Translation of Hyperbole and Understatement for Ideology Manipulation in the Press

• Authors: Jolanta Osękowska-Sandecka
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article begins with the assumption that that translators use hyperbole and understatement to manipulate ideology. The explication of it is embedded in the pragma-linguistic framework and supported with the discussion of the role of context perceived as the three-dimensional understanding of text production. The focus of this paper is on the negative application of these two ideologically loaded language tools in the context of the press. Accordingly, press translators need to be aware of the negative application of hyperboles and understatements for ideology purposes in the source text in relation to the surrounding context (textual, institutional, and social) and, next, be able to translate them adequately to the needs of the target text ideology in the target context. The purpose of this article is to verify this assumption and gain insight into such operations. In order to investigate it, a sample of articles from the British quality press and their translations published in Polish newspapers is used. The results show that hyperboles and understatements, indeed, possess ideological potential that contributes to the projected textual ideology. They are manipulated in translation, however, not invariably through alterations of these two devices themselves. Sometimes the manipulation occurs through omission or manipulation of of of the context in which they are employed while the hyperbole and understatements are translated rather literally. Independently of what technical decision the translator makes in reference to the devices as such, it is invariably performed in relation to the ideological demands of the target text.

Keywords

EN

press translation; hyperbole; understatement; ideology; manipulation

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Journal: Lodz Papers in Pragmatics
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 201-223

Dates

published

2016-03-17

received

2015-08-27

revised

2015-10-07

accepted

2015-12-28

online

2016-03-17

Contributors

author

Jolanta Osękowska-Sandecka

• Department of English (Institute of Modern Languages), University of Zielona Góra, Al. Wojska Polskiego 71a, 65-762 Zielona Góra, Poland

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/lpp-2015-0011