Impoliteness and pragmatic preferences in German translations of British and Irish children’s fiction

Abstract

This paper argues that linguistic impoliteness in British and Irish children’s fiction undergoes some severe changes when translated into German. A novel system with five translation strategies is developed to account for the omission, weakening or aggravation of impolite utterances in the source text. In an analysis of three British and Irish children’s books and their German translations, it further shows that genre and publication date have a strong influence on the kind and number of changes to the source text. Especially older texts and school stories include a tendency to delete impolite utterances or use colloquial language which makes conflicts appear less serious.