scholarly journals A corpus study of splitting and joining sentences in translation

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Frankenberg-Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Parallel Text

The use of corpora in translation studies has risen dramatically over recent years, contributing towards a growing body of empirical research focussing not only on what differentiates translated from non-translated language, but also on the changes or shifts that translators make from source to target texts. Most of these studies are centred on sub-sentential elements, such as the contrastive use of particular lexis or grammar. However, translation shifts can transcend the level of the sentence. For example, sentences can be split or joined in translation, or there can be complex shifts that combine the two. While there is some research on sentence splitting, there do not seem to be many studies about sentence joining, or indeed sentence splitting and joining together. This study seeks to address this gap. Using a bi-directional parallel corpus of Portuguese and English fiction, over 90,000 source-text sentences and their corresponding text in translation were analysed from a quantitative perspective, and a closer look was taken at a sample of over 1,000 parallel text segments involving sentence joining and splitting. The main findings were that in both translation directions (1) there was a strong tendency for sentence preservation, (2) the differences between sentence splitting and joining were not significant, and (3) changes in sentence boundaries were predominantly associated with the standardisation or normalisation of syntax and a tendency for explicitation.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Proposal for Teaching a Translational Habitus: Initial dialogues with Bourdieu’s sociological approaches

2021 ◽  
pp. 507-525
Author(s):  
Talita Serpa ◽  
Paula Tavares Pinto ◽  
Diva Cardoso De Camargo
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Professional Behaviour ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Sociological Approaches ◽  
Translational Strategies

There is a growing body of literature that recognises the importance of Social Sciences in Translation Studies, such as the discussions surrounding the translational habitus, developed by Simeoni, Wolf, Inghilleri and Sela-Sheffy. In our research, we associate these ideas to corpora methodologies to analyse terminological usages as part of a professional behaviour. We hypothesise that when translation students previously face the most frequent terms extracted from a parallel corpus as well as their keyness and contexts, they replicate the same translational strategies in their texts, which can indicate their competencies eligible by their habitus.

Literal is not always easier

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Jiménez-Crespo ◽  
Joseph V. Casillas
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Computational Approaches ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Time To Completion ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Time Served ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Editing Process

Abstract “Literal translation” is a popular construct in Translation Studies. Research from computational approaches has consistently shown that non-literal translations, i.e., renderings semantically and syntactically different or not close to the source text, are more difficult or effortful to produce than literal ones. This paper researches whether literal translations are systematically less effortful to process than non-literal ones using comparable corpus data. The effort incurred in processing literal translations from a parallel corpus is compared to that of processing the most frequent non-literal renderings found in previous comparable corpus studies. Ten professional translators edited a text using a mock translation environment setup using the keylogger Inputlog. The task was presented as a regular editing process with a full cohesive text presented segment pair by segment pair. Time served as a proxy for overall cognitive effort. We analyzed time from presentation to type (TTP) and time to completion of segment edit (TC), or complete editing events. Results showed that processing efforts are indistinguishable between categories, suggesting that cognitive effort to edit non-literal default translation candidates is not always higher when compared to the most frequent literal translations from a parallel corpus.

scholarly journals Verbal and verbal-visual logico-semantic relations in picturebooks: an English-Portuguese parallel corpus study

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76
Author(s):  
Adriana Silvina Pagano ◽  
Flavia Ferreira de Paula ◽  
Kícila Ferreguetti
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Visual Texts ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Visual Text

This article presents and explores a methodology to analyze verbal and verbal-visual logico-semantic relations (LSRs) in picturebooks originally written in English and their translations into Brazilian Portuguese. Drawing on systemic-functional theory (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) and on Visual Grammar (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006), verbal and visual text in picturebooks was annotated and analyzed according to the LSRs identified in them. Results showed differences between the type of LSRs that tend to occur most frequently in verbal-visual texts and in clause complexes: while Expansion_Extension is the most frequent verbal-visual LSR in both the source text and the translated text, Projection_Locution is the most frequent LSR in clause complexes, in the source and translated texts as well. The study contributes a proposal to categorize LSRs in verbal text and LSRs in visual and verbal text that proves to be fully operational for annotation purposes and text analysis.

Compiling Parallel Text Corpora: Towards Automation of Routine Procedures

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Mihail Mihailov ◽  
Hannu Tommola
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Efficient Search ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Microsoft Access ◽  
Text Corpora ◽  
Analysis Tools ◽  
Parallel Text ◽  
The University ◽  
Routine Procedures

The aim of the research project running at the Department of Translation Studies of the University of Tampere is to collect a Russian-Finnish parallel corpus of fiction. The corpus will be equipped with efficient search and analysis tools. The texts of the corpus will be stored as ordinary text files. Each text will be registered in a Microsoft Access database and supplied with a description. Automated parallel concordancing is being developed for the corpus. The program will find the keywords in text A (Russian), then look for possible translation equivalents of the keywords in language B (Finnish), and then search for the portion of text B (Finnish) where most of the keywords in question can be found.

Translators’ behaviors from a sociological perspective – A parallel corpus study of fantasy fiction translation in Taiwan

Babel ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Wen-chun Liang
Keyword(s):  
Social Determinants ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Fantasy Fiction ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Chronicles Of Narnia ◽  
The Social

The aim of this study is to investigate translators’ behaviors in translating fantasy fiction in Taiwan, with the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological model. The application of a sociological approach to translation studies allows an examination of the social and cultural nature of translation by locating this activity within a particular social structure. The investigation was conducted by employing a parallel corpus study of fantasy fiction translations: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone and Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. Translators’ textual behaviors when dealing with culture-specific items (CSIs) were analyzed. The results revealed a source-oriented tendency when translating CSIs. The evidence from the textual analysis was interpreted and discussed in terms of the interactions between the translators’ collective habitus and the social determinants in the literary field in Taiwan.

