1 Gravitational pull in translation. Testing a revised model
Abstract
The gravitational pull hypothesis was introduced as a possible explanation for some general features of translated language (Halverson 2003, 2010a), building on the cognitive semantic concept of semasiological salience in linguistic categories. The basic idea is that highly salient linguistic items (lexis or grammatical constructions) would be more likely to be chosen by translators and thus be overrepresented in translational corpus data. The hypothesis is being developed into a more comprehensive and detailed cognitive linguistic model to incorporate salience phenomena in both source and target language categories as well as the effects of entrenched links between translation pairs. This chapter presents preliminary investigations of central elements of the model using the polysemous verb get as a test case. Following a presentation of the revised model, the first stage of the analysis involves using independent empirical studies of get (Berez and Gries 2008; Johansson and Oksefjell 1996; Gronemeyer 1999) and of get and its Norwegian counterparts (Ebeling 2003) to establish a viable model of a bilingual (Norwegian-English) schematic network for this verb. In order to test this model in an online non-translation task, an elicitation test is run on Norwegian-English bilinguals. This provides further evidence of the salience structure within the target language category in these bilinguals. In the second stage, corpus data from the English-Norwegian parallel corpus and Translog performance data are analyzed to look for evidence of the hypothesized effects. The empirical results are discussed both in terms of the evolving cognitive model and in terms of the contribution of various data types to testing cognitive theoretic notions.
Abstract
The gravitational pull hypothesis was introduced as a possible explanation for some general features of translated language (Halverson 2003, 2010a), building on the cognitive semantic concept of semasiological salience in linguistic categories. The basic idea is that highly salient linguistic items (lexis or grammatical constructions) would be more likely to be chosen by translators and thus be overrepresented in translational corpus data. The hypothesis is being developed into a more comprehensive and detailed cognitive linguistic model to incorporate salience phenomena in both source and target language categories as well as the effects of entrenched links between translation pairs. This chapter presents preliminary investigations of central elements of the model using the polysemous verb get as a test case. Following a presentation of the revised model, the first stage of the analysis involves using independent empirical studies of get (Berez and Gries 2008; Johansson and Oksefjell 1996; Gronemeyer 1999) and of get and its Norwegian counterparts (Ebeling 2003) to establish a viable model of a bilingual (Norwegian-English) schematic network for this verb. In order to test this model in an online non-translation task, an elicitation test is run on Norwegian-English bilinguals. This provides further evidence of the salience structure within the target language category in these bilinguals. In the second stage, corpus data from the English-Norwegian parallel corpus and Translog performance data are analyzed to look for evidence of the hypothesized effects. The empirical results are discussed both in terms of the evolving cognitive model and in terms of the contribution of various data types to testing cognitive theoretic notions.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1 Gravitational pull in translation. Testing a revised model 9
- 2 The impact of translation direction on characteristics of translated texts. A multivariate analysis for English and German 47
- 3 Variability of English loanword use in Belgian Dutch translations. Measuring the effect of source language and register 81
- 4 The effects of editorial intervention. Implications for studies of the features of translated language 113
- 5 Phraseological patterns in interpreting and translation. Similar or different? 157
- 6 Contrasting terminological variation in post-editing and human translation of texts from the technical and medical domain 183
- 7 Exploratory analysis of dimensions influencing variation in translation. The case of text register and translation method 207
- 8 Typological differences shining through. The case of phrasal verbs in translated English 235
- 9 English-German contrasts in cohesion and implications for translation 265
- Index 313
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- 1 Gravitational pull in translation. Testing a revised model 9
- 2 The impact of translation direction on characteristics of translated texts. A multivariate analysis for English and German 47
- 3 Variability of English loanword use in Belgian Dutch translations. Measuring the effect of source language and register 81
- 4 The effects of editorial intervention. Implications for studies of the features of translated language 113
- 5 Phraseological patterns in interpreting and translation. Similar or different? 157
- 6 Contrasting terminological variation in post-editing and human translation of texts from the technical and medical domain 183
- 7 Exploratory analysis of dimensions influencing variation in translation. The case of text register and translation method 207
- 8 Typological differences shining through. The case of phrasal verbs in translated English 235
- 9 English-German contrasts in cohesion and implications for translation 265
- Index 313
