Lexical Pecularities and Translation Difficulties in ”the Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger.”

Introduction

There are different elements that are helpful in the presentation of all features that are presented in an analysis and one o the main steps that are taken in the identification of these important features are lexical pecularities and translation difficulties. “„Lexical Pecularities and Translation Difficulties in”The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger. ” is a thesis that was chosen in order to identify these important features. The theme of this thesis that would be discussed is “Lexical peculiarities and translation difficulties in “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger “and this theme was chosen in order to describe the lexical peculiarities used by the author and to make distinction in the types of translation difficulties and to identify them in this work. The theme such as the translation difficulties and lexical peculiarities is actual and well-known today because these are two the most important elements of a lexical-stylistic analysis or important elements of studies in lexicology and in translation studies. The Modernist period is a time of the late XIXth and XXth centuries that was marked by the work of the great writer that activated during this period.

The main representatives of this period are Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the writer whose work would be treated in this thesis is J. D. Salinger with his well-known novel „The Catcher in the Rye. ” The first point that would be discussed in this thesis is Lexical peculiarities which are one of the main characteristic of the defining the main features of the text. The types of the lexical peculiarities and their meanig would be pointed out in the context of this reserch paper.

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Lexical peculiarities comprise the following difficulties: difference in the semantic volume of a word because a word exists in a close connection with the lexical-semantic system of a given language. It may have various kinds of lexical meanings (lexical-semantic) variants; it may widen or narrow its meaning and make it more abstract and concrete. The second point that would be investigated in this work is the translation difficulties which are presented through various types that would be in details discuss in this reseach paper.

In this graduation paper there are given such methods of investigation:

• explanation,
• description,
• investigation,
• analysis.

The goal of this paper is to discover the lexical peculiarities and difficulties in translation from English into Romanian. In order to achieve the main goal and to study these important features of this theme the following specific objectives must be considered.

• To present the main features of the Modernist Period;
• To point out all the aspects that influenced the writer J. D. Salinger to write the prominent work „The Catcher in the Rye”
• To show the definition of the translation difficulties and to identify the types that could exist;
• To describe the main features of J. D. Salinger’s work „The Catcher in the Rye”;
• To make a clear deffinition of the lexical peculiarities and to point the types of this peculiarities for identification of them in the Salinger's work „The Catcher in the Rye”;
• To analize Salinger's work and to identify the translation difficulties in „The Catcher in the Rye. ;
• To identify the main meaning of the words that were used by the author in the order to point out their function in the context;
• To point out the usage of the lexical peculiarities and translation difficulties in the analysed text;
• To investigate grammatical, lexical, stylistic and phraseological difficulties of translation in J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”. The object of this research paper can be considered as one that gives the detailed review of the translation difficulties.

It also helps to improve one’s understanding of the principal rules of translation which plays leading role while processing translation. To accomplish this matter we are going to focus our attention on several points that are important elements of the lexical peculiarities and translation difficulties and that reflect in an accurate way the main meanig of the writing and more specifically. First of all we should account for the techniques or the main pont of an analyse such as translation dificulties and lexical peculiarities that are used during the Modern Age for pointing out the most sential meaning of the writings that were written during the period. This research paper consist of two chapters. The first is reprented by theoretical information where the literature of the Modern Age and the activity of one of the main representative of this period is analysed. This chapter will point out the activity of one of the main representative of the 20th century J. D. Salinser and critics about one of the well-known writing of this writer „The Catcher in the Rye”.

The second chapter contains practical information from the book written by the writer that represent this period J. D. Salinger with his best-known novel „The Catcher in the Rye”. The practical chapter will single out examples of translation difficulties from the sourse language English and target language Romanian. The first chapter of this study shall define the notion of „Translation difficulties” and present the representatives of the Modern period and some critics about one of the representative of this period which is J. D Salinger. The second is represented by the analysis of a modernist novel written by J. D. Salinger „The Cather in the Ray” in which would be treated the points such as lexical pecularities and translation difficulties used by the author. Translation difficulties and lexical pecularities are the main points of an analyses. These two criterias identify the needs for a good knowledges in English in some of its branches of science.

This study on lexical pecularities and translation difficulties in a literary work are addressed to everybody but especially to pupils and students, also and the practical value of this research is that these features of an analyses is better understood and used by students and by everybody who is interested in, it facilitate the possibility of using and practice it day by day in the research and make it more expressive and colorful.

The Modernist Literature

The first chapter deals with J. D. Salinger’s place in world literature, the most important influences on his writing style, the cultural and historical background behind his literary works and how they influenced and were reflected in his literary creations. The most important patterns, themes and motifs in Salinger’s fiction were the centre of this chapter, but before embarking upon discussing Salinger’s literary trademarks, it has to be approached the issue concerning the controversy around Salinger and his ability to maintain his reputation in the context of his self-imposed reclusive lifestyle.

The conclusion was that the main reasons behind his “retirement” from the public world refer to his great disappointment with the disturbing elements brought along by success and his desire to find a peaceful existence, most likely as a result of the Second World War experiences and, later on, of the strong influences of Zen philosophy. J. D. Salinger’s secluded lifestyle had its share of contribution and impact on the very popularity he has rejected and the implicit controversy.

