Evaluación de los resultados de las encuestas

As the data in Table 4.3 indicate, 102 implicature that can be generated in the source text are lost in the three translations. As the analysis has revealed, this shift is triggered by multiple reasons which all manifest an alteration in the literal content that gives rise to implicature (see Section 4.1.2). Table 4.5 below summarizes the triggers for the shifts and shows their distribution in the three translations.

TABLE4.5 FACTORS OF THE LOSS OF IMPLICATURES IN THE CORPUS

Factor for shift Haqi Naseem Murad Total

1 omitting some details about characters and events

14 19 0 33

2 omitting speech figures 24 12 0 36

3 omitting typographic features such as italicization

8 2 2 12

4 changing the syntactic structure 2 0 0 2

5 omitting cultural words 5 2 0 7

6 translating cultural words literally 2 5 5 12

Total 55 40 7 102

As the table above shows, there are 55 cases of loss of implicature in Haqi’s translation. The shift as the data show is caused mainly by the omission of some semantic features which can trigger implicatures, such as stylistic features like speech figures and typographic features like italicization, some details about characters and events, and altering the syntactic structure of the original. Take for instance the omission of the metaphor which implies Heathcliff’s negative attitude towards Lintons’

house in “A beast of a servant came up with a lantern” (Ex. 28) and the omission of italicization in Mrs. Heathcliff’s utterance “Is he to have any?” which has emphatic function and conveys her anger at Mr. Lockwood. These shifts may be caused by either a deliberate or non-deliberate act on the part of the translator. They can in other

words reflect either an intentional orientation on the part of the translator towards removing some of the source text’s formal features that convey implicit meanings, probably to normalize utterances and make them more readable (this will be fully discussed in Section 4.2.4), or an oversight on his part of these features and their potential implied meaning.

The last two reasons for the shift, as shown in the table, are related to culture (see Nord 2005, Fawcett 1997 and Ping 1999, Section 2.4.3.2, see also Section 3.1.2). Two expressions rooted in the source culture are translated literally into the target culture, running the risk of losing their implied meaning because of potential differences in the cultural presupposition (see Ex. 32). Another six cultural expressions, which may or may not be familiar in the target culture, are omitted without important consideration, such as the omission of the allusive term “cuckoo” which Mrs. Dean’s uses to call Mr.

Heathcliff, which results in deleting the implicature that “she considers him an interloper or parasite that relies on other people” and her implied negative attitude towards him. The literal translation of such terms may produce information that is not relevant to the target culture, and hence may violate the maxim of relation in the translation. Such omissions therefore may stem here from translator’s attempts to naturalize the message of the original in the target utterance and make it appropriate to the target language and culture (see ‘dynamic equivalence’ Nida 2003), but this time the effect comes at the expense of the implicature. Therefore, what all of these shifts can suggest is a failure, on the part of the translator, to preserve some of the source text’s implicit meanings and therefore a potential loss of some of the sender’s implied messages (see Morini 2013 and Hatim 2009, Section 2.4.3.4).

The study argues that shifts resulting from altering literal content of implicatures could have been avoided in the translation. Opting for example for formal equivalence between the source and target texts can in most cases preserve both the stylistic features and the implicature of the original. The literal translation of speech figures, such as translating “A beast of a servant” as “bahīm min al-khadam”, as in Murad’s translation (see Ex. 28), can convey the same implicature in the target language.

Emphasis achieved through italicization in the source language can for example be

translated by the corresponding features in the target language, such as using quotation marks and parentheses as in Murad and Naseem’s translation (see Ex 29 and 30). With regard to shifts related to cultural expressions, opting for functional equivalent or implicitation instead of omission, such as translating “cuckoo” by the hyperonym “the curious bird” as in Murad’s translation, may preserve the implied meaning of the source text and keep at the same time the message natural and appropriate to the target culture.

Naseem’s translation shows fewer shifts than Haqi’s; it has 44 shifts. The data in Table 4.5 indicate that most of the shift results from removing semantic details from the source text. 19 cases result from omitting certain details about characters and events in the story, which results in deleting information necessary to calculate the implicature. Take for example translating “Maister Hindley! shouted our chaplain” as

“he shouted: “Master Hindley!”, which deletes the reference to Joseph as the house’s chaplain, which is necessary to calculate the ironical implicature in the utterance (see Ex. 22). Another 12 cases result from dropping speech figures from the source text. As in Haqi’s translation, the omission is avoidable since literal translation as a default option can preserve the form of the original and the implied message. The shifts here may also be related to a lack of awareness, on the part of the translator, of the implied meaning of these utterances and mishandling of the floutings of the maxims during translation process.

