Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

Beyond Standardisation and Substitution: Harnessing Flow to Translate Slang

Résumé

The similarities between the aesthetic and socio-political undercurrents of the various branches of hip-hop and the countless ways in which young people, especially those in marginalised urban areas, choose to express their group identity have been documented by many scholars (e‧g. Calvet 1994, Chang 2005). In particular, the links between the functions (Patridge 1933) and features (Antoine 2004) of slang and of the flow of rap music invite further reflection. This paper therefore proposes to demonstrate how the stylistic and linguistic aspects of flow can be harnessed when translating the fictionalised voice of urban youth in written texts, expressed through the use of slang. Indeed, it aims to build on work illustrating the gap between written rap and performed rap lyrics (Bradley & DuBois 2010) by reversing the process. It will therefore consider the ways in which the vocal dexterity of a rapper’s delivery can be transferred, or translated, as it were, back to the page as a means of instilling rhythm into the fabric of a written text, incorporated into a broader strategy of translation that aims to tease out the elastic potential of language. After presenting the risks and repercussions involved in the use of several common strategies to translate slang, namely standardisation (using standard language) and substitution (using the slang spoken by a similar group in the language of translation), this paper purports to propose an alternative strategy, anchored in the desire to bend, without completely breaking, the rules of language. It will offer reflections on how attention to sound-based wordplay, as well as the lexical and syntactic rhythm observed in a rapper’s flow, can help a translator to show that the language used by slang-speaking characters deviates from standard, “proper” speech, without erasing the stylistic flair voice completely or replacing it with that of a comparable group, and these reflections will be supported by a number of examples from contemporary fiction.

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Dates et versions

hal-04917728 , version 1 (28-01-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04917728 , version 1

Citer

Tiffane Levick. Beyond Standardisation and Substitution: Harnessing Flow to Translate Slang. Musicalizing language: flow and voice in rap music, Université Paris Cité, Nov 2022, Paris, France. ⟨hal-04917728⟩

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