TRE401 RESEARCH

TECHNIQUES –
RESEARCH PROPOSAL

FATMA BETÜL ALKAN

010518018
24.01.2023
 Fatma Betül Alkan
010518018

"Cingöz Recai Against Sherlock Holmes" and Translated Text

against the Ottoman Text

Research topic: An Analysis of the Ottoman Turkish stories "Cingöz Recai Against
Sherlock Holmes" Published by Peyami Safa, Translated into New Letters by Erol Üyepazarcı

Hypothesis: What differences are there between the translation and original of the "Cingöz
Recai Against Sherlock Holmes”?

Research questions:
1) Is there any intralingual simplification in the work, which has undergone an
intralingual translation process with the phrase 'translated into new letters'?

2) What items were deemed in need of 'annotating' in the process of transferring to new
letters, and what could be the reasons?

3) What is observed regarding the origins of the words that have been annotated or
transferred to new letters?

Theoretical framework: Intralingual translation or rewriting, according to Roman Jakobson, is

an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same languages.
(Jakobson, 1959:233)
''Just like translators use different translation strategies while doing interlingual translation,
intralingual translation also provides translators with various strategies. Furthermore,
strategies used in both types of translation are most of the time alike, such as arranging the
syntax, opting for a more modern word instead of an old one, adapting the cultural
components accordingly, and even summarizing, explaining, adding, and omitting, to name a
few. '' (Kalem Bakkal, Aslı, pp. 48–69)

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It would be appropriate to mention Toury's translation norms here:
''It has proven convenient to first distinguish two larger groups of norms applicable to
translation: preliminary vs. operational.
Preliminary norms have to do with two main sets of considerations which are often
interconnected: those regarding the existence and actual nature of a definite translation policy,
and those related to the directness of translation.
Operational norms, in turn, may be conceived of as directing the decisions made
during the act of translation itself. They affect the matrix of the text -- i.e., the modes of
distributing linguistic material in it -- as well as the textual make-up and verbal formulation as
such. They thus govern -- directly or indirectly -- the relationships as well that would obtain
between the target and source texts; i.e., what is more likely to remain invariant under
transformation and what will change. '' (Toury, Gideon 1995)
I will examine changes in the text such as “summarizing, explaining, adding, and omitting”
based on Toury's translation norms.

Methods:
 Asking questions
 Observing without getting involved

Example Preliminary Work Presentation and Explanation of the

Examination Object:

This book, which consists of a series of stories written by Peyami Safa under the
pseudonym Server Bedi, was published in 1928. This book, written in Ottoman Turkish, was
translated by Erol in 2019 and transferred to new letters. Although this may seem like a
simple process, it is very important in terms of seeing the distance that the language has
travelled over time. As Özlem Berk Albachten said, “… replacing “old” words with the
“new” had major effects in the literary domain. With the change of the script, not only the
older works had to be transcribed in the new alphabet, but also various works of literature
whose language was considered to be “old” were rewritten in the “new Turkish” (Berk
Albachten, Özlem, pp. 165-180)

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 There is an article presented by the translator at the beginning of the book. In this
article, the translator first talks about his interest in detective novels, the importance of Cingöz
Recai to him, and how he decided to gather these stories together. Afterwards, he talked about
Peyami Safa's adventure of writing these stories and the social environment in which the
stories took place. After describing them in five pages, he wrote a statement about the
translation process and strategy in just one sentence, which is this: ‘’Finally, we would like to
point out that the stories in the series have been translated into Latin letters by being
completely faithful to the original text, and the preferences of the author have been followed,
especially in the use of punctuation marks.’’ (Üyepazarcı, Erol 2019) Although Üyepazarcı's
explanation of the translation process is brief, it provides information on both preliminary and
operational norms that the translator follows. It is important information that he stated that he
would not make any changes, including punctuation, in order to adapt the text to the new
Turkish grammar while transferring the text to a different alphabet.