In this first chapter were also presented major biographical data on Salinger’s life and on his literary works in chronological order in order to emphasize the similarities and differences between his life and some of the events presented in his fiction. The conclusion is that there have been some similarities between Salinger’s private life and some of the events in his works, but not enough to entitle anyone to think that his fiction is autobiographical.

A major theme and also strong influence concerns the war and the army life present throughout his short stories, especially during and after his participation in the Second World War. In this chapter also will be exemplifies that Salinger’s fiction followed a chronological evolution, that there has been a well defined process of creating certain typical characters and that his characters evolved from the early prototypes in his short stories to the fully developed characters in his “mature” works, or even disappeared for good from his literary creations in a few cases.

The conclusion is that the major themes, patterns and motifs that recur in Salinger’s fiction and develop into major and instantly recognizable archetypes, his trademarks, and at the same time a very clear indication of the very evolution of his writing technique, mainly refer to: his brevity, conciseness and concentration of style; his attentiveness to details and to exact dates and facts; his constant reference to parts of the human body; his leitmotif of the letter or note; his constant way of picturing certain female characters painting their nails or toenail or the recurrent motif of a man holding a child’s feet; his constant references to colors and the symbolism within colors; his repertoire of characters; his penchant for coining new words or changing different parts of speech into others; his constant use of italics; his inclination of dealing with psychological problems in his fiction; his tendency to use the pattern of sequence—sequence in his characters’ names—in his themes, etc. his preference for the first person narrative; his unique and constant sense of humor; his attitudes towards sex, war, phony world, materialism and false values; his constant references to music and songs, to the movie industry, to movie stars and to famous movies; his penchant for constantly making references in his literary creations to writers, to literary works and classic characters; his preference for creating stories around the brother-sister relationship, but also around the idea of family and the relationships between family members; his love for children and the innocence they stand for; his multitude of representative names and characters and his preference for dialogue and replies; his tendency to use real and historical data or to introduce in his fiction real places where he either grew up or which he knew; his use of well-established symbols throughout his fiction; his unique approach of religious themes and his use of Zen philosophy; his attachment to and protection for his characters.

The research has also led to the conclusion that the recurrent pattern of the letter or of the note plays a very well defined role in J. D. Salinger’s fiction and it is usually manifested through the characters’ repeated reading or memorizing of them in different (mostly difficult) situations. This chapter has also centered on presenting the major themes from Salinger’s literary highpoint, his novel and his Nine Stories collection. It was discussed the reasons which led to the negative reactions around The Catcher in the Rye and its repeated banning and removal from schools and high schools reading lists since its first publication until nowadays, and also some similar cases in American literature.

The main reasons for the novel’s extensive banning refer to the colloquial and slang language used by Holden Caulfield and to the book’s sexual content. The many negative reactions were mainly caused by the social and political background of the postwar period, by misunderstanding the text, by misreading it, by associating the novel with famous criminals and the reading of the novel by the wrong audience—teenagers instead of adults. Another important aspect of this chapter focused on the presentation of the major themes developed by Salinger in his novel, in the Nine Stories collection and in some of his “mature” and last publications until 1965 when he stopped publishing his writings. J. D. Salinger is one of the main representatives of the Modern literature which is experimented with a wide variety of new approaches and techniques, producing a remarkably diverse body of literature. Modernists shared a common purpose. They sought to capture the essence of modern life in the form and content of their work. The Modernists constructed their works out of fragments, omitting the exposition, transitions, resolutions, and explanations used in traditional literature. Modernist literature can be viewed largely in terms of its formal, stylistic and semantic movement away from Romanticism. Modernist literature often features a marked pessimism, a clear rejection of the optimism apparent in Victorian literature.

Modernism as a literary movement is seen, in large part, as a reaction to the emergence of city life as a central force in society. Modernism was distinguished by an emancipator met narrative. In the wake of Modernism, and post-enlightenment, meet narratives tended to be emancipator, whereas beforehand this was not a consistent characteristic. Contemporary met narratives were becoming less relevant in light of the implications of World War I, the rise of trade unionism, a general social discontent, and the emergence of psychoanalysis. The consequent need for a unifying function brought about a growth in the political importance of culture. Modernist writers were more acutely conscious of the objectivity of their surroundings. In Modernism the object is; the language doesn't mean it is. This is a shift from an epistemological aesthetic to an ontological aesthetic or, in simpler terms, a shift from a knowledge-based aesthetic to a being-based aesthetic. This shift is central to Modernism. The literature of this period is marked by the activities of many well-known writers. The well-known representatives of this period are Ernest Hemingway with his writings “The Sun Also Rise” and “A Farewell to Arms. ” Another important writer of this period is William Faulkner with his works “The Sound and the Furry”, “Light in August” and “The Hamlet”. J. D. Salinger with his well-known work “The Catcher in the Rye” is also one of the main representatives of this literature. The author of this work is a writer that succeeded to combine all elements that represent this period in his work.

Critics about J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Ray” and Influence.

Jerome David "J. D. " Salinger is an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. He has not published an original work since 1965 and has not been interviewed since 1980. This author achieved his fame through his especial style of writing that was pointed out in J. D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye”. Raised in Manhattan, New York, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he published the critically-acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker magazine, which became home too much of his subsequent work. In 1951 Salinger released his novel, The Catcher in the Rye, an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read, selling around 250,000 copies a year. In 1951 Salinger released his novel, The Catcher in the Rye, an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny: Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), a collection of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924," appeared in The New Yorker on June19, 1965.

