The application of case grammar to translation
- 1. The application of case grammar to translation By George Lasluisa
- 2. Introduction • Relationship between the verb and their satellites. • Translation of verbs; missing verbs. • Case-partners • Semantic relationships -> Verb
- 3. THE TRANSLATION OF MISSING VERBS, IE., VERBAL FORCE • Analysing a sentence, a clause, or a verbless compound in a manner that demonstrates the central position of the verb. • Use of verbless translations: • Da aber Diederich! (But Diederich was waiting for him). • This was Diederich's opportunity. • Using nominals • inflation s'augmente (inflation is increasing) • ‘there is a rise in inflation' or ‘inflation is on the increase‘
- 4. THE TRANSLATION OF CASE-GAPS • Readership the reason to complete an idea. • 4 categories of gaps: Mandatory If TL requires Syntax. If SL text is ambiguous. Implied It is semantic, to provide logic. ‘To happen’ require time and place, and ‘to behave’ requires a manner. ‘la croute’ one words represents a whole ‘the Earth’s crust’ ‘le groupe’ as ‘the groups of students’ Optional Semantic and stilystic. Extra information that is not close to the sentence. This information could be somewhere in the text. Supplementary Information tha is added and it is not part of the text.
- 5. VARIOUS TYPES OF CASE-PARTNER • At the beginning we could identify case- partners based on grammatical terms: ‘nominative’, ‘Vocative' and 'subject', 'object’. • Later: identity, alterity, finality. • Then: agentive, instrumental, dative, factitive, locative, patient, benefactive. • With verbs: 'against what' ('protest'); 'in favour of what' ('vote1); 'to or from what place* ('go'); 'for how long' ('last'); 'away from what' ('run'); 'under what'('cover'),etc. • Hospitality verbs: ‘invite', 'welcome', 'bid', ‘lask’ To whom With what How When Where why Who does what
- 6. CONTRAST AND CHOICE IN TRANSLATION • Valence: refers to the number of core arguments that are part of a verb's morphosyntactic structure. • Identify valence. • Trivalent verbs (give): the giver, the given, the ‘givee’. • Fill in gaps with trivalent verbs only if SL requires.
- 7. SOME RELATED ISSUES • Translator must demonstrate each sentence purpose: an addition, a detail, an example, a contrast, an opposition, a reservation, an aside, an afterthought, a consequence, etc. • Consequence is demonstrated with ‘moreover’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘indeed’. • Sometimes the purpose is latent so the translator has to foreground it.
- 8. CASE-PARTNERS OF ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS A routine dejargonising process, which incidentally restores a case-partner Ainsi le profit n'est preleve sur personne mais seulement sur la masse des inefficaciies ambiantes. ‘ambiantes’ covers both an adjectival clause or a locative case, depending on the translator's perspective. Adjectives which have implicit case-partners unless another case-partner is stated. 'greedy1 (food), dpre (profit), acharne (struggle) Adjective whose meaning is clarified only in context. ‘symptomatique’ could mean 'produce symptoms’ or 'be a symptom' Need to read the previous or next sentence. Equative adjectives from equative or coputa verbs. Signal a similar or identical object which is implied. 'different', 'equal', 'similar', 'same', 'analogous‘. Adjectives formed from verbs. denote qualities or roles rather tan single actions. Protective, decisive.
- 9. A REMARK ON TESNIERE • 40 page metataxe. • pioneering study on the relation between case grammar and translation. • Meiataxes: 'deep translations which have to be rethought rather than applied mechanically’ • Malblanc • tends to be dogmatic in setting out equivalents, ignoring alternatives • Tesniere's chapter is brilliant and stimulating; his translation principle governing the passage from parataxis to hypotaxis goes beyond contrastive linguistics towards translation theory.