La Bible traduite en français contemporain

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La Bible traduite
en français contemporain
Étude des équivalents du participe grec
dans sept traductions du récit de la Passion
dans les quatre Évangiles : forme, signification et sens
Elisabeth Bladh
Institutionen för franska och italienska
Département de français et d’italien

Thèse pour le doctorat Doctoral dissertation
Département de français et d’italien Department of French and Italian
Université de Stockholm Stockholm University
S-106 91 Stockholm S-106 91 Stockholm
Abstract
This dissertation analyses seven modern Bible translations in French with respect to their
renderings of Koine Greek participles. The sample consists of the Passion Story from the four
Gospels (Matt 26-28, Mark 14-16, Luke 22-24 and John 18-21), and is comprised of 603
Hellenistic participles in all. The participle forms are studied in six categories according to their
syntactic function. The comparison focuses on differences in translation strategy, i.e. formal
equivalence, omission and different kinds of transpositions, with special attention given to the
choice of verb form. There is a discussion of the adequacy of contemporary, explicative theories
of systemic differences between the passé simple/passé composé and the imparfait. A large
number of examples are analysed in detail.
The results of the survey show that the most prominent differences in translation strategies
concern the predicative participle. Furthermore, this was the category that occurred most
frequently in the sample. The Catholic scientific and literary translation La Bible de Jérusalem
(1998) is the most literal of the seven versions. A high level of formal equivalence is also
registered in the other scientific translation, La Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible (1988), even
though application of this strategy outweighs the use of finite verbs, that is to say, the most
common transposition. La Bible en français courant (1996) is the least literal: generally, it
transposes the participle of the source text with a finite verb. This transposition is also very
frequent in the literary La Bible de la Pléiade (1971). Most of the omissions are recorded in the
recent literary La Bible, Nouvelle traduction (2001), which is shown to be the most divergent
translation. Omissions are also frequent in the pastoral La Bible des moines de Maredsous (1968)
and the liturgical La Traduction liturgique de la Bible (1977).
When translated in conjunction with an element comprising a verb in one of the non-
indicative moods (infinitive, imperative, participle and subjunctive), both the present and the
aorist predicative participles are, to a large extent, rendered by a simple form, expressing non-
accomplishment. However, the Bible de Jérusalem stands out with its greater use of
compound present participles than any other version. When the predicative participle of the
source text is transposed with a verb in the indicative mood, the passé simple is generally
used to render the aorist; for the present participle, the imparfait is more frequent than the
passé simple. Nevertheless, here too the passé simple accounts for a significant portion of the
equivalents, especially in the two translations where transpositions formed by finite verbs are
particularly important. There exist a few cases where some translators chose to use the passé
simple/passé compose, while others chose the imparfait.
The various details, tables and linguistic analyses in this dissertation provide a solid basis for
accurately characterizing the various modern attempts made at reproduce this ancient text – a text
so often translated, paraphrased, interpreted and deeply integrated in our cultural heritage.
Keywords: Bible translation, Koine Greek, French, verbal aspect, aspectual, textual,
anaphoric approach, Passion story, New Testament, participle, translation equivalence
© 2003 Elisabeth Bladh ISBN 91-85059-01-3
Printed by Akademitryck, Edsbruk 2003 ISSN 1400-7010
Front page illustration : Anna-Karin Bladh.

A ma sœur bien-aimée

Cette thèse a été financée par
La Fondation Tricentenaire de la Banque de Suède

Table des matières
DIAGRAMMES ......................................................................................................V
FIGURES..............................................................................................................VI
TABLEAUX..........................................................................................................VI
ABREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................VII
PREMIERE PARTIE : INTRODUCTION ....................................................................1
1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 1
1.1 Préliminaires ........................................................................................ 1
1.2 But de l’étude ....................................................................................... 2
1.3 Délimitation de l’étude.........................................................................3
1.4 Disposition de l’étude ........................................................................11
2 HISTORIQUE – BREF SURVOL DE LA TRADITION DE LA BIBLE TRADUITE EN
LANGUE FRANÇAISE.................................................................................... 12
3 LE CORPUS .................................................................................................18
3.1 Présentation des traductions françaises étudiées ...............................18
3.1.1 La Bible, Nouvelle traduction (BB) 2001 ...................................18
3.1.2 La Bible en français courant (BFC) 1971, 1996 ........................19
3.1.3 La Bible de Jérusalem (BJ) 1956, 1973, 1998............................ 20
3.1.4 La Traduction par les moines de Maredsous (BM) 1950, 1968.21
3.1.5 La Bible de la Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (BP) 1971.................22
3.1.6 La Traduction liturgique de la Bible (TLB) 1977 ......................22
3.1.7 La Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible (TOB) 1977, 1988 ...... 23
3.2 Remarques sur le texte de départ .......................................................24
3.2.1 Précisions méthodologiques........................................................ 24
3.2.2 Quelques caractéristiques de l’échantillon étudié.......................26
3.3 Les outils de recherche sur support informatique utilisés.................. 27
3.4 L’organisation de la base de données ................................................28
3.5 L’évaluation des résultats quantitatifs ...............................................28
DEUXIEME PARTIE : CADRE THEORIQUE ...........................................................31
4 TRADUCTOLOGIE........................................................................................31
4.1 Concepts théoriques et terminologie..................................................31
4.1.1 L’équivalence..............................................................................32
4.1.2 Les normes .................................................................................. 33
4.1.3 Le skopos.....................................................................................35
4.1.4 La visée, le mode et les stratégies de traduction.........................35
4.1.5 La pertinence............................................................................... 36
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