Beyond ‘word-for-word’: Gruffudd Bola and Robert Gwyn on translating into Welsh

The paper compares and contextualizes the comments of Gruffudd Bola (fl. 1270/1280) and Robert Gwyn (c. 1545–c. 1597/1603) on their strategies of translating (quotations from) authoritative religious texts. In the introductory section of his translation of the Athanasian Creed, which he produced for Efa ferch Maredudd, Gruffudd Bola employs the topos of ‘(sometimes) word-for-word’ versus ‘(sometimes) sense-by-sense’ to explain and justify his approach whenever the structural demands of the target language render a literal translation impossible. About three hundred years later, Robert Gwyn, the recusant author of Y Drych Kristnogawl (‘The Christian Mirror’, c. 1583/1584), argues that in the devotional- didactic genre the translations of quotations from authoritative religious texts such as the Bible need to be adapted to his audience’s level of understanding. He thus subordinates fidelity on the literal level to the demands of comprehensibility. Both authors insist on the priority of successful communication, but approach the translator’s dilemma in different frameworks

Between the Impressionistic and the Arithmetic

Empirical historical stylistics is methodologically a difficult field since it ‘perhaps inevitably combines the impressionistic and the arithmetic’ (Guillory 2017: 63). For lesser researched languages or periods, the problems are aggravated because even impressionistic assessments on which further hypotheses and comparative work could be built, are rare. Early Modern Welsh (c. 1500 – c. 1700) is a period to which this qualification applies. This article will discuss some methodological issues and parameters for a micro-stylistic analysis of Early Modern Welsh prose, i.e., on the level of individual sentences. Its approach is bottom-up, taking as its point of departure the introductory paratext to Morys Clynnog’s catechism Athravaeth Gristnogawl (‘Christian Doctrine’, 1568) by its editor Gruffydd Robert. It argues that in the case of lesser research languages, empirical historical stylistics will need to proceed from the analyses of individual texts or text samples which combine quantitative and ‘impressionistic’ interpretative perspectives in order to identify notable recurrent micro-stylistic traits

Decoding Middle Welsh clauses or "Avoid Ambiguity”

Middle Welsh is a language with a restricted set of morphosyntactic distinctions for grammatical relations and with relatively free word order in positive main declarative causes. However, syntactic ambiguity rarely, if ever, arises in natural texts. The present article shows in a corpus-based study how syntactic ambiguity is prevented and how morphological features interact with two referential properties, namely animacy and accessibility, in order to successfully identify grammatical relations in Middle Welsh. Further lower-tier factors are the semantics of the verb and the wider narrative context. The article complements recent insights suggesting that subject-verb agreement is not only determined by wordorder patterns, but also by referential properties of subject

Med impresionističnim in aritmetičnim: Kakšni naj bi bili kriteriji za stilistično analizo zgodnje moderne valižanske proze

Empirical historical stylistics is methodologically a difficult field since it ‘perhaps inevitably combines the impressionistic and the arithmetic’ (Guillory 2017: 63). For lesser researched languages or periods, the problems are aggravated because even impressionistic assessments on which further hypotheses and comparative work could be built, are rare. Early Modern Welsh (c. 1500 – c. 1700) is a period to which this qualification applies. This article will discuss some methodological issues and parameters for a micro-stylistic analysis of Early Modern Welsh prose, i.e., on the level of individual sentences. Its approach is bottom-up, taking as its point of departure the introductory paratext to Morys Clynnog’s catechism Athravaeth Gristnogawl (‘Christian Doctrine’, 1568) by its editor Gruffydd Robert. It argues that in the case of lesser research languages, empirical historical stylistics will need to proceed from the analyses of individual texts or text samples which combine quantitative and ‘impressionistic’ interpretative perspectives in order to identify notable recurrent micro-stylistic traits.Empirična historična stilistika je v metodološkem pogledu težavno področje, glede na to, da se tu “morda neizogibno srečujeta impresionistično in aritmetično” (Guillory 2017: 63). Pri manj raziskanih jezikih ali obdobjih je težava še večja, saj so v zvezi z njimi redke celo impresionistične ocene, na katerih bi lahko temeljile nadaljnje hipoteze in primerjalne študije. Takšen primer je zgodnja moderna valižanščina (pribl. 1500 – pribl. 1700). Pričujoči članek obravnava nekaj metodoloških vprašanj in parametrov za mikrostilistično analizo zgodnje moderne valižanske proze, in sicer na ravni posameznih povedi. Uporabljen je pristop “od spodaj navzgor”, kot izhodišče pa služi uvodni paratekst h katekizmu Athravaeth Gristnogawl (‘Krščanska doktrina’, 1568) Morysa Clynnoga, ki ga je napisal urednik Gruffydd Robert. Članek skuša pokazati, da bo pri manj raziskanih jezikih empirična historična stilistika morala najprej analizirati posamezna besedila ali odlomke besedil in opazovane značilnosti razložiti ob upoštevanju tako kvantitativne kot “impresionistične” perspektive, s ciljem prepoznavanja pomembnih ponavljajočih se mikrostilističnih značilnosti

The early modern Irish version of Beves of Hamtoun

Poppe Erich. The early modern Irish version of Beves of Hamtoun. In: Etudes Celtiques, vol. 29, 1992. Actes du IXe congrès international d'études celtiques. Paris, 7-12 juillet 1991. Deuxième partie : Linguistique, littératures. p. 491

Patterns of verbal agreement in Historia Gruffud vab Kenan: Norm and variation

This paper investigates patterns of agreement between the subject and its verb in Historia Gruffud vab Kenan, the early-thirteenth-century Middle Welsh translation of the Latin Vita Griffini Filii Conani. Contrastive statistics are provided for the number of instances in which the normative expectations concerning verbal agreement in Middle Welsh are met as well as for the number of instances which deviate from these expectations. In this text, deviation from the normative expectations is quite rare with subjects preceding the verb in verb-second (‘abnormal’) sentences, whereas it is much more frequent with plural subjects following the verb and, particularly, plural antecedents functioning as the subject in relative clauses. In the latter case, an influence of the agreement rules of Latin appears likely. A separate section discusses a range of individual sentences which pose specific problems with regard to patterns of agreement, the identification of syntactic structures, or the amount of permitted variation.L’accord verbal dans Historia Gruffud vab Kenan : norme et variations Le présent article se propose d’examiner l’accord verbal dans le texte moyen-gallois Historia Gruffud vab Kenan, traduction d’un texte latin intitulé Vita Griffini Filii Conani qui date du début du XIIIe siècle. Sur la base d’une collection exhaustive des données, la norme prescriptive des grammaires relative à l’accord verbal est confrontée aussi bien avec les cas conformes aux normes qu’avec les attestations témoignant d’un usage déviant. Pour les sujets qui précèdent le verbe dans la construction dite abnormal order (V2), l’on ne constate, dans ce texte, que très peu de violations des normes. Quant aux sujets au pluriel qui suivent le verbe et, en particulier, aux antécédents au pluriel qui assument la fonction du sujet dans une subordonnée relative, les infractions à la norme sont bien plus fréquentes. L’accord verbal dans la subordonnée relative semblerait dans ce cas-ci avoir subi l’influence du latin. Finalement, une série de constructions et de phrases seront étudiées, qui posent problème au niveau de la syntaxe et de l’accord, ainsi que le taux de variation qu’un système linguistique admet.Plein Kerstin, Poppe Erich. Patterns of verbal agreement in Historia Gruffud vab Kenan: Norm and variation. In: Etudes Celtiques, vol. 40, 2014. pp. 145-163