Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies

Grammatical Level (Categories and Syntax)

16 October 2007

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Syntagmatic Paradigmatic

Grammar (syntax)

Structure(e.g. SVO, dhq, SPOCA)

System(e.g. pronoun system; active vs. passive)

Lexis (vocabulary)

Collocation(e.g. rancid butter, addled eggs, stale bread)

Sets(e.g. lexical field of vehicles, flowers, etc.)

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Grammar “The set of rules which determine the

way in which units such as words and phrases can be combined in a language and the kind of information which has to be made regularly explicit in utterances” (Baker 1992:83)

Grammatical Level (Categories and Syntax)

Grammatical notions Time Number Shape Visibility Person Proximity Animacy Etc.

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

However….

Grammar is not a uniform and objective way of reporting events in all their detail

It is difficult to find a notional category which is regularly and uniformly expressed in all languages

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Grammatical categories Morphology

“Structure of words, the way in which the form of a word changes to indicate specific contrasts in the grammatical system” (Baker 1992:83)

E.g. singular/plural Syntax

“Grammatical structure of groups, clauses and sentences: the linear sequence of classes of words such as noun, verb, adjective, and functional elements such as subject, predicator, and object, which are allowed in a given language” (Baker 1992:83)

E.g. SVO structure

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Example from Raymond Chandler’s Trouble is my Business “Anna Halsey was about two hundred

and forty pounds of middle-aged putty-faced woman in a black tailor-made suit” (cited in Antonopoulou 2002:204)

Manipulation of count and non-count nouns

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Translation Strategies: Addition (when the TL has a

grammatical category that the SL lacks, e.g. shape, dead/alive distinction)

Omission (when the TL lacks a grammatical category that the SL has)

Optionality

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Number Singular/Plural None One/two/more than two (iglu, igluk, iglut) Singular, dual, trial and plural

Choices in translation: Omission Lexical encoding

Difficulty of overpecification

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Gender “A grammatical distinction according to which

a noun or pronoun is classified as either masculine or feminine in some languages” (Baker 1992:90).

Indicated by Two different nouns (cow/bull) Gendered nouns (German Institution (f)) Gendered determiners (the, this, some) Gendered adjectives Gendered verbs

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Person Pronoun use Tu/vous Modes of address

Tense and Aspect Time relations (past/present/future) Aspectual relations (temporal

distribution)

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Voice “A grammatical category which defines

the relationship between a verb and its subject” (Baker 1992:102)

Active (the subject performs the action) Passive (the subject is the affected entity)

Passive voice associated with Scientific and technical writing (English) Adversity (Japanese, Chinese)

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Translation issues Functional load

the functional load of tu could be communicated in English through the use of intimate forms of address such as darling, sweetheart

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Case marking Nominative, Accusative, Genitive,

Dative, Instrumental, Locative, …. Ivan videl Borisa Borisa videl Ivan

Syntax proper How various grammatical elements are

typically or permissibly strung together in any language

See SPOCA handout on Intranet

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Sentence Consists of one or more clauses Clause basic unit of grammatical

description (with finite, full verb) Major sentence Minor sentence

Problematic in translation (e.g. Fire!)

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

Text “a verbal record of a communicative

event” (Brown & Yule 1983:6) Consider this statement:

“The nearest we get to non-text in actual life, leaving aside the works of those poets and prose-writers who deliberately set out to create non-text, is probably in the speech of young children and in bad translations” (Halliday & Hasan 1976:24).

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

References Antonopoulou, Eleni (2002) ‘A Cognitive Approach to

Literary Humour Devices: Translating Raymond Chandler’, The Translator 8(2): 195-220.

Baker, Mona (1992) In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation, London & New York: Routledge. (Chapter 4: Grammatical Equivalence and Chapter 5: Textual Equivalence, Thematic and Information Structures).

Calvo, Juan José (2003) ‘By default or excess: Gender mismatches in translation’, in José Santaemilia (ed.) Género, lenguaje y traducción, València: Universitat de València, 406-419.

Campbell, Stuart (2000) ‘Critical Structures in the Evaluation of Translations from Arabic into English as a Second Language’, The Translator 6(2): 211-229. 

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

References (cont.) Campbell, Stuart (2000) ‘Choice Network Analysis in

Translation Research’, in Maeve Olohan (ed) Intercultural Faultlines. Research Models in Translation Studies 1: Textual and Cognitive Aspects, Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 29-42.

Collins Cobuild English Grammar (1990), London & Glasgow: Collins.

Crystal, David (1988) Rediscover Grammar, London: Longman.

García Izquierdo, Isabel and Josep Marco Borillo (2000) ‘The Degree of Grammatical Complexity in Literary Texts as a Translation Problem’, in Allison Beeby, Doris Ensinger and Marisa Presas (eds) Investigating Translation: Selected Papers from the 4th International Congress on Translation, Barcelona 1998, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 65-74.

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

References (cont.) Kashkin, Vyacheslav B. (1998) ‘Choice Factors

in Translation’, Target 10(1): 95-111. Puurtinen, Tiina (1989) ‘Assessing Acceptability

in Translated Children’s Books’, Target 1(2): 201-213.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. 1972. A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London & New York: Longman.

Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax

References (cont.) Riddle, Elizabeth (1986) ‘The Meaning and

Discourse Function of the Past Tense in English’, TESOL Quarterly 20(2): 267-286.

Rush, Susan (1998) ‘The noun phrase in advertising English’, Journal of Pragmatics 29: 155-171.

Trask, R. L. (1993) A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms, London & New York: Routledge.

Young, David (1980) The Structure of English Clauses, London: Hutchinson.