He pulled hard at the bell of the house

09:31 Oct 24, 2014 

Je trouve votre idée de traduction intéressante, car elle se rapporte à ce fameux décalage du perceptuel et du conceptuel entre l'anglais et le français. Quand les anglophones ne cherchent qu'à décrire ce qu'ils perçoivent, les francophones interprètent et cherchent à "calculer le sens de la scène".
https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/file/index/docid/246503/...

09:20 Oct 24, 2014 

My pleasure! I love sound (I used to be a sound recordist and dubbing mixer!), and I'm always fascinated by the words we use to describe sounds :-)

09:12 Oct 24, 2014 

I really appreciate your taking the time to describe those sounds.

09:01 Oct 24, 2014 

Defintely more electrical and modern than bell, sonnette is for a digicode system, a button to be pressed, not a bell to be rang by pulling a cord

08:54 Oct 24, 2014 

I'd say not necessarily "harsh and unpleasant" — but certianly not 'melodious'; it's the kind of sound of a bell that is urely functional, but not intended to be pleaseing to the ears. Less pleasant than say 'jingling'; were it a bigger bell, it might be 'clanging', but the idea of 'jangling' reinforces the idea of a small bell, which were it a tinier, more attractive sound, might be tinkling (cf. 'Tinkerbell' = la féee Clochette).

Other things that might jangle could be chains (usually being rattled by a ghost!), loose tools in the boot of your car, etc.

08:28 Oct 24, 2014 

Could you try and describe how you hear that, Tony?
Does it have to be harsh and unpleasant?

19:25 Oct 23, 2014 

What do our FR native colleagues think of 'sonnette'? I realize it is the word for a modern electric doorbell — but wasn't it in use long before that, for just this kind of little doorbell? There are dated expressions like "You rang, Sir?" which seem to use the verb 'sonner' in FR, so quid de 'sonnette'?

15:40 Oct 23, 2014 

I really don't think there is any need to 'chercher midi à quatorze heures' — the context is abundantly clear, confirmed by your other question, and I am quite convinced that exactly the same type of door-bells have been used all over Europe over quite a long period of time, and certainly up till the time you mention; I believe electric doorbells only really came into widespread use after WW II — and then only for buildings that did not have a functioning mechanical system already in place.

14:51 Oct 23, 2014 

Merci Tony pour cette très précision très pointue! Je crois que le mieux serait de demander à l'auteur. Il est anglais, mais l'action se déroule dans l'Italie du Sud, dans les années 30-40.

13:58 Oct 23, 2014 

This is something very specific to English culture, the kind of doorbells found in e.g. London mansions in Victorian times: you pulled on a big brass knob, and via an ingenious system of wires, rods, pulleys and bell-cranks (!), this would ring a bell somewhere inside the house — usually in the servants' area, as it would be the butler (for example) who would go and open the door. Hence the image of pulling furiously on the bell-pull — it won't make it sound any louder, but will make the person feel better (like pressing harder on an electric doorbell!)

I have no idea, but I would assume the same thing was used in France too at a certain period.

Here is a nice image showing some typical components of an old-fashioned bell system:

https://www.ukaa.com/stockimages/614_0.jpg

The whole clue is in the use of the verb 'pull', which would only be used with this kind of bell arrangement; and in Asker's other question, we also have 'jangling', which serves to confirm the idea.

12:03 Oct 23, 2014 

En français on "sonne les cloches" mais on "tire (sur) la CLOCHETTE" d'une porte ou d'un seuil. A moins que le texte ne précise qu'il s'agit d'une grosse cloche, comme à l'entrée d'un monastère, bien sûr.