FACOLTÀ DI STUDI UMANISTICI
Lingue e culture per la mediazione linguistica
Traduzione
LESSON 2
Prof.ssa Olga Denti
a.a. 2015-2016
Language functions & translation
What words come to your mind when talking
about language functions & translation?
Topic of this lesson
• The pragmatic aspects of translation
• The interaction of language forms and
functions within & across language
boundaries, in relation to the addresser’s aims
and text communicative purpose
• Jakobsons’s lg functions: referential, emotive,
conative, poetic, metalingual, phatic.
Introduction
• From the SL to the TL: knowledge of both lgs, of their
formal and functional levels and of how they interact,
of the ST in its linguistic and extralinguistic contexts
and its transmission into the TT
• Example: Ulrich 1992: 31 “Dove vuoi che vada?”
 Where should I go?
 Where do you want me to go?
 Where do you expect me to go?
 Where do you think I’m going?
-> What is her purpose? How do we translate
incorporating it?
Language functions (1)
• Language is used to reach diverse purposes
• J. Austin (1962) speech acts:
Locutionary – literal meaning
Illocutionary – communicative force
Perlocutionary – effect/reaction in the
addressee/recipient
Language functions (2)
• Searle’s (1969, 1976) taxonomy of speech acts
(microfunctions):
Speech Acts
Purpose
Types
Representatives representation
Stating, telling, insisting
Expressives
stance
Deploring, admiring
Verdictives
assessment
Assessing, estimating
Directives
Commissives
ask for action on the
receiver’s part
commitment
Ordering, requesting, warning,
prohibiting, daring
Promising, vowing, pledging
Declarations
declaration
Blessing, baptizing, dismissing
The role of the translator
• The translator
 the receiver of the ST
 the sender of the TL
• Equivalence of content and intention
(conceptual meaning and illocutionary force)
• Relationship between form & function: “Vuol
leggere o non vuol leggere?”
Not offering an alternative
Formality hides a threat
Therefore…
1.
2.
3.
4.

Are you going to read o not?
Are you going to read or aren’t you?
Do you want to read or don’t you?
Ha intenzione v ha voglia
“To misconstrue or misinterpret the
illocutionary force of the utterance is to
mistranslate and misrepresent the author’s
actual intent” (Ulrich 1992: 35)
• As translators: text as a whole, equivalence of
illocutionary structure:
1. Breaking down discourse in constituent
speech acts
2. Render them in the TL as a whole (as
interrelating chains of acts)
• Example: public directives: requests,
commands, warnings, prohibitions, built
through passives, modal verbs, imperatives,
the determiner no, the impersonal infinitive
form, etc.
• The use of different structures for the same
function
Jakobson’s act of verbal
communication
ADDRESSER
CONTEXT
MESSAGE
CONTACT
CODE
ADDRESSEE
Aspects of the discourse situation ->
≠ macrofunctions of language and
≠ structures
Macrofunctions (Jakobson 1960)
EMOTIVE
REFERENTIAL
POETIC
CONATIVE
PHATIC
METALINGUAL
• Emotive f.: internal states and emotions of the
addresser (1st p. I, interjections, personal style)
• Conative f.: aims at influencing the internal states
and emotions of the addressee (2nd p. you,
vocative & imperative
• Referential f.: informative function (3rd p., objects,
events, facts in the context; nominalisation,
premodification, passives, stative verbs; less
formal, 1st p.p. & dynamic active verbs)
• Poetic f.: aesthetic f., the form of the message
(sound-effect, rhythm, figurative language,
phonological resemblance) as an crucial part of
the message meaning & force
• Examples: political slogans, ads, sayings.
• Phatic f.: sets contact between the addresser and
the addressee (opening and checking the channel
of communication)
• Examples: Can you hear me?, Well, here we are. I
see.
• Metalingual f.: “attention on the code to clarify or
re-negotiate it” (Ulrich 29) “what do you mean?”
In terms of translation… (1)
• Close to text types & discourse genres
• Writer’s communicative purpose
 Choice of language for the TL version
• Although multifunctional, one predominant
function & typology
 Emotive (expressive) function -> author-centred
(author’s feelings)
- Characterised by: author’s personal style + idiosyncrasies
-> intact translation
- Ex.: literary texts, autobiographies, speeches, author’s
prefaces, personal correspondence
 Referential (informative) function -> contentcentred (information provided)
- Not the author’s