Afterwards, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton and the release in the late 1990s of memoirs written by two people close to him: Joyce Maynard, an ex-lover; and Margaret Salinger, his daughter. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but amid the ensuing publicity, the release was indefinitely delayed. A lot of critics were expressed after the publishing of J. D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye”. Much of Salinger's reputation, which he acquired after publication of “The Catcher in the Rye”, is derived from thoughtful and sympathetic insights into both adolescence and adulthood, his use of symbolism, and his idiomatic style, which helped to re-introduce the common idiom to American literature.

While the young protagonists of Salinger's stories (such as Holden Caulfield) have made him a longtime favorite of high school and university audiences, establishing Salinger as "the spokesman for the goals and values for a generation of youth during the 1950's" (qtd. in Davis 317), “The Catcher in the Rye” has been banned continually from schools, libraries, and bookstores due to its profanity, sexual subject matter, and rejection of some traditional American ideals. Robert Coles reflected general critical opinion of the author when he called Salinger "an original and gifted writer, a marvelous entertainer, a man free of the slogans and clichs the rest of us fall prey to". In 1961, the critic Alfred Kazin explained that Salinger's choice of teenagers as a subject matter was one reason for his appeal to young readers, but another was "a consciousness among youths that he speaks for them and virtually to them, in a language that is peculiarly honest and their own, with a vision of things that capture their most secret judgments of the world. " Salinger's language, especially his energetic, realistically sparse dialogue, was revolutionary at the time his first stories were published, and was seen by several critics as "the most distinguishing thing" about his work. Salinger identified closely with his characters, and used techniques such as interior monologue, letters, and extended telephone calls to display his gift for dialogue. Such style elements also gave him the illusion of having, as it were, delivered his characters' destinies into their own keeping. Recurring themes in Salinger's stories also connect to the ideas of innocence and adolescence, including the "corrupting influence of Hollywood and the world at large", the absence of connects between teenagers and "phony" adults, and the perceptive, precocious intelligence of children. Contemporary critics discuss a clear progression over the course of Salinger's published work, as evidenced by the increasingly negative reviews received by each of his three post-Catcher story collections. Ian Hamilton adheres to this view, arguing that while Salinger's early stories for the "slicks" boasted "tight, energetic" dialogue, they had also been formulaic and sentimental. It took the standards of The New Yorker editors, among them William Shawn, to refine his writing into the "spare, teasingly mysterious, withheld" qualities of "A Perfect Day for Banana fish", The Catcher in the Rye, and his stories of the early 1950s.

By the late 1950s, as Salinger became more reclusive and involved in religious study, Hamilton notes that his stories became longer, less plot-driven, and increasingly filled with digression and parenthetical remarks. Louis Menand agrees, writing in The New Yorker that Salinger "stopped writing stories, in the conventional sense. … He seemed to lose interest in fiction as an art form—perhaps he thought there was something manipulative or inauthentic about literary device and authorial control. " In recent years, Salinger's later work has been defended by some critics; in 2001, Janet Malcolm wrote in The New York Review of Books that "Zooey" "is arguably Salinger's masterpiece. … Rereading it and its companion piece "Franny" is no less rewarding than rereading The Great Gatsby. During a period was established that Salinger's writing has influenced several prominent writers, prompting Harold Brodkey (himself an O. Henry Award-winning author) to state in 1991: "His is the most influential body of work in English prose by anyone since Hemingway. " Of the writers in Salinger's generation, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Updike attested that "the short stories of J. D. Salinger really opened my eyes as to how you can weave fiction out of a set of events that seem almost unconnected, or very lightly connected.

Yates describes Salinger as "a man who used language as if it were pure energy beautifully controlled, and who knew exactly what he was doing in every silence as well as in every word. " Ever since its publication in 1951, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has served as a firestorm for controversy and debate. Critics have argued the moral issues raised by the book and the context in which it is presented. Some have argued that Salinger's tale of the human condition is fascinating and enlightening, yet incredibly depressing. The psychological battles of the novel's main character, Holden Caulfield, serve as the basis for critical argument. Caulfield's self-destruction over a period of days forces one to contemplate society's attitude toward the human condition. Salinger's portrayal of Holden, which includes incidents of depression, nervous breakdown, impulsive spending, sexual exploration, vulgarity, and other erratic behavior, have ll attributed to the controversial nature of the novel. Yet the novel is not without its sharp advocates, who argue that it is a critical look at the problems facing American youth during the 1950's. When developing a comprehensive opinion of the novel, it is important to consider the praises and criticisms of The Catcher in the Rye.

Many critics consider J. D. Salinger a very controversial writer, for the subject matters that he writes. J. D. Salinger’s works were generally written during two time periods. The first time period was during World War II, and the second time period was during the 1960’s. There are a lot of Salinger pieces in the University of Texas, at Austin? Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center rare books collection; although some contemporary critics see a clear progression in Salinger`s published works, they think that The Catcher in the Rye is so brilliant. For example, Louis Menand said that the early stories of Pulitzer Prize- winner –Philip Roth- were affected by J. D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye and J. D. Salinger were very popular among young people because his rich and fresh vocabulary, full of slangs, connected with the teenagers; in the Fifties, there were a lot of articles about “The Catcher Cult”. This novel revolutionised the society of the Fifties; as well as the style of J. D. Salinger, the other novelty was the big critic of the society that it represented.