As Table 4.5 shows, another 5 cases of shifts in which implicature runs the risk of being lost in the translation can be related to cultural presupposition (see Section 3.1.2). Five cultural expressions, which may or may not be shared in the target culture, are translated literally into the target language without showing consideration to information needed here to calculate the implicature. Take for example Mr.

Lockwood’s utterance (Ex. 36, Section 3.1.2.1) in which he alludes to the long distance between Wuthering Heights and London to convey the implicature that finding his way home is very difficult. The utterance is translated literally without considering that the target reader might not share this deictic information (see Section 2.4.3.6) to arrive at the intended implicature. Opting for the literal translation in these five expressions

may indicate an oversight, on the part of the translator, of the importance of presupposed cultural information in conveying the source message.

Finally, Murad’s rendition shows the fewest number of shifts among the three translations. It has only 7 cases of possible loss of implicature. As Table 4.5 shows, 5 cases of loss are attributed to opting for the literal translation of some cultural expressions, such the religious expression “a saint in heaven” in Example (32), where, in addition to leaving the message unnatural or inappropriate, the implied meaning may run the risk of being lost, because of differences in religious beliefs between the two cultures. As with Naseem, the shifts here could occur due to the translator’s oversight of some differences in cultural presupposition between the source and target language during the decision-making process.

Finally, as Table 4.5 shows, there are only two cases of loss in Murad’s translation that has resulted from ignoring some orthographic features that convey implicatures, namely italicization. As is evident from the data in the table, in this group of shifts Murad maintains the literal meaning of the implicature more than the other two translators. He keeps most of the formal and stylistic features of the original that convey implicatures. Take for example the italicization, which used for emphatic functions. He uses in most cases quotation marks to fulfil the same function in the target language (see Ex. 29). He never opts for removing figures of speech or any semantic details that can affect calculation of the implicatures like the other translations. The analysis has shown that he sometimes flouts a different maxim in the target language to achieve the same implicature, such as when translating irony (see Hatim 1997 and Leonardi 2007, Section 2.4.3.4), which is normally achieved in English by flouting the maxim of quality, he flouts the maxim of quantity to achieve the same function in Arabic (see Ex. 22).

However, as with explicitation shifts, the shifts here point to a tendency to improve information at face value. The study for example found that the majority of shifts involve a flouting of the maxims in the original, particularly the maxim of quality, relevance, and manner. The details about characters and events dropped from the text mostly flout the maxim of quality, such as the ironical “friend” in Mr. Lockwood’s

utterance “I was greatly amused to behold an excellent caricature of my friend Joseph”, which flouts the maxim of quality since in the story Mr. Lockwood hates Joseph and they have never been friends (see Ex. 20). The omitted speech figures are mostly metaphors and which flout the maxim of quality too. Typographic features that are not produced in the translation like italicization may appear to flout the maxim of manner. The literal translation of culture-specific terms which might not be shared by target readers may breach the maxim of relation in the translated text, but the omission of such terms may reflect an attempt on part the translator to avoid this possible breach. Following these assumptions, 88 shifts in Table 4.5 (86% of total omission shifts) involve an improvement in terms of either the quality, relevance or clarity of the given information at the expressed level. The implications of this tendency will also be touched upon in Section 4.2.4.

4.2.3 Substitution of Implicature

The last type of shift found in the data examined is the substitution of the implicature with a different one in the translation (see Section 4.1.3). Table 4.6 summarizes the triggers for this type of shift and shows their distribution in the three translations.

