THE SEMANTIC FUNCTION OF SUPRA-SEGMENTAL FEATURES IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN ENGLISH AND THEIR TRANSFERENCE INTO ALBANIAN

Abstract

Supra-segmental features, namely, the tone, intonation, stress, variations in diction, pauses etc., as acoustic phenomena imposed on speech sounds, can be considered a domain of phonetics. However, such features are replaced by graphics when the spoken discourse is rendered into the written form. Their presence in literature is very important, considering the semantic functions that they entail. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it attempts to study the graphical tools that replace the supra-segmental features as well as their stylistic functions in literature in the first three Harry Potter novels. Secondly, the translated variants of Harry Potter into Albanian will be looked upon through the comparative analysis, with the aim of investigating whether the graphical aspect of supra-segmental features along with their functions are preserved during the translation process, so that the child reader of the target text receives the connotative layers of intended meaning. As for as the methodology of this paper is concerned, the descriptive, comparative analysis will be utilised with the aim of comparing and contrasting both the source text and the target text in terms of the use and the function of supra-segmental features in both the Harry Potter variants. The emphasis will be placed on the investigation of the effect that these features have and the transference of the similar effect to the child reader of the target text.