English Equivalents of dicere in Prose Translations of Jerome’s Psalters

• Authors: Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik

Title variants

PL

Ekwiwalenty łacińskiego dicere w prozaicznych tłumaczeniach Psałterzy św. Hieronima

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

An examination of English prose translations of Jerome’s Psalter from OE to EMnE reveals that there are four relevant equivalents of the Latin verb dicere: cweðan, secgan > seien > say, tell and speak. In each period in the history of English the verb dicere is translated by a prototypical verb of saying but the prototypes change over time. In OE both cweđan and secgan were amply attested but it was the former that had the status of the prototype. The two verbs are continued in ME but the use of qu8then undergoes morphological and syntactic restrictions as a result of which seien takes over the status of the prototype and is used in all examined ME texts in all contexts. Similarly, in the EMnE translation seien is selected in thirty-four out of thirty-eight contexts, with the remaining four occurrences of dicere are rendered by tell and speak, which were quite frequently attested in the examined texts in the ME period but they were selected as equivalents of loqui, annuntiare, enarrare and narrare. Consistent selection of equivalents seems to characterise the traditional approach to biblical translation, which focuses on the form in the first place. This attitude results from the conviction that sacred texts convey their message not only via direct linguistic expression and is at the same time an expression of the translators’ reverence and respect for the sacred nature of the text they translated.

PL

Badanie ekwiwalentów łacinskiego dicere w angielskich tłumaczeniach Psałterzy św. Hieronima dokonanych pomiędzy okresem staroangielskim a wczesno-nowoangielskim wykazuje, że mamy do czynienia z czterema relewantnymi odpowiednikami: cweðan, secgan > seien > say, tell i speak. W każdym z badanych okresów czasownik dicere jest tłumaczony na angielskie prototypowe czasowniki, z tym, że prototypy z upływem czasu ulegają zmianom: w języku staroangielskim występują zarówno cweðan jak i seccgan, ale to cweðan ma status prototypu. W okresie średnioangielskim oba czasowniki są kontynuowane, ale użycie quēthen podlega ścisłym ograniczeniom zarówno morfologicznym jak i syntaktycznym, a status prototypu uzyskuje seien i to właśnie seien jest użyte we wszystkich badanych tekstach i we wszystkich kontekstach w okresie średnioangielskim oraz w przeważającej większości kontekstów w tłumaczeniu z okresu wczesno-nowoangielskiego. W ostatnim okresie jako odpowiedniki dicere pojawiają się w 4 z 38 badanych kontekstów również czasowniki tell i speak, które już od okresu średnioangielskiego cechuje duża częstotliwość użycia w języku, ale w badanych tekstach są one używane jako ekwiwalenty loqui, annuntiare, enarrare i narrare. Wskazuje to na dużą stabilność wyboru ekwiwalentów (największą w okresie średnioangielskim), co z kolei jest przejawem tradycyjnego podejścia do tłumaczeń biblijnych, w których tłumaczeniu podlega w pierwszej kolejności warstwa formalna. Jest to w równym stopniu skutek przekonania, że w tekście sakralnym znaczenie niesione jest nie tylko drogą bezpośredniego przekazu językowego, co przejaw postawy szacunku dla tłumaczonego tekstu.

Keywords

EN

Psalter; verbs; dicere; equivalents; Biblical translation

PL

Psałterz; czasowniki; dicere; ekwiwalenty; tłumaczenie Biblii

• Publisher: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II. Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL
• Journal: Roczniki Humanistyczne
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 5: Neofilologia
• Pages: 7-27

Contributors

author

Magdalena Charzyńska-Wójcik

• Department of English Historical Linguistics at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

