This paper explores the problems related to the translation of some stilistic means in recent Italian prose, i. e. segments of orality integrated in the original literary narrative. The linguistic analysis, based on a corpus composed of two Italian novels (published in 2010 and 2012 respectively) and their French and German translations, focuses on selected lexical, syntactic and information-structural features and their translations. The first observations tend to confirm some former findings, illustrating the heterogeneity of orality-markers in the originals beside the general trend towards a more or less obvious stylistic attenuation in the target text, but there are also significant interlinguistic differences in the approach to the original text. Furthermore, the discussion of some examples demonstrates how results in linguistic research could provide precious assistance in the translation of orality – if they were accessible in specialised reference works.