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 As a beginning, when I compared the text translated with the original text within the
scope of the first research question “Is there any intralingual simplification in the work, which
has undergone an intralingual translation process with the phrase 'translated into new letters'?
no simplification was observed. There are many sub-processes in the intralingual translation.
The following quote will be very explanatory: “Some common intralingual translation
strategies include, but are not limited to, ‘simplifying,’ ‘summarizing,’ ‘arranging,’ ‘preparing
for publishing,’ ‘editing,’ ‘transferring by summarizing,’ ‘adapting,’ ‘abridging,’
‘Turkifying,’ in the case of Turkish being the target language, most of which are also reported
to be used in naming intralingual translations in Turkish context by Berk Albachten. (2005;
2015)” (Kalem Bakkal, Aslı, pp. 48–69) On the other hand, when we look at the text in
question, the Ottoman text was only transcription and no word was simplified. It is not much
likely to do more work in the research on this.
Here are examples below where I compare the first pages of each of the two different
stories in the book. It is clearly seen that each word is written in Latin letters according to
Ottoman pronunciation. There are no changes or simplifications.

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5
 Secondly, when we look at the second question, “What items were deemed in need of
'annotating' in the process of transferring to new letters, and what could be the reasons?” It is
seen that the meaning is written for words that have become used in today's Turkish or have
become useful Turkish equivalents. In the presentation article, Erol did not give any details
about this situation. According to the criteria, it is not known how it determines the frequency
of use in today's Turkish. Another issue is that the use of some words in some regions may
not be known in some regions when it is still widespread, in which case the translator has
written notes based on what. It is possible to conduct detailed research on this subject and
since the translator is alive, it will be important assistance to add to the research by
interviewing him himself.
On the example pages below, we see which words have been annotated.

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 And thirdly, when we look at the third question, “What is observed regarding the
origins of the words that have been annotated or transferred to new letters?” There is no
explanation of this issue in the author's presentation article. It is necessary to determine how
many Arabic origin words, how many Persian origin words, and how many other languages
are explained by looking at the roots of the words deducted, and to add to the research results.
Thus, it can be seen that the language of the Turkish language in the historical process is to
change the words or no longer accept them. This will be a very important data in terms of
seeing the developments in the journey of Turkish.
On the sample pages below, we see the annotated words whose roots need to be
examined, such as mazhar, zail, esbab-ı muhaffefe.

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 Conclusion:
As a result of the research proposal, the source text is one of the last Ottoman stories
published before the alphabet revolution in 1928. It can be said that it will be a valuable
research in terms of seeing how the Turkish language has developed for 90 years from 1928
to 2019. Thanks to this research, based on the book in question, general data about how
foreign words have changed over the years, whether they have survived or not, whether they
have gained new meanings or not, and whether they have been replaced by another word, can
be obtained. We can also support the contribution of this research to language and culture
with the following quote with short: ''Intralingual translation is necessary for them to perform
their culture formation function, to deal with cultural alienation, to create a nation and
improve social solidarity, to provide intergenerational communication. '' (Savaş, Bekir 2018)
When analyzing the translated text in terms of summarizing, explaining, adding, and omitting,
it was seen that there was no intervention in the text. Even the translator deliberately avoided
changes. When the origins of the annotated words are examined and classified, a list of terms
should be created. This will greatly contribute to the report of the research.

Kaynakça

Berk Albachten, Özlem. The Turkish language reform and intralingual translation. John
Benjamins Publishing Company, 2015.
www.researchgate.net/publication/300778304_The_Turkish_language_reform_and_in
tralingual_translation (erişim 23.01.2023)

Jakabson, Roman. On the Aspects of Translation. 1959.

https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/PDF/jakobson.pdf (erişim 23.01.2023)

Kalem Bakkal, Aslı. Intralingual Translation Has No Name in Turkey. transLogos, 2019.
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/911410 (erişim 23.01.2023)

Safa, Peyami. Sherlock Holmes'e Karşı Cingöz Recai. 2.Baskı. Çeviren Erol Üyepazarcı.
İstanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, 2019.
Savaş, Bekir. INTRALINGUAL TRANSLATION AS A MEANS OF INTERGENERATIONAL
COMMUNICATION. Cilt 11. The Journal of International Social Research, 2018.
https://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/articles/intralingual-translation-as-a-means-of-
intergenerational-communication-a-linguistic-approach.pdf

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Toury, Gideon. The Nature and Role of Norms in Translation. In idem,
Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, 1995.
http://huitoto.udea.edu.co/TeoriaTraduccion/repo/SearchOfATheory.html