Translators and glossaries for bilingual literary books: a methodological proposal

• Published in: Translator (Manchester, England) England), 2019-04, Vol.25 (2), p.101-117
• Main Author: Leyva, Mónica Olivares
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bilingual dictionaries; bilingual literary books; Bilingualism; Connotation; Dominguez Parra, Mario; Foreign language learning; glossaries; Interpreters; Laura Salas Rodríguez; Literary translation; Mario Domínguez Parra; Salas Rodriguez, Laura; Second language instruction; Second language learning; Translation; Translation methods and strategies; Translators
• ISSN: 1355-6509; 1757-0409
• DOI: 10.1080/13556509.2019.1650628

Methodological approaches to glossary building have been proposed due to the increasing importance of glossaries in the specialized areas of technical and medical translation. However, there is little research with respect to glossaries made from the position of the translator in the field of literary translation. This article aims at filling this gap by focusing on glossary design for bilingual literary books, which are in high demand as part of foreign language learning, since no methodological framework has, to my knowledge, been designed in order to guide translators producing them. This research presents a proposal for how translators can tackle the task of glossary building which is based on a comparative corpus-driven study. I put forward for consideration the notion that glossaries may be practical tools for translators to improve their works, but findings also point to the need for caution to ensure glossaries respect the expressive force, connotation and register of source items given that bilingual literary books, and their glossaries, are aimed at readers wishing to improve their command of a foreign language while enjoying reading a literary classic. The final section of the work examines the limitations of the study and sets out future lines of investigation.