RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1

Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University

Department of Foreign Languages

English Philology Chair

Research proposal

Reproduction of John Green’s individual style in literary translation

Yuliia Zozuk

Degree sought: Master’s Degree

Supervisor: Oksana Doichyk, PhD, Associate Professor

11th March 2021

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INTRODUCTION

Recent developments in the field of linguo-stylistics have led to a renewed interest in

author’s individual style and ways of preserving its uniqueness. The research of author’s

individual style is an object of many disciplines, especially linguo-stylistics, since the latter

aims to identify the factors that influence the emergence and quality of author’s individual

style.

Since central to the discipline of linguo-stylistics is a text, linguists study various

external and internal aspects of the discourse formation and its peculiarities. The study of

outer and inner factors lays the foundation for the emergence of the term linguistic

personality, which is an integral part of individual style description. In theoretical terms

linguistic personality is recognized as a generalized type of individual, shaped by socially

significant, verbal and non-verbal parameters within a certain socio-ethnic society.

The study shows that for complete understanding of author’s individuality it is

important to take into account the difference between two notions: author’s individual style

(idiostyle/idiosyncrasy) and idiolect. Despite the scientific researches into these two notions

by such scholars as Stavytska (2009), Selivanova (2006), many peculiarities have not been

analyzed and explored. Furthermore, more research is needed, that attempts to chart the main

differences between individual style and idiolect, since there are numerous authors, whose

style’s specific features have not been distinguished and studied.

Besides the need of analyzing stylistic peculiarities, arises the problem of translation,

as in the modern world all pieces of literature tend to be rendered across continents and

nations. According to this fact, author’s individual style appears to exist in both source and

target languages, under condition of providing an appropriate literary translation. As a result,

literary translation is a process of rendering artistic works, at the same time it acts as a subject
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of linguostylistic analysis. In a thesis paper the main features of linguostylistic analysis are

presented and analyzed on the basis of certain artistic works. Linguostylistic analysis is

carried out considering the general characteristics of the text and distinct features of author’s

individual style. To date, there is an agreement on the need of preserving author’s individual

style in the process of literary translation. The issue of using preserving strategies in

translation has recently grown in importance, this applies to strategies of domestication and

foreignization. These strategies are ways of adapting certain translation to the target

language, as it is impossible to render the source text without any violations. Even under

condition of highly qualified translation, there are difficulties in terms of equivalence.

In addition to this, the attempt to preserve author’s individual style has many stages,

which the scientist has to take into consideration.

Theoretical and Practical Problems

The research paper is based on the theoretical problem of defining individual style of

the author with the help of specific artistic works and to specify outer and inner factors that

caused the emergence of idiostyle. The first systematic study of individual style was reported

by V. V. Vinogradov and later elaborated by other scholars, one of them is L. O. Stavytska.

Although a great number of issues concerning this topic have been researched, style of John

Green has not been particularly studied. The practical problem is investigated through the

scope of theory, on the basis of theories, reviews, assumptions connected with the individual

style of the author, in my case of John Green’s idiosyncrasy.

Overall Aim

This research seeks to investigate techniques and peculiarities through which a proper

reproduction of idiosyncrasy is provided.

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Specific Objectives:

- To solve the main issues connected with the difference between individual style and

idiolect.

- To define style’s peculiarities of a certain text.

- To analyze strategies of preserving individualism in literary translation.

- To single out author’s idiosyncrasy.

Relevance and Importance of the Research

Since the issue of individuality in writing is in demand for different disciplines, the

research is relevant not only to linguists but even to ordinary people, who would like to get

acquainted with inner world of artistic work: its stylistic, morphological, syntactic, pragmatic

and even phonetic peculiarities. The research will contribute new insights concerning

individual text creation, its background, techniques of preserving individualization,

extralingual and intralingual factors.

Literature review

A preliminary literature review shows that past studies are primarily focused on

different understandings of the concept of individuality in writing and in translation.

Numerous studies have argued that there are many definitions of idiosyncrasy in linguistic

disciplines, but there is still no single term that would be universal and take into account all

aspects of the concept.

Key Concepts, Theories and Studies

For example, general methods are applied in researches of such linguists as V. V.

Vinogradov and V. P. Grygoriev, who consider idiosyncrasy as a system of language means

of the individual, which is formed on the basis of language acquisition and being developed

during one’s life [1, p. 4]. Most linguists use the interpretation of the concept developed by
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V. V. Vinogradov and V. P. Grigoriev, as these linguists laid the foundation for further

research.

The modern systematic study of idiosyncrasy was reported by O. O. Selivanova,

where she considered the main criteria for the formation of the term and described four points

without which it is impossible to interpret the concept of author’s individual style: "1)

Situationality, 2) the relationship between style and act of speech, 3) selectivity, 4) typology.

Situationality is the connection of language means with a certain communicative situation,

for example, the creation of a certain communicative influence by the addressee. The second

point, the relationship between style and the act of speech, plays an important role in shaping

the definition of the individual style, because in ancient times, writers tried to use different

styles in certain speech situations. Selectivity is probably a feature of style that distinguishes

each scholar, because the choice of tone or manner of writing depends on further direction of

the work. The fourth parameter of style – typology, this feature includes the importance of

the relationship of style with speech genres [4, p. 71].

