REFLECTION OF THE MEDIEVAL REALITY IN MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATION (A CASE STUDY OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER’S "MILLER’S TALE")
Sidorenko Sergei Ivanovich
National Aviation University, Ukraine
Abstract. The paper researches how medieval English reality of Geoffrey Chaucer’s "The Miller’s Tale" is brought across to the present-day reader in modern English translation. The author singles out some major reality-building constituents that make up the world of the famous story and looks at how the translator handles them in terms of the lexicon. Such reality-building constituents include locale markers; common practices characterizing people’s life in a medieval English town; people’s beliefs; household details; characters’ individual appearances, courting and love-making, etc. The study showed a number of challenges posed by the intricate realism and bawdy farce of "The Miller’s Tale" for the modern translator both in terms of words’ meaning and functional status. In addition to difficulties resulting from the significant time distance between the original text and the modern English reader, the translator of "The Miller’s Tale" faces the problem of language "propriety" in rendering explicit vocabulary relating to sex and physiological functions.
Key words and phrases: среднеанглийский текст, модернизация, элементы, создающие реальность, выбор переводчика, medieval text, modernization, reality-building constituents, translator’s choices
Open the whole article in PDF format. Free PDF-files viewer can be downloaded .
References:
Kolshanskii G. V. O ponyatii kontekstnoi semantiki // Teoriya yazyka. Anglistika. Kel'tologiya. M.: Nauka, 1976. S. 69-75.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1893. Vol. II. 1320 p.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1901. Vol. V. Part 1. 532 p.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1901. Vol. V. Part 2. 770 p.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1908. Vol. VI. Part 1. 548 p.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1909. Vol. VII. 1700 p.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1914. Vol. VIII. Part 1. 970 p.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1926. Vol. X. Part 1. 1080 p.
A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles / ed. by J. A. H. Murray et al. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1928. Vol. X. Part 2. 1212 p.
Arnovick L. K. Written Reliquaries: The Resonance of Orality in Medieval English Texts. Amsterdam - Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 2006. 292 p.
Burton T. L., Greentree R. Chaucer’s Miller’s, Reeve’s, and Cook’s Tales. An Annotated Bibliography. 1900 to 1992. Toronto - Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1997. 287 p.
Chaucer G. The Complete Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer / translated by John S. P. Tatlock and P. MacKaye. N. Y.: Macmillan Co., 1952. 607 p.
eChaucer. Chaucer in the Twenty-First Century [Elektronnyi resurs]. URL: http://machias.edu/faculty/necastro/ chaucer/translation/ct/03milt.html (data obrashcheniya: 03.08.2015).
Farrel Th. J. 1989: Privacy and the Boundaries of Fabliau in The Miller's Tale // ELH. Winter, 1989. Vol. 56. No. 4. P. 773-795.
Fein S. G. 1991: Why Did Absolon Put a "Trewelove" under his Tongue? Herb Paris as a Healing "Grace" in Middle English Literature // The Chaucer Review. Spring, 1991. Vol. 25. No 4. P. 302-317.
Hupp B. F. A Reading of the Canterbury Tales. N. Y.: SUNY Press, 1967. 245 p.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited, 2003. 1950 p.
Moore A. The Miller’s Prologue and Tale: Study Guide [Elektronnyi resurs]. URL: http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/ poetry/millerstale.htm (data obrashcheniya: 03.08.2015).
Morton M. The Lover’s Tongue: A Merry Romp through the Language of Love and Sex. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2009. 235 p.
New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language. College Edition. Delhi: Surjeet Publications, 1988. 1822 p.
Rigby S. H. Chaucer in Context: Society, Allegory and Gender. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996. 205 p.
The Riverside Chaucer / ed. by L. Benson. 3rd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. 1332 p.
Русский