Some topics of The Catcher in the Rye were taboos (like drugs, sex or prostitution). A lot of literary critics saw in this novel an advance of the crazies Sixties, with rebel and revolutionary young people who didn’t understand the “fabulous” society that adults had build. So this book supposed a big phenomenon of sales during Fifties and Sixties; but today, in the XXI century, catch more supporters and it is still editing, there are a lot of editions in different languages. The fame of Salinger grew very much at Eighties, when it appeared a lot of articles and comments about The Catcher in the Rye: one critic said that this novel was satanic.

This is the main cause of the prohibition of this novel in some schools; but in the other side, there are a big number of schools and teachers that recommend this book as an obligatory reading. We can see that it were negative comments, hard critics... Many critics told that there wasn’t any novel that went into the adolescence as this Salinger? s work. Holden’s force and ideas last in time: his spirit, his way of thinking, etc... In a New York Times op-ed piece published after J. D. Salinger’s recent death, David Lodge charged that many of Salinger’s critics simply “didn’t get” his work, particularly his post-Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories work. Lodge suggests that Salinger—unbeknownst to his critics - was “playing a kind of Shandean game. Offering a bold alternative to the famously critical 1961 review of Franny and Zooey in which John Updike concedes that Salinger’s fiction “matches the tint and shape of present American life,” but insists that it “pays the price of becoming dangerously convoluted and static,” Lodge implicitly challenges critics to revisit and reassess Salinger’s body of work. And finally, it can be said that Salinger didn’t assume the fame as well as other authors and he’s actually out of the literary world.

J. D. Salinger’s style and techniques of writing

Without a doubt, J. D. Salinger is one of the best twentieth-century America authors. He is best known for his book, Catcher in the Rye, a book about a seventeen-year-old teenager, struggling through his teenager years, falling into a depression and trying to understand the real world.

The straightforward approach to his novel caused a hurricane of controversy in America. It was the first time an author, dared to tell it how it really is and tried to open America's eyes to understand the thoughts of a typical adolescent teenager. This straightforward, simple read is nonetheless used in many schools today for its rich content of symbols and truthfulness. This book has had a huge impact on teenagers all over the world.  It’s possible that Salinger`s character –in this case, Holden- is expressed in his own works: some literary critics insist that the author is very controversial, and his novels are not simple.

In general, the main characters are usually misfits of society: they don’t like their way of life; they use to start with their stories telling us their bad conditions, their problems with the society and life in general. But then, they have solutions and they can change their hard conditions for better ones. It’s possible that Salinger has a very negative view of the world; the author thinks that the research of happiness is based on 3 important elements: religion, loneliness and symbolism. He used to name, above all, the religion as the proper solution (for example, Holden was sad when he lost his girlfriend, and he read a passage in the Bible). The Holy book gave him peace.

Moreover, the characters created by Salinger used to have some obstacles to fins their own happiness; but, suddenly, it appears the religion as a solution, as a way of liberation: it supposes the end of the suffering for each character. Normally, the conflict becomes the base of the unhapppiness, but many of the Salinger’s characters, loneliness or isolation is the better way for seach happiness. They think that society is harmful and they don’t like to be in it. Loneliness supposes a change in life for too many characters. In conclusion, Salinger’s characters feel that society is hard and they have to go away. The author wanted to show that with a kind of symbols, like religion or loneliness, life can be happy: a better life is possible.

One example of those symbols is that Holden changed his personality when he was at the fountain in Central Park: he became a new person when he was near the water. So it can be concluded that Salinger tries to explain what these three elements can do for search the true happiness. So his main characters (who have a lot of obstacles) learn about happiness. If we talk about the language at Catcher in the Rye, we can say that the author uses a simple writing, with several interjections and qualifier adjectives; the tone of this novel is colloquial and full of teenager’s expressions (it is written in a monologue and in lively slang; it`s also important the chronolect). Holden jargon is very important, because it emphasizes how this teenager was, how he talked... We can see that Salinger has the tendency to use the second person pronoun “you” and the irony... It`s easy to see Holden`s thoughts: the author reproduces the teenager’s mind quite well. At this work, Salinger uses the technique of the interior monologue; this procedure reinforces the little stream of consciousness of Holden (we can appreciate his way of thinking). He uses letters and phone calls and he connect different ideas, like innocence and adolescence with the Hollywood’s corruption. It exist a thin line between seriousness and humour.

We could think that The Catcher in the Rye is next to the classical humour (for example, two Mark Twain works: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Salinger has the “power” to disconnect between his adorated teenagers and phony adults: he magnifies children’s intelligence; so we can say that the kind of language used in this novel is not monotonous. We must think that the author language was revolutionary, new and controversial at the time his first stories were published. Richard Yates wrote at The New York Times in 1977 that Salinger is a man “who used language as if it were pure energy beautifully controlled, and who knew exactly what he was doing in every silence as well as in every word”.

