4. TRANSLATION STRATEGIES   Taylor borrows J.L. Malone’s list of nine strategies for translating at a structural or lexicogrammatical level: 1/2. Equation Substitution 3/4. Divergence Convergence 5/6. Amplification Reduction 7/8. Diffusion Condensation 9. Reordering Malone, J.L. (1988), The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Equation and Substitution   Equation 1 Loan words: rugby pizza Loan words with plural-singular/countable-uncountable changes: spaghetti, software, panini Loan words with change of word class: relax Apparent loan words: feeling, stiletto, confetti, bimbo Calques: click/cliccare stop/stoppare

Equation 2   White – Bianco One-to-one equivalence in most contexts, including common collocations: white bread/pane bianco, white as snow/bianco come il neve, white Christmas/Natale bianco BUT white lie/bugia innocente, white elephant/cattedrale nel deserto, morti bianche/deaths at work

Equation 3   You already know about the problem of false cognates like parents/parenti and simpatico/sympathetic. Don’t forget that two words may be equivalents in some contexts (abuse of power/abuso del potere) but false friends in other contexts (abuse = insulti). Two words may appear to be obvious equivalents but one is used in a far greater range of contexts than the other. Taylor gives excellent examples of how director and reality are often not appropriate translations of direttore and realtà (pp 50,51).

Substitution   Saxon genitive in English – prepositional phrase in Italian Mary’s children – i figli di Mary Infinitive in English – subjunctive in Italian I want them to tell the truth – Voglio che dicano la verità Zero lexico-syntactic equivalence in proverbs The straw that broke the camel’s back – l’ultima goccia che fa trabbocare il vaso Cultural reasons for avoiding direct translation In 1991 Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins starred in the film The Silence of the Lambs. Why do you think the title was translated as Il silenzio degli innocenti?

Divergence and Convergence Divergence   “The strategy of divergence is that of choosing a suitable term from a potential range of alternatives.) Taylor p. 53 SOURCE TEXT TARGET TEXT children bambini, figli know sapere, conoscere girare Taylor lists 14 feasible translations professore teacher, lecturer, professor sentire hear, feel WARNING! Ci sentiamo domani. We’ll talk together tomorrow. We’ll feel ourselves tomorrow. We’ll feel each other tomorrow.

Convergence   Alternatives in the source text are all translated by one word in the target text. SOURCE TEXT TARGET TEXT tu, Lei, voi, Loro you commercialista, ragioniere, contabile accountant lingua, linguaggio language nephew, niece, grandson, granddaughter nipote plate, dish piatto

Amplification and Reduction   A single lexeme in one language needs a collocational partner in the other. iron – ferro da stiro ortopedico – orthopaedic surgeon rookery – nidi di corvi Sometimes things that are taken for granted in the source text are culturally or lexically opaque for target text readers: Newpaper headlines: 1. Why we should take Corbynomics seriously 2. Driver lied to doctors to keep his HGV licence Jeremy Corbyn is practically unknown outside the UK. Before July 2015 not many British people knew who he was. Corbynomics = Corbyn + economics HGV licence = a licence to drive a Heavy Goods Vehicle

Reduction   Omitting elements in the target text that would be redundant or even misleading. un biglietto di andata e ritorno = a return ticket shop assistant = commesso Ha 23 anni = She’s 23

Diffusion and Condensation   Diffusion 1 If Amplification and Reduction entail adding or subtracting linguistic elements, Diffusion and Condensation involve providing more or less elaboration. Taylor’s example (PP 56,57): If only I could! Magari! Would that it were! I wish that were the case! La banda avrebbe rapinato altre tre banche. The gang is said to have robbed three other banks. The gang is reported to have robbed three other banks. The gang is alleged to have robbed three other banks.

Diffussion 2 X allows us to do Y. X permette di fare Y. X permits us to do Y. X enables us to do Y.   Consigli, mobili = pieces of advice, articles/items of furniture Doveva arrivare alle tre = He was supposed to arrive at three o’clock.

fare le valigie = to pack mother-in-law = suocera Condensation 1   “In the case of Condensation, the target text expression is more economic.” (Taylor, p. 57) fare le valigie = to pack mother-in-law = suocera Premodification of nouns in English; postmodification in Italian: Environmental Department Air Pollution Report Findings Scandal. Lo scandalo suscitato dai risultati del rapporto del Ministero dell’Ambiente sull’inquinamento dell’aria. Potential ambiguity: is a “criminal lawyer” a lawyer specialising in criminal cases or a lawyer who is a criminal? There is no ambiguity in Italian: “avvocato penalista” or “avvocato criminale”. Think about “child murderer” and “child psychologist”.

Those three intelligent university students Condensation 2   In multivariate strings, each element before the head noun has a different function. Those three intelligent university students Those three intelligent university students demonstrative numeral epithet classifier head noun In univariate strings, each element before the head noun has the same function, i.e. that of modifying the noun that follows it. State school teachers relocation protest The head noun is protest and the four element that precede it are also nouns. Relocation tells us about the cause of the protest; teachers tells us who is subject to relocation; school classifies the teachers; state classifies the school. How would you translate this sentence?

