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relatively small repertory of signs (e.g. phonemes and words) that can however be
combined in a multitude of ways to reflect the complexity of reality (Alexieva,
1997:138-139).
aural and/or visual (and by extension: cognitive) effect is achieved (...) (Schrter,
2005:78).
The wordplay that Jeff Noon uses in Automated Alice is based mostly
on the exploitation of phonological and graphological features of the
English language, i.e. building blocks of homonyms. Homonym could
be defined as a word that is identical in form with another word,
either in sound (as a homophone) or in spelling (as a homograph), or
in both, but differs from it in meaning (Baldick, 2001: 116). One of
the problems with translating homophones from English into Polish is
that the English language is equipped with larger number of such
lexical items than the Polish language, which does not leave much
scope for finding any text-related equivalent. There are about 11,980
homophones in English, 4,743 of which are one-syllable homophones
(Ogura and Wang, 2006), whereas according to Sownik polskich
homonimw cakowitych (Battler, 1988) there are only about 1,500
homonymes in Polish.
Because, as evidenced e.g. by the homonyms above, languages
differ in their structures, different languages have different ways of
creating wordplay. Therefore, I would like to present the structures
that could be used to translate English homonyms, used in Jeff Noons
Automated Alice, into the Polish language.
1. homonym 1. translation
"I'm Alice," replied Alice, politely. Wszyscy znaj mnie jako Alicja,
"You're a lis?" the ant said. "What in odpowiedziaa grzecznie Alicja.
the earth is a lis?" Koalicja? powiedziaa mrwka. Co
"I'm not a lis. My name is Alice." to za koalicja?
Alice spelt her name: "A-L-I-C-E." Nie jestem Koalicj. Mwi mi
"You're a lice!" the ant cried. "We Alicja.
don't want no lice in this mound!" Milicja! zawoaa mrwka. Nie
"I'm not a lice, I'm Alice! I'm a girl." chcemy milicji w naszym kopcu!
Nie milicja, Alicja! Jestem
dziewczynk.
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2. homonym 2. translation
"Oh, this is no good at all!" spluttered Och, To bez sensu! prychna Alicja.
Alice. "My Great Aunt will be Moja pracowita jak mrwka
furious!" cioteczka bdzie wcieka!
This statement stopped Miss To zdanie wprawio Pann
Computermite completely in her Komputermitk w cakowite
tracks. "You've got a great ant?" she osupienie. Jak mrwka, cioteczka?
asked, astonished. spytaa, zdumiona.
3. homonym 3. translation
"You know, I thought you were a Wiesz, gdy pierwszy raz zobaczyem ci
wurm, Alice," the Captain continued, wychodzc z kopca, mylaem e to
"when first I saw you marching out of robag.
the mound." Nie jestem robakiem, odpowiedziaa
"I'm not a worm," answered Alice. Alicja.
"I didn't say you were a worm, Alice. I Nie powiedziaem e jeste robakiem,
said you were a wurm." (...) Alicjo. Powiedziaem e jeste
"Why do you keep saying the word with robagiem. ()
a U in the middle of it?" Czemu wymawiasz G na kocu
"Because it stands for Wisdom- wyrazu?
Undoing-Randomized-Mechanism. Poniewa oznacza on: Rzadko
Oczekiwany Byskawiczny Atak
Gupoty.
4. homonym 4. translation
"Alice is a girl," Celia responded. Alicja jest dziewczynk,
"When was the last time you saw a odpowiedziaa Icalja, Kiedy ostatni
girl?" raz widziae dziewczynk?
Pablo looked long and deep into Pablo spojrza gboko i dugo w oczy
Alice's eyes and then answered, "Years Alicji po czym odpowiedzia: Cae
and years ago. Years and years! Not lata temu. Cae lata! Nie wczeniej ni
since the years before the Newmonia." przed Nowymtworem.
"But why should pneumonia cause To z powodu nowotworu jest tak
such a lack of girls?" asked Alice. mao dziewczynek? spytaa Alicja.
"Newmonia!" Pablo screamed at Nowegotworu! Pablo krzykn na
Alice, "not pneumonia! You silly Alicj, nie nowotworu! Guptasie! W
creature! There's no P in Newmonia." sowie nowytwr jest tylko jedno
"But the P is silent in pneumonia," O.
Alice explained (holding her patience). Ale w sowie nowegotworu s a
trzy, wytumaczya cierpliwie Alicja.
5. homonym 5. translation
From within came a terrible racket: Ze rodka dobiega okropny haas jak
a terrible banging! and a clattering! and gdyby zaraz miaa wystartowa tam
then a terrible walloping! and then a rakieta kosmiczna: okropne
terrible cursing cry! and then yet more grzmocenie! trajkotanie! a nastpnie
banging! and clattering! and, indeed, okropne walenie!
walloping! () Icalja walia rkami w drzwi szopy:
Celia was pounding on the shed's Pablo, Pablo, zachrypiaa lalka,
door: "Pablo, Pablo!" the doll croaked, wpu mnie, prosz. Przesta robi ten
"let me in, please. Stop making that okropny haas!
terrible racket!"
And the racket was stopped for a Haas ucich na chwil, gdy
second, as a gruff and angry voice gburowaty i gniewny gos
answered from the interior, "But I like odpowiedzia ze rodka: Ale ja lubi
making a terrible racket! It's my job! robi Okropny Haas! To moja praca!
It's my Art!" To moja Sztuka! Nastpnie, drzwi
The shed's door was then flung open szopy ogrodowej otworzyy si z tak
with such violence that it almost flew si, e niemal wyleciay z zawiasw, a
off its hinges, and standing in the w przejciu pojawi si ogromnie
doorway was an extremely overgrown przeronity mczyzna. () W rkach
man. () He was holding a terrible trzyma Okropny Haas.
racket in his hands. (W tym miejscu musz doda, e
(I must add at this point that the Okropny Haas, ktry trzyma w rku
terrible racket he was holding was a by rakiet tenisow, a bya ona
tennis racket, and it was terrible okropna poniewa mczyzna robi j
because the man had obviously been dopiero od rana ().
making it that very morning ().
6. homonym 6. translation
Ramshackle rolled up his right trouser Zakopcony podwin praw nogawk
leg. Another tiny clock was fastened to spodni. Kolejny malutki zegarek
his ankle. "It's a bleak twenty-fourth of przymocowany by wok kostki.
November in shivery Manchester." Mamy ponury dwudziesty czwarty
"At least that's right!" padziernika w wywoujcym dreszcze
"Of course it's right; this is a right-leg Manchesterze.
watch, after all!" Przynajmniej ta informacja jest
poprawna!
Oczywicie e jest poprawna, w
kocu zegarek znajduje si po prawej
stronie!
4. Conclusions
Although the problem of wordplay translation has had a long history,
it still has not been explored thoroughly. Obviously, throughout
centuries, and especially the 20th one, different theories were proposed
that offered different approaches towards translation of texts. But
whether they concentrated on the equivalent transfer of the linguistic
elements; intentions of the author; the purpose or functions; or
cognitive mechanisms behind the source text, they did not provide
precise strategies of wordplay translation. Because wordplay based on
homonymy makes use of specific features of a given language, its
equivalent translation must make use of some specific features of the
target language. Therefore strategies of wordplay translation must be
different across languages. What we can infer from the examples
studied in this paper is that translation of homonyms into the Polish
language is possible by means of a set of linguistic features of that
language. These features are:
1. the specific qualities of the phonetic system (e.g. the rule of
final devoicing) (e.g. robag);
2. blending of words (jako Alicja koalicja);
Polish translation of wordplay based on homonyms... 99
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