Salinger had a very big number of important influences as Kafka, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Proust, Keats, Lorca, Rimbaud, Burns, Jane Austen or Coleridge. And he also an important influence for writers as Harold Brodkey or the two Pulitzer Prize- winners John Updike and Philip Roth. So it can be consider that J. D. Salinger has a rich literary base and he becomes a kind of teacher for several big writers. Salinger's writing style is pointed out through a very open and explicit way. He lets the reader know how the character feels at that time and his or her thoughts. For the first time, I can see a definite connection between the main character in the story and the author.

Salinger seems to be almost identical to Holden in the story. They have the same attitude towards other people and they think the same way, too. Salinger used his teenage years as reference in creating Holden. Happiness is the very substance which all of these characters are striving for in Salinger’s works. Salinger uses religion in his works to comfort them so that they can proceed on their quest to achieve happiness. Salinger uses religion as a means for liberation. Salinger uses much of the Zen philosophy, as in the case of Nine Stories, to achieve this liberation. In many of Salinger’s works loneliness is used to isolate characters from evil.

Salinger portrays all of society to be bad, and for many character's isolation from society is the only way to achieve happiness. In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield’s entire plot deals with him trying to isolate from society. Holden realizes that society has become bad, and wants no part in this terrible life. Salinger uses society as the source of discord in this case to be isolated from. The characters can only become happy if they isolate themselves from this society. Salinger uses loneliness also as a means to change in life. The characters in J. D. Salinger’s works start out in bad situations. Through the use of lucky symbols their life is changed to what will make them happy. Salinger uses symbolism in his works also to foreshadow a better life. 10] In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Salinger refers greatly in one chapter to ducks in central park. The ducks are in context to a scripture in the Bible, which tells of how the ducks are Free. Salinger later explains that Holden will become free as these ducks. In “The Catcher in the Rye” Holden’s main purpose was to be free from the suffering. The ducks represented how he would feel, being happy. Salinger also shows his symbolism from other works through the work of Mark Twain. Salinger portrays how Holden in Catcher in the Rye changes to a different man when he is at the water fountain in Central Park, as the case in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn in which Huck changes when he is on the Mississippi River.

Salinger uses symbolism from other books in his books to convey how the characters in his works will change for a better life. Salinger uses much of the symbolism to show how the life of the characters has become happy. Salinger uses symbols to show the turning point of the character’s lives. He shows that these symbols will change their lives for the better. The works of Salinger show the quest for happiness through religion, loneliness, and symbolism. Salinger’s writings deal with characters fulfilling their quest for happiness. The writings of the Salinger become very important for this time period, because he goes against the grain of society to show how it is wrong.

The writings of Salinger, while they may have been excellent in style, have become very controversial for what he has portrayed in the society during this time period The Catcher in the Ray is a writing of a well-known American writer J. D. Salinger that is marked by a lot of characteristics of Salinger writings

Formal/Stylistic characteristics

• Free indirect speech
• Stream of consciousness
• Juxtaposition of characters
• Wide use of classical allusions
• Figure of speech
• Intersexuality
• Personification
• Hyperbole
• Parataxis
• Comparison
• Quotation
• Pun
• Satire
• Irony
• Antiphrasis
• Unconventional use of metaphor
• Symbolic representation
• Psychoanalysis
• Discontinuous narrative
• Met narrative
• Multiple narrative points of view

Thematic characteristics

• Breakdown of social norms
• Realistic embodiment of social meanings
• Separation of meanings and senses from the context
• Despairing individual behaviors in the face of an unmanageable future
• Sense of spiritual loneliness
• Sense of alienation
• Sense of frustration
• Sense of disillusionment
• Rejection of the history
• Rejection of the outdated social system
• Objection of the traditional thoughts and the traditional moralities
• Objection of the religious thoughts
• Substitution of a mythical past

Two World Wars’ Effects on Humanity In the end, “The Catcher in the Rye” will continue to be a point of great public and critical debate.

One must remember, however, in the study and critique of the novel, particularly for a researcher or critic in 1996 that the story was written in a different time. If originally published today, the novel would probably create little publicity and garner only average book sales. The fact that a novel of such radical social opinion and observation was written in a time of conservatism in America made it all the more controversial. Some critics scolded the novel as being too pessimistic or obscene, too harsh for the society of the 1950's. Others, however, nominated Salinger himself as the top-flight "catcher in the rye" for that period in American history.

They argued that Salinger's concerns represented an entire generation of American youth, frustrated by the phoniness of the world, just like Holden was. The popularity of the novel and debate over its redeeming social value have never faltered since its initial publication, due in no large part to the fact that J. D. Salinger is now a recluse. It would be conclusive to say that critics of “The Catcher in the Rye” have legitimate criticisms of the novel, while advocates and supporters of the story's message also have expressed veritable praise.

Translation Difficulties and its types

Every translation activity has one or more specific purposes and whichever they may be, the main aim of translation is to serve as a cross-cultural bilingual communication vehicle among peoples.

In the past few decades, this activity has developed because of rising international trade, increased migration, globalization, the recognition of linguistic minorities, and the expansion of the mass media and technology. For this reason, the translator plays an important role as a bilingual or multi-lingual cross-cultural transmitter of culture and truths by attempting to interpret concepts and speech in a variety of texts as faithfully and accurately as possible. Most translation theorists agree that translation is understood as a transfer process from a foreign language—or a second language—to the mother tongue. However, market requirements are increasingly demanding that translators transfer texts to a target language that is not their mother tongue, but a foreign language.

