Week 2: Logical Resources

 

In the lecture, Christian mainly talked about how clauses come together to become clause complexes. Combined with what I learnt from Chapter 7 of Using Functional Grammar, I found out that the main difference between spoken and written English is that: spoken English tends to use more conjunctions to link independent clauses in order to let the listener to follow the sequence of events, particularly the time sequence, or grasp the cause and effect relationship of independent clauses; written English tends to use independent clauses plus more dependent clauses to encode more information as much as possible in one clause complex. They are not just the choice of words itself (e.g. formal and informal words), but the choice of logical resources—how to package these independent clauses and dependent clauses together as one clause complex.

 

Translation shift is a key issue, particularly in formal English text. There are a variety of translation shifts at the level of words, groups, clauses and clause complexes. I think the most difficult and important one is the shift at the level of clause complexes. Translator should not focus on the choices of words and groups at the very beginning of translation process. The first thing they need to do is to understand the logic, or to say the structure, of the whole clause complexes, paragraphs, and even context, otherwise, the target reader will get confused about the relations between clauses and clause complexes. Let’s compare English and Chinese as an example. Formal written English tends to use one independent clause as a principle sentence. Some dependent and independent clauses will be used as embedded clauses which are shifted to a lower rank as part of a group or group itself, and interrupting clauses (usually dependent clauses), to modify the principle sentence. The logic between them can be paratactic or hypotactic. However, although conjunctions and conjunctive adjuncts indeed exist in Chinese, written Chinese tends to use more independent clauses whose logic is more paratactic rather than hypotactic. Therefore, in English-Chinese or Chinese-English translation, the more complex the sentence is, the more translation shifts are. From this point of view, the identification of the logical resources of target text is really important to translators.

 

e.g. Other species familiar to Canadians are the Beluga or white whale, the Narwhal with its unicorn-like tusk, the Killer whale or Orca, the Pilot or Pothead whales, << which is commonly stranded on beaches>>, the Spotted and Spinner Dolphins, <<that create a problem for tuna seiners>>, and the porpoises, ||which we commonly see along our shores.

 

Reference: TRAN819 Introduction to Text Analysis: Workshop Notes & Activities (2006). Macquarie University: Department of Linguistics, pp. 174.

 

Translation and back translation:

加拿大人         熟悉的             其它     种类         是    白色大鳇鱼    或    白鲸、          

Canadians     familiar with    other    species   are    the Beluga    or     white whale,

 

有       像      独角兽般   尖牙的       独角鲸、        虎鲸                      或    逆戟鲸、

have   like   unicorn      tusk       the Narwhal,   the Killer whale   or     Orca,

 

常                 在海滩上     搁浅的      引航鲸      或     巨头鲸、

commonly    on beaches    stranded    the Pilot     or      Pothead whales,

 

给捕   金枪鱼的   渔船       制造         麻烦的             斑点海豚        或    飞旋海豚、

catch    tuna       seiners    create    a problem        the Spotted    or     Spinner Dolphins,

 

和       我们    沿着        海岸     常常                看到的      海豚。

and     we      along     shores   commonly     see          shores.

 

In this example, some obvious translation shifts can be observed. In target text, “with its unicorn-like tusk” became an attributive to modify “the Narwhal”. The interrupting clause “which is commonly stranded on beaches” and “that create a problem for tuna seiners”, and the embedded clause “which we commonly see along our shores” are shifted as pre-modifications of “the Pilot or Pothead whales”, “the Spotted or Spinner Dolphins” and “shores” respectively. These translation shifts indicate that translators should not stick to the structure or logic of source text, otherwise, the translation will be idiomatic for target readers. That means, the meaning of logic resources of resource text can only be revealed in the process of understanding the source text for translators. In the factual translating, translators may need to give up the logical resources of source text according to the specific context. If the original one is really illogical to the target reader, translators need to consider making a translation shift.