1. A corpus-based study of loan words in original and translated texts
Ana Frankenberg-Garcia
ISLA - Lisbon
a n a . f r a n k e n b e r s a p o . p t

2. Loan words in monolingual settings
1. When people fail to retrieve equivalent words in the language they are speaking
language loss
2. To evoke meanings that go beyond the propositional meaning of the words used
language enrichment

3. Loan words in translation
1. Culturally-bound concepts difficult to translate
last resort for want of a better solution
2. Conveying source-text culture
intentional translation strategy

4. Loan words in translation
Vinay & Darbelnet (1958): emprunts
To fill in semantic gaps or add local colour
Easy way out
Newmark (1988): transference
To use with moderation
Translator’s job is to translate, to explain
Venuti (1995)
Option to domesticate or foreignize
Translators should keep foreign texts foreign
Toury (1995)
Relative status of source-text language and culture
Affects the extent to which it interferes in the translation

5. Motivation The use of loans is not a prerogative of translations
When looking at loan words in translation, it makes sense to look at how loans are used in texts that are not translations

6. Loan words in original and translated texts
Are there more loans in translations than in source texts?
Is the superimpostion of languages in source texts effaced by translation?
Does the relative status of the ST language and culture affect the use of loans in translation?
Questions such as these are much easier to tackle with the help of corpora

7. Bidirectional parallel corpus of English and Portuguese
Method
COMPARA 6.0
[Dec 2004 – Mar 2005]
Bidirectional parallel corpus of English and Portuguese
(published fiction)
Original Portuguese
Translated
English
Original English
Translated
Portuguese
Focus on frequency and language distribution of loans

8. Method sub-corpus 1,197,168 words
COMPARA contains over 2 million words, with texts published between 1837 and 2000
Sub-corpus of texts published in the last 30 years:
15 original Portuguese fiction extracts (277,243 words)
13 original English fiction extracts (191,913 words)
15 extracts of Portuguese fiction in English translation (312,322 words)
15 extracts of English fiction in Portuguese translation (415,690 words)
1,197,168 words

9. Method sub-corpus: note 1
Not all stories set exclusively in English or Portuguese speaking worlds
Not all stories take place in the last thirty years
May affect how loans are used, but typical of fiction!
What matters is:
Stories written by modern English and Portuguese-speaking writers
Stories read by English and Portuguese-speaking readers of today

10. Method sub-corpus: note 2
English (28 texts)
5 authors
David Lodge, Joanna Trollope, Julian Barnes, Nadine Gordimer, Richard Zimler
10 translators
Alan Clarke, Cliff Landers, David Brookshaw, Ellen Watson, Giovanni Pontiero, Gregory Rabassa, John Byrne, John Parker, Mary Fitton, Richard Zenith
Portuguese (30 texts)
12 authors
Autran Dourado, Cardoso Pires, Chico Buarque, Jorge de Sena, José E. Agualusa, José Saramago, Marcos Rey, Mário de Carvalho, Mia Couto, Patrícia Melo, Paulo Coelho, Rubem Fonseca
Ana M. Amador, Carlos G. Babo, Geraldo G. Ferraz, Helena Cardoso, J. Teixeira Aguilar, José Lima, Lídia C-Luther, M. Carlota Pracana, M. Carmo Figueira, Paula Reis
more individual author differences in Portuguese

11. Method sub-corpus: note 3
English
Portuguese
Different varieties of English and Portuguese not taken into account

12. Method What was considered a loan How loans were counted
How loans were sorted by language

13. Defining loans
Disagreement among individuals and within language communities
Loans:
words in a language other than the main language of the text that authors and translators (or publishers) chose to set off by highlighting
- criterion used in COMPARA to mark foreign words
- can be retrieved automatically
Note 1
readers (and corpus makers & users) may have different perceptions
Note 2
same word can be a loan in some texts but not in others

14. Defining loans same word classified differently in different languages
EBDL5 (262):`What d'you take me for, a robot?´
EBDL5 (262): -- O que é que você pensa que eu sou? Algum robot?

15. Defining loans same word classified differently in same language
PBRF1 (318): Usava jeans apertados, suas pernas eram grossas e os braços finos.
PBPC2 (934): A única coisa que mantinha o sentido de reali-dade eram nossos trajes, jeans e camisetas com vieiras costuradas.
EBDL3T1(1279): Boon tinha realmente chegado, provocante-mente vestido com camiseta e jeans e acompanhado duma bela e altiva Pantera Negra, que ia entrar no programa dessa noite.
EBJT1 (1962): Era um rapaz, um rapaz magro de jeans e com um blusão de cabedal.
Instead of external parameters, definition reflects opinions of authors and translators (and editorial policies)

16. Defining loans titles and named entities marked foreign not included
EBJB1(64): Besides, I remember the end of L'Education Sentimentale.
PBRF1(560): Até que o Fleming escolheu um bom título, Diamonds are Forever, pensei, mas o filme de Guy Hamilton era medíocre.
PBAA2(603): It looks like a ship is arriving, and it's the Cruzeiro.´
EBDL3T2 (1153): Teve uma lua-de-mel de curta duração com a Radio One, que se transformou numa espécie de casamento sadomasoquista.

17. Counting loans single words and multi-word expressions counted as one loan
EBJB2 (500): …he was going to get the best quid pro quo out of God in the forthcoming negotiations.
= 1 loan
EBJT2 (241): `I shall bring tapas also,´ José said, moving towards the door.