This is what Newmark calls "service translation. " Through experience it was learned that the consequences of wrong translations can be catastrophic—especially if done by laypersons—and mistakes made in the performance of this activity can obviously be irreparable. Just think of what could happen in cases of serious inadequacy in knowledge areas such as science, medicine, legal matters, or technology. There are many thorns that can mortify us during the translation process, whatever the nature of the text we face, and translators should be aware of them. The first problem is related to reading and comprehension ability in the source language.

Once the translator has coped with this obstacle, the most frequent translation difficulties are of a semantic and cultural nature: "Linguistic untranslatability" (cognates, i. e. true and false friends, calques, and other forms of interference; institutional and standardized terms, neologisms, aphorisms, etc. ), and "cultural untranslatability," (idioms, sayings, proverbs, jokes, puns, etc.). One should adopt a very cautious attitude toward these words or expressions so as to avoid interference and/or language misuse. Whatever the difficulty in the translation process, procedures must aim at the essence of the message and faithfulness to the meaning of the source language text being transferred to the target language text.

In the words of Nida and Taber (1974): Translating consists of reproducing, in the target language, the nearest equivalent to the message in the source language, in the first place in the semantic aspect and, in the second place, in the stylistic aspect. This cognitive approach perfectly applies to the transfer process of ideas from one language to another, which obviously implies a lot more than the simple reproduction model. In the preparatory phase of a translation, cognition, in the form of self-consciousness and self-confidence, plays a very important role, inasmuch as this period implies conscious mental activities, where translating problems are detected and analyzed, and information and knowledge are accumulated. ... he transfer process is a difficult and complex approach mechanism, one in which one must make use of all one's intellectual capacity, intuition and skill (Tricas, 1995). As suggested by Kussmaul (1995), it is a good practice to classify the kinds of errors/difficulties. The most frequent types of difficulties arising from translation that can be proposed to assess in any translation are the following:

• Comprehension, sense and ideas;
• Lexico-semantic level;
• Morpho-syntactic level;
• Writing style and register;
• Spelling and punctuation;
• Creative solutions to translation problems;
• Transfer and re-wording (use of translation procedures);
• Cohesion and coherence;
• Assessment of the result and post-edition;
• Format.

The method of penalization of errors must be previously established, using clear criteria, and placing emphasis on the lack of coherence, especially regarding meaning and sense, whether it is due to faulty translation, missing items or the wrong application of lexical, semantic, grammatical, graphemic and/or cultural transfer. It is suggested to be drastic with text omissions, but it was found as an important feature to point out to the students all the positive aspects of meaning of her/his translation. A translation difficulty is a problem that could be met in the process of translation because a translation is the same text in a different language. Every statement made about the work by a reader of the translation should also be true of the original text. This is not possible.

Not with poetry, and not even with prose, where the difficulty is generally assumed to be less. But it is what it aims at. The real thing, with the curtain of language somehow made transparent. There are different types of translation difficulties. One difficulty in translation stems from the fact that most words have multiple meanings. Because of this fact, a translation based on a one-to-one substitution of words is seldom acceptable. This first type of difficulty is the task of distinguishing between a use of a word as a specialized term and its use as a word of general vocabulary. One might think that if the distinction can be made, people are home free and the computer can produce an acceptable translation. Not so.

The second type of difficulty is distinguishing between various uses of a word of general vocabulary. The third type of difficulty is the need to be sensitive to total context, including the intended audience of the translation. Meaning is not some abstract object that is independent of people and culture. During a great period of searching it was identified three types of translation difficulty:

• Distinguishing between general vocabulary and specialized terms,
• Distinguishing between various meanings of a word of general vocabulary,
• Taking into account the total context, including the intended audience and important details such as regionalisms.

Types of translation

In his article `On Linguistic Aspects of Translation', Jacobson distinguished three types of translation:

Intra-lingual translation or rewording (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs in the same language). Intralinguistic translation, or rewording means interpreting verbal signs through other signs of the same language. This can be done on diachronic level: Chaucer’s text is translated into modern English. When done on synchronic level, this kind of code switching is called a paraphrase. We often deal with paraphrasing when trying to explain or define things. In the theory of translation, this type of code switching is called a transformation.

• Intralinguistic transfer can also be illustrated by stylistic differentiation

Inter-lingual translation or translation proper (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language). Inter-language translation means substituting verbal signs of one language by verbal signs of another language, or switching from one language code to another one. This type of code switching is translation proper, the object of Translation Studies.

• Inter-semiotic translation or transmutation (an interpretation of verbal signs of non-verbal sign systems). Inter-semiotic translation means substituting signs of one semiotic system by signs of a different semiotic system.

In its broad meaning, the term implies transmutation and can be illustrated by decoding some ideas and themes expressed, for example, in a poem through the “language” of music or dance. But Dagut's distinction between `translation' and `reproduction', like Catford's distinction between `literal' and `free' translation does not take into account the view that sees translation as semiotic change. In his definition of translation equivalence, Popovic distinguished four types: • Linguistic equivalence, where there is homogeneity on the linguistic level.

