Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. Vol. 1. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 24)

Albert Vermes: On the translation of proper names

we do not find proper names listed in dictionaries, which also shows that they are not part of our knowledge of the language. In his view, then, proper names are to be treated as labels, which are attached to persons or objects and the only task of the translator is to carry them over, or transfer (we will return to this concept later in Section 4) them, from the source language (SL) text to the target language (TL) text. In Section 2 we will show that this view is based on faulty assumptions, as will become clear from contrasting Vendler*s observations with those of Strawson and Searle. We shall see that proper names are not mere labels but may also have some sort of 'meaning' of their own, which will, of course, have consequences in the process of translation. These consequences will be dealt with in Section 3. Examples from the different classes of proper name will be drawn to demonstrate what kinds of problems the translator is likely to meet in connection with proper names in a TL text. Section 4 will give a brief summary of possible solutions to the various problems, and in the final section we shall conclude that the translation of proper names is not at all a matter of course, but that it is a subtle decision-making process involving a number of factors ranging from the SL culture and language to the TL culture and language and requires careful consideration of these factors on the part of the translator. 2 Do proper names have senses? When we hear the word 'flower', it immediately conjures up in our minds certain sensual images: we think of an attractive, fresh, colourful, and nice-smelling thing. When, on the other hand, we hear a proper name like 'Stewart', very probably no such sensual images are awakened - we merely think of some person we know whose name is Stewart (if there is anybody at all whom we know by this name). Thus it would seem that, as Vendler put it, proper names lack 'meaning'; that is, they do not have connotations, in contrast with common names, for example, which do. What happens, however, if you happen to hear about some person whose name is Flower? In this case, you will perhaps think, even 180