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

(Newmark: 5). This was the case, for example, with the epithets attached to the names of historical personages. And finally, modification, or total transformation (Klaudy: 141), we understand as the process of choosing a linguistically unrelated substitute for the SL word in the TL, which, evokes a similar reaction in the reader of the TL text to that evoked by the original in the reader of the SL text. The example for this was the case of Winniethe-Pooh and Micimackó. Another case is when a low-prestige Christian name in the SL is not rendered by its immediate TL equivalent but by another name which has similarly low social prestige in the TL. For example, the diminutive form Maris in Hungarian is commonly associated with maids. In the English translation of a short story by Géza Csáth this name is rendered as Rosie, which is not the closest equivalent, but probably gives rise to similar associations in the reader of the TL text (Klaudy: 144). 5 Conclusions In the light of all that has been demonstrated in this paper, we can now conclude that the translation of proper names cannot be regarded as a simple automatic process of transference, as was suggested by Vendler. On the contrary, it is a subtle decision making process, which is influenced by a complex array of factors. The first of these to take into consideration is, of course, the role (the 'meaning') of the proper name in the SL culture, and in the SL text. The translator has to examine whether the proper name has connotations relevant in the context of the SL culture and the SL text which have to be preserved in the context of the TL culture and the TL text. If it does, then again the translator has to make a decision as to which of the possible devices at his disposal will be the most suitable for his purposes; in other words, he has to decide whether he wants to keep the name in its original form {transfer), to substitute an equivalent TL form {translate), or to modify the original SL form in order to ensure that it will function in the TL text in the same way as it does in the TL text. In this process there are no automatic solutions. The decisions made are the result of a careful weighing of the arguments of the three individuals cooperating inside the translator's mind: the author 188