1. Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies Grammatical Level (Categories and Syntax) 16 October 2007

2. Grammatical Level – Categories and Syntax SyntagmaticParadigmatic 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.)

3. 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)

4. Grammatical Level (Categories and Syntax)  Grammatical notions Time Number Shape Visibility Person Proximity Animacy Etc.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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!)

16. 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).

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.