Transcript Translation Studies

Translation Studies
16. Lexical TOs: contraction
and distribution of
meaning
Krisztina Károly, Spring, 2006
Sources: Klaudy, 2003
1. Contraction of meanings
Lexical contraction
concentration (Vinay and Darbelnet, 1958,
1995),
integration (Klaudy, 1995),
accumulation or condensation of meanings
= a standard transfer operation whereby
translators draw together the meaning of
several words, and thus SL units consisting
from two or more words will be replaced by
a TL unit consisting of one word (Klaudy,
2003, p.214)
Explanation for contraction of
meaning:
the different segmentation of reality
e.g., kinship relations, by the different
word formation possibilities (e.g., long
compound words are common in
German) and by the synthetic or
analytic nature of the lexical systems
of different languages
Traditional classification of language
typology:
Hungarian belongs to the agglutinative type of Ls
(words made up of several syllables: word base +
affixes): e.g., fiú (‘boy’), fiú-k (‘boys’), fi-aink (‘our
boys’), fi-aink-nak (‘to our boys’), szeret (to love),
szeret-ek (‘I love’), szeret-l-ek (‘I love you’)
When translating from an isolating, monosyllabic
L like English into an agglutinative L like
Hungarian, many obligatory contractions take
place, which are not only obligatory operations but
are automatic as well.
E.g., morphological contraction in IE-H translation
means that functional elements with grammatical
meaning are incorporated into the main verb.
(May I have it?  Elvehetem?)  automatic 
not discussed here
Not obligatory and automatic  the
contraction of different lexical
meanings
e.g., English: to say softly  Hungarian:
suttog; English: You are making me
nervous  Hungarian: Idegesítesz
presupposes some kind of decision-making
on the part of translators for two reasons:
(1) contraction of meanings is rarely
suggested by bilingual dictionaries,
(2) contraction of meanings is an optional
transfer operation.
 a good test of translators’ creativity.
Contraction as a transfer operation
research shows (Baker 1993, Laviosa
1998) that it is not a universal
translation strategy
takes place first of all in IE-H
translation
as it results in a lower number of
words in translation, translators often
hesitate to choose the more implicit
solutions
Subtypes:
1. Contraction of kinship terms
2. Contraction motivated by word formation
potential
3. Integration of inchoative verbs into the
main verb
4. Integration of adverbs of manner into
reporting verbs
5. Merging change of state verbs with
adjectives
6. Merging semantically poor verbs with
nouns
1. Contraction of kinship terms
Predominant direction: no
for the expression of certain kinship
relations one L may have a collective term
while another may not: e.g., Hungarian
testvér is a collective term for English
brother and sister
in other cases, it is Hungarian where a
more detailed description can be found:
e.g., öcs (‘younger brother’) and fivér
(‘elder brother’) can be translated with one
collective term into English brother; húg
(‘younger sister’) and nővér (‘elder sister’)
= sister
English  Hungarian:
brother/sister (specific terms in E) 
testvérek (collective term in H)
English ST: Of course they wasn't brother
and sister, ... (Hemingway 62)
Hungarian TT: Persze nem voltak testvérek,
... (Szász 63)
English ST: Then his sister was his manager,
and they was always being written up in
the papers all about brothers and sisters
and how she loved her brother ...
(Hemingway 62)
Hungarian TT: Aztán a nővére volt a
menedzsere, s mindig kiírták őket az
újságokban, hogy testvérek, és hogyan
szereti a lány a fívérét. ... (Szász 63)
2. Contraction motivated by word
formation potential
Predominant direction: Hungarian
German
word combination is one of the most
frequent forms of expanding vocabulary
and creating new words in all the five
languages under investigation
it is especially frequently used in German
(e.g., Kriegsfolgenbereinigungsgesetz
‘war consequences clearing act’).
