TRANSLATION 4 Collocation and translation Lingua Inglese 2

TRANSLATION 4. Collocation and translation Lingua Inglese 2 LM

Metalanguage of translation - Borrowing: his mafioso clothes - Calque: dens sapientiae > wisdom tooth - Literal translation: Ban Ki-moon is the Secretary-General of the UN > Ban Ki-moon è il Segretario Generale dell’ONU - Transposition: al mio ritorno >as soon as I return - Modulation: it’s difficult > non è facile - Idiomatic translation: cock-a-doodle-do > kikikiriki

What counts as a satisfactory translation ? - Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea, the eighth Secretary. General of the United Nations, brings to his post 37 years of service both in Government and on the global stage. - Ban Ki-moon, l'ottavo segretario generale delle Nazioni Unite, è della Repubblica di Corea. In una carriera di 37 anni, ha reso servizi eccezionali al governo del suo paese e a livello internazionale

Back translation - Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea, the eighth Secretary. General of the United Nations, brings to his post 37 years of service both in Government and on the global stage. - [Mr Ban Ki-moon, eighth Secretary-General of the Organization of the United Nations, is of the Republic of Korea. In 37 years of career, he has provided eminent service to the government of his country and on the international scene. ]

1. Translation by a more general word (superordinate) �Shampoo the hair with a mild WELLA SHAMPOO Lavare i capelli …. . Lavare is less specific than shampoo but the only possible translation.

What are the strategies here? �The Patrick Collection has a restaurant to suit every taste – from the discerning gourmet to the Cream Tea expert How do you deal with Cream Tea ?

2. Translation by cultural substitution �The Patrick Collection has a restaurant to suit every taste – from the discerning gourmet to the Cream Tea expert � ………. di soddisfare tutti i gusti: da quelli del gastronomo esigente a quelli dell’esperto di pasticceria

3. Translation by paraphrase �The Patrick Collection has a restaurant to suit every taste – from the discerning gourmet to the Cream Tea expert �… de la table gourmande au Salon de Thé à l’anglaise à l’anglaise is a paraphrase strategy (avoids explanation of what a Cream Tea is but suggests its uniqueness)

4 a. Translation by original term plus explanation The translator has to decide how much information and what kind of information the reader needs to know. The type of gloss used depends on how much info is needed and the text type: �Intratextual gloss (added into the text) - St Paul’s > St Paul’s Cathedral - Ed MIlliband > Ed Milliband il capo laburista - Waitrose > Il supermercato Waitrose

4 b. Translation by original term plus explanation �Extratextual gloss (footnote, endnote, glossary) Main text of translation - before recovering the beans, arrucao’ is required: Footnote of translation ‘ arrucao: clearing the ground under coffee trees of rubbish and piling it in the middle of the row in order to aid in the recovery of beans dropped during harvesting

5. Translation by omission �“il concerto ci ha regalato tante emozioni” The concert was very emotional for us �Here the idea of “giving something away for free” in regalare is lost

6. Translation by illustration

Summary of strategies for dealing with non-equivalence at word level �Translation by a more general word (superordinate) �Translation by cultural substitution �Translation by paraphrase �Translation by original expression plus explanation or added information �Translation by omission �Translation by illustration

Yes or no? YES NO commit a murder commit a task commit a crime perform a crime obtain a divorce obtain a habit acquire a divorce monumental stupidity monumental mistake monumental brilliance high building high mountain high boy tall building tall boy tall mountain blonde girl blonde hair blonde door deep water profound water

Yes or no? YES NO spotless kitchen flawless kitchen bright light bright daylight broad daylight narrow darkness

Collocation is not predictable

What is collocation? � “A word is known by the company it keeps” (JR Firth) - high building - tall building high mountain tall mountain* There is no definable reason why we choose to say “tall building” but not “tall mountain”. It is simply a question of COLLOCATION. 17

Number 2

Collocations with one word broken closed integrated printed short CIRCUIT

Number 3 a

Collocational meaning (1) �Collocational meaning refers to the associations that a word acquires in its collocation: e. g. girl boy woman man colour car pretty garden handsome building car devil cat clothes amount 21

Number 3 b

Collocational meaning (2) �In some cases a word can take its meaning from the word accompanying it e. g. white wine, white coffee green fruit, green with envy The different meanings of white and green are caused by their different collocation, i. e. the change in their verbal context (wine, coffee, fruit) 23

Number 3. c

Collocational meaning (3) �Collocational meaning can be more than the some of its parts: e. g. mother-in-law, hot dog Here the meaning of the collocation is completely different from its individual components In these cases we are dealing with an idiom. 25

Complete the phrase �by and …. . �last but not ……. . �like a bat out of …… �to speak your …. . �Merry ……. �Yours ……… �red ………. �to throw caution to the ……….

