Quintú Quimün (Nov 2020)
Contributions of Comparative Grammar to Translation Competence: Analysis of the Dative Clitic in “Casa Tomada”
Abstract
This paper is the result of the work carried out regarding the Dative Clitic in the course Comparative Grammar English-Spanish taught at Universidad Nacional de La Plata. The analysis presented is part of a study conducted in the graduate course Literary Translation 1 of the Master’s Program in Translation of Belgrano University. Our double role as professional translators and translation and grammar lecturers gives us the possibility of reflecting upon the contribution that Generative Grammar and, in turn, Relational Semantics may offer to translation training. We seek to evaluate what this grammatical perspective can provide to the development of the bilingual sub-competence, part of the Translation Competence (Hurtado Albir 2013, 2017). With this aim in mind, we will analyze the Dative Clitic in the story “Casa tomada” by Julio Cortázar (1962) and its English translation “House Taken Over” by Paul Blackburn (1969). The most representative examples of the story (original and translation) will be described following Stamboni & Hospital (2012b), the translation techniques used (Hurtado Albir 2013) will be presented so as to speculate about the possible semantic/interpretative impact of the use of these techniques. Finally, we will reflect upon the applications of Comparative Grammar in the analysis of translations, which can be illuminating and instrumental for translation students.
