Errors in Translation: A Comparative Study of Noun Phrase in English and Malay Abstracts

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Ainul Azmin Md Zamin ◽  
Raihana Abu Hasan

Abstract as a summary of a dissertation harbours important information where it serves to attract readers to consider reading the entire passage or to abandon it. This study seeks to investigate the backward translation of abstracts made by 10 randomly selected postgraduate students. This research serves as a guideline for students in composing their abstracts as it aims to compare the differences in noun phrase structure written in Malay as translated from English. It also analyses the types of errors when English noun phrases are translated to Malay. Preliminary findings from this pilot study found that translation errors committed were mainly inaccurate word order, inaccurate translation, added translation, dropped translation and also structure change. For this study, an exploratory mode of semantic analysis is applied by looking at noun phrases, the meaningful group of words that form a major part of any sentence, with the noun as the head of the group. Syntax is inevitably interwoven in the analysis as the structure and grammatical aspects of the translations are also analysed. They are examined by comparing English texts to its corresponding translation in the Malay language. Particularly relevant in this study is the need to emphasize on the semantics and syntax skills of the students before a good transaltion work can be produced. Language practitioners can also tap on translation activities to improve the learners’ language competency.

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura De Ruiter ◽  
Bhuvana Narasimhan ◽  
Jidong Chen ◽  
Jonah Lack

Our study investigates the influence of information status on word order and prosody in children and adults. Using an elicited production task, we examine the ordering and intonation of noun phrases in phrasal conjuncts in 3-5-year-old and adult speakers of English. Findings show that English-speaking children are less likely to employ the ‘old-before-new’ order than adults and are also not adult-like in using prosody to mark information status. Our study suggests that even though intonation and word order are linguistic devices that are acquired early, their use to mark information status is still developing at age four.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANA ELINA MARTÍNEZ-INSUA ◽  
JAVIER PÉREZ-GUERRA

The category of the noun phrase in English has received much attention in the literature. This article discusses the main defining features of the category from different theoretical angles. Issues such as its structural status, the determination and characterisation of its (morphosyntactic, semantic, cognitive) head, the structural slots which are available in the phrase, and the different possibilities as far as word order is concerned will be approached from structural, syntactic, functional and cognitive perspectives. In the second half of the article, after a review of recent literature on the English noun phrase, we offer a summary of the research included in this issue.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-148
Author(s):  
Amitabh Vikram DWIVEDI

This paper is a summary of some phonological and morphosyntactice features of the Bhadarwahi language of Indo-Aryan family. Bhadarwahi is a lesser known and less documented language spoken in district of Doda of Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir State in India. Typologically it is a subject dominant language with an SOV word order (SV if without object) and its verb agrees with a noun phrase which is not followed by an overt post-position. These noun phrases can move freely in the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence. The indirect object generally precedes the direct object. Aspiration, like any other Indo-Aryan languages, is a prominent feature of Bhadarwahi. Nasalization is a distinctive feature, and vowel and consonant contrasts are commonly observed. Infinitive and participle forms are formed by suffixation while infixation is also found in causative formation. Tense is carried by auxiliary and aspect and mood is marked by the main verb.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Herlina Lindaria Simanjuntak

<p>Many Indonesian’s students face the difficulties in translating English noun phrase into Indonesian. English and Indonesia have different structure. Meanwhile, one of the important elements in building a sentence is noun phrase. English noun phrases have some possibilities of translation result from the source language (SL) into the target lagnuage, Indonesian (TL). Hence, the researcher does the research which is entitled The Translation of English Noun Phrase Into Idonesian. The aims of this research are to find out the translations of English noun phrases into Indonesian. This research uses qualitative method. The source of data is “Sidney Sheldon's Memory of Midnight” and its translated version, “Padang Bayang Kelabu”, by Budijanto T. Pramono. The result of this research shows that there are four categories of translating English noun phrases into Indonesian, namely English noun phrases translated using the word yang, Plural English noun phrases translated into singular, English noun phrases translated using the word, and Elnglish noun phrases which are not translated literally. The conclusion of this research also shows that the change in the form and orders of the nouns phrases which is a noun as the head and also the sequence of modifiers, meanwhile without changing its meanings.</p><p> </p>