Condensation 3   Strings are not only used for purposes of brevity; they are also fundamental to the process of nominalisation, i.e. converting sentences with finite verbs into noun phrases: The commissioners were impatient and bad-tempered. They asked me questions about subjects that were not in the syllabus. The impatient, bad-tempered commissioners asked me questions about off-syllabus subjects. In the second version two verbs have been excluded and instead we have noun phrases that feature premodification. In the first version there are assertions that people might dispute (Were the commissioners really impatient and bad-tempered? Are you sure the questions were about subjects not included in the syllabus?). In the second version, the assertions become facts (technically, “entities”) and it is more difficult to dispute them.

Condensation 4 Compound words and strings   Compound words and strings Two-word compounds usually have direct equivalents in Italian: greenhouse effect/effetto serra global warming/riscaldamento globale Strings involving two or more premodifiers are normally translated with preposition phrases: air traffic control = controllo del traffico aereo specific learning disorders = disturbi specifici di apprendimento post-traumatic stress disorder = disturbo post traumatico da stress

Reordering 1   This is where the translator must have thorough knowledge of the lexicogrammatical rules of both languages. Comparative syntax is often not as straightforward as it seems at first. Oversimplified rule: verb + pronoun in English, pronoun + verb in Italian. It doesn’t concern me. Non mi riguarda But an Italian might prefer to say Non riguarda me. Why? Adjective + noun in English, noun + adjective in Italian. Pressione alta (medical term). Alta pressione (meteorological term). The people responsible. The heir apparent.

Standard collocations Reordering 2   Standard collocations English Italian Board and lodging Vitto e alloggio Perfect equivalence Black and white Bianco e nero Equivalence, reverse order Heads or tails? Testa o croce? Semi-equivalence Touch a raw nerve Toccare un tasto dolente Some semantic similarity Any Tom, Dick or Harry Cani e porci Zero equivalence

English S-V-O word order is less flexible than Italian word order: Reordering 3   English S-V-O word order is less flexible than Italian word order: Something strange (has) happened. È successo qualcosa di strano. The student did the translation but the professor got recognition for it. La traduzione l’ha fatta lo studente ma il riconoscimento l’ha avuto il professore. To draw attention to the discrepancy between merit and credit, we might use cleft clauses in English: It was the student who did the translation but it was the professor who got recognition for it. Flexible word order is OK in informal spoken English: Knackered I am, absolutely knackered. Understood me, have you?

Reordering 4   Passive constructions are used far more in English than in Italian. They can be translated in various ways: With a similar passive construction The new road was inaugurated… La nuova strada è stata inaugurata… If someone is killed… Se qualcuno viene ucciso… With an impersonal si construction The exam papers can be seen… Le prove d’esame si possono vedere… With an active form and an unspecified subject I have been advised to… Mi hanno consigliato di…

Both languages sometimes use a participle construction instead of a full passive: The fracture, (which was) revealed by the X-ray… La frattura, rivelata dalla radiografia…   In English the progressive aspect can be used in the passive. This is grammatically impossible in Italian. A wall is being built. Stanno costruendo un muro.

Dyslexia is something a child is born with; it is part of the genetic endowment. In fact, dyslexia is said to be dependent on genetics. A child with a parent or a close relative with dyslexia is at risk of having the same impairment. A comparison between dyslexia and a generic disease is made in order to clarify, once and for all, that dyslexia is not an illness. People can be confused by the fact that dyslexia becomes evident only when we are asked to do particular tasks, such as reading or writing. Probably there are dyslexics among Australian Aborigines, but they are not aware of having this impairment because reading and writing is not part of their lifestyle. Every dyslexic person is unique and dyslexia has different degrees of seriousness: slight, medium, intense and very intense.

FALSE FRIENDS 4 What do you remember about amateur and alumnus?   What do you remember about amateur and alumnus? Aspersion. This has nothing to do with holy water. To cast aspersions on someone’s character or behaviour. Assassin/assassinate v. murderer/murder John F. Kennedy’s assassin might have been Lee Harvey Oswald. Jack the Ripper murdered a number of women in London in the late nineteenth century. Assume 1. assumere assume responsibility for 2. assumere take on/appoint/hire staff 3. supporre I assume you are interested in working as a translator 4. assumersi He took credit for other people’s work. What do you know about assist, attempt and attitude?

THE DIARY OF A BRAVE TRANSLATOR VERILY IN LEG – PART 4   My neighbour has a face of bronze. He is always trying to borrow money to finance his business activities, but the trouble is he’s a terrible businessman and all his ventures go legs in the air. The other day he asked me if I wanted to invest in his plan to open an upmarket boutique in Quartu. In Quartu! I told him straight: “But do me the pleasure!” An idea like that makes the chickens laugh.