Tipos de variação semântica ideacional e interpessoal da reinstanciação interlinguística como tipos de simplificação, de explicitação e de normalização

Abstract

This doctoral research studies translation as the interlingual re-instantiation of a source text (Souza, 2010; Chang, 2017) and aims to investigate the types of semantic variation in this type of re-instantiation and to propose types of simplification, explicitation and normalization (translation universals) based on the types of semantic variation. For this investigation, this research draws on Martin’s theoretical framework (Martin, 1992; Martin & Rose, 2007), which has been shown to be productive for the investigation of semantic variations in monolingual studies (Hood, 2008; Martin, 2010) as well as in studies on interlingual re-instantiation (Blauth & Magalhães, 2019; Cristófaro, 2018, 2019; Martins, 2018; Magalhães & Dias, 2018; Souza, 2013). More specifically, the investigation focuses on semantic variations involving the taxonomic and nuclear relations, the IDEATION system (Martin & Rose, 2007), and the resources of engagement, attitude and graduation, the APPRAISAL system (Martin & White, 2005). The texts investigated in this research are The Handmaid's Tale (1985), by Margaret Atwood, and its re-instantiation into Brazilian Portuguese, O Conto da Aia (2017), by translator Ana Deiró, from which 30 pairs of equivalent discursive phases (source and translated texts) from different chapters were selected for investigation. By adopting a case study design, this research seeks to provide an in-depth description of the linguistic operations that occur in semantic variations. The complete investigation encompassed four stages, and all the analyses were carried out manually with the help of computational tools. The first stage included the selection of the discursive phases, their segmentation into clauses and the alignment of the equivalent clauses (source and translated) in spreadsheets. The second stage was dedicated to the analysis of IDEATION, with the classification of taxonomic relations between people, things, and places, as well as the classification of nuclear relations within the clause and below the clause. The third stage was dedicated to APPRAISAL and comprised the identification and classification of types of engagement, attitude, and graduation. In the last stage, both analyzed texts (source and translated) were contrasted so that the semantic variations were identified. The language operations involved in the variations, then, enabled the specification of the types of semantic variation as types of simplification, explicitation and normalization. The results show the occurrence of semantic variations in all five groups of meanings under investigation – taxonomic relations, nuclear relations, engagement, attitude, and graduation. 29 types of semantic variation were identified. Nine of them validate the categories described by monolingual studies, four of them validate the variations identified by studies on interlingual re-instantiation, and seven of them specify several linguistic variations described by studies on translation universals. The other eight types are new categories, involving more and less commitment of appraisal meanings and different representations of both ideation and appraisal meanings. The identified types of semantic variation are proposed as six types of simplification, six types of explicitation, and one type of normalization; there are also some types of semantic variation not related to any of these three phenomena.