Author(s):  
Valery Mykhaylenko

In this paper there is an overview of ordering in English multi-noun phrases (MNP) or poly-adjectival nominal phrases (PNP) and the model of semantic ordering is revealed:[Det] + MODIFIERS (+ size [Adj] + shape [Adj] + age[Adj] – colour [Adj + nationality [Adj] + HEADWORD [Noun]. The transformation patterns of rendering English MNPs into Ukrainian ones are recognized and we developed a relevant analysis of MNPs. This project concerns the ordering among modifiers in poly-adjectival nominal phrases (PNP) coined by Bache (1978) to refer to any noun phrase which contains more than one modifier(see also Georgi, 2010). We considered the concept of ordering the constituents in the multi-NP (MNP) in the process of translating from English into Ukrainian. Sproat and Shih (1988) provide one of the most comprehensive cross-linguistic analyses of adjective ordering restrictions, and suggest that the semantic-based ordering theories proposed for English are largely universal across languages. This rearrangement of ordering is triggered by the Ukrainian synthetic grammar structure which permits free word order in the phrase and a sentence, and a change of the communicative focus by the translator. A modifier is defined as words or phrases which premodify the head word of the phrase and can postmodify it as well. From 150 pages of the novel “Angels ad Demons” by Dan Brown and its Ukrainian translation by Aнжелa Кам’янець only 35 multi-noun phrases have been retrieved as an object of our study which we have classified into 4 groups according to the type of transformation (equivalent, permutation, addition, and omission). There is one of the main arguments for the rearrangment motivation of noun headwords and modifiers is the opposition of the author’s and translator’s intentional meaning. In addition we put forward a hypothesis – the both transformations are motivated by the semanticsof modifiers. The Semantic Model of ordering adjectives in the English multi- noun phrase must be verified in various discourse registers to define common and distinctivefeatures of this phenomenon.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-633
Author(s):  
Claire Saillard

Abstract This paper investigates the position of adjectives in noun phrases in Truku Seediq, proposing that the two documented positions correspond to different semantics as well as a difference in syntax. While post-nominal adjectives, corresponding to basic word-order in Truku Seediq, may be either restrictive or descriptive, pre-nominal adjectives, seen as an innovation, are semantically restrictive. This paper also argues for a difference in syntactic structure for both kinds of adjectives, restrictive adjectives heading their own projection while descriptive adjectives are bare adjectives standing in a closer relationship to the modified noun. This paper further identifies a syntactic constraint for pre-nominal adjectival placement that applies regardless of restrictivity of the modifier, namely the presence of a possessive clitic to the right of the modified noun. Data collection is achieved through both a traditional elicitation method and an experimental task-based method. Data are further digitalized in order to ensure systematic searchability. The data thus collected are apt to support semantic analysis as well as an investigation of age-group-related variation. It is claimed that language contact with Mandarin Chinese may be one of the triggering factors for the development of a pre-nominal position for modifying adjectives in Truku Seediq.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-266
Author(s):  
Alina Preda

"Modification versus Complementation in the Structure of English Noun Phrases. Apart from its head, the core element around which all the other phrasal constituents cluster, the noun phrase may contain dependent elements effecting determination (which poses few taxonomical issues), modification or complementation (two functions notoriously difficult to demarcate). This article outlines the inconsistent ways in which reference grammars make the distinction between modification and complementation in the structure of English noun phrases, and offers a more unified approach aimed to solve the terminological quandary. Keywords: complementation, modification, premodifier, postmodifier, complement, the noun phrase "


Author(s):  
Evelien Keizer

This chapter provides a brief overview of some widely debated issues in discussions of the English noun phrase, and illustrates how these issues have been dealt with in different theoretical approaches. After a general characterization of the noun phrase from a pre-theoretical point of view, the chapter proceeds to discuss the internal structure of the noun phrase from a generative, functional, and cognitive perspective. Subsequently, the differences between these approaches are illustrated by addressing two basic notions in the analysis of English noun phrases: headedness (in regular noun phrases, as well as in headless and pseudo-partitive noun phrases) and the distinction between relational and non-relational nouns (and, consequently, between complements and modifiers). In both cases the various types of criteria for analysis are discussed, as well as some problems in applying these criteria.


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