Written orality, educated norm and linguistic hybridity in literary translations and adaptations

Abstract

This research project is based on both Translation Studies and Sociolinguistics applied to translation. Written orality is a linguistic feature that allows the construction of less artificial and more credible dialogues in literary texts (whether translated or not). It represents non stigmatized oral linguistic exchanges, especially because it is derived from diaphasic variation and it is also produced by the so-called educated speakers. In fact, there is an intersection between several types of written orality features (especially the non-stigmatized ones) and the educated linguistic norm (FARACO 2009), which is representative of a linguistic convergence that occurs due to the intense urbanization process of Brazilian society and Mass media diffusion, which has spread linguistic variants closer to common and "normal" usage among speakers (although not necessarily subsumed by the conservative standard norm, conceptually idealized, and generally based on the nineteenth century Lusitanian tradition). The hybridism of linguistic norms (BAGNO, 2012) is the coexistence in a text of divergent linguistic norms: on the one hand, linguistic forms (such as written orality features) not subsumed by conservative grammatical tradition, and, on the other, linguistic constructions that follow the normative prescription. The purpose of this project is to analyze how the relations between written orality features, educated norm, conservative standard norm, and the possible hybridism derived therefrom, are manifested in four different Portuguese versions of Gulliver's Travels (1726), by Jonathan Swift. (AU)