The English –ing form and its equivalents in Spanish: contrast

Spanish equivalents of
the English gerundparticiple in the ACTRES
parallel corpus
Marlén Izquierdo
University of León (Spain)
dfmmif@unileon.es
Outline:
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The study:
Object
z Relevance
z Objectives
z
Theoretical principles
| Methodology
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Tools
z Stages (analysis + results)
z
Conclusions
| Future research
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The study
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English gerund-participle (-ing form) from a contrastive &
translation-descriptive point of view
Problem-trigger for translation into Spanish:
z Multifunctional
z Traditionally associated with the Spanish gerund (-ndo)
• Overuse (´translationese´)
Real relationship between –ing/ -ndo?
Which other Spanish resources are functionally equivalent?
z Set of translational options (one-to-many)
z Applications:
• Translator training
• FLT
Theoretical framework
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ACTRES research group
z
z
z
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Contrastive Analysis and Descriptive Translation
Studies
Applied (inter)linguistics
Usage-based description
• Functionalism
• Corpus linguistics
meaning = functional equivalence: tertium
comparationis for contrast and condition for
translation
• Qualitative study
Methodology
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Tools:
z Linguistic corpora:
• ACTRES Parallel Corpus (stages 2 & 3)
• Qualitative data
• CREA: control corpus (stage 4)
• Quantitative study
z Browser:
CWB (stage 1)
z Statistical package: Chi-square test (stage 4)
P-ACTRES
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Original AmE & BE texts & translation into Spanish
(Unidirectional)
2.3 million-word written, general language
Texts from 2000 up to now
3 sub-corpora:
z Books (fiction [34%] & non-fiction [43%])
z Press (editorials [10%] & magazine articles [10%])
z Miscellanea [3%]
Sentence-aligned & pos-tagged
Stage 1: selection
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CWB:
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Population from P-ACTRES: 244,276 words
4,441 Parallel Concordances
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Stage 2: description
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Original English –ing constructions (from P-ACTRES)
KWIC
Form
meaning
Four major functions:
Adverbial
Aspectual
Characterization
Referential
[progressive]
1,436
1,204
1,049
752
32,3%
27,1%
23,6%
16,9%
Adverbial –ing constructions
Arriving in front of the protective plexiglas,
Time
393
27,3 %
Process
311
21,6%
Getting on her hands and knees, she
Accumulation
278
19,3%
H-D lent me a poem called Waste Land by
Eliot, advising me to read it.
Result
127
8,8%
…lit the new leaves on the apple trees from
behind, turning them a glowing lime green, an
Reason
122
8,5%
They did not let him join them, preferring
him to study and better himself, but the…
Purpose
101
7,02%
Hedging his bets, he ordered half of his men
Concession
44
3,05%
…instead of returning it to the king and
claiming his prize, he rode over the hill …
Place
29
2,08%
…left on time at 2.10 p.m. […], heading
west, its engine…
Condition
20
1,4%
I might have a chance, all being well, of
being selected…
Disjuncts
Stance
10
0,7%
…following the Kantian tradition of
cosmopolitan federalism, I will underscore
Conjunct
Conclusion
1
0,03%
Circumstantial
(direction)
Sophie held her breath…
reached beneath her wooden…
back to the Louvre perimeter…
‘In closing’, Langdon said…
Aspectual –ing constructions
She was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt so large that the …
He had been working on the painting for almost two months…
…urgently indicating that what I was being told was
completely in…
553
46%
Present
436
36,2%
…but then you can fall off a mountain you’re climbing fore…
…between hope and scepticism that is being fought inside…
…that’s exactly what Mundy has been doing, but he is too
polite…
Future
123
10,2%
What is he going to do once he is in Paris or London?
How many of them do you think will be voting for Ken Lay’s
best…
Langdon was not going anywhere
Conditional
48
3,9%
I viewed his movement as if I were standing in the street,
looking…
…nor at Tanneke, who would be frowning because I had
pushed her...
Infinitive
45
3,7%
He must be trying to tell me more than that..
Past
Characterization by –ing
constructions
47%
The invading army stopped in its tracks at the sight of…
Participial
adjective
492
Reduced –ing
relative clause
312
29,8%
Two billiard balls rolling towards each other at the same
speed have equal but opposite…
[two billiard balls which are rolling towards each
other…]
Noun postmodifier
196
18,6%
…he is in the process of losing his taste for
Shakespeare…
…more entertaining method for preserving dates and
details
Adjective postmodifier
49
4,7%
…each of whom looked capable of tearing up oak
trees…
Flikschuch’s argument is worth considering in some
detail…
…needed to strain at creaking wooden carts to
maintain..
