This paper reports on a study of reporting verbs in the Harry Potter series and their translation
in Italian. It offers quantitative and qualitative perspectives on how the English verbs have been translated by two Italian
translators, who worked on different books of the series. This study first analyses verb usage across the three protagonists of
the series (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) in English and Italian; then, it employs Caldas-Coulthard’s (1987) taxonomy of reporting verbs and compares verb categories between source and target texts to
identify tendencies in the translation of this textual feature. It finally discusses the stylistic implications of translation
alterations and their potential effect on character development. As such, this paper contributes not only to the limited
literature on reporting verbs in translation (especially in Italian), but it also furthers the understanding of the role of
reporting verbs as a characterisation device.
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Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Li, Yi
2024. Corpus-Based Studies on Translator’s Style: Retrospect and Prospect
. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and Translation 10:3 ► pp. 44 ff.
2022. Using corpora to reveal style in translation: The case of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow. Frontiers in Psychology 13
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