Word-formation and the translation of Marvel comic book charactonyms

This article analyzes the solutions given in Spanish translations to the morphological creativity shown in the names of Marvel comic book characters. The English versions almost invariably provide a full description of the hero (or villain) by means of a wide variety of word-formation mechanisms leading to highly expressive charactonyms. Indeed, examples shall be listed of names of comic book heroes created through compounding, derivation, including prefixation or suffixation (both classical and Anglo-Saxon but also from other origins), lexical blending, abbreviation, clipping, onomatopoeia, and borrowings from Spanish or from other languages. Early translations into Spanish seemed to be slightly less expressive than the original, even when the same word-formation mechanism was used, usually due to either problems of transparency mainly in some of the word parts or to translation constraints. In later periods, a number of factors, including the influence from other media featuring the same characters and the general trend towards globalization through English, have led translators to choose repetition as the most frequent strategy, which has almost eliminated the creative power of wordformation mechanisms in Spanish and their ability to convey the stylistic effects found in the English versions.

La onomástica de la conversión: señas de identidad y transformación antroponímica de los moriscos de Granada (1500-1569)

Las transformaciones padecidas por los musulmanes de Granada a raíz de la conversión masiva de 1499-1500 se reflejan en el cambio antroponímico inicial y su evolución durante el siglo XVI. En este estudio se evalúa la autenticidad de los nombres árabes en los documentos castellanos y se propone una metodología onomástica que abarca dos sistemas diversos (el árabe y el castellano) y que permite un cierto grado de sincretismo. La onomástica comparativa (sincrónica y diacrónica) desde la Edad Media hasta la Moderna, con muestras de otros colectivos permite calibrar el grado de aculturación de los moriscos y descubrir patrones de comportamiento cultural que resultan difícilmente discernibles por otros medios.