18. Counting loans quotations counted as one loan
EURZ1 (1275): …a weedy boy with pale-green eyes yells at her in a prideful voice, « Vai-te foder, vaca! , fuck off, cow!»
= 1 loan
EBJB1(188): …he found himself constantly irritated by a parrot which screamed, `As-tu déjeuné, Jako? ´ and `Cocu, mon petit coco.´
= 2 loans

19. Counting loans lists and repetitions counted as separate loans
PBPM1 (99): Urutus, jararacas, cascavéis, jararacuçus, surucutingas, cotiaras -- I saw these and many other serpents in the slides that Melissa projected during her talk.
= 6 loans
EBJT2 (368):`The little eggs of the codoniz , what is the codoniz ?´
= 2 loans

20. Sorting loans co-text used to resolve ambiguity
EBDL5(1802): `Can I take this thing off?´ he said, plucking at his lei .
lei = Hawaiian, not Italian
EBJT2(95): `You must look after yourself, querida .´
querida = Spanish, not Portuguese

21. Sorting loans loans classified according to their origins
EBDL5(262): -- O que é que você pensa que eu sou? Algum robot ?
robot = Czech
EBDL1T2(889): a plastic container of frozen moussaka could be concealed without much difficulty.
moussaka = Greek

22. Results distribution of loans
Original Portuguese
Original English
9 (out of 15) texts had no loans at all
Just 1 (out of 13) texts did not have any loans
1.5 loans/ 10 K words
16.9 loans/ 10 K words
Original English fiction more permeable to loans than original Portuguese fiction

23. Results distribution of loans
Translated Portuguese
Translated English
All texts contained loans
One third of the texts contained no loans at all
24.3 loans/ 10 K words
4.1 loans/ 10 K words
When reading translated fiction, Portuguese readers more exposed to loans than English readers

24. Results distribution of loans
Original Portuguese
Translated Portuguese
More than half the texts contained no loans at all
All texts contained loans
1.5 loans/ 10 K words
24.3 loans/ 10 K words
Portuguese readers must notice a big difference….

25. Results distribution of loans
Original English
Translated English
All but one text contained loans
One third of the texts contained no loans at all
16.9 loans/ 10 K words
4.1 loans/ 10 K words
The number of loans in present in text shouldn’t add a particularly foreign ring to English translations….

26. Results (so far)
Loan words seem to enter the Portuguese language more through fiction translated from English than through original fiction
The opposite seems to occur in English
Do Portuguese translators tend to foreignize texts?
Do English translators tend to domesticate texts?
What happens to loans in the process of translation

27. Results net difference in overall number of loansST
(English) TT
(Portuguese)
3 X ST
(Portuguese) TT
(English)
Both Portuguese and English translations tripled the total number of loans present in source texts
English translators not really sheltering readers from loans
Few loans in Portuguese source texts makes loans in translated English seem scant by comparison

28. Results Loans in common, loans added and loans removedST
(English) TT
(Portuguese) ST
(Portuguese) TT
(English)
Both PT and EN translators tend to:
Preserve loans originally present in source texts
Add more loans of their own
Remove very few loans (except…)

29. Results language distribution of loans
Original Portuguese
Translated Portuguese
Loans from just 4 languages:
English
(22 loans in 2 texts)
Latin
(15 loans in 2 texts)
French
(4 loans in 4 texts)
German
(1 loan in 1 text)
None prevails
Loans from 14 identified languages
English prevails
(475 loans in 13 texts)
French noticeable
(238 loans in 13 texts)

30. Results language distribution of loans
Original English
Translated English
Loans from 12 identified languages
French prevails
(117 loans in 10 texts)
Portuguese is rare
(14 loans but all in 1 text)
Loans from just 8 identified languages
French prevails
(43 loans in 6 texts)
Portuguese is noticeable
(35 loans in 7 texts)

31. Results language distribution of loans
(English) TT
(Portuguese)
More loan languages: + 2
Lots of loans from source text language: + 475
More French: 117 → 238 (+121)
More Latin: → 34 (+15)
More Italian: → (+9)
Less Spanish: 25 → (-3)
Portuguese effaced: -14 (no compensation)

32. Results language distribution of loans
(Portuguese) TT
(English)
More loan languages: + 4
Few loans from source text language: + 35
More French: 4 → 43 (+39)
More Latin: 15 → 19 (+4)
Spanish introduced: 0 → 4 (+4)
Italian introduced: → 7 (+7)
English effaced: -22
(2 loans compensated by French)

33. Overall Results EN Toury (1995) Original PT Translated EN Original EN
Translated PT EN
Toury (1995)
Tolerance of interference is likely to be greater when translation is carried out from ‘major’ to ‘minor’ language/culture
Both PT and EN translation tripled the number of loans
Increased the number of loan languages
Did not remove superimpostion of languages in ST (except when loans were from translation language)
Difference between number of loans in English originals and translations not as conspicuous, but…
Loans from ST abound in translated Portuguese, but used very sparingly in translated English
Huge difference between Portuguese originals and translations
More loans and more loan languages in original English fiction

34. Conclusion
Commentaries on use of loans often controversial and based on anectodal evidence
This study examined some hard data on use of loans in original and translated texts
Only possible thanks to a corpus and corpus techniques
Future: more research using more texts, different genres & other language pairs
Obrigada!