L’influence des changements grammaticaux sur le sens du texte traduit : une étude comparative de L’Étranger par Albert Camus et de The Stranger par Stuart Gilbert

Abstract

This study aims to compare the grammatical uses in Albert Camus’ L’Étranger (1942) with its first appeared English translation The Stranger by Stuart Gilbert (1946), in an attempt to identify to which extent grammatical choices have an impact on the meaning in both source text and target text. Research is carried in the form of identifying specific grammatical phenomena in the source text, that reflect the attitude, the way of thinking and the feelings of an individual dealing with “The Absurdism”, and then investigating the occurrence and/or the absence of these phenomena in the target text. Through the comparative nature of this study, it will be possible to examen whether the grammatical differences between the two texts have taken part in Meursault’s personality shifting in Gilbert’s version or not. The personality changes that the study is investigating, are based on critics from previous research. Moreover, grammatical changes are studied within the scope of descriptive grammar. Findings of the analysis will be classified into modulation or transposition, based on Vinay and Darbelnet’s translation procedures (1958). Context will be included in the analysis, and the examples studied will be provided with suggested translations, in an attempt to see to what extent these modulations and transpositions are optional or obligatory. Conclusions will be drawn from the comparative grammatical analysis of both texts. Furthermore, the impact of the grammatical changes on the interpretation of the translated text will be evaluated based on three translation theories: the linguistic translation theory, the interpretative theory and the Skopos theory.