scholarly journals Translating English Existential 'there' Sentences into Arabic: A Text-based Analysis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary Studies ◽  
Irfan Said
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Alternative Construction ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics ◽  
Syntactic Restrictions

English existential 'there' lacks equivalent in many languages, yet it has attracted the attention of linguists working within contrastive linguistics and translation studies. The aim of the present paper is to investigate how translators deal with English 'there' sentences in two translated Arabic texts. The method adopted in the study is a descriptive-analytic one. In Arabic the words 'hunaaka' and 'tammata' are usually used to render English 'there' ; however, the data of the study show that in many cases translators avoid using these two words. The flexibility of word order in Arabic , in addition to the use of full lexical verbs , more frequently than English does in 'there' sentences , help to translate these sentences adequately into Arabic. It is also found that syntactic restrictions are not the only reason for the fact that many 'there' sentences are not translated using 'hunaaka' and ' tammata'; the discourse and stylistic levels, play a role in the translator's decision to use other means. In some cases, the use of 'hunaaka /tammata' is shown to be optional and in other cases to be obligatory, unless an alternative construction is produced. Major translational changes affecting the information structure of the texts, are not found in the target language.

scholarly journals The acquisition of word order in L2 Norwegian: The case of subject and object shift

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merete Anderssen ◽  
Kristine Bentzen ◽  
Guro Busterud ◽  
Anne Dahl ◽  
Björn Lundquist ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Language Production ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Object Shift ◽  
Clear Preference ◽  
Syntactic Movement ◽  
Information Status ◽  
Subject And Object

This article reports on a syntactic acceptability judgement study of 59 adult L2/Ln learners of Norwegian and a group of native controls, studying subject and object shift. These constructions involve movement of (mainly) pronominal subjects or objects across negation/adverbs. Both subject shift and object shift display considerable micro-variation in terms of syntax and information structure, dependent on factors such as nominal type (pronoun vs. full DP), function (subject vs. object), and information status (given vs. new/focused). Previous studies have shown that Norwegian children have an early preference for the unshifted position in both constructions, but that they acquire subject shift relatively early (before age 3). Object shift, on the other hand, is typically not in place until after age 6–7. Importantly, children are conservative learners, and never shift elements that should not move in the adult language. The results of the current study show that L2/Ln learners do not make all the fine distinctions that children make, in that they have a clear preference for all subjects in shifted position and all objects in unshifted position, although some distinctions fall into place with increased proficiency. Importantly, unlike children, the L2/Ln learners are not conservative learners; rather, they over-accept syntactic movement in several cases. The equivalent to this in language production would be to apply syntactic movement where it is not attested in the target language, which would be the opposite behaviour to that observed in L1 children.

scholarly journals Parallel corpora and contrastive linguistics: Where to look for pitfalls in the translation of information structure

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Libuše Dušková
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Linear Ordering ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Parallel Corpora ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics ◽  
Functional Sentence Perspective ◽  
Parallel Texts ◽  
Basic Distribution

This paper deals with some of the problems encountered in English-Czech contrastive studies of information structure based on parallel texts. It largely focuses on those arising from the different hierarchy of the respective word order principles, the primary one being grammatical function in English, and information structure / functional sentence perspective (FSP) in Czech. Three aspects are considered: linear ordering of clause elements, FSP structure, and the basic distribution of communicative dynamism. Owing to the character and complexity of the FSP factors, word order, context, semantics and intonation, and the lack of distinctive realization forms of the carriers of the FSP functions, the study is based on manual excerpts from passages of digitalized running text of three English novels and their Czech translations drawn from the InterCorp. The results show that most problems arise in the case of different linear ordering as it may indicate either an identical or a different FSP structure.

scholarly journals information structure of discontinuous NPs in German

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kordula De Kuthy
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Structure Component ◽  
Syntactic Restrictions