3. Integration of inchoative verbs
into the main verb
Predominant direction: IEHungarian
IE verbs of beginning (e.g., start, begin) in
auxiliary function (begin to rain, start to
speak, etc.) often become more specific,
more concrete in IEHungarian translation
another operation that is connected with
verbs of beginning is the integration of
these verbs into the main verb began to
speak  megszólalt. (the inchoative
meaning expressed by the auxiliary verb is
integrated into the meaning of the main
verb, with the help of prefixes and suffixes)
English  Hungarian:
English ST: Billy started sipping his
tea. (Dahl 72)
Hungarian TT: Billy belekortyolt a
teába. (Borbás 73)
Commentary: English started
sipping  Hungarian bele+kortyolt
(inchoative prefix +sipped)
4. Integration of adverbs of
manner into reporting verbs
Predominant direction: IE  Hungarian
IE verbs of saying (e.g., say) in literary
works often become more specific or more
concrete in IEHungarian translation
another way of concretisation is the
merging of adverbs of manner and verbs
of saying (said encouragingly  biztatta)
this operation is not obligatory as the
analytic solution mondta lágyan (lit: said
softly), mondta biztatóan (lit: said
encouragingly)
English  Hungarian:
English ST: 'Before this day is done', Mr
Boggis said softly, I shall have the
pleasure of sitting down upon that lovely
seat.' (Dahl 136)
Hungarian TT: – Még mielőtt leáldozik a
nap – suttogta Mr. Boggis –, erre a
szépséges székre lesz szerencsém
letelepedni. (Borbás 137)
Commentary: English said softly 
Hungarian suttogta (‘whispered’)
English ST: 'Yes Edna?' said Miss
Marple encouragingly. (Christie 6)
Hungarian TT: – Nos, Edna – bíztatta
Miss Marple. (Borbás 7)
Commentary: English said
encouragingly  Hungarian bíztatta
(‘encouraged her’)
5. Merging change of state verbs
with adjectives
Predominant direction: IE  Hungarian
In IE Ls, the changes in the physical or
mental states of things/persons are usually
expressed analytically by verbal phrases:
“verb of becoming” (e.g. turn) + an
adjective expressing the specific content or
direction of the change (e.g. turn
sentimental).
In Hungarian, where the word formation
system makes it very easy to form verbs
from adjectives, these two meanings can
be contracted and expressed synthetically
by one verb (turn sentimental 
elérzékenyül).
English  Hungarian:
English ST: And if it makes me
smaller, I can creep under the door.
(Carroll 16)
Hungarian TT: Ha pedig eltörpülök
tőle, akkor kimászhatok alúl az
ajtórésen. (Kosztolányi 13)
Commentary: English makes me
smaller  Hungarian el+törpülök
(prefix+dwarfed by)
6. Merging semantically depleted
verbs with nouns
Predominant direction: IE  Hungarian
IE verbs of general meaning (take) are
amalgamated with nouns of specific
meaning (sip') resulting in a synthetic
Hungarian verb form (kortyintott).
The great variety of synthetic verb forms is
a unique possibility of Hungarian, which
does not mean, however, that here are no
analytic forms.
In the sentences below translators chose to
use the synthetic forms:
English  Hungarian:
English ST: Franny nodded, and took
a sip of her milk. (Salinger 27)
Hungarian TT: Franny bólintott, és
kortyintott a tejből. (Elbert 28)
Commentary: English took a sip 
Hungarian korty+intott (sip + verbal
suffix)
Summary comments on lexical
contraction
The contraction of meanings as a transfer
operation is very close to the specification
of meanings
Contraction and specification of meaning
are primarily characteristic of translation
into Hungarian.
They are among the most frequently used
transfer operations, and sometimes they
are used more than once in the same
sentence:
English ST: ... and it was a shock last
week when one of the brood not only
detected me in the act of observation but
returned that knowing signal, as if he
shared my knowledge of what the years
would make of him. (Greene 124)
Hungarian TT: ... és a múlt héten jócskán
megdöbbentem, mikor a fészekaljából az
egyik nemcsak rajtakapott megfigyelés
közben, de még vissza is kacsintott,
mintha ő éppoly jól tudná, mit tartogat
számára a jövő. (Borbás 235)
English  Hungarian
was a shock  megdöbben (contraction);
returned ... a knowing signal  visszakacsintott
(contraction):
shared my knowledge  tudná (contraction);
make  tartogat (specification)
years  jövő (‘future’) (specification)
Summary cont.
without applying these operations
translators could produce lexically and
grammatically correct Hungarian sentences
these operations cannot be called
automatic, and inexperienced translators
do not use them.
experienced translators often follow the
synthetic principle, and perhaps, even
more frequently than the authors of literary
works originally written in Hungarian.
as contraction results in a lower number of
words in the TL text, it can be treated as a
kind of broad translation-strategy, i.e.
implicitation.
