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Translation as a source of pragmatic interference?

An empirical investigation of French and Italian cleft sentences

Abstract

In this paper, we pursue two main (interconnected) goals, relying on a comparable and parallel corpus of French and Italian cleft sentences. First, we assess the most typical formal and functional properties of clefts in these languages, while also considering variation due to the different types of data. Second, we verify the presence of interference in the translation of clefts from French into Italian. Translators’ choices mostly align with information-structural patterns found in original Italian texts, but word-for-word translation styles can increase the frequency of less-common cleft types in Italian, such as Broad Focus and Information Focus clefts. However, odd or infelicitous pragmatic effects arise only in very few cases.

Abstract

In this paper, we pursue two main (interconnected) goals, relying on a comparable and parallel corpus of French and Italian cleft sentences. First, we assess the most typical formal and functional properties of clefts in these languages, while also considering variation due to the different types of data. Second, we verify the presence of interference in the translation of clefts from French into Italian. Translators’ choices mostly align with information-structural patterns found in original Italian texts, but word-for-word translation styles can increase the frequency of less-common cleft types in Italian, such as Broad Focus and Information Focus clefts. However, odd or infelicitous pragmatic effects arise only in very few cases.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction. When data challenges theory 1
  4. Part I. Theoretical studies
  5. Distinguishing psychological Given/New from linguistic Topic/Focus makes things clearer 39
  6. Remarks on information structure marking asymmetries 57
  7. Alternatives to information structure 91
  8. Part II. Case studies
  9. How alternatives are created 115
  10. Is focus a root phenomenon? 147
  11. The curious case of the rare focus movement in French 183
  12. To be or not to be focus adverbials? 203
  13. Unmarked use of marked syntactic structures 239
  14. Translation as a source of pragmatic interference? 271
  15. Index 305
When Data Challenges Theory
This chapter is in the book When Data Challenges Theory
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.273.09gar

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction. When data challenges theory 1
  4. Part I. Theoretical studies
  5. Distinguishing psychological Given/New from linguistic Topic/Focus makes things clearer 39
  6. Remarks on information structure marking asymmetries 57
  7. Alternatives to information structure 91
  8. Part II. Case studies
  9. How alternatives are created 115
  10. Is focus a root phenomenon? 147
  11. The curious case of the rare focus movement in French 183
  12. To be or not to be focus adverbials? 203
  13. Unmarked use of marked syntactic structures 239
  14. Translation as a source of pragmatic interference? 271
  15. Index 305
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