TRANSLATI ON OF PERSONAL NAMES

Le Cong Thin

(Vinh University,Vietnam)

TRANSLATI ON OF PERSONAL NAMES

Le Cong Thin

(Vinh University,Vietnam)

This research studied the Translation of Personal names.Translation as a phenomenon is such an incredibly broad idea that it can be understood in many different ways.The focus of this study lies within translation of personal names,which are a subclass of proper nouns.Notwithstanding the fact that a challenge that translators often encounter in their work comes from personal names,this paper presents some translation techniques proposed by various researchers in this regard.It should be mentioned that this paper does not intend to prescribe any special rules.Findings revealed that translators must be familiar with culture of both the source and target languages,since awareness of these culture-bound names can lead to the most appropriate translation.Based on the foregoing information,it is significant to stress that the influence of culture on translation of personal names is undeniable.

translation;personal name;translator;culture

Introduction

Translation as a phenomenon is such an incredibly broad idea that it can be understood in many different ways.Therefore,not surprisingly,many different definitions have been offered,each reflecting a particular underlying theoretical model.The American theorist Lawrence Venuti,for example,defines translation as"a process by which the chain of signifiers that constitutes the source-language text(SL)is replaced by a chain of signifiers in the target language(TL)which the translator provides on the strength of an interpretation".

In Venuti’s view,the viability of a translation is established by its relationship to the cultural and social conditions under which the translation is produced and read.He believes that a foreign text is the site of many different semantic possibilities that are fixed,only provisionally,in any one translation on the basis of varying cultural assumptions and interpretive choices in specific social situations and during different historical periods.

One of the common challenges is the problem of translating proper nouns(proper names)adequately from one language to another.The focusof this study lies within translation of personal names,which are a subclass of proper nouns.No twithstanding the fact that a challenge that translators often encounter in their work comes from personal names,this paper presents some translation techniques proposed by various researchers in this regard.It should be mentioned that this paper does not intend to prescribe any special rules.

Proper nouns

Basically,nouns are classified as common and proper.Common nouns refer to a class of entities or individuals(e.g.man,woman,house,room,bird,squirrel…),while proper nouns have a unique referent(Hanoi,Vietnam,John,London,Charles Townley…)and serve to distinguish a particular individual from others.

According to Wikipedia,the on-line encyclopedia,a proper noun is"a word that serves the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about,but not of telling anything about it.".They do not accept demonstrative pronouns as deter miners(One would not normally say"This John just bought a car".However,supposing there are several Johns out of whom you wish to single a particular one,you are already using John as a common noun meaning any person called John).

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines the propernoun as"a noun that designates a particular being or thing,does not take a limiting modifier,and is usually capitalized in English-called also proper name."The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says that a proper noun(or proper name)is"a word that is the name of a person,a place,an institution,etc.and is written with a capital letter".

Generally speaking,a proper noun has these distinctive features in English:

-Itwill be capitalized,no matter where it occurs in a sentence.

-A proper name is a mono-referential name,i.e.,it refers to a particular person,thing,or place.

-It is not regularly preceded by a definite or indefinite article.

-It is not used with limiting modifiers,like"a lot of"or"any".

Proper names(used here interchangeably with the expression"proper nouns")can be divided into different subgroups according to the type of referent.

Place names

-Names of countries and regions

-Settlement names

-Names of buildings and streets and subdivisions of towns

-Names ofworks of arts including book titles

-Names of organizations and institutions

Proper nouns

Wikipedia defines human personal name in the foll owing way:

"A personal name is the proper name identifying individual person,and usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age.It is nearly universal for a human to have a name;the rare exceptions occur in the cases of mentally disturbed parents,or feral children growing up in isolation."

The World Book Encyclopedia talks about personal name in this way:"Practically everyone since the beginning of history has had a name.Almost all names have meanings.Early people bestowed a name with a definite consciousness of itsmeaning.But today,people give little thought to the meanings.Most people have a given name and family name.Many also have a middle name,and some have a nickname".

There are several categories of personal names.It is important to stress that not all types of personal names exist in all languages.Moreover,we must take cognizance of these different categories,since familiarity with them helps in the translation process.

In relation to the translation of personal names,we should take this point into consideration whether or not it is possible or necessary to show that these classifications are different in the source and target languages.