This paper investigates a particular word order phenomenon in German, the occurrence of discontinuous NPs (which we refer to as the NP-PP split construction) in order to probe the division of labor between the syntactic analysis and discourse constraints on this construction. We argue that some of the factors which previous literature has tried to explain in terms of syntactic restrictions are in fact derivable from discourse factors. Building on these insights, we show how an information structure component can be integrated into an HPSG account of the phenomenon.

scholarly journals Discourse Analysis and the Problem of Translation Equivalence

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazem Lotfipour-Saedi
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Scientific Framework

Abstract The translator's task has usually been defined as the establishment of an equivalence between the source language (SL) and the target language (TL) texts, and the translation process has been characterized as a branch of contrastive linguistics. But neither the nature of translation equivalence (TE) has been carefully specified nor a comprehensive framework consistent with the true nature of linguistic I communicative behaviour has been employed for contrasting languages for translation purposes. Consequently translation studies have always lacked a sound scientific framework. This paper attempts to study the nature of TE within the framework of a comprehensive contrastive analysis of SL and TL at discourse level and suggests seven different components for TE.

Pragmatics for Latin

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Devine ◽  
Laurence D. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Informational Content ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Association With Focus ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Order Language ◽  
Free Word

Latin is often described as a free word order language, but in general each word order encodes a particular information structure: in that sense, each word order has a different meaning. This book provides a descriptive analysis of Latin information structure based on detailed philological evidence and elaborates a syntax-pragmatics interface that formalizes the informational content of the various different word orders. The book covers a wide ranges of issues including broad scope focus, narrow scope focus, double focus, topicalization, tails, focus alternates, association with focus, scrambling, informational structure inside the noun phrase and hyperbaton (discontinuous constituency). Using a slightly adjusted version of the structured meanings theory, the book shows how the pragmatic meanings matching the different word orders arise naturally and spontaneously out of the compositional process as an integral part of a single semantic derivation covering denotational and informational meaning at one and the same time.

Distribution and translation

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong King Lee
Keyword(s):  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
First Order ◽  
Language System ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Distributed Language

Abstract Translation has traditionally been viewed as a branch of applied linguistics. This has changed drastically in recent decades, which have witnessed translation studies growing as a field beyond, and sometimes against, applied linguistics. This paper is an attempt to think translation back into applied linguistics by reconceptualizing translation through the notions of distributed language, semiotic repertoire, and assemblage. It argues that: (a) embedded within a larger textual-media ecology, translation is enacted through dialogical interaction among the persons, texts, technologies, platforms, institutions, and traditions operating within that ecology; (b) what we call translations are second-order constructs, or relatively stable formations of signs abstracted from the processual flux of translating on the first-order; (c) translation is not just about moving a work from one discrete language system across to another, but about distributing it through semiotic repertoires; (d) by orchestrating resources performatively, translations are not just interventions in the target language and culture, but are transformative of the entire translingual and multimodal space (discursive, interpretive, material) surrounding a work. The paper argues that distributed thinking helps us de-fetishize translation as an object of study and reimagine translators as partaking of a creative network of production alongside other human and non-human agents.

Bare nominals, information structure and word order

Lingua ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 120 (6) ◽  
pp. 1476-1501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murad Salem
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Bare Nominals

Word Order in Old and Middle English

Diachronica ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Extended Version ◽  
Major Parameter ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mixed Systems

In the history of English one finds a mixture of V2 and non-V2 word order in declaratives for several hundred years, with frequencies suggesting a relatively gradual development in the direction of non-V2. Within an extended version of a cue-based approach to acquisition and change, this paper argues that there are many possible V2 grammars, differing from each other with respect to clause types, information structure, and the behavior of specific lexical elements. This variation may be formulated in terms of micro-cues. Child language data from present-day mixed systems show that such grammars are acquired early. The apparent optionality of V2 in the history of English may thus be considered to represent several different V2 grammars in succession, and it is not necessary to refer to competition between two major parameter settings. Diachronic language development can thus be argued to occur in small steps, reflecting the loss of micro-cues, and giving the impression that change is gradual.

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