On Teaching Forms of Address in Translation

By Agnieszka Szarkowska
Freelance translator, English and translation teacher

a.szarkowska@uw.edu.pl
http://www.accurapid.com/journal/33address.htm

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Abstract

Forms of address constitute an important part of everyday communication in every culture, and they therefore should not be disregarded in translation and translator training. The article offers a few practical tips on how to incorporate forms of address into translation classes at university level.

A revised version of this article was presented by the author at the PASE¹ Conference held by the University of Łódź, Poland, on 5 April 2005.

The goal of this paper is to present a few translation tasks that could be used by translation teachers in their classes at university level. Some of these exercises have been tested in practice, while others still need to be tried out. It is important to bear in mind that teaching the translation of address forms should not always be done in an explicit manner under the heading "translating forms of address." On the contrary, it is useful to point to the right forms of address in any type of text—for instance, when discussing issues such as the role of context and style both in translation of written and spoken texts.

The paper adopts a perspective directed at English-Polish translation classes; however, the author is convinced that these tasks can be successfully employed in any translation classes.

The problem with teaching forms of address in translation does not usually concern the knowledge of linguistic repertoires of the source and target languages—students at English departments in Poland usually have a very good command of English, and most of them are native speakers of Polish, which makes them proficient in both languages. The problem lies in the students' cultural awareness. In other words, students frequently do not display what Dell Hymes called "cultural competence" (1972), i.e. the knowledge of when and how certain address forms are used in each culture. Therefore, one of the goals of translation classes is seen as consciousness-raising so that students can gain full native-like competence and acquire naturalness of expression.

It comes near to stating the obvious that translation difficulties regarding address forms stem from the differences between the two languages and cultures. For example, in English there is only one 2^nd-person pronoun used as an address form—you; while in Polish the situation is more complex: there are two informal 2^nd person pronouns ty (singular) and wy (plural) as well as words that are often classified as pronouns and which on the surface seem to represent 3^rd person, used in the case of formal address, namely pan (singular, male), pani (singular, female), panowie (plural, male), panie (plural, female), państwo (plural, male+female). However, differences in English and Polish systems of address forms lie beyond the scope of this article.

What follows are examples of activities that could be used to practise translating forms of address at university level.

Activity 1

For a start, a good way to test your students' competence in this respect is to give them the following simple introductory task:

1. (Ty) byłeś.
2. (Ty) byłaś.
3. (Wy) byliście.
4. (Wy) byłyście.
5. Pan był./ Był pan.
6. Pani była. / Była pani.
7. Panowie byli. /Byli panowie.
8. Panie były. / Były panie.
9. Państwo byli. / Byli państwo.
10. Państwo byliście. / Byliście państwo.

The obvious conclusion is that students—as do many other Polish speakers—mistakenly assume that you always means ty or wy regardless of the context, instead of pan/pani. This exercise can be adapted to be used in many different languages, for example French or German (see suggestions in the table below), the difference being in the number of possible outcomes.

Activity 2

The same problem, i.e. formal and informal address forms, can be analysed in an authentic context, provided by a dialogue from the feature film Notting Hill. The scene takes place in a travel bookshop in London, when the shop assistant notices a shoplifter. The students are introduced to the context and then they are shown the scene. After watching it for the first time, they are asked to imagine what such a dialogue would sound like in their native context; they can even act it out. In the Polish context, the conversation would probably be more 'stormy' and emotional, quite possibly with some accusations and shouting. In the context exemplified here, however, there is an instance of the typical British 'phlegm'—an extremely polite dialogue with reserve and distance. Furthermore, it would need to be elicited from the students that quite probably the shop assistant would be addressing the customer as pan (Vous in French / Sie in the case of German, etc.), and not as ty (tu / du respectively). Then, the fragment is shown again and students are provided with the script, which they are asked to translate. Alternatively, at this stage, students could be divided into pairs; in each pair one person would translate the words of the shop assistant, and the other those of the customer. The students would then be asked to read out their translations in pairs. This exercise could additionally turn their attention to issues like interpretation of participants' utterances, style and its appropriateness to the situation, politeness, naturalness of expression, consistency of the entire dialogue, etc.

