Saying what someone else meant: style, relevance and translation

Abstract

Starting from the distinction between interpretive and descriptive use which Gutt (2000 ) takes from Sperber and Wilson (1995 ) and applies to translation, this article considers the consequences of the fact that the translator is saying what someone else meant. This other person can be seen as an inferred original author constructed by the reader. Stylistic devices in the text are assumed here to be relevant in constructing meaning, in Sperber and Wilson's sense, and to serve a dual function. Firstly, as evidence of a mind style, in the sense of Fowler (1977 ), they provide clues to a state of mind that can reasonably be reconstructed as being expressed by the author. Secondly, they create poetic effects in the mind of the reader. Translating a poetic text involves preserving these clues for the reader in order both to recreate the mind style of the text and, as far as possible, to reproduce its effects for the reader of the translation.

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