• Paradigmatic equivalence, where there is equivalence of `the elements of a paradigmatic expressive axis', i. e. elements of grammar, which Popovic sees as being a higher category than lexical equivalence.
• Stylistic (translational) equivalence, where there is `functional quivalence of elements in both original and translation aiming at an expressive identity with an invariant of identical meaning'.
• Textual (syntagmatic) equivalence, where there is equivalence of the syntagmatic structuring of a text, i. e. equivalence of form and shape. After researching different kinds of documents the scientist made a great work in identifying the types of translation difficulties. The scientists identify the next types of translation difficulties and these types are:
• False friends - are an umbrella term where some similarity between two words in a language pair dealt with look or sound sufficiently alike to sometimes make translators render the source word by a target word that is semantically wrong in that context.

False friends (or faux amis) are pairs of words in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning. The term ‘translator’s false friends’ (les faux amis) was introduced by the French theorists of translation M. Koessler and J. Derocquigny in 1928. This term means a word that has the same or similar form in the source and target languages but another meaning in the target language. Translators’ false friends result from transferring the sounds of a source language word literally into the target language. P. Newmark calls them deceptive cognates, as their meanings are different and they can easily confuse the target text receptor. ‘False friends’ could be called inter-language synonyms, homonyms and paronyms. False cognates, by contrast, are similar words in different languages that appear to have a common historical linguistic origin (whatever their current meaning) but actually do not. Both false friends and false cognates can cause difficulty for students learning a foreign language, particularly one that is related to their native language, because students are likely to identify the words wrongly, because of linguistic interference. Because false friends are a common problem for language learners, teachers sometimes compile lists of false friends as an aid for their students.

• Collocations – is the way in which particular ors tend to occur or belong together. Idioms – is a phrase whose meaning is difficult or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the meaning of the individual words it contains. The first step towards an examination of the process of translation must be to accept that although translation has a central core of linguistic activity, it belongs most properly to semiotics, the science that studies sign systems or structures, sign processes and sign functions (Hawkes, Structuralism and Semiotics, London, 1977). Beyond the notion stressed by the narrowly linguistic approach, that translation involves the transfer of `meaning' contained in one set of language signs through competent use of the dictionary and grammar, the process involves a whole set of extra-linguistic criteria also.

Edward Sapir claims that `language is a guide to social reality' and that human beings are at the mercy of the language that has become the medium of expression for their society. Experience, he asserts, is largely determined by the language habits of the community, and each separate structure represents a separate reality: “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached. ” Sapir's thesis, endorsed later by Whorf, is related to the more recent view advanced by the Soviet semiotician; Lotman that language is a modelling system.

Lotman describes literature and art in general as a secondary modelling systems, as an indication of the fact that they are derived from the primary modelling system of language, and declares as firmly as Sapir or Whorf that `No language can exist unless it is stepped in the context of culture; and no culture can exist which does not have at its centre, the structure of natural language. ' Language, then, is the heart within the bodies of culture, and it is the interaction between the two that results in the continuation of life-energy. In the same way that the surgeon, operating on the heart, cannot neglect the body that surrounds it, so the translator treats the text in isolation from the culture at his peril. There are different kinds of difficulties that appear during the process of translation and one of the main is lexical difficulties which is one of the main . Lexical difficulties in translation deals especially with the word meaning. There are different types of lexical difficulties in translation and the main of them are:

• A polysemy is a word or phrase with multiple, related meanings. Polyseme in the same time is the capacity for a sign (e. g. , a word, phrase, etc. ) or signs to have multiple meanings or a large semantic field. A word is judged to be polysemous if it has two senses of the word whose meanings are related.

One group of polysemes are those in which a word meaning an activity, perhaps derived from a verb, acquires the meanings of those engaged in the activity, or perhaps the results of the activity, or the time or place in which the activity occurs or has occurred. Sometimes only one of those meanings is intended, depending on context, and sometimes multiple meanings are intended at the same time. Other types are derivations from one of the other meanings that lead to a verb or activity. There are several tests for polysemy, but one of them is zeugma: if one word seems to exhibit zeugma when applied in different contexts, it is likely that the contexts bring out different polysemes of the same word.

If the two senses of the same word do not seem to fit, yet seem related, then it is likely that they are polysemous. The fact that this test again depends on speakers' judgments about relatedness, however, means that this test for polysemy is not infallible, but is rather merely a helpful conceptual aid. One group of polysemes are those in which a word meaning an activity, perhaps derived from a verb, acquires the meanings of those engaged in the activity, or perhaps the results of the activity, or the time or place in which the activity occurs or has occurred. Sometimes only one of those meanings is intended, depending on context, and sometimes multiple meanings are intended at the same time.

Other types are derivations from one of the other meanings that lead to a verb or activity.

• Phraseologisms – or expressions that would aspire at becoming so – are formed in huge quantities, but do not always succeed. The only instances that create problems for the translator are the stable, recurrent lexical idioms that for their metaphorical meaning do not rely only on the reader’s logic at the moment of reading but also, and above all, on the value that such a metaphor has assumed in the history of the language under discussion. The obstacle for the translator consists in recognizing phraseologisms. If unrecognized, they are translated interpreting the meaning of the single words to the letter, with doubtful outcome.