The students are asked to render this dialogue into the target language, bearing in mind the characteristics of each of the three modes of film translation. The class could be divided into three groups, one of which translates the above dialogue in the form of dubbing, the second—subtitling, and the third one—voiceover. This activity seems quite appealing to students as they are usually frequent cinema-goers and have a host of opinions regarding the official translation of certain films². Thus, this activity would be aimed not only at developing their awareness of audiovisual translation modes and their restrictions, but it would also provide useful natural context for appropriate use of address forms in both the source and the target language.

In translation classes we also need to make students sensitive as to the crucial role of the context and circumstances. This point can be rightly illustrated by the following dialogue, adapted from Bridget Jones's Diary, in which the main protagonist, Bridget, informs her boss that she is quitting her job. The dialogue takes place a few days after the two split up. Having been provided with essential facts regarding the film, the students are asked to watch the chosen fragment. This is followed by a discussion on the formality of the dialogue and the role of the context. Students watch the scene for the second time and they are asked to focus on how characters address each other.

[Daniel Cleaver] "Bridge, c'mon, I know it's been awkward as ass, but there's no need to leave."

[Bridget Jones] "No, actually there is. I've been offered a job in television."

[DC] "Television?"

[BJ] "Mmm. And they want me to start straight away. So I've got to leave in about ooh 3 minutes. So ...am.. [leaving his room and coming to an open space office where other people are working]"

[DC] "Would you just hold it right there, Ms Jones. I am sorry to inform you that I think you'll find that by contract you are expected to give at least 6 weeks' notice."

[BJ] "Ah, yes, well... I thought with the company being in so much trouble and all, you wouldn't really miss the person who waltzes in a see-through top and funnies about with the press releases."

[DC] "Bridget!"

At first the boss, Daniel, addresses Bridget in an intimate way using the diminutive form Bridge, but on hearing the news he immediately switches to a more formal style, calling her Ms Jones and adopting a very formal and official style. In this dialogue we can observe the phenomenon known as code-switching, which is a regular and natural element of everyday encounters. This is something that needs to be pointed out in translation, and rendered accordingly. Such a translation activity would undoubtedly help open students' eyes to this very common phenomenon.

One problem that always crops up in translation classes is that of proper names, of which first names constitute a significant share. The currently prevailing tendency in translation studies is that proper names should be retained in their original form since they carry crucial sociolinguistic information on family, ethnic, or national affiliation. A change of the names, which are very much culture-bound phenomena, into the target language could suggest a change of nationality (Newmark 1981: 71). In order to introduce the following task, the students could be asked about their visits to English-speaking countries and how they were addressed there—was their real (Polish) name used, or perhaps some anglicised version of it? The teacher can recount his/her own personal story: for instance, in Polish Agnieszka is a very popular modern name, whereas Agnes in English is pretty old-fashioned, and it could be compared to Genowefa or Pelagia³ in Polish when it comes to the frequency of its use or the associations it triggers.

The significance of proper names can be very well illustrated by the following excerpt from Lost in Translation. A Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman, a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to Canada as a teenager. Hoffman (1989: 105) depicts life in the new culture and the fragment below describes her and her sister's first day at the new school.

After an introductory discussion, the students are ready to read and translate the assigned fragment. As a follow-up activity, it could be a good idea to analyse the published Polish translation of this fragment:

Another task is related to translating letters, of which address forms are an intrinsic part. To this end, the following fragment from the novel A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch can be used. To introduce the task, students are asked whether they have read the book and—if any of them have—to briefly summarise the plot. The story is set in and around London, among middle-class people, and it is useful to present the plot outline. The main character is Martin Lynch-Gibbon, a wine merchant, married to Antonia—a marriage out of convenience rather than love. While Martin is having a secret affair with a young academic Georgie, he is shocked when his wife tells him she is leaving him for Palmer Anderson, their friend and psychoanalyst. Shortly after, Martin falls for Anderson's step-sister, Honor Klein, who is a lecturer in anthropology at Cambridge. One evening Martin gets drunk, and a series of more or less fortunate events follow, after which he writes the letters (presented below) to Antonia, Georgie, and Honor Klein in order to apologise for his unacceptable behaviour.

At the beginning of the task, the students are provided with fragments of these letters and they are asked to find stylistic clues that will help them decide what style they are dealing with in each letter. It may also prove beneficial to discuss the differences in letter writing conventions in English and Polish. Having done this, the students should be ready to translate the letters.