(In)Commensurable Discourse: Researchers and Practitioners Bring Pragmatics to Language Learning

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Sykes
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Primary Component ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Valuable Role

AbstractThe recent surge in a growing body of empirical research is evidence of a strong theoretical push towards L2 pragmatic acquisition in the field of second language acquisition; yet, the reality is that we see very little evidence of pragmatics instruction in L2 contexts, suggesting a notable disconnect between theory and practice. This viewpoints article explores the valuable role both researchers and practitioners play in bridging the gap between theory and practice with the intention of bringing pragmatics to the forefront of the language classroom. It briefly discusses the importance of including pragmatics as a primary component of second language (L2) learning and then explores various obstacles to pragmatics instruction, paying special attention to the role both researchers and practitioners can play in overcoming them. Examples from current projects related to L2 Spanish pragmatics are presented where relevant.

The ACTRES parallel corpus: an English–Spanish translation corpus

Corpora ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlén Izquierdo ◽  
Knut Hofland ◽  
Øystein Reigem
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Research Group ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
The University

This paper describes the compilation of the ACTRES Parallel Corpus, an English–Spanish translation corpus built at the Department of Modern Languages at the University of León (Spain) by the ACTRES research group. The computerisation of the corpus was carried out in collaboration with Knut Hofland and Øystein Reigem, from the Department of Culture, Language and Information Technology, Aksis, at the UNIFOB/University of Bergen (Norway). The corpus is conceived as a powerful tool for cross-linguistic research in the fields of Contrastive Analysis and Descriptive Translation Studies. It was the need to bridge the gap between these disciplines and to extend applications that encouraged the building of a parallel corpus as a suitable tool to achieve these goals. This paper focusses on the practical aspects of building the corpus. A brief account of the research which prompted this endeavour precedes the description of this process. 4 4 This paper is an account of the building of the ACTRES Parallel Corpus, so no empirical results from research done on the basis of the corpus are reported here. Concerning new insights drawn from the actual use of P-ACTRES in English–Spanish translation and contrastive projects, there is an extended bibliography at: http://actres.unileon.es/

scholarly journals Slovak thinking on audiovisual translation and the issue of the second-hand translation of Russian documentary films

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Historical Explanation ◽  
Cultural Space ◽  
Audiovisual Translation ◽  
The Russian Language ◽  
Limited Diffusion

The paper, in its first part, outlines the Slovak research into audiovisual translation (AVT) from the 1950s up to the present, paying attention to the most important scholars as well as publications that helped to shape and establish the discipline within Slovak translation studies. It is based on the ongoing bibliographical research and the historical explanation mapping the development of AVT research in Slovakia by I. Tyšš – e.g. his publication Myslenie o audiovizuálnom preklade na Slovensku: 1952 – 2017 (Thinking on Audiovisual Translation in Slovakia: 1952 – 2017, 2018) – as well as on own findings covering the last two years. In more detail, the first part of the paper highlights that it was primarily thanks to a younger generation of translation studies scholars – especially E. Perez (née Janecová), L. Paulínyová (née Kozáková) and J. Želonka – that in 2012 the Slovak research into AVT finally became systematic. The second part of the paper is devoted to the phenomenon of the so-called second-hand translation of originally Russian audiovisual works that may be observed in Slovakia in recent years. The questionable nature of this phenomenon is stressed since the Russian language is not a language of limited diffusion and definitely not remote in relation to the Slovak cultural space. On the example of two documentary films – Под властью мусора (Held Captive by Rubbish, 2013) and Дух в движении (Spirit in Motion, 2015), the author discusses and analyses the problems that occur when translating originally Russian AV works into Slovak through the English language, i.e. the negative shifts resulting from mis-/overinterpretation of the source text, translation by omission, wrong order of dialogues, cultural specifics and incorrect transcription.

scholarly journals Possible Worlds in Translation: Coleman Barks’s Rendition of a Story from Rumi’s Masnavi

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vahid Medhat ◽  
Hossein Pirnajmuddin ◽  
Pyeaam Abbasi
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Narrative Worlds ◽  
The Way

This article applies the theory of possible worlds to the field of translation studies by examining the narrative worlds of original and translated texts. Specifically, Marie-Laure Ryan’s characterization of possible worlds provides an account of the internal structure of the textual universe and the progression of the plot. Based on this account, one of the stories from Rumi’s Masnavi is compared to Coleman Barks’s English translation. The possible worlds of the characters and the unfolding of the plots in both texts are examined to assess the degree of compatibility between the textual universes of the original and the translated texts and how significant this might be. It also examines how readers reconstruct the narrative worlds projected by the two texts. The analysis reveals some inconsistencies in the way the textual universes of the original and translated texts are furnished and in the way readers reconstruct the narrative worlds of the two texts. The inability of translation to fully render the main character results in some loss in terms of the pungency and pithiness of the original text. It is also shown that the source text presents a richer domain of the virtual in comparison, suggesting a higher degree of tellability in the textual universe of the Masnavi’s narrative.

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