Translating 'Il Ladro di Merendine' by Andrea Camilleri into Maltese

Abstract

This dissertation is not meant to be a study in contrastive linguistics which, according to the traditional typological theory, is based on the morphological and the syntactical aspects of languages, but in sociolinguistics involving Maltese and Italian. All through the translation of .Il ladro di merendine I strived to put into practice those theories and principles for a faithful translation which I read, researched and absorbed during the last three academic years and which I applied when working on translations commissioned to me as also during my present term of office as translator for the European Parliament in Luxembourg. In the first part of this dissertation I am reviewing the topos which influenced the Italian/Sicilian and the Maltese languages through the centuries, bringing these two languages culturally near to each other. Then my chapters expounding the general translation theories involving the processes of abduction, induction and deduction will follow. Considering that no translation is a perfect replica of a source text, the translator has to assume the role of a perfect source-language reader and a perfect target-language writer no matter how much he strives not to rely on his intuitions; all this concerns abduction. The second process, that of induction, compels the translator to get involved in the different communities to acquire specialised knowledge and in translator organisations taking active part in activities which will keep his cultural data continually updated.