(Murdoch 1961: 113-116)

In this excerpt there are several aspects worth analysing. First, students need to discover stylistic clues in each fragment that will later guide them in translation. For example, in the first two texts, an intimate form of address opens the letters and there are contractions denoting informal style. In the letter to Honor Klein, however, there are no contractions, the vocabulary used is quite formal, and the first two versions begin with an address by surname. The exercise also proves very useful in teaching students the differences between English and Polish address, such as the use of Szanowna in formal style, and not Droga, which seems to be the preferred version of the majority of students. What is more, in this exercise students will most probably translate formal forms of address as Droga Dr Klein / Droga Pani Klein, which is a mistake as in Polish we do not use surnames in this situation, but we rather write Szanowna Pani / Szanowna Pani Doktor.

Alternatively, students can be divided into five groups, and each group is given one excerpt to translate. They then exchange their translations and carry out peer correction. They are asked to comment on their friends' translations, and make their own suggestions. Then they can be confronted with the group who actually translated the letter, and an interesting discussing can ensue with regard to translation decisions taken.

The problem of addressing others by their surnames is also touched upon in the following dialogue adapted from the feature film Before Sunset. The scene takes place in a Parisian bookshop, where Mr Wallace, a young promising American writer, is having a meeting with French journalists. Students watch the entire scene and they are then asked to translate the following utterance:

"Mr Wallace, the book ends on an ambiguous note. We don't know. Do you think they get back to each other in six months like they promised each other?"

Again, students need to be reminded that in Polish we would rather say Proszę pana instead of Panie Wallace.

It worth to point out not only the differences in English and Polish forms of address, but also certain similarities, such as the rule that our friends' friends are our friends too, which means we are on first name terms from the very beginning. This can be illustrated by a scene from Bridget Jones's Diary, which takes place at a party.

[Perpetua to Bridget and Mark talking] "Anyone going to introduce me?"

[Bridget to Perpetua] "Perpetua, this is Mark Darcy. Mark's a top barrister (...). [To Mark] Perpetua is one of my work colleagues."

[Perpetua to Mark] "Hi Mark, I know you by reputation of course."

[Mark] "Aaa, Natasha. [To Natasha] This is Bridget Jones. [To Bridget] Bridget, this is Natasha."

When talking about translation of English address forms, it is worth mentioning typical British expressions such as love, dear, mate, lad or governor. They should be elicited from the students, together with the information that they are used in British English only. The following dialogue comes from an Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby, a film presenting a trainer, Frankie, who works with a woman, Maggie, determined to establish herself as a boxer. The scene takes place during their trip to London, just before a fight, when a local assistant comes in to tell Maggie and Frankie how much time they have left.

[British assistant entering the room] "10 minutes, love."

[Maggie] "Thank you. [The assistant leaves] (...) says he loves me."

[Frankie] "Oh he's probably not the first one to say that."

[Maggie] "First since my daddy. If I win you think he'll propose?"

[Frankie] "You win, I'll propose."

Among the difficulties faced by the translator, the students can enumerate the culture-specific expression love, and the fact that it is typically British and even Americans do not feel very familiar with it. Another thing is the word game that arises from this form of address and how it is continued in the dialogue that follows. It should also be elicited from the students that in Polish it is not customary to use such expressions as often as in British English. After the discussion, the students are asked to translate the dialogue: probably the best Polish word for love here would be kochana/kochanie, as it allows to continue the conversation: mówi, że mnie kocha, which is consistent with the source dialogue.

As was mentioned earlier, forms of address do not need to be taught explicitly all the time. They can be emphasised when discussing, for instance, translation of idioms. For this purpose, Monty Python's sketch entitled Dead Parrot can be used. The dialogue takes place in a shop between a shop assistant and a customer who is lodging a complaint with regard to the parrot he bought, which turns out to be dead. In the dialogue, attention is paid to how idioms should be translated, but at the same time, the students can be reminded of how strangers address each other in a shop.

When teaching translation, the role of forms of address tends to be neglected and underestimated, as a result of which students are not fully aware of both linguistic and cultural differences between the source and target languages in this respect. In response to this problem, the article has offered some practical ideas how the translation of address forms can be incorporated into translation classes from English into another language.

References

Filmography

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