The Role of Discourse Markers in an Afrikaans Stage Translation of The Merchant of Venice

Abstract

In drama texts, the written and the spoken modes work together to communicate multiple and complex messages simultaneously. Consequently, the dramatic text has a dual role in both the literary and the theatrical systems of a particular culture. This duality has also influenced the translation of drama. If the drama is intended to appear in print only, the translator is likely to approach the translation as a literary text and will then produce a page translation. In contrast, if the main aim is staging the drama, the translator will create a stage translation that will appeal to contemporary theatre-goers. Both page and stage translations of drama texts are written for spoken delivery. In other words, the dialogue in such texts is usually designed to simulate real-life, face-to-face communication. This is also the case in Shakespeare's dramas and their translations. When a recent stage translation of The Merchant of Venice in Afrikaans is compared to an older page translation it is clear that the stage translator has deliberately employed certain linguistic features to simulate participation or ‘‘involvement’’ between characters and make them sound more like real people in authentic situations (Kruger 2000). It is therefore no surprise that the stage translation exhibits more contractions than the page translation – this is a primary method in any language to indicate spoken speech. What is unusual, though, is the deliberate insertion of a far wider range of discourse markers in the stage translation, despite its being much shorter than the page translation. The only logical explanation for this particular finding is that the translator has actively attempted to influence the conversational coherence of the dramatic dialogue of the stage translation by foregrounding the interpersonal and text-building functions of discourse markers such as feedback words, interjections, exclamations, vocatives, and courtesy adjuncts.

Opsomming

In dramatekste werk geskrewe en gesproke apekte saam om tegelykertyd veelvoudige en komplekse boodskappe te kommunikeer. Gevolglik speel die dramatiese teks ’n tweeledige rol in beide die literêre en die teatersisteme van ’n besondere kultuur. Hierdie tweeledigheid beïnvloed ook die vertaling van dramatekste: as die vertaling slegs in druk gaan verskyn, word die vertaling as ’n literêre teks benader en ’n boekvertaling is die resultaat; andersins, as die vertaling opgevoer gaan word, word ’n verhoogvertaling gemaak wat eietydse teatergangers lok. Beide boek- en verhoog-vertalings word vir gesproke aflewering geskryf, met ander woorde, die dialoog word gewoonlik só geskep dat dit ware kommunikasie in die regte lewe naboots. Dit is ook die geval met Shakespearedramas en hul vertalings. Toe ’n onlangse verhoogvertaling van The Merchant of Venice in Afrikaans met ’n ouer boekvertaling vergelyk is, het dit geblyk dat die verhoogvertaler doelbewus sekere talige verskynsels ingespan het om deelname of “betrokkenheid” tussen die karakters na te boots en hulle te laat klink soos regte mense in ware kommunikasiesituasies (Kruger 2000). Dit is dus geen verrassing dat die verhoogvertaling meer sametrekkings as die boekvertaling vertoon nie – dit is immers ’n basiese metode waarop gesproke taal in enige taal nagemaak word. Wat wel ongewoon is, is die doelbewuste toevoeging van ’n wyer reeks diskoersmerkers in die verhoogvertaling, hoewel hierdie vertaling veel korter as die boekvertaling is. Die enigste logiese verklaring vir hierdie bevinding is dat die vertaler daadwerklik gepoog het om die gesprekskoherensie van die dramatiese dialoog in die verhoogvertaling te beïnvloed deur die interpersoonlike en teksbouende funksies van diskoersmerkers soos terugvoerwoorde, tussenwerpsels, uitroepe, vokatiewe en hoflikheidsadjunkte op die voorgrond te stel.