Complete the phrase �by and large �last but not least �like a bat out of hell �to speak your mind �Merry Christmas �Yours faithfully/truly/sincerely �red hair, shirt etc �to throw caution to the winds

4. a. video

Strong and weak collocations �Predictable = strong A strong collocation is a pair of words which are always found together, or one of which is always found with the other: e. g. last but not least is strong (last but not is only used with the word least) �Unpredictable = weak A weak collocation is a pair of words which are often paired individually with other words: e. g. red hair is a weak collocation because red collocates with lots of other things as well as hair 29

Number 4. b

Other examples STRONG �trenchant criticism �ulterior motives �recover from a major operation �moved to tears �white wine �make a mistake �blue sky WEAK 31

Number 5

Idioms �Idioms are the strongest possible types of collocations, i. e. they are fixed e. g. to bury the hatchet to face the music � Although the words that make up the idiom have their own literal meanings, in the idiom they have lost their individual identity. You cannot predict the meaning of an idiom from the sum of its parts. 33

Dealing with collocations �understanding L 2 English collocations and idioms �producing L 2 English collocations and idioms (e. g. in writing or speech) �translating L 2 English collocations and idioms into Italian �translating from Italian using L 2 English collocations

Understanding L 2 collocations (1) �Strong collocations and idioms are easier to understand because: there are fewer of them they are often interesting and memorable they are fixed and can be memorised as chunks

Number 6

Translating English idioms (1) �You first need to understand when an expression is being used idiomatically. e. g. “he’s got cold feet” �Find an equivalent idiom in the L 1 OR (if there isn’t one) �Paraphrase the idiom in the L 1

Translating English idioms (2) A: “How did you know that? ” B: “I heard it through the grapevine” �To “hear something through the grapevine” Is defined as “the informal transmission of information, gossip, or rumor from person to person”. �Translation ?

Translating English idioms (3) �How did you know that? ” �“I heard it through the grapevine” �“pettegolezzi” �“per sentito dire” �“passaparola” �“tamtam” �“voci di corridoio” �“me l’ha detto l’uccellino”

Translating English idioms (4) The problem with producing L 2 collocations is to be aware of how many possible Italian translations there are. This means that you need to: �research the english idiom and understand its nuances �use an Italian thesaurus or synonym dictionary to find an equivalent �consult your friends �make a note of the translation

Producing English collocations The problem with producing English L 2 collocations is to be aware of how many there are. This means that you need to: �read and listen widely in English �research the English collocations using dictionaries and other resources (next lesson) �make notes on English collocations and their meanings �learn English collocations

Number 7

Translation into L 2 collocations �There is often equivalence between Italian and English for strong collocations and idioms: e. g. monumental mistake errore madornale These are very strong collocations in both languages �Medium collocations are harder to use in translation because there are no rules as to why you can say x+z but not y+z: e. g. commit a crime but not perform a crime 43

Different strength �alzarsi le spalle This is a medium strength collocation - “alzarsi” is used with a lot of words �shrug your shoulders This is a strong collocation because when used as a transitive verb, “shrug” only collocates with “shoulders” Is it easier for an Italian student to learn “shrug your shoulders” or for an English student to learn “alzarsi le spalle” ?

Translating collocations into L 2 Be careful with word for word translation of collocations: �“fuori discussione” - out of question - out of the question

Research, note down and learn The problem with producing L 2 collocations is to be aware of how many there are. This means that you need to: �read widely and identify collocations �research words �use dictionaries and other resources (next lesson) �make notes of collocations and their meanings �learn collocations

Reading and identifying collocations � Identify words appearing frequently in similar contexts Blast victims were helped by the neighbours Flu victims were helped by the doctors Crime victims were helped by the police � Collocations: identify synonyms that don’t appear in similar contexts Flu victims, flu sufferers Crime victims, crime sufferers? ? 47

Researching collocations �Dictionaries �Corpora �Concordances �Parallel texts �Online resources More on this in lesson 5

Make notes for collocation � It is helpful to organise your notes like this: attract be subject to deserve react to blast flu crime criticism - do not record more than five collocates - use only strong and frequent collocates victims 49

Learning collocations �Any suggestions?