TABLE4.6 FACTORS OF THE SUBSTITUTION OF IMPLICATURES IN THE CORPUS

Factor for shift Haqi Naseem Murad Total

1 translating the SL form by an LT form with different conventional meaning

9 15 1 25

2 translating the SL form by an LT form with different connotative meaning

6 0 0 6

3 the target equivalent has a negative connotation

5 6 1 12

4 translating the SL form by a polite LT form 6 6 8 20

Total 26 27 10 63

As with the first two types of shift discussed earlier, Naseem and Haqi’s renditions have more shifts than Murad’s rendition. In Naseem’s rendition, the most important

trigger for the shift, as the data in the table indicate, is substituting some source forms in the target language with other forms with different conventional meaning (see Malmkjær 1998, 2005 and Baker 2011, Section 2.4.3.4). An example is the translation of the pronoun “it”, which Mrs. Dean uses to refer to Heathcliff, into “this child” in Example (39). The reference to Heathcliff as a thing rather than a human can implicate Mrs. Dean’s cold manners to Heathcliff in the beginning of the story, but the target form used (this child) shows more neutrality and objectivity in her attitudes. Such a shift may result from the translator’s lack of awareness of the association between these lexical items and certain inferable meanings in the source text. The second important reason for the shift is that the target equivalent sometimes can have a negative association in the target culture, such as the reference to alcohol drinks like

“brandy” and “wine”, which can convey different images from that intended in the original. Opting for a literal translation here, where the translator may need to adjust the form to naturalize the message (see ‘connotative equivalence’ Koller 1995, Section 2.3), can suggest the translator’s oversight of differences in the cultural presupposition.

The third reason for the shift as the table shows is related to politeness in direct speech. Six expressions are modified in the target language to meet the politeness principles (see Leech 1983, Brown and Levinson 1987 and Lakoff 1990, Section 2.4.3.4) in the target-language culture. Take for example the substitution of the word “God”

with “heaven” or “life” in the expression “execrated God” (which is taboo in Arabic) to avoid offending the sensibilities of readers in Muslim communities. As the table shows, this shift occurs almost at the same level in the three translations. Such a shift follows the differences in value of the conversational maxims that are in operation in each culture (see Clyne 1994/1996 and Morini 2013, Section 2.4.3.4). In Arabic-language culture, the maxim of politeness has special importance and can override other maxims (Baker 2011 and Al-Qinai 2008). In Arabic, being polite in your expression is more important than for example being informative, relevant, accurate etc., and this may explain the translator’s decision to substitute the taboo words in the target language.

Haqi’s rendition has 26 instances of substitution of implicature. The most important reason for the shift is related to word association. Six instances show that the translator has substituted the source form with a target form that has a different association in the target culture, such as translating the word “colt” by “mare” in Edgar’s comment on Heathcliff’s hair “It’s like a colt's mane over his eyes”(see Ex. 41).

The word has pejorative connotation in the original context, whereas the target form has a positive one in the target culture. Five other instances indicate that the translator opts for literal translation of cultural words without considering their negative associations in the target culture, where focus seems to be placed on the equivalence of form between the source and target text rather than the equivalence of response. Similarly, these shifts may reflect improper treatment or lack of awareness, on the part of the translator, of the cultural presupposition during translation process.

The 9 cases of shift resulting from a change in the conventional meaning, such as when translating “mamma” as “mother” in “And cried for mamma at every turn ...” which deletes Mrs. Dean’s mockery of Edgar (see Ex. 40), may indicate also lack of awareness on the part of the translator of formal features that convey implicatures. Finally, six instances of shift are attributed to consideration of politeness principles in the target culture.

With regard to Murad’s rendition, the data in the table show that it has eight shifts motivated by politeness considerations (see Ex. 35 and 36), and only one shift related to a difference in the conventional meaning. Compared to the other two translations, his translation shows more tendency to preserve the conventional content that carries implicature. Take for example the translation of the pronoun “it” as “thing” in Example (39) and “mamma” as “mamma…mamma” in Example (40), which preserves both the conventional meaning of the original and the implied message. The data also show that only one shift is related to the range of word associations. The study found that in this group of shifts his translation manipulates the form of the original to control the implied message more than the other translations. He implicitates expressions that have negative associations in the target culture and which can substitute the implicature of the original. His translation therefore pays here more attention than the other translations to cultural presupposition and its effect in the intended implicature.

Unlike the previous two groups of shifts which have revealed a trend towards improving certain principles in the communication at the expressed level, including information quality, relevance and clarity, the majority of shifts in this group do not clearly reveal a trend towards improving any of these. The improvement on the original information which data show here is only in terms of politeness, that is, information tends to be expressed more politely in the translation.