Translation of Neologisms and Semantically Loaded Proper Names in Chidren’s Literature: Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)

Abstract

[eng] When thinking about children’s literature, one of its key figures is Roald Dahl, who is famous, among other things, because of his ability to invent words and his creativity when it comes to putting names to the characters and all sort of things in his stories. Nonetheless, despite how simple it seems this word invention and naming of characters, is more complex than it seems, at first sight, especially it can be a major issue for translators to do their jobs and maintain the original meaning of the source text. Thus, this dissertation will aim at classifying and analyzing the different kinds of semantically loaded proper names and neologisms that can be found in one of Roald Dahl’s most famous children’s novels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), following Newmark’s proposed strategies for the translation of neologisms. It will also present a commentary on how these invented words and names of characters have been translated into Spanish and Catalan, and whether they have maintained the original meaning, or it has been lost. As well as the frequency in which each translation strategy is used in each language to translate invented words.