2. Distribution of meaning
Lexical distribution – in other terms:
dilution (Vinay and Darbelnet 1958,
1995),
segmentation (Klaudy 1995) or
division of meanings
= a standard transfer operation
whereby the complex lexical meaning
of a SL word is distributed over
several words in the TL
Distribution of meaning in translation
can be explained by the different segmentation of
reality e.g., kinship relations, by the different wordformation possibilities (e.g., long compound words
are common in German), and by the synthetic or
analytic nature of the lexical systems of different
Ls
due to their rich morphology and word-forming
potential, Hungarian verbs can incorporate more
meanings (synthesis) than IE verbs, which are
characterised by an analytical structure.
E.g., Hungarian: Becsomagoljam? (synthetic
form) – English: Shall I wrap it up? (analytic
form).
The distribution of grammatical meaning the H-IE
translation is obligatory  necessary to produce
grammatically correct TL sentences  not dealt
with here
More interesting  the distribution
of lexical meaning
synthetic nature of the Hungarian word
formation system  to amalgamate many
different shades and nuances of meaning
in one word with the help of a large number
of prefixes and suffixes.
To distribute the meaning of semantically
rich Hungarian verbs in H-IE translation is
an almost obligatory transfer operation
because translators translating from H into
IE often cannot find IE verbs of a similar
semantic complexity.
Subtypes:
1. Distribution of meaning in kinship terms
2. Distribution of meaning in complex nouns
3. Distribution of meaning in paraphrasing
translation
4. Distribution of meaning in inchoative verbs
5. Separation of adverbs of manner
6. Distribution of meaning in reporting verbs
7. Distribution of meaning in change of state
verbs
8. Distribution of meaning in semantically rich
verbs
1. Distribution of meaning in
kinship terms
Predominant direction: no
Kinship terms may have a more detailed
classification in one language and a less
detailed one in the other.
Hungarian: has a collective term for
testvérek (‘brother and sister’) while
English does not  the meaning of the
Hungarian word testvérek can only be
rendered by two words in English: brother
and sister
Hungarian  English:
testvérek (collective term in H) 
brothers/sisters (specific terms in E)
Hungarian ST: Azután elment, mert már
jöttek a varázsló rokonai és testvérei, s
azokkal ő nem volt ismerős. (Csáth 64)
English TT: Then she went away, because
the brothers and sisters and aunts and
uncles and cousins of the magician were
gathering, and she didn't know any of
them. (Kessler 204)
2. Distribution of meaning in
complex nouns
Predominant direction: GermanHungarian
the preference for word combinations in
German may produce very long words
which can be translated into Hungarian
only by several words: e.g.,
Kriegsfolgenbereinigungsgesetz  a
második világháború anyagi
következményeinek rendezéséről szóló
törvény. (‘war consequences clearing
act’).
German  Hungarian:
German ST: Hexerei und Kartenlesen,
Amulettgetrage, böser Blick,
Beschwörungen, Vollmondhokuspokus
und was sie sonst noch alles treiben ...
(Süskind 19)
Hungarian TT:. a boszorkányság,
kártyevetés, amulettviselés, szemmel
verés, igézés, teliholdkor történő
varázslások és hasonlók ellen ... (Farkas
15) (‘wizardry by full moon’)
3. Distribution of meaning in
paraphrasing translation
Predominant direction: no
in the absence of a precise TL term
translators render the meaning of the
SL term with a noun of general
meaning and a concretising attribute:
Hungarian kocsonya  English
meat in aspic; Hungarian kondér
English great kettle.
Hungarian  English:
Hungarian ST: Nem annyira, mint a
kocsonya, erről az uramat lehetne
faggatni, ... (Esterházy 53)
English TT: Not as much as meat in
aspic, though, you should ask my
husband about it, ... (Sollosy 42).
