1. Mary Fattor 10/5/2015 Writing Assignment 5
Roman Jakobson explains in his essay On Linguistic Aspects of Translation the 3
genres of translation. I explain the two translations in order to correlate to the novel. They are
intralingual translation and interlingual translation. The novel “The Stranger” by Albert
Camus is translated into the English language by Matthew Ward. This is a form of
interlingual translation. The English translation may be accurately seen in the novel.
The novel, originally written in the French language, uses simple vocabulary terms to
convey the response of the narrator when he is communicating with other characters such as
Marie and Raymond. His thoughts are only made known to the reader. The character
Meursault expresses his thoughts intrinsically and does not mention his true thoughts to
anyone that he speaks with.
The rhythmic pace of reading the novel in French is slower than reading the novel in
the English language. In my research, the element that contributes to the slowing of the
rhythmic pace is in the French language, the use of an article must go before a noun. “What I
can say for certain is that I would rather Maman hadn’t died” (Camus 65). This sentence can
be translated into the French language as “Je peux dire à certain que j’aurais plutôt que
Maman n’avait pas mort”. The code-unit of the linguistic sign that is originally written in
French ressembles a similar signification that is translated in the English language. The
comparison of the two languages examines the mutual translatability. The equivalence in
difference is achieved (Jakobson 114).
The negation article which is equivalent to the English word for « hadn’t » has to have
the sentence structure of « ne » and « pas » that surrounds the verb « avoir ». The verb avoir
translates in the English language as “to have”. The verb is conjugated in the conditional
perfect tense. The sign of the sentence signifies that even though Meursault’s mother has
already died, he wishes that she had not died. The word “maman” is the French equivalent of
the English word for “mother” which is shortened to “mama”.

2. Mary Fattor 10/5/2015 Writing Assignment 5
I perceive that the linguistic acquaintance of “maman” written in the English
translation with the origin of word written in French gives a clue to the reader as how to
decipher what country Meursault is originally from (Jakobson 113). The lexical code of the
English language identifies “Maman” as “mother” or “mama”. The addition of the letter “n”
does not confuse the reader because the English word “mama” is already encoded in the
French word for “mama”. The signifier gives meaning to the attribute of “nurturing” or as the
person who cared for Meursault as he was growing up.
The rewording of the word “mama” changes to “maman” is intralingual translation
because it is an interpretation for the English speakers who hear the utterance of “mama” in
the French word. It is an exception to the rule that there is no full equivalence between code-
units (Jakobson 114). I chose the example to explain the cognitive experience and
classification which is understood in any existing language (Jakobson 115).
The grammatical pattern of a message given in the English language cannot be
translated word for word in the French language (Jakobson 116). The verbal usage of the
phrase “with a punch” on page 32 in the novel The Stranger does not have the same
connotative meaning as it does in the French language. “He wanted to write her a letter, “one
with a punch and also some things in it to make her sorry for what she’s done””. Instead, the
limited context of French vocabulary words must be used. The English slang phrase “with a
punch” would have to be translated into a poetic manner that is equivalent to the phrase “a
message that will evoke pity” in the French language.
In conclusion the message to get across to the readers in both languages has to relate
to the reader’s cognitive experiences as well as the verbal code that can be understood in each
language. Although the length of the word usage may change in the process of having the
written language to be translated effectively, the translation itself remains faithful to the
message that is expressed in the novel.

3. Mary Fattor 10/5/2015 Writing Assignment 5
Bibliography
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. (pg. 65) Trans. Matthew Ward. New York. Random
House Inc. 1988. Print.
Jakobson, Roman. "On linguistic aspects of translation." On translation 3 (1959): 30-
39.