Belo tradutor, onde você está: uma análise tradutória das construções modalizadoras epistêmicas asseverativas I do [X] e I did [X] na obra de Sally Rooney

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the translation into Brazilian Portuguese of the constructions I do [X] and I did [X], present in Sally Rooney's work Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021), specifically when the English auxiliary verbs act as assertive epistemic modalizers. In this case, we compared the original occurrences in English with their respective translations in Belo Mundo, Onde Você Está (2021), a Brazilian edition translated by Débora Landsberg. We seek to verify the extent to which the translation choices take into account the formal and functional aspects of the original constructions. More specifically, this study has the following objectives: i) to analyze the translations of the auxiliary verbs do and did, evaluating the maintenance of the formal and functional aspects found in the original; ii) to check whether the translator considered the intersubjectivity of the discourse during the translation of the constructions in which the assertive epistemic modalizers appear; iii) to highlight the importance of the translator's awareness that the construction is the basic unit of the language; iv) to offer contributions to Translation Studies by highlighting possible translation choices for these auxiliary verbs. In order to fulfill the proposed objectives, we have taken as our theoretical support the assumptions of Usage-Based Functional Linguistics (Bybee, 2010; Furtado da Cunha et al., 2013; Rosário; Oliveira, 2016; Bispo; Silva, 2016) and the assumptions of the constructional approach to change, in the terms of Traugott and Trousdale (2013). In addition, we used Neves' (2000) categorization for discourse modalizers and Nascimento e Silva’s (2012) classification for the subtypes of epistemic modalization. From a methodological point of view, this work adopts a mixed methodology, combining qualitative and quantitative aspects of analysis developed by Furtado da Cunha and Bispo (2023). Based on the analysis that was carried out, we verified that, in most cases, the translation choices do not fully capture the discursive nuances and intersubjectivity, not taking into account the formal and functional specificities of the original constructions.