Translating Benvenuto Lobina’s novel Po Cantu Biddanoa: a methodology for classifying the linguistic registers in bilingual texts

Abstract

This work describes a methodology for mapping the linguistic diversity found in Benvenuto Lobina's novel Po Cantu Biddanoa, in which the predominantly present Sardinian language alternates with parts written entirely in Italian or in code-switching between Sardinian and Italian. Such methodology, developed by the authors, represents the preliminary phase of the novel's translation into Portuguese and follows a hybrid strategy: the first stage involves a semi-automatic quantitative analysis of the novel using a computational linguistics algorithm that calculates the estimated percentage of code-switching between Sardinian and Italian for each text sentence; based on the analysis of the data obtained in the first phase, in turn, the second stage uses linguistic variation parameters to classify all the linguistic registers found in the novel to be translated. In order to exemplify the described methodology, practical examples are provided to display the translation strategies implemented in order to reproduce in the target text the features peculiar to each mapped register. The potential adaptation of such methodology to other bilingual literary texts, whether narrative or dramatic, is discussed in the final considerations.