UNIVERZITA PARDUBICE FAKULTA FILOZOFICKÁ BAKALÁŘSKÁ ...

This extract, as well as the one to follow, offers an excellent example of linguistic humor
consisting in the use of ceremonious expressions and nonce words designed to carry
connotations of highly formal language.
The translation successfully preserves the flowery nature of the Johnson's diction, although a
few changes (for instance the archaic infinitive form, as in "dovolil jsem si podotknouti", or
the conjunction "neb" in place of "neboť") might shift the style even closer to the presumed
scholarly language of that time.
The disputable point lies in the translation of the word "penultimate" and its amusing verbal
version "penultimated" invented by Prince George. While "penultimate" is a word existent in
the English language, "penultimní" represents a nonce word within the scope of the Czech
lexis, as evidenced by the fact that it can be found neither in Akademický slovník cizích slov
nor in Slovník spisovné češtiny. Thus, the humorous aspect of its verbalization, a fairly
natural word-formation process in English, becomes dampened, since both "penultimní" and
"penultimovat" occupy an equally peculiar position in Czech vocabulary, as opposed to the
original text, in which Prince George transforms an unfamiliar but existing word into a nonce
word with presumably sexual connotations.
Extract 10
"BLACKADDER: Leaving already, Doctor? Not staying for your pendigestatery
interludicule?
JOHNSON: No, sir! Show me out!
BLACKADDER: Certainly, sir. Anything I can do to facilitate your velocitous
extramuralization.
JOHNSON: (To Prince George) You will regret this doubly, sir. Not only have you
impecuniated (he glares with self-satisfaction at Blackadder. who is not impressed)
my dictionary, but you've also lost the chance to act as patron to the only book in the
world that is even better." (Curtis et al., 1999, pp.258 – 259)
"ČERNÁ ZMIJE: Uţ odcházíte, pane doktore? Nezůstanete tu na pendigestatorickou
interludikulu?
JOHNSON: Ne, pane, vyprovoďte mě ven!
ČERNÁ ZMIJE: Jak si přeje, pane. Milerád vám ulehčím velocitární extramuralizaci.
JOHNSON: (K princi Jiřímu) Budete toho litovat dvojnásob, pane. Nejenomţe jste
impekuloval (se sebeuspokojením hodí pohled po Černé zmiji, ale na toho to ţádný
dojem neudělá) můj slovník, ale také jste přišel o moţnost být patronem jediné knihy
na světě, která je ještě lepší." (Curtis et al., 2008, p.260)
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