Research project protocol by Daniel Jesús Rangel Sala from the University of Quintana Roo. Field: Applied Linguistics.

1. IDENTIFICATION, SOLUTION AND ANALYSIS OF
TRANSLATION DIFFICULTIES ARISING FROM
THE TRANSLATION OF “TO THE NEW
WORLD”, A BELIZEAN CREOLE AND ENGLISH
SHORT STORY BY SIR COLVILLE YOUNG
RESEARCH PROJECT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF
QUINTANA ROO
BY: DANIEL JESUS RANGEL SALA

2. ABSTRACT

The research here presented dwells on the translation
difficulties arising from a bilingual short story in Belizean
Creole and English. It is believed that literary translation is
seen as one of the most difficult; moreover, the translation
of these specific texts are not common among literary
translations and a translation for this short story by Sir
Colville Young has not been published nor attempted in a
research. The translation difficulties will be isolated and
solved by the use of three specific tools which will grant
the translation validity. It is the purpose of this research to
help translators identify the possible difficulties they might
face when dealing with these types of literature and how
they can possibly solve them effectively.

3. BACKGROUND
It is due to translation being a tool of
cultural, literary, religious, scientific and
political transcendence that the researcher
has decided to focus on the analysis of the
translation of a selected short story as object
of research.

4. RATIONALE

Due to the degree of difficulty literary
translations pose, it was decided to base the
research on the difficulties and possible
solutions to these during the process of
translating a Belizean author‟s short story.

5. OBJECTIVES

By providing a complete translation of one of
Young‟s short stories, the researcher hopes
to delve into the linguistic richness of
Belizean literary English, isolating the
metaphors, expressions, phrases or words
which pose themselves challenging for the
researcher and potentially challenging for
other translators and propose a solution to
these translation problems.

6. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What linguistic issues will arise during the
translation process? How will those linguistic
issues be solved? What resources would be
appropriate to resort to?
 How challenging will the Belizean
Creole/English be regarding the conveyance of
meaning of the short story in Mexican Spanish?
 How different will the choices from the
translator-researcher be from those selected by
the consultants in the questionnaire?


7. RELEVANCE

This research will prove useful to other
translators, especially the ones who wish to
work in translating literary texts such as short
stories or novels; moreover, this thesis will
shed light on possible approaches a
translator can take when dealing with words
or phrases specific to Belizean Creole or
Belizean English.

8. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

There are several renowned authors who have proposed
(sometimes similar) translation methods or strategies that are
useful when encountering difficulties from one language to the
other; Vinay and Darbelnet, authors whose strategies are widely
accepted and on which the researcher bases its translation
methodology on; Vazquez-Ayora, whose work was based on
Spanish and English and American Joseph L. Malone, among
others (Pym, 2010, pp.16-17). Proceeding with the methodology
of Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet, as written by Venuti
(2000, pp.84-93), there are two methods to choose from when
translating, one of them is direct translation and the other is
named oblique translation. Direct translation covers three
procedures, „borrowing‟, „calque‟, and „literal translation‟; oblique
translation include „transposition‟, „modulation‟, „equivalence‟, and
„adaptation‟.

9. REVIEW OF LITERATURE (2)

This is a first for translating a literary text with a sociolinguistic
approach to problem solving in the English language major here
in the University of Quintana Roo; however, the researcher did
come across one particular thesis for a Master‟s degree which
provides a similar approach and could contribute to the current
thesis; the thesis consists of the translation of two short stories by
Dorothy Parker and thus dwells in the literary field the researcher
seeks to work with. Beside this thesis, the researcher came
across a monograph for a bachelor´s degree consisting on the
translation of four tales by Eleuterio Llanes Pasos; his work
“Cuentos de cazadores” is especially interesting because it deals
with Mayan folklore and thus includes a few Mayan phrases and
words, similar to what the researcher will be dealing with in
translating “To the new world” by Sir Colville Young.

10. METHOD: PARTICIPANTS
The participants will be English Language
major graduates who will help the
researcher-translator by solving the surveys
proposed in the research. The assessors will
also be involved during the problem-solution
stage and will certainly aid by proposing a
solution in the survey.

