"‘FRRRIZZLED LIKE A FRRRITTER,’ SAID THE GRAND HIGH WITCH. ‘COOKED LIKE A CARROT.’” – NOTES ON FOREGROUNDED LANGUAGE IN TRANSLATED CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
"‘FRRRIZZLED LIKE A FRRRITTER,’ SAID THE GRAND HIGH WITCH. ‘COOKED LIKE A CARROT.’” – NOTES ON FOREGROUNDED LANGUAGE IN TRANSLATED CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Summary/Abstract: The present article explores the benefits that a corpus stylistic approach can provide to the study of literary translation. The focus is on identifying specific strategies in translation and in what way they interact with the constraints that characterize the translation of children’s literature.The article tackles phenomena such as foregrounded language, whether it is alliteration, repetition or expressive language created through word-deformation, in a text such as Roald Dahl’s dark fantasy novel The Witches and its three corresponding Romanian target texts, seeking to explore effective methods of recapturing the stylistic effect present in the source text. The data show that foregrounded language is translated mainly through equivalence, with the notable exception of alliteration, which is compensated for. Since the source text has been thrice translated into Romanian, the article also checks whether the “unretranslability hypothesis” (Sanz Gallego et al.,2023) applies with respect to foregrounded language in the present corpus. The instances of overlapping linguistic material analysed indicate that there are not enough grounds to support the hypothesis and that a possibly larger corpus and more clearly defined terminology are needed in this respect.

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