DIMINUTIVES AND AUGMENTATIVES IN TRANSLATION: AN EXPLORATORY SYSTEMICFUNCTIONAL STUDY OF DUBRAVKA UGREŠIĆ’S NOVEL BABA YAGA LAID AN EGG.
This paper reports on an exploratory cross-linguistic study of the semantic domain of diminution and augmentation. Drawing on Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL), it investigates how meanings of smallness and largeness—realised through morphological and lexical resources such as diminutives and au...
| Publicado en: | Croatica et Slavica Iadertina Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 47 - 68 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Zadar, Department of Croatian & Slavic Studies
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=196043103&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 196043103 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 18456839 IQO6 jtl: Croatica et Slavica Iadertina issn: 18456839 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 vid: 22 iid: 1 pid: 97013 pub: University of Zadar, Department of Croatian & Slavic Studies artinfo: ui: 196043103 10.15291/csi.5076 ppf: 47 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.7MB tig: atl: DIMINUTIVES AND AUGMENTATIVES IN TRANSLATION: AN EXPLORATORY SYSTEMICFUNCTIONAL STUDY OF DUBRAVKA UGREŠIĆ’S NOVEL BABA YAGA LAID AN EGG. aug: au: PAGANO, ADRIANA S. RAŠIN, IRENA STANIĆ affil: Graduate Programme in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Laboratory for Experimentation in Translation, Federal University of Minas Gerais Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Postgraduate Doctoral Programme, Croatian Philology in the Intercultural Context Av. Pres. Antônio Carlos, 6627 - Pampulha, Belo Horizonte - MG, 31270-901, Brazil Ivana Lučića 3, HR – 10000 Zagreb. su: Functional linguistics Narrative discourse analysis Nouns Authorship Structural linguistics Translating & interpreting Contrastive linguistics sug: subj: Functional linguistics Narrative discourse analysis Nouns Authorship Structural linguistics Translating & interpreting Contrastive linguistics keyword: diminution multilingual studies semantic domain systemic-functional linguistics translation studies augmentacija deminucija područje semantike prevoditeljske studije sistemska funkcionalna lingvistika višejezična istraživanja ab: This paper reports on an exploratory cross-linguistic study of the semantic domain of diminution and augmentation. Drawing on Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL), it investigates how meanings of smallness and largeness—realised through morphological and lexical resources such as diminutives and augmentatives—operate in narrative discourse. The study focuses on Dubravka Ugrešić’s Baba Jaga je snijela jaje, more specifically the first part of the novel, which is characterised by the narrator’s extensive use of expressions of diminution to depict her mother’s personality and behaviour. These include both the narrator’s evaluative stance and her representation of her mother’s own speech, in which diminutives and augmentatives serve as linguistic markers of frailty, both physical and psychological. We compiled a corpus of 200 sentences retrieved from Part I of the Croatian novel and its translations into Spanish, English, Italian, and Portuguese. Sentences were pasted onto a spreadsheet for manual alignment and identification of expressions of diminution and augmentation in the original and translated samples. First, we carried out a context-level analysis of the original and translated texts. Subsequently, we classified each instance into two categories: (i) diminutive/augmentative translated as diminutive/augmentative, and (ii) diminutive/augmentative translated as non-diminutive/non-augmentative. We then computed the frequency of each class for each language pair (source–target language). Finally, we analysed the occurrences in terms of typological and registerial constraints and examined the data to identify translation choices potentially ascribable to the translator’s interpretive understanding of the source text. Our findings reveal that each language draws on distinct lexicogrammatical resources to express diminutive and augmentative meanings, with translators’ decisions shaping the representation of character and affect. More broadly, the study demonstrates how an SFL-based approach can illuminate the interplay between linguistic system, translation practice, and meaning-making across typologically diverse languages. Ovaj rad donosi prikaz eksplorativnoga međujezičnoga istraživanja semantičke domene deminucije i augmentacije. U teorijskome okviru sistemske funkcionalne lingvistike (SFL) ispituje se način na koji se značenja deminutivnosti i augmentativnosti, izražena morfološkim i leksičkim sredstvima poput umanjenica i uvećanica, realiziraju u narativnome diskursu. Analiza se temelji na romanu Dubravke Ugrešić Baba Jaga je snijela jaje, tj. na njegovu prvome dijelu, u kojemu se pripovjedačica učestalo koristi deminutivnim izrazima kako bi oblikovala prikaz osobnosti i ponašanja svoje majke. Ti izrazi obuhvaćaju evaluativni stav pripovjedačice i njezin prikaz majčina govora, pri čemu umanjenice i uvećanice funkcioniraju kao jezični pokazatelji fizičke i psihičke krhkosti majke. Sastavljen je korpus od 200 rečenica iz prvoga dijela hrvatskoga izvornika i njegovih prijevoda na španjolski, engleski, talijanski i portugalski jezik. Rečenice su unesene u proračunsku tablicu radi usklađenosti i identifikacije deminutiva i augmentativa u izvorniku i prijevodima. Najprije je provedena kontekstualna analiza izvornoga teksta i prevedenih tekstova. Zatim je svaka pojava razvrstana u dvije kategorije: (1) umanjenica/uvećanica prevedena kao umanjenica/uvećanica i (2) umanjenica/uvećanica prevedena kao neumanjenica/neuvećanica. Učestalost svake kategorije izračunata je za svaki jezični par (izvorni – ciljni jezik). U završnoj fazi provedena je analiza prema tipološkim i registarskim ograničenjima, uz razmatranje prevoditeljskih izbora koji se mogu pripisati prevoditeljevu interpretativnu razumijevanju izvornoga teksta. Rezultati upućuju na to da se pojedini jezici naslanjanju na različite leksičke i gramatičke resurse za izražavanje deminucije i augmentacije, pri čemu prevoditeljske odluke imaju značajnu ulogu u oblikovanju prikaza lika i afektivnosti. U širemu smislu, istraživanje pokazuje da pristup utemeljen na sistemskoj funkcionalnoj lingvistici omogućuje dublje razumijevanje međuodnosa jezičnoga sustava, prevoditeljske prakse i stvaranja značenja u tipološki različitim jezicima. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Croatica et Slavica Iadertina is the property of University of Zadar, Department of Croatian & Slavic Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Croatica et Slavica Iadertina holder: University of Zadar, Department of Croatian & Slavic Studies dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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