11. INSTRUMENTS

The instruments to solve the arising
translation issues will be the following: A
Belizean Creole to English dictionary from
the „National Kriol Council‟, a Belizean
English dictionary from Roger Blench (2013)
from the Kay Williamson Educational
Foundation in Cambridge, UK, and a survey
designed by the researcher-translator.

12. PROCEDURE

The researcher will translate the short story
“To the New World”, one of seven short
stories in the book Pataki Full: Seven
Belizean short stories by Sir Colville Norbert
Young. Taking into consideration that the
book has never been translated, there are no
references on previous translation
approaches or methods used for Sir Young‟s
literary style.

13. PROCEDURE (2)

During the translation process, different
translation difficulties are expected to arise in
the shape of
words, phrases, expressions, idioms, and so
on, along with similar structures in Belizean
Creole; these translation difficulties will be
isolated and dealt with using the instruments
already mentioned

14. PROCEDURE (3)

The surveys are meant for individual translators or
specialists in any of the languages involved in order to
help in the problem-solving aspect of the translation
where needed; moreover, they are part and parcel of the
problem-solving perspective the researcher holds and will
eventually help in providing the desired result in terms of
translation quality. This tool was selected mainly because
the researcher has read short stories like “New York to
Detroit” and “The Lovely Leave”, from Dorothy
Parker, translated from English to Spanish
(Peña, 2007) and found that the translator‟s use of the
survey helped in deciding whether certain translation
difficulties could be solved the way the translator thought
viable or with the help of fellow translators.

15. DATA ANALYSIS

Once the translation problems have been
dealt with by using the tools already
mentioned, the translator-researcher will
analyze the data, the solution of the
translation problems, and make conclusions
based primarily on the data coming from the
surveys which helped with the problemsolving stage.

16. REFERENCES


Biguenet, J., & Schulte, R. (1989). The craft of translation. Chicago, United States of America:
University of Chicago Press.


Blench, R. (2013, March 13). A dictionary of Belize English. Retrieved September 17, 2013, from
http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/English/Belizean%20English%20dictionary.pdf


Creole - National Institute of Culture and History. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2013, from
http://www.nichbelize.org/iscr-institute-for-social-cultural-research/creole.html


DeGraff, M. (1999). Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony, and
development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.


Delisle, J., & Woodsworth, J. (Ed.). (1995). Translators through history. Amsterdam, The
Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.



Landers, C. E. (2001). Literary translation: A practical guide. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

17. REFERENCES (2)

Mesthrie, R. (2000). Introducing sociolinguistics. Philadelphia, United States of America: J.
Benjamins.


National Kriol Council (2011). National Kriol Council - Who We Are.
Retrieved September 17, 2013, from http://nationalkriolcouncil.org/the_council/who_we_are


Newmark, P., & Moya, V. (2006). Manual de
n (5th ed.). Madrid, Spain:
tedra.


Paz, O. (1990).
n: literatura y literalidad (3rd ed.). Barcelona, Spain: Tusquets.


Peña, A. (2007). Análisis de estrategias utilizadas en la traducción del inglés al español de dos
cuentos cortos de Dorothy Parker, “New York to Detroit” y “The lovely leave”(Master´s thesis).
Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco.


Pym, A. (2010). Exploring translation theories. London, England: Routledge.
P.16-17.


Rosas, A. V. (2006) The translation of four tales taken from the book “Cuentos de cazadores” by
Eleuterio Llanes Pasos, with a detailed analysis of the techniques used by the translator
(monografía). Universidad de Quintana Roo, Chetumal, Quinana Roo.

18. APPENDIX A (EXAMPLE OF AN ELEMENT OF THE
SURVEY)




1.
“But Benito is blood,” Cristobal had replied. “De man is me own born bredda…”
(“To the New World”, page 28)
“______________” Cristobal contestó. “El hombre es mi hermano biológico”



a) Pero Benito es sangre


b) Pero Benito es de mi sangre


c) Pero Benito es familia


d) Pero Benito es pariente




In case of a different translation suggestion, write it down below:
e) ________________________________________________

19. PROJECT TIMETABLE
Activity
Jan
Feb
March
Introd.
Translat.
I
I
Data
Col.
I
I
I
Surveys
I
April
May
Jun
Juli
I
Data
Analysis
I
Discus.
I
Conclus.
I
1st Draft
I
I
Correct.
I
Final
Draft
I
I