Equivalencia y funcionalidad en la traducción literaria de expresiones idiomáticas

Sabbia nera y su version es española Arena negra

Abstract

This study examines the Spanish translation of a representative set of phraseological units found in the novel Sabbia nera by Cristina Cassar Scalia and in its Spanish version, Arena negra. The main objective is to analyze the translation strategies employed in rendering idiomatic expressions from Italian into Spanish and to determine to what extent the solutions adopted succeed in reproducing for the target reader a communicative, pragmatic, and stylistic effect equivalent to that generated in the reader of the source text. The corpus consists of fourteen phraseological units selected for their narrative relevance, metaphorical density, and characterizing function within the literary discourse. The study follows a qualitative and descriptive approach, grounded in contributions from phraseology and translation studies, particularly gradual models of equivalence and the functional-communicative perspective oriented toward the recipient. The analysis considers not only lexical correspondence but also the preservation of the conceptual image, expressive intensity, register, and textual function of each unit within its discursive context. The results reveal a clear tendency toward substitution with established idiomatic equivalents in the target language, with a predominance of full or total phraseological equivalence (57.1% of the cases). Instances of partial functional equivalence are also identified, characterized by attenuation or reformulation of the metaphorical component, as well as a single case of insufficient equivalence resulting from a non-lexicalized calque. The study highlights the typological and cultural proximity between Italian and Spanish, which facilitates stable metaphorical correspondences, and underscores the importance of pragmatic and discursive adequacy as a key criterion for assessing the quality of phraseological translation in literary texts.