Zu Techniken der Bestionymenwiedergabe am Beispiel des Romans „Der Schrecksenmeister“ von Walter Moers und seiner Übersetzung ins Polnische

Abstract

Abstract The following article discusses the translation problems of a specific kind of lexical units, the beastionyms, which have been defined as the names given to different science-fiction and fantasy creatures. Walter Moers is well-known in Poland as the author of Camonian novels and is increasingly popular with readers in Poland. The theoretical part of this paper describes the concept of a beastionym as a lexical unit being a transitional form between an appellative and a proper name. The author presents selected examples of how beastionyms function in literature and audio-visual products, relating them to chrematonyms according to Ronneberger-Sibold (2004). The beastionyms described in the article have been divided into speaking, allusive and sound-symbolic lexical units. The basis for this division was the work of Dieter Lamping (1983). The theoretical part also briefly presents translation techniques that can be implemented in the process of beastionyms’ translation. This paper is focused, for economic reasons, on the translation of beastionyms, which characterize their bearers and divide them into lexical units indicating the bearer's habitat, appearance and behaviour. Monolingual dictionaries of German, Polish, and, in special cases, English have been used to describe individual examples. Lexemes with special cultural significance were described with reference to the relevant literature. The article provides a detailed description of these lexical units and gives a qualitative translation analysis of different translation techniques, which were used in the Polish rendition of the novel „Der Schrecksenmeister“ (written by Walter Moers) to create a successful translation of beastionyms. The paper ends with some conclusions about useful translation procedures, which may be used within translation of beastionyms.