References

• Bately, Janet M. 1982. Lexical evidence for the authorship of the prose psalms in the Paris Psalter. Anglo-Saxon England 10, 69-95.
• Black, Robert Ray and Raymond St-Jacques. 2012. The Middle English Glossed Prose Psalter. Heidelberg: Universitättsverlag.
• Bosworth, Joseph and T. Northcote Toller. 1898. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth, Edited and Enlarged by T.N. Toller. Oxford University Press: London.
• Bramley, Henry Ramsden. 1884. The Psalter, or Psalms of David and Certain Canticles with a Translation and Exposition in English by Richard Rolle of Hampole. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Also available at: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;view=toc;idno=AJF7399.0001.001.
• Bright, James Wilson and Robert Lee Ramsey. 1907. Liber Psalmorum: the West-Saxon Psalms. Boston and London: D.C. Heath.
• Chadwyck-Healey, 1996. The Bible in English: Twenty-One Different Versions of the English Bible from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1996. CD-ROM.
• Charzyńska-Wójcik, Magdalena. 2013. Text and Context in Jerome’s Psalters: Prose Translations into Old, Middle and Early Modern English. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL.
• Cooper, W.R. John Trevisa, the Translator of Wycliffe B: A consideration of the evidence. Available at: http://www.tyndale.org/TSJ/25/cooper.html (14.11.12)
• Cunyus, John G. 2009. The Audacity of Prayer: A Fresh Translation of the Book of Psalms. Glenrose, Texas: Searchlight Press.
• Deanesly, Margaret. 1920. The Lollard Bible and Other Medieval Biblical Versions. Cambridge: University Press.
• Douay Bible = 1610. The Holie Bible Faithfvlly Translated into English, ovt of the Avthentical Latin Diligently Conferred with the Hebrew, Greeke, and other Editions in Diuers Languages: With Argvments of the Bookes, and Chapters: Annotations: Tables: and Other Helpes, for Better Vnderstanding of the Text: for Discouerie of Corrvptions in Some Late Translations and for Clearing Controversies in Religion. Doway: Lavrence Kellam.
• Dove, Mary. 2007. The First English Bible: The Text and Context of the Wycliffite Versions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Forshall, Josiah and Frederic Madden. (ed.). 1850. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Also available at: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;view=toc;idno=AFZ9170.0001.001.
• Fowler, David C. 1995. The Life and Times of John Trevisa, Medieval Scholar. Seattle and London: The University of Washington Press.
• Hargreaves, Henry. 1955. The Latin text of Purvey’s Psalter. Medium Ævum 24: 73-90.
• Hetzenauer, Michael P. (ed.). 1914. Biblia Sacra Vulgatæ Editionis Sixti V Pont. Max. Iussu Recognita et Clementis VIII Auctoritate Edita. Ratisbonæ at Rome: Friderici Pustet.
• Middle English Dictionary = Kurath, Hans, Sherman Kuhn, John Reidy, Robert E. Lewis et al. (eds). 1952-2001. Middle English Dictionary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Available at: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/.
• Ogura, Michiko. 1996. Verbs in Medieval English: Differences in Verb Choice in Verse and Prose. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Paris Psalter MS. = Paris, BnF, MS Fonds lat. 8824, fols. 1-63. Available at: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8451636f.r=psalterium+duplex.langEN.
• Partridge, A. C. 1973. English Biblical Translation. London: Andrè Deutsch.
• Paues, Anna C. 1902. A Fourteenth Century English Biblical Version Consisting of a Prologue and Parts of the New Testament Edited from the Manuscripts together with some Introductory Chapters on Middle English Biblical Versions (Prose-Translations). Cambridge: University Press.
• Pollard, Alfred W. 1911. Records of the English Bible. The Documents Relating to the Translation and Publication of the Bible in English, 1525-1611. London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Henry Frowde for Oxford University Press.
• Reuter, Ole. 1938. A study of the French words in the “Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter”. Societas Scientiarum Fennica. Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 9.4.
• Rooker, Mark. 2011. The transmission and textual criticism of the Old Testament. In Merrill, Eugene E. Mark F. Rooker and Michael A. Grisanti (eds.). The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville, Tennessee: B&K Publishing Group. 108-121.
• Shepherd, Geoffrey. 1969. English versions of the Scriptures before Wycliffe. In G.W.H. Lampe (ed.). The Cambridge History of the Bible. The West from the Fathers to the Reformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 362-286.
• Sisam, Kenneth. 1918. Notes on the West-Saxon Psalms. Modern Language Notes 33: 474-476.
• Slater, John Rothwell. 1911. English versions before 1611. The Biblical World 37.4: 232-239.
• St-Jacques, Raymond C. 1989. Middle English glossed prose Psalter and its French Source. In Jeanette Beer (ed.). Medieval Translators and their Craft. Kalamazoo MI: Medieval Institute Publications. 135-154.
• Stracke, Richard. The Paris Prose. Available at: http://www.aug.edu/augusta/psalms/. Last accessed 11.11.2012.
• Thorpe, Benjamin. (ed.). 1835. Libri Psalmorum Versio Antiqua Latina cum Paraphrasi Anglo-Saxonica, Partim Soluta Oratione, Partim Metrice Composita. Oxford.
• Toller, T. Northcote. 1921. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Toronto Corpus = Complete Corpus of Old English: the Toronto Dictionary of Old English Corpus, Cameron, A. and R. Frank (eds.). University of Toronto Centre for Medieval Studies. The Oxford Text Archive. <http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/>.
• Waite, Greg. 2000. Old English Prose Translations of King Alfred’s Reign. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
• Wegner, Paul. D. 2006. A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism of the Bible: Its History, Methods and Results. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
• Whitaker, William. Words: Latin-to-English & English-to-Latin Dictionary. Available at: http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/wordsonline.html.