Internationale Neerlandistiek - Volume 50, Issue 2, 2012

This article deals with the Swedish translation (1968/1998) of the Dutch picture book Nijntje in de sneeuw (‘Nijntje in the snow’) by Dick Bruna (1963). Working within descriptive translation studies, I analyse how the translated text is influenced and manipulated by sociocultural and literary norms in the target culture. Specific focus is on the way in which child images are expressed through words and pictures in the picture book text and how child images consequently change in translation. In order to analyse how both words and pictures create meaning in the source text (ST) and target text (TT), I use a multimodal text analysis as proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006). As multimodal text analysis has not been widely used within translation studies (and to the knowledge of the author not so much in Dutch text research either), this article also presents some methodological considerations. The outcome of the multimodal translation analysis shows that while Nijntje (Miffy) visually stands as an international icon, this visual image is combined with different child images in the written text components of the ST and TT. The analysis also shows that pictures are used in different ways and can acquire different potential meanings in ST and TT.

Recent research on intonational variation in West Germanic languages suggests that tonal variation among dialects of a single language may be larger than among national standard varieties like British English, Dutch, and German. However, most parts of the West Germanic language area are still uncharted territory as far as intonation is concerned. In particular, we know virtually nothing about the intonation of northern Dutch dialects and of Low German. This paper deals with intonational variation in the Dutch province of Groningen and the German province of East Frisia, covering Dutch Low Saxon, German Low Saxon, and Northern High German. We report results from two studies on intonational variation. First, a reading task was carried out to determine the tonal inventories and to detect variation in the use of nuclear tunes. Second, speakers were presented with sentences varying by focus condition to determine variation in the phonetic realisation of the same tunes. The results of the first study suggest that speakers of Dutch Low Saxon, German Low Saxon, and High German in the border area make use of the same inventory of nuclear tunes, but differ in the use of single tunes in various utterance types. The second study reveals differences in segmental lengthening, pitch timing, and pitch scaling. We conclude, first, that intonational variation in the northern Dutch-German border area is more likely to be found in the use of tunes and their phonetic realisation than in tonal grammar, and second, that intonational variation between Dutch and German Low Saxon is larger than that between German Low Saxon and local High German.

In a comparison between two historical novels, De klopgeest (‘the poltergeist’) by Gerrit Komrij and Publieke werken (‘public works’) by Thomas Rosenboom, both set at the end of the 19th century, literary critics often prefer Rosenboom’s novel. They value its strong historical imbedding over Komrij’s novel, which is mostly perceived as a contemporary reflection on the fin de siècle. Al„though every historical novel has a contemporary-reflexive dimension, I will show that Rosenboom and Komrij describe this historical period differently. Via an intertextual and comparative approach, and through an analysis of three recurrent images (the woman, the city and pseudoscientific practices); it becomes clear that Komrij has created an ideological distance between the fin de siècle and the contemporary reader, whereas Rosenboom’s novel is more traditional and invites us to an immersive historical reading.

Toen ik deze kroniek heb overgenomen van Joop van der Horst heb ik mijn opdracht geïnterpreteerd als ‘Kroniek van de Nederlandse taalkunde’. Het was mijn bedoeling mijzelf en u te wijzen op nieuwe boeken, tijdschriften, websites, cd’s over de Nederlandse taal en de Nederlandse taalkunde. Daarbij heb ik me vooral gericht op die publicaties waarvan niet alleen de objecttaal het Nederlands is, maar ook de taal van de publicatie, omdat we in de extramurale neerlandistiek (die niet meer zo wil en mag heten) graag wetenschappelijke teksten willen lezen in het Nederlands. Wat ik toen onvoldoende besefte: de Nederlandse taalkunde bestaat niet meer. Misschien bestaat er ook geen neerlandistiek meer, tenminste geen neerlandistiek in de zin van ‘Nederlandse filologie’ of ‘Nederlandse taal- en letterkunde’, maar daar gaan we het een andere keer over hebben.