Personal names can be divided into various categories as follows:

Given name:A given name is a name that is assumed by a person at or after birth.As opposed to a family name,it is generally not inherited.

First name or Christian name:In Europe and North America,where the given name precedes the family name,given names are called first names or forenames.

Praenomen:The praenomen was the ancient Roman given name.With anomen and a cognomen it for med a complete Roman name.In Roman documents the praenomen was often abbreviated to one or two letters.

Middle name:In the English-speaking world,the middle name is a secondary given name.When the full name is presented,it is placed between the first name and the surname.People can have more than one middle name,though it is unusual to have none.

Family name or last name or surname:It is a name passed from one generation to the next.In many cultures awoman adopts her husband’s family name when they are married.

No men:The no men was the Roman gen name.In the typical Roman name it was preceded by the praenomen and followed by the cognomen

Cognomen:The cognomen was one of the three parts of the typical Roman name.It followed the praenomen and nomen.Originally cognomina were nicknames,but by the time of the Roman Empire they were inherited from father to son.Thus the cognomen in combination with the nomen functioned as a surname,breaking families into smaller groups than just the nomen alone.

Nickname:A nickname is a substitute for a person’s real name.It may be used because it is more familiar,more descriptive,or shorter than the real name.For example,Sue is the nickname of Susan.

Agnomen:The agnomen for med an additional part of some Roman names,usually following the cognomen.Usually they were nicknames acquired at some point during the lifetime,but,rarely,some agnomnia were inherited.

Pet name:A pet name of a given name is a short and/or affectionate form.Often they are only used by friends and relatives.

Diminutive:It is the same as a pet name.They can be formed through various methods in different languages.Two of most typical ways in English are presented here:

a)are those that are short forms of the original name,very often from the first syllable or sound of the name.For example,Alex is from Alexander;

b)they can also obtained by adding a suffix,to the original name or short for m of a name.In English,the-y/-ie suffixmake diminutives such as,Debbie,

Byname:Abyname is a secondary name used to further identify a person.They were often nicknames(for example Erik the Red)or patronyms(for example John,son of William).By names can be considered surnames when they are inherited from one generation to the next.

Generation name:The generation name is used by some Chinese and Korean families.It is a name given to all newborns of the same generation of an extended family.

Patronym:A patronym(or patronymic)is a name derived from the name of the father or another paternal ancestor.Some surnames are patronymic in origin,like Peterson="Peter’s son".Some cultures,such as Iceland,use uninherited patronyms instead of surnames.

Matronym:A matronym(also matronymic)is a name derived from the name of the mother or another maternal ancestor.

Filiation:A filiation attached to a name describes the bearer’s paternal descent.The complete Roman name sometimes had a filiation.

Translation of Personal Names

The basic rule concerning personal names is that they are left untranslated.In some cases transliteration or transcription may be needed depending on the language There are however,exceptions to this basic rule.A trivialone is that in certain languages(Chinese,Japanese…)the order of the person’s first and last name is opposite to the most common Western order of first name+last name.In Europe Hungarian last names come before first names.What mentioned here often causes a problem in translation.For translating personal names,different models are suggested.

Hervey and Higgins(1986)present these strategies for translating PNs:

-Exotism:The name should remain unchanged from the SL to the TL.In this method no cultural transposition is occurred.

-Transliteration:The name is shifted to confor m to the phonic or graphic rules of the TL..

-Cultural transplantation:The SL name is replaced by the TL name that has the same cultural connotation as the original one(p.29).

Peter New mark(1988)holds that people’s names should,as a rule,not be translated when their names have no connotation in the text.He adds some exceptions such as names of known saints,monarchs,and popes,which are known in the translated form in the TL.He also recommends that,in communicative translation,a personal name,along with its connotation,should be translated where proper names are treated connotatively.In spite of that,the personal names must be transferred in semantic translation.

In addition,with regard to names that have connotations in the imaginative literature such as in comedies,allegories,fairy tales,and some children’s stories,New mark recommends that they be translated.He adds that the previous rule should be followed unless,like in folk tales,nationality is a significant aspect.In cases where both nationality and connotation are significant aspects,the most appropriate method,in Newmark’s opinion,is first to translate the name to the TL,then to naturalize the translated word into a new proper name provided that the personal name is not yet current among the educated readers of the TL.Hermans(1988)believes that there are at least four strategies for translation of names.He phrases them,"They can be copied,i.e.reproduced in the target text exactly as they were in the source text.They can be transcribed,i.e.transliterated or adapted on the level of spelling,phonology,etc.A formally unrelated name can be substituted in the target text for any given name in the source text.

