# Web Translation Projects/Approaches to Translating Dialect/Lexicalisation

In lexicalisation, the translator performs partial intralingual translation (only on the level of lexis) and full interlingual translation. This means that all dialect markers except for lexical ones are removed from the translation. Lexicalisation inconsistently anchors character speech in a non-standard linguistic community, therefore making their social identity imprecise but, unlike the previous strategy, does not fully forego social deixis. This is, then, a strategy employed by translators when they are willing to forego some, but not all, of the sharpness of the social deixis.
The lexicalising strategy can be used to achieve different kinds of deixis depending on what language group the lexical elements relate to, and is therefore divided into four types:

#### Rural lexicalisation

Uses vocabulary that anchor the speaker along geographical lines, in the language group that characterises them as members of a social group that comes from a particular region, in this case, the country.
| | Original G. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales | Translation Opowieści kanterberyjskie (translation by H. Pręczkowska) |
| | The miller is a torble man for sloughter; If he should wake and find ye with his daughter he might do injury to yo and me! 'Injury? Him?' 'I count him nat a flea!' [...] I shall be made a monkey of for this My meät has got some comfort for his harms He has the miller's daughter in his arms [...] They'll say I was a softie and a bum! I'll get up too and take what chance I may For God helps those that help theirselves, they say! | Młynarz człek groźny, zapalczywa głowa; Jeśli się ocknie, gotów pomiarkować I nam uczynić coś grubijańskiego [...] "A ja za muchę mam osiłka tego!" [...] I jeno szeptał: jaki figiel sprośny! A cóż ja jestem? Ot osieł skończony! Druh mój za krzywdę zacnie nagrodzony, [...] Za durnia wezmą mnie i lichą duszę, Dalibóg, wstanę i odważnie ruszę! Ludziska mówią: "śmiałkom się powodzi!" |
| Comments | Written in Middle English, markedly different in pronunciation and spelling from Modern English. The differences are seen for example in these elements: - ye 'you' - theirselves 'themselves' | The translation includes no markers of dialect apart from non-standard lexical choices that identify the speaker as a member of a social group coming from the country: - pomiarkować 'consider' - osieł 'donkey' - they [say] -> ludziska [mówią] 'people say' |

#### Colloquial lexicalisation

This type of lexicalisation strategy identifies the speaker along the social dimension and employs vocabulary items that are used in the colloquial variety of the TL, implying often an uneducated/lower class speaker, who does not adjust their speech to the formality of the situation.
| | Original J. Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath | Translation Grona gniewu (translation by A. Liebfeld) |
| | So, the afternoon 'fore we're gonna start, Will an' Aunt Minnie go a-practicin'. Will, he comes to a bend in the road an' he yells "Whoa!" an' yanks back, an' he goes through a fence. An' he yells "Whoa, you bastard" an' tromps down on the gas, an' he does over into a gulch. An' there he was. Didn't have nothing more to sell an' didn't have no car. But it was his own damn fault, praise God. He's so damn mad, he won't come along with us, jus' set there a-cussin' an' a-cussin'. | W wigilię wyjazdu Will i ciotka Minnie wyjechali po południu, żeby trochę popraktykować w nauce jazdy. Will dojechał do zakrętu, krzyknął: "Wio-o-o!", cofnął wóz i wjechał na płot. Wtedy wrzasnął: "Wio, ty diable!", dodał gazu, wpakował się do rowu i koniec. Nie miał już nic do sprzedania i nie miał samochodu. Ale to była, psiakrew, jego własna wina! Tak się chłop potem wściekł, że nie chciał z nami jechać, tylko usiadł i klął na czym świat stoi. |
| Comments | The original uses Oklahoma dialect, expressed through phonetic dialect markers, such as: - 'fore 'before' - an' 'and' - a-practicin' 'practicing' - jus' 'just' | The dialect markers in the translation are switched to lexical to compensate for the lack of phonetic ones in the places they appear in the original. The translation thus includes the following non-standard Polish vocabulary and phrases: - psiakrew 'damn, hell, dammit' - chłop 'man, peasantman' - a-cussin an' a-cussin -> klął na czym świat stoi |

#### Diminutive lexicalisation

This strategy, according to Berezowski, identifies the speakers as very young or very old through the translator's use of diminutives in the TL. In the example below, Berezowski additionally predicts that the use of diminutives was dictated by the need to make the translated work accessible to a child audience.
| | Original H. Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin | Translation Chata wuja Toma (translation by I. Tuwin and J. Stawiński) |
| | "Here you, Mose and Pete, get out de way, you niggers! Get away, Polly, honey; mammy'll give her baby somefin bye-and-bye. [..]" "[...] Here, I've got a thin old knife I keeps sharp a purpose." | - Ej, wy tam, Mose i Pete, uciekajcie stąd, nieznośne Murzyniątka! Odejdź Polly, kochanie. Mamusia zaraz da coś swojemu maleństwu, poczekaj chwilę. - [...] Tu, widzisz, mam mały, specjalnie wyostrzony do tego, cienki nożyk. |
| Comments | The original uses the Black Vernacular variety of English. This is expressed through phonetic dialect markers: - de 'the' - somefin 'something' One example of non-standard grammar: - I keeps 'I keep' | The translation foregos non-standard pronunciation markers, employing diminutives instead. The uninflected verb is also not rendered in the pronunciation. - you niggers -> Murzyniątka (as if to children) - knife -> nożyk 'little knife' |

#### Artificial lexicalisation

This sub-strategy attempts to convey the same social deixis as in the SL texts, which locates the characters in a fictitious social group of the future. The vocabulary employed in the TL by the translator will be then foreign to the target audience and have futuristic connotations. Artificial lexicalisation is used if the SL text also employs non-existent, invented, futuristic vocabulary.
| | Original A Burgess, A Clockwork Orange | Translation Mechaniczna pomarańcza (translation by C. Michoński) |
| | "Oh, you've recovered consciousness." That was like a big rotful for malenky ptitsa like her, and I tried to say so, but the slovos came out only like er... er. She ittied off and left me on my oddy knocky, and I could viddy now that I was in a malenky room of my own [...] | - O, odzyskałeś przytomność. Powiedziała to zbyt pełnym wojsem, jak na taką litelną laskę jak ona. Chciałem jej o tym powiedzieć, ale wyszło tylko e... e... e. Odgołnęła i zostawiła mnie samego i wtedy wylukałem, że jestem w oddzielnym litelnym pokoju. |
| Comments | The original employs an artificial, Russian-influenced variety. It is supposed to "menace and barbarism of the social group pointed to by the social deixis of the original." The artificial variety is marked mostly by vocabulary items, as: - malenky 'small' - slovos 'words' - viddy 'see' | The Polish translation uses artificial, English-inspired vocabulary items, which are supposed to mimick the social deixis of the original through the same kind of unfamiliarity to the TL reader, as the original is to the SL reader. The vocabulary items include: - wojs 'voice' - litelna 'little' - wylukać 'see' |