Referential –ing constructions
Catenative
complement
381
50,6%
Funny how his mind kept going back to that song…
I found myself just staring at him in wonderment…
He needs to hear someone speaking quietly to him…
Prepositional verb
complement
119
15,8%
I thought about walking out but decided to…
I accuse the general who stands besides you of stealing the
other…
Subject
106
14,1%
Being at least half dressed would speed his getaway if…
The praying stopped and cursing began.
Direct Object
49
6,5%
Leave the talking to me.
Complement
41
5,4%
German paratroops were reported fighting in Polish uniforms,
assisted by ethnic Volksdeutsche dressed in distinctive…
Comparative
30
4%
Others
26
3,4%
That is like throwing up a ball with exactly the right escape
velocity…
…and echoing the negating movement of his finger with a rapid
shaking of his head…
Stage 3: contrast
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Meaning
form
Recurrent translational options
Translational options of -ing adverbials
40
35,7
35
30
25
20
18,2
15
10
5
0
9,5 9,2
8,2 7,9
3,2 2,7
1,6 1,5 0,9 0,6 0,7
Gerund
Sub. Adverbial [nFin]
Sub. Adverbial [fin]
PP
Simple clause
Coordination
Adjective
Relative cl.
Omission
No TR
NP
Adverb
Others
Fleeing the men’s room, they moved into…
Abandonando el servicio, se internaron en las sombras…
…concentrated on smoking while stamping our feet to …
…nos concentramos en fumar mientras pisoteábamos con fuerza el suelo…
Following the first Gulf War, he went into Iraq repeatedly…
Con posterioridad a la Guerra del Golfo, fue enviado repetidas veces..
Translational options of -ing aspectual
constructions
60
50
47,75
40
30
29,4
20
11,8
10
2,2 1,5 1,4
0
1,07 1,07 0,7 0,6 0,6 0,5 0,4 0,2 0,2
VP [finite]
Estar + G
Complex VP
Estar + Adj
Estar + PP
Clause
Infinitive
NP
PP
Adjective
Passive
No TR
Gerund
Omission
Others
Mundy is listening hard
Mundy escucha con atención
Tell me what is happening
Contad lo que está ocurriendo
…but they were still using orange crates for storage…
… pero seguían aprovechando las cajas de naranjas para almacenar…
Translational options of –ing modifiers
35
30,9
30
25
20
15
10
5
18,3
13,2 12,7
7,8
5,2 4,8
2,7 1,9
0,8 1,04
Adjective
Relative cl.
PP
N/Adj+prep+inf.
Clause
NP
Gerund
No TR
Omission
Adverb
Others
0
…between the talking heads, he can see the sea’s black horizon and..
…entre las cabezas parlantes, ve el horizonte negro del mar y…
Among the evacuees returning from Holland was Sir Neville Bland, the…
Entre los evacuados que regresaban de Holanda estaba sir Neville Bland,
embajador…
…isn’t even going to get to the starting line…
…no va a llegar siquiera a la línea de salida
Translational options of –ing referential
constructions
30
25,9
25
20
16,2
15
10
5
12,9 12,3 11,8
10,1
3,7 2,2
1,9 1,2 1,6
Infinitive
NP
Gerund
Subordination
VP
Simple clause
PP
Adjective
No TR
Omission
Others
0
Driving a car takes up all Sasha’s attention
Conducir exige a Sasha toda su atención
If I didn’t have my sculpting, I don’t know if I’d be ok
Si no tuviera mis esculturas, no sé si…
… its serene beauty I find myself wondering why Lucy has turned not…
…su serena belleza me descubro preguntándome por qué la actitud de Lucy…
Stage 4: ‘translationese’ control
Overuse of the Spanish Gerund?
| CREA & Chi-square test
| Quantitative study
E.g. ‘esperando’
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instances in CREA: 523
P-ACTRES: 57
p-value: 0 [significant]
instances/million CREA: 32,1/m
P-ACTRES: 84,1/m
Overuse: 33,9%
Conclusions
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Spanish G:
Central equivalent: adverbial and aspectual
z Marginal equivalent: characterization &
referential
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Functional/translation equivalence –ing &
Spanish: one-to-many
| Translationese in the use of the G
| CA ∞ Parallel Corpora ∞ DTS
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Future research
PhD dissertation
| Larger amount of data
| Non-finite –ing constructions
| Comparable-corpus-based yuxtaposition –ing/ndo prior to the contrastive-descriptive
parallel-corpus-based analysis
| Stage 4: qualitative extension
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z
Lexical analysis
Comments and questions?
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Thank you!