The translator is always alert in order to catch a passage that is marked, forms a particular sensitivity allowing the translator, to stop and think about an unusual formulation even when in translator’s experience he/she never ran across that particular idiomatic expression. The lexical translation consists in expliciting through other words the denotative meaning of the phraseologism, giving up all the other style and connotation aspects. Once the expression is identified, the next problem consists in decoding it. All authors agree that dictionaries are not always reliable tools in this sense. First, they don’t contain all phraseologisms, then because every day new ones are formed, and lastly because dictionaries have a limited length and cannot contain all.

The second problem consists in the identification of phraseologisms under a given entry: "to be between hammer and anvil" can be found under the words "between", or "anvil", or "hammer", or "be", but certainly if it is present under one entry it is absent in all the other entries, otherwise the dictionary would be too redundant. The third problem is the use of bilingual dictionaries. In this case, the provided solutions are not the explanation of the sense of phraseologisms that, in the compiler’s intentions, should serve to translate them into the other language. Since there is never a good coincidence of meaning between phraseologisms, there is a very high risk of finding others that have different metaphors, a different meaning, and are not at all fit for specific cases. Once the idiom has been recognized and understood, the task is not yet finished: in the contrary, one could say that has just begun. The problem is to find a translating expression.

In the case of non phraseological rendering, there are two possibilities: one can opt for a lexical translation or for calques. The lexical translation consists in expliciting through other words the denotative meaning of the phraseologism, giving up all the other style and connotation aspects. In the case of the "hammer and anvil" idiom, a lexical rendering could be "to be in an uneasy, stressing situation".

• One of the main problem or difficulty in translation- is the use of bilingual dictionaries. In this case, the provided solutions are not the explanation of the sense of phraseologisms that, in the compiler’s intentions, should serve to translate them into the other language.
• Slang- is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo. Slang should be distinguished from jargon, which is the technical vocabulary of a particular profession. Jargon, like many examples of slang, may be used to exclude non–group members from the conversation, but in general has the function of allowing its users to talk precisely about technical issues in a given field. Few linguists have endeavored to clearly define what constitutes slang. Attempting to remedy this, Bethany K. Dumas and Jonathan Lighter argue that an expression should be considered "true slang" if it meets at least two of the following criteria: It lowers, if temporarily, "the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing"; in other words, it is likely to be seen in such contexts as a "glaring misuse of register. " Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, or with a group of people who are familiar with it and use the term. "It is a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or greater responsibility. " It replaces "a well-known conventional synonym. " This is done primarily to avoid the discomfort caused by the conventional item or by further elaboration. "
• Slang should be distinguished from jargon, which is the technical vocabulary of a particular profession.
• Jargon, like many examples of slang, may be used to exclude non–group members from the conversation, but in general has the function of allowing its users to talk precisely about technical issues in a given field. One difficulty in translation stems from the fact that most words have multiple meanings. Because of this fact, a translation based on a one-to-one substitution of words is seldom acceptable.
• Colloquialism is a lexical item used in informal speech; whilst the broadest sense of the term ‘colloquialism’ might include slangism, its narrow sense does not. Slangisms are often used in colloquial speech but not all colloquialisms are slangisms. Justification is the reason why someone properly holds a belief, the explanation as to why the belief is a true one, or an account of how one knows what one knows. In much the same way arguments and explanations may be confused with each other, so too may explanations and justifications. Statements which are justifications of some action take the form of arguments. For example attempts to justify a theft usually explain the motives (e. g. , to feed a starving family). It is important to be aware when an explanation is not a justification. A criminal profiler may offer an explanation of a suspect's behavior (e. g. ; the person lost their job, the person got evicted, etc. ).
• Such statements may help us understand why the person committed the crime, however an uncritical listener may believe the speaker is trying to gain sympathy for the person and his or her actions. It does not follow that a person proposing an explanation has any sympathy for the views or actions being explained. This is an important distinction because we need to be able to understand and explain terrible events and behavior in attempting to discourage it. • While arguments attempt to show that something is, will be, or should be the case, explanations try to show why or how something is or will be. If Fred and Joe address the issue of whether or not Fred's cat has fleas, Joe may state: "Fred, your cat has fleas. Observe the cat is scratching right now. Joe has made an argument that the cat has fleas. However, if Fred and Joe agree on the fact that the cat has fleas, they may further question why this is so and put forth an explanation: "The reason the cat has fleas is that the weather has been damp. " The difference is that the attempt is not to settle whether or not some claim is true, it is to show why it is true. Arguments and explanations largely resemble each other in rhetorical use. This is the cause of much difficulty in thinking critically about claims. There are several reasons for this difficulty.
• People often are not themselves clear on whether they are arguing for or explaining something. The same types of words and phrases are used in presenting explanations and arguments.
• The terms 'explain' or 'explanation,' et cetera is frequently used in arguments. Explanations are often used within arguments and presented so as to serve as arguments. All mentioned above features about translation difficulties single out that it can be concluded: there are three main types of translation difficulties: grammatical, lexical and stylistical difficulties in translation.

Grammatical Difficulty of Translation

Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language –the source- and in the other language-the target.

Translation must take into account a number of constraints, including context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. In translation, both the source language and the target one are important. Sometimes in translation, the translator will face some problems related to the equivalences of source and target languages. Finding a good equivalence is an important job which the translator should care about it. One problem which will arise in translation is the translating of the third-person pronoun from Persian –as a source text- into English –as a target text. In this case the translator will face many difficulties. A text has some features which make the texture of a text.

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