hi/, all of which are expressions with the same meaning. Finally, it appears that comparative stylistics, which is mainly interested in establishing correspondences and equivalences in two languages, does not go beyond the limit of language as a whole to reach the mobility of speech and usage. Hence, it can neither foretell the most appropriate equivalents for expressions in context nor embrace all potential cases of translation within the ever-renewable act of communication. The field of translation is indeed far from being limited or confined to linguistic facts, idiomatic expressions or correspondences that may constitute the subject of a comparative study

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What is comparative planetology - Answers.com

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