27(2) - 2015

The pragmatic-functional nature of intralingual translation and its affinity to top-down-procedures

Olaf Immanuel Seel

Title

The pragmatic-functional nature of intralingual translation and its affinity to top-down-procedures

Abstract

This paper examines intralingual translation in terms of process and product. On the basis of the example of the adaptation of an Ancient Greek comedy, The Birds, into a Modern Greek comic book, it presents and illustrates the basic transformations and modifications carried out in this special type of intralingual translation. Theoretically and methodologically, the paper grounds its analysis on the functional translation theory and, in particular, on the fruitful combination of Christiane Nord’s concept of “translational top-down-procedures” with the concept of “contrastive text prototypologies”, which is grounded on Neubert’s concept of “text prototypes” and Kußmaul’s claim for “contrastive pragmatic studies”. The overall aim of this paper is to contribute to translation theory by finding theoretical and methodological means to thoroughly study, explain and conceptualize the phenomenology of the still relatively unexplored domain of intralingual translation, as well as support its practice with the appropriate scientific knowledge. Finally, by means of this paper, based on one characteristic example of the wide range of intralingual translational practice, I hope to deliver useful theoretical and methodological insights that evidently apply to every single type of intralingual translation.

Keywords

Functional Translation Theory, top-down-procedures, adaptation of ancient Greek comedy into a modern Greek comic book, contrastive text prototypologies, pragmatic-functional nature of intralingual translation

October 18, 2015
  27(2) - 2015