«Amunì». Tradurre i marcatori del discorso in Montalbano

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationship between translation and sociolinguistic markedness, examining the case of Sicilian discourse markers in the English subtitling of Young Montalbano, a recent production in the Montalbano cycle. The analysis focuses on a set of markers that are crucial in constructing the text’s dialectal connotation (amunì, talè, nonzi, chi sacciu and ah?). In order to render such connotation, a twofold translation method is put forth consisting of functional translation and differential marking. The study therefore proposes a reflection on the role of discourse markers in the sociolinguistic characterisation of a semiotically complex product such as Montalbano.