The role of the syntactic features of similes in their translation from English into Albanian: The case of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Abstract

It has often been stated in translation theory that afinity between linguistic features in different languages may facilitate their translation from one into the other. Similes are one of these features. Apart from the fact that they usually comprise a tripartite structure, the comparison markers establishing the relationship between the other two constituents happen to be quite close semantically. Similarity may be seen even in the syntactic function that they fulill in the texts where they appear. However, do these syntactic afinities really affect the translation of similes in a positive way? If yes, to what degree? In this paper we set out to investigate these two issues using data from the novel “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” by the British author Thomas Hardy and its translation into Albanian “Tesi i d’Erbervileve”. We will first analyze similes in terms of their syntactic make-up and the functions they fulfill in the source text followed by an analysis of their translations. Finally, we will discuss the implications of these analyses for the issues above.