Intralingual translation depends on synonymy, yet as Roman Jakobson articulates, "synonymy, as a rule, is not complete equivalence." (50) Scholastic's decision to apply liberal changes to The Sorcerer's Stone assumes that children will be unfazed by its awkward stabs at replacing a
Briticism with its inexact American equivalent.
"Belt and braces" is a
Briticism that means being doubly careful to ensure nothing can go wrong as with the man who wears both a belt and braces, i.e., suspenders, to make sure that his pants to do not fall down.
Although movie
Briticism has been around for a century, most of it has not been memorable, Podhoretz says.
In any case, it is of interest to note how Churchill very shrewdly strengthens his "deadlock" metaphor with this somewhat exotic
Briticism. It must have struck his friend Franklin somewhat "queer" or odd, while enjoying Winston's proverbial tour de force, no doubt!
She kept the spelling of Nowa Ruda even when the pronunciation would suggest an English spelling of "Nova Ruda." And the occasional
Briticism (the book was originally translated for Granta Books in 2002 before being picked up by Northwestern's Writings from an Unbound Europe series in 2003) reminds the American reader of the book's European origins--a point valid only on this side of the Atlantic.
The author's use of "1-17," for example, as an abbreviation for the plane's designation (possibly a
Briticism) seems rather quirky.
~Who's Who' is a splendid
Briticism and ~Who was Who' is even better: phrases and publications which we invented and which others have been content to imitate, at some temporal remove.
Peter Bushs adroit translation, peppered with
Briticisms, may ring a bit foreign to American readers.
Somewhat more controversially, for a dictionary that aims to give prominence to the American variety of English, KFD features a disproportionately high number of
Briticisms, the most curious among them being items of Anglo-Indian provenance, such as, e.g., kheda 'enclosure for catching elephants', or chaulmoogra 'East-Indian tree, Taractogenos or Hydnocarpus, the oil of which is used for treating leprosy and skin diseases'.
Although
Briticisms may be off-putting for some, this title is a winner for young horror aficionados.--Donna Miller.
On several occasions, he uses
Briticisms, once remarking that Will Hunting is "about that high" (instead of the more typically American expression of height: "about this tall").