Google translator and the effectiveness of the literary semantic equivalence English-Portuguese in Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders

• Grant number: 14/00245-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Languages
• Principal Investigator: Regiani Aparecida Santos Zacarias
• Grantee: Fabrício Leal Bernardo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Google language translator tool available on the Google website has set a clash between unconditional fans and fierce critics. Concerning the translations English-Portuguese, its functionality is exalted by those who have not mastered the English language but, at the same time, need it for various reasons, and is also criticized by many who possess an advanced or intermediate level of proficiency in the language of Shakespeare and Daniel Defoe, author of the eighteenth-century novel Moll Flanders. These conflicts make us question how effective is the translation provided by the electronic engine Google Translator (GT). Certain is that the tool has its inadequacies regarding the translation process, which involves much more than the simple decoding of entries in a given language. This research emphasizes assessing the degree of semantic equivalence of the electronic translator, based on theories of semantic and translation. We will submit excerpts from 3 different chapters of the original book published in the English language The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders &C to the online translation engine GT for the Portuguese outcome. Thus, in this study, we expect to identify possible flaws of semantic nature in electronic literary translation, study them and clarify their possible origins.(AU)