– Free Tour

In the literature on translation, many scholars have focussed on the simplification of TTs with respect to the STs, from Levy (1969) and his assumption that lexical impoverishment and explicitation are tendencies of translated texts, to Toury and his well-known ‘law of growing standardisation’ (1995), according to which TTs tend to be standardised with respect to their STs. The notion of ‘explicitation’ in particular was exploited within translation studies (henceforth TS) by Blum-Kulka (1986) and Baker (1996), the former positing the ‘explicitation hypothesis’, which “[...]

postulates an observed cohesive explicitness from SL to TL texts regardless of the increase traceable to differences between the linguistic and textual systems involved’

153

(Blum-Kulka 1986: 19); the latter arguing for “[...] an overall tendency to spell things out rather than leave them implicit in translation” (Baker 1996: 180). This hypothesis was tested in particular with reference to the domain of literary translation, where a tendency to neutralise metaphorical expressions has been often accounted for (cf. Laviosa 2009).

More recently, applying a systemic functional linguistics (henceforth SFL) approach to translation, Steiner (2002) has explored the ‘explicitation hypothesis’ to establish properties of translated texts, with special reference to the language pair English-German and to the rendering of grammatical metaphor. It should be pointed out that unpacking a grammatical metaphor – which means de-metaphorising it – can prove useful for a translator faced by the difficulty to recast it in a TT (see Steiner 2002¹; Manfredi 2011).

In our case study, we wished to explore whether a general trend to ‘de-metaphorisation’ was at issue, or, given the multiple function of headlines in popular scientific press, if they were in some way reproduced, or rather ‘re-metaphorised’, in the Italian TTs.

To investigate this aspect, we did not only consider traditional ‘lexical’

metaphors, but also ‘grammatical metaphors’ as proposed by Halliday (Halliday 1985/1994; Halliday and Matthiessen 1999), in the conviction that they contribute to the whole metaphorical character of a given text.

Before turning to the specificity of the case study, we will briefly describe the theoretical framework on which this paper is based.

3. Theoretical framework

We hold that a multidisciplinary approach can help analyse a multi-faceted phenomenon like translation of headlines in popular scientific press nowadays.

Our study essentially draws on SFL and TS, with some insights from journalism.

SFL offers us the analytical tool to examine metaphors, both ‘lexical’ and

‘grammatical’. TS give us the theoretical framework to explore the much-discussed concept of ‘explicitation’ and, through Nord’s work in particular (1995; 2012), a tool to categorise the functions of headlines from a ‘functional’² perspective. However, since we are dealing with a text-type firmly grounded on the professional domain of journalism, also some notions from that area are, we believe, vital for a more thorough understanding.

3.1. Lexical and grammatical metaphor

Within the framework of Hallidayan linguistics, metaphor is seen as “variation in the expression of a given meaning” (Halliday 1994: 342). Let us introduce the concepts of ‘lexical’ and ‘grammatical’ metaphor through the revealing words of Halliday and Matthiessen:

[t]he traditional approach to metaphor is to look at it ‘from below’ and ask what does a certain expression mean. […] But we could look ‘from above’ [...]. Once we look from above [...], we can see that the phenomenon under discussion is the same as metaphor in its traditional sense except that what is varied is not the lexis but the grammar. [...] Lexical and grammatical

1 For more insights into grammatical metaphor and translation, see also Steiner (2004).

2 ‘Functional’ (or ‘functionalist’) refers here to ‘skopos theory’ of translation (Skopostheorie), where it concerns the ‘purpose’ of the TT.

154

metaphor are not two different phenomena; they are both aspects of the same general metaphorical strategy by which we expand our semantic resources for construing experience.

(Halliday, Matthiessen 1999: 232-233)

From an SFL perspective, human experience is modelled through a series of processes involving people and things, i.e. participants, and it is embodied in the grammar of the clause (Halliday 1994: 106). Each utterance has a more ‘congruent’

realisation (i.e., non- or rather less, metaphorical), and more ‘incongruent’ ones.

More typically, i.e. congruently, processes are encoded as verbal groups, qualities as adjectival groups, etc. If and when they are realised through different grammatical resources, they will be instances of less congruent realisations. A typical instance of grammatical metaphor is nominalisation, occurring when a process is encoded as a nominal group.

In line with Halliday’s view, we will not base our analysis on a simple dichotomy between ‘congruent’ and ‘incongruent’, in other words ‘non-metaphorical’ vs.

‘metaphorical’. Rather, we will consider metaphoricity along “a continuum whose poles are ‘least metaphorical’ and ‘most metaphorical’” (Halliday and Matthiessen 1999: 235). In particular, we will focus on ideational grammatical metaphor, without dealing with the interpersonal one³, in order to explore the domain of experience construed in popular science headlines.

3.2. Function(s) of headlines

From a journalistic point of view, as Papuzzi (2010: 192) explains, the primary function of a headline is that of condensing news and information, thus reducing the time for reading. Its second function is that of introducing and commenting the topic of the article. For doing so, the journalist/editor can employ different strategies.

Papuzzi (2010: 194) notes that Eco distinguishes between ‘informative’ and

‘emotive’ headlines, while he himself proposes a distinction between ‘enunciative’

and ‘paradigmatic’ headlines⁴. Clearly, such an alternative is between ‘plain’ and

‘effective’ headlines, the latter similar to slogans aimed at attracting the reader’s attention. Moreover, as Papuzzi remarks (2010: 195), a ‘paradigmatic’ headline presupposes symmetry between addresser and addressee, in terms of language and culture.

From the perspective of TS, Nord (1995, 2012) classifies titles and headlines according to their function, or rather functions, since they can be fulfilled contemporarily. The scholar, linking to language functions, identifies six different functions of titles and headlines, namely: ‘distinctive’, ‘metatextual’ (which the scholar has recently renamed ‘metacommunicative’: see Nord 2012: 69), ‘phatic’,

‘informative’ (or ‘referential’), ‘expressive’ and ‘appellative’. According to Nord, the ‘distinctive’ function aims at distinguishing a headline from others, while the

‘metatextual’ function makes it recognisable as an instance of a specific text-type, since it conforms to its conventions. The ‘phatic’ function serves the scope of

“attracting the attention of, and establishing a first contact with, any prospective reader” (Nord 1995: 264). When any piece of information with regard to the topic is

3 The Hallidayan model identifies three main functions that speakers/writers use language for and calls them ‘ideational’, ‘interpersonal’ and ‘textual’ ‘metafunctions’. The ‘ideational’ concerns the representation of experiences, while the ‘interpersonal’ deals with the relationship between interactants.

4 Papuzzi talks about ‘titoli enunciativi’ and ‘titoli paradigmatici’ (2010: 194).

155

offered, the ‘informative’ (or ‘referential’) function is at work, while when the author’s attitude or emotion is conveyed, in Nord’s taxonomy, we are dealing with the ‘expressive’ function. Finally, “to evoke the attention and interest” of readers, the

‘appellative’ function is achieved (Nord 1995: 264). As Nord clearly points out from her functionalist perspective, the function(s) of the target text may be different from the one(s) of the target text, according to the specific cultural context (Nord 1995:

263).

Nord also distinguishes, within a given text-type, between ‘essential’ and

‘optional’ functions. In her corpus (composed of titles and headings from fictional, nonfictional and children’s books, short stories, poems, and articles from scholarly journals), the essential functions are distinctive, metatextual and phatic. We will look at whether, and how, these functions are marked in the headlines comprised in our case study.