Analysis of stylistic habits in translation: A narrative account

Abstract

This study builds on a hypothesis proposed by Farahzad & Bolouri (2017) regarding the influence of linguistic habits on narrative (re)configuration through translation. It first interprets and clarifies the hypothesis using forensic stylistics and then outlines a methodology for examining stylistic habits in narrative construction. The hypothesis is then tested through an empirical analysis of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Vida Eslamieh’s Persian translation, the same translator examined by Farahzad & Bolouri (2017). The analysis compared the source and Persian texts to identify recurrent, non-deliberate optional lexical shifts, as indicators of stylistic habits. The findings confirmed the hypothesis. In the case examined here, as in Farahzad & Bolouri’s (2017) case, the translator’s habitual preference for religiously marked variants in rendering everyday expressions such as I hope and I wish had become automatic, subtly reframing the source-text narrative world. Although neutral forms also appeared, the frequency and recurrence of religious variants revealed routinized stylistic behaviour that unconsciously altered patterns of selective appropriation and causal emplotment, transforming a world governed by magic into one permeated by divine will. The study deepens Baker’s narrative theory by showing that reframing may arise from linguistic habits as well as conscious ideologies.