Paraphrasing is especially often used in
translation of so-called "cultural words", otherwise
referred to as "realia".
a descriptive Adjective +Noun combination:
English  Hungarian:
English ST: ..., his immaculate suit, stiff collar and
Homburg hat making a strange contrast to the
nets, bags and boxes full of testtubes with which
he was surrounded. (Durrell 109)
Hungarian TT: ... Makulátlan öltönye, kemény
gallérja és széles karimájú puhakalapja különös
ellentétben állt a hálókkal, zacskókkal,
kémcsővekkel telt dobozokkal, melyekkel
körülrakta magát. (Sárközi 114)
4. Distribution of meaning in
inchoative verbs
Predominant direction: Hungarian  IE
The complex meaning of Hungarian
inchoative verbs (e.g., elpityeredett)
is rendered by two separate verbs in
IE languages: one expressing the
beginning of the action (start,
beginnen), and other expressing the
action itself (snivelling).
Hungarian ST: Erre aztán Rozsákné is
felkelt, felöltözött és elpityeredett.
(Mikszáth 23)
English TT: This was enough to make Mrs.
Rozsák get up too, put on her clothes and
start snivelling. (Sturgess 27)
German TT: Da stand nun auch Frau
Rozsák auf, zog sich an und begann zu
flennen. (Schüching - Engl 291)
5. Separation of adverbs of
manner
Predominant direction: Hungarian  IE
in translating from Hungarian into IE
languages adverbs of manner are often
separated from the IE verb
the complex meaning of the Hungarian
verb including not only the action but also
the way or method of doing it (beront,
belibbent, elcipelt, bevillamosozik) can
only be rendered by two separate words in
IE translation: an adverb for expressing the
manner, style or way of the action
(hurriedly), and a verb for expressing the
action itself (return).
Hungarian  English:
Hungarian ST:... berontott az asszisztens
(Csáth 12)
English TT: ... the assistant returned
hurriedly. (Kessler 184)
Commentary: The complex meaning of the
synthetic Hungarian verb berontott
(‘rushed in’) is distributed between the
English verb returned and the adverb
hurriedly.
6. Distribution of meaning in
reporting verbs
distribution of meaning takes place when
translating reporting verbs from Hungarian into IE
languages
Hungarian reporting verbs of complex meaning
felhördül ‘to exclaim in protest’, hajtogat ‘to say a
thing over and over again’, kötekedik ‘to pick a
quarell’ or other verbs occasionally serving as
reporting verbs (sír ‘to cry’, csodálkozik ’to be
astonished’, mosolyog ‘to smile’), are divided into
a verb with general meaning and an adverb of
manner expressing the way of saying: mondta
szünet nélkül ‘said again and again’ mondta
csodálkozva ‘said with astonishment’, mondta
mosolyogva ‘said smiling’.
Hungarian  English:
Hungarian ST: – Eltitkolta-e? –
vigyorgott a káplán gonoszul.
(Mikszáth 35)
English TT: ‘Has he?’ said the
chaplain with a nasty grin. (Sturgess
42)
7. Distribution of meaning in
change of state verbs
sometimes it is impossible to render
changes in state with a single IE verb:
elvörösödik (‘turn red’), elkékül (‘turn
blue’) elérzékenyül (‘turn sentimental’).
Hungarian verbs indicating a change of
state are also frequently distributed in
translation into a verb of general meaning
and an adjective describing the state.
Hungarian ST: Egészen
belevörösödtem a próbálkozásba,
hogy a gyanús közmondást
kiegészítsem. (Karinthy 273)
English TT: My struggles to complete
the shady-looking proverb actually
made me quite red in the face.
(Barker 12)
8. Distribution of meaning in
semantically rich verbs
Predominant direction: Hungarian  IE
distribution of the meaning of verbs is one
of the most common transfer operations in
translating from Hungarian into English,
French, German and Russian
Semantically rich Hungarian verbs are very
often rendered by IE verbs of general
meaning (English: take, make, do) and
one or two nouns of specific meaning.
Hungarian  English:
Hungarian ST: Mikor a gróf felébredt,
kikocsizott, ha ugyan Estella
megengedte. (Mikszáth 16)
English TT: When the count awoke he
went out for a drive in his coach, if
Estella allowed him to. (Sturgess 18)
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