Traduire le Nondit : Ellipse, Explicitation et Transmission Culturelle dans la Traduction Français–Anglais
Mots-clés :
ellipse, explicitation, traduction français–anglais, oralité yoruba, implicite culturel, traduction indirecte, TSEM, Ellipsis, Explicitation, French–English Translation, Yoruba Orality, Cultural Implicitness, Indirect TranslationRésumé
Résumé
Cette étude examine le traitement des ellipses dans la traduction du français vers l’anglais d’un récit issu de la tradition orale yoruba. À partir d’un corpus composé des chapitres 1 à 7 de la version française et de leur traduction anglaise – réalisée par la première autrice dans le cadre de sa thèse doctorale (Ambille, 2025) – l’analyse met en lumière la manière dont trois types d’ellipses (nominales, verbales et contextuelles) se comportent dans le processus traductif. Les résultats montrent une dynamique différenciée : les ellipses nominales présentent une forte stabilité interlinguistique, les ellipses verbales appellent une explicitation structurelle en anglais, tandis que les ellipses contextuelles conservent leur opacité culturelle, reflet de la densité symbolique et pragmatique propre à l’oralité yoruba. Ces observations remettent en question l’idée d’une explicitation universelle et nuancent les effets traditionnellement associés à la traduction médiée. L’étude propose le Modèle d’Explicitation Sensible au Type (TSEM), qui articule les dimensions structurelles,
fonctionnelles et culturelles dans l’analyse des choix traductifs. En retraçant la trajectoire des ellipses, elle montre que traduire ne consiste pas seulement à restituer le dit, mais aussi à préserver le nondit, élément essentiel à la transmission des significations culturelles.
This study investigates how ellipses are treated in the translation from French into English of a narrative rooted in Yoruba oral tradition. Using a corpus consisting of chapters 1 to 7 of the French version and their English translation—produced by the first author within her doctoral dissertation (Ambille, 2025)—the analysis focuses on three types of ellipses (nominal, verbal, and contextual) and the transformations they undergo in translation. The findings reveal a differentiated pattern: nominal ellipses display high interlinguistic stability, verbal ellipses tend to be structurally explicited in English, and contextual ellipses preserve their cultural opacity, reflecting the symbolic and pragmatic density characteristic of Yoruba orality. These observations challenge the assumption of universal explicitation and nuance traditional views on the effects of mediated translation. The study introduces the Type-Sensitive Explicitation Model (TSEM), which integrates structural, functional, and cultural dimensions to account for translators’ decisions. By tracing the trajectory of ellipses across versions, the study demonstrates that translation is not merely the transfer of what is said, but also the preservation of what remains unsaid, an essential component in the transmission of culturally embedded meaning.
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