In terms of linguistics many issues have been solved, such as the question of

selectivity or typology.

Key Debates and Controversies

Other studies have considered the relationship between the idiosyncrasy and outer

world which contributes to the emergence of a new notion – idiolect. Regarding this issue

more detailed explanation is provided by L. O. Stavytska, who interprets the idiolect as a part

of a much broader concept – individual style. The researcher believes that to fully assess the

significance and role of idiolect in the work of writers, as well as in the speech of individuals,

it is necessary to focus on extralingual and intralingual factors of the writer's work or speech

of individuals, in addition to this she introduces a new notion of lectality [5, p. 5].
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It is evident that there are differences in the approaches to research, since most of

scientists focus on linguistic side.

Gaps in Existing Knowledge

The research has tended to focus on works of these scholars but they are mostly

concentrated on linguistic side, regarding less stylistic and literary peculiarities.

Consequently, literary side is not elaborated that much during researching reproduction of

idiosyncrasy in the process of translation. My paper will elaborate more to literary side, it can

be implemented on the basis of certain dictionaries, papers and own research into sphere of

linguostylistic peculiarities of a literary text.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

Since the main hypothesis of the research is to define and clearly investigate the main

features of an author’s idiosyncrasy, the primary research for this study is literature review of

basic notions, which can be applied during the process of studying.

Research design

The research is designed in a qualitative manner, gathering insights on the topic from

various sources. The qualitative research of the paper contains numerous literature reviews,

exploring notions and unities between them and investigating fundamental theories of the key

issues.

There are controversies in interpreting many notions which are relevant to my paper.

Therefore, it is important to observe numerous reviews and get acquainted with their main

idea in order to formulate the estimation of certain issues, for example: there is no exact line

between individual style and idiolect of the author. Consequently, many linguists disagreed

about the existence of the idiolect and identified the idiolect with an individual style or
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idiostyle. R. Barth considered the idiolect an illusion [1, p. 21], and R. Jacobson not only

denied the idiolect, but also wrote that it is to some extent distorted fiction [3, p. 82]. Thus,

there is still no unanimous opinion about the existence of the idiolect as such, because the

idiolect is an abstract concept and to understand and define it you need to explore a number

of features of a particular writer. Some scholars do not deny the existence of idiolect, but

consider the terms individual style and idiolect interchangeable. This assumption is not

surprising, since both concepts are similar and sometimes act as one subject of the study.

Due to the qualitative research (with the help of literature review, observation and

analysis) it is possible to explore theories, to see the common and different features, it is

useful during the first stage of the study.

Data collection is mostly original, especially when one takes into account practical

side of the research. It means that the practical part provides raw information and first-hand

evidences, namely work of art. Most of the theoretical section is characterized by the use of

secondary sources – journal articles, reviews and academic books.

To increase the accuracy of the study two more kinds of research are applied:

descriptive and correlational. Descriptive research aims at giving better understanding of a

certain notion, in my case idiosyncrasy, linguistic analysis and literary translation.

Correlational research implies finding certain common relations (if such exist) between two

or more factors, for example: between strategies of preserving literary translation or between

author’s idiosyncrasy and idiolect.

Methods and Sources

This paper will advance linguo-stylistic methodology, combining a number of in-

depth qualitative approaches mentioned above. During the first stage all possible theoretical

resources will be analyzed: primary linguistic foundations, newspaper and journal articles,
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academic and specialized books, an extensive number of dictionaries for proper literary

translation.

The second stage involves primary sources – fictional papers, with rare appeal to the

theory and more focus on practicalities.

The final stage of the research will consist of two stages: observing success of

reproduction in the process of translating source text into the target language, considering

main peculiarities that help to define author’s individuality in writing.

EXPECTED FINDINGS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

Despite the fact that many researches concerning reproduction of author’s individual

style have been done, it is impossible to describe all the features that contribute to final view

of the target text. The research will contain detailed description of idiosyncrasy’s

peculiarities, linguistic analysis of the text, approaches to preserve and find appropriate

equivalents in the target language, defining one individual stylistic tendency observed during

the whole primary text (source).

My research will contribute to the literary and linguistic fields, providing a detailed

analysis of John Green’s style on the basis of his works and finding correspondences and

differences in literary translation of these works on stylistic, lexical, grammatical and

phonetic levels.
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REFERENCES

1. Barth, R. (1968). 'Elements of Semasiology'. Hill and Wang, p. 21, New-York: Hill

and Wang.

2. Grigoriev, V. (1983). 'Grammar of idiostyle'. Nauka, p. 4, Moskwa: Nauka.

3. Jakobson, R. (1971). 'Studies on Child Language and Aphasia'. Mouton, p. 82, The

Hague: Mouton.

4. Selivanova, O. (2006). 'Modern Linguistics'. Visnyk Philolohii, p. 71, Poltava: Vinsyk

Philolohii.

5. Stavytska, L. (2009). 'On the term idiolect'. Ukrainska mova, p. 5, Kyiv: Ukrainska

mova.