Farzanne Farahzad(1995)states that transliteration and transcription are used for translation of personal names.The latter is the replacement of one letter of the alphabet in the source language(SL)by another letter in the target language(TL).The former occurs when the letter of the target language shows the pronunciation of the personal name in the source language.She expounds that transcription suffers from the following defects:

-There are no established rules for transcription.

-The transcription of personal names varieson the basis of various accents such as American and British.

-The transcription may be influenced by the translator’s pronunciation,which may lead to an incorrect transcription.

-The exact transcription of personal names is not always possible;that is,all languages do not have the same consonants or vowels.

-The pronunciation of personal names’transcription is more difficult than that of their translation..

In view of the foregoing reasons,she concludes that transliteration is a better strategy to be used by translators.

Anthony Pym(2004)proposes that personal names not be translated.He also defines the result of transliteration operations as’absolute equivalence’in that it results in the exact quantitative equality between input and output(p.90).In his view,the most problematic aspect of’absolute equivalence’is that it is often unacceptable equivalence,unless much language learning is involved.In this regard,Pym contends that alternatives are imperative.

Heikki Särkkä(2007)reports that there are four strategies for translating PNs;—They can be transported completely from the TL to the SL(allowance being made for possible transliteration or transcription,depending on the SL).

-They can be partly transported from the SL and partly translated.

-They can be replaced with more or less different names in the TL.

-They can be dispensed with altogether.

Conclusion

Generally,personal names represent a real challenge for both professional and novice translators;therefore,they merit attention from researchers and scholars in the field of translation studies.New mark(1993)reports that proper names,which include personal names,represent a translation difficulty in different text types(p.15).

Being familiar with the culture,translators sometimes can infer some implied in formation such as gender,nationality,race,class,or religion from personal names.It is clear that translators must be familiar with culture of both the source and target languages,since awareness of these culture-bound names can lead to the most appropriate translation.Based on the foregoing information,it is significant to stress that the influence of culture on translation of personal names is undeniable.

Different translation procedures for translating personal names have been presented.In general,it should be noted that translators do not always use the same strategy for translation of all personal names in all kinds of texts.For example,Farah zad(1995)believes that translators should use transcription and transliteration techniques when translating personal names;

Having briefly discussed some of the translation procedures in this respect,we recommend that whatever strategies translators use,especially in scientific texts,they should mention the original name with the SL alphabets in the footnotes or endnotes in order to facilitate further research for readers in the target language.

The choice between the various alternatives will be also determined pragmatic factors,paramount among which overarching purpose of the text and the translator’s assessment of his/her intended audience.

[1] Albin,V.What’s in a name:Juliet’s Question Revisited.In Translation Journal 7(4),October 2003.http://accurapid.com/journal/26names.htm

[2] Campel,M.Personal name.Accessed 1 March,2009 from http://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/name

[3] Columbia editors(e.d)(2008).Entry word"Name"in Columbia Encyclopedia[on-line].A-vailableat www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-name.html.

[4] New mark,P.(1988).Approaches to translation.London:Prentice Hall.

[5] Proper name.[on-line].Available at:http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Propername

[6] Proper noun[on-line].Available at:http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proper+noun.S?rkk?,H.(2007).Translation of proper names in non-fiction texts[on-line].Available at http://translationjournal.net/journal/39proper.htm

H059

A

1008-9128(2010)05-0076-04

2010-04-15

黎功辰(1952-),男,博士,越南荣市大学国际合作与交流处处长。

论人名的翻译

黎功辰
(越南荣市大学)

该研究是关于人名翻译的研究。翻译是一种社会现象,我们可以有很多不同的方法来理解。人名的翻译对翻译工作者来说经常面临挑战,本文探讨人名翻译的方法和技巧应当指出,本文并不规定任何特别的翻译规则。研究结果显示,翻译工作者必须熟悉翻译目标的文化源和目标语言的文化背景,因为只有了解这些文化和背景才能使人名有最恰当的翻译。基于上述的表述,我们不可否认文化对于人名翻译的重要意义。

翻译;人名;翻译者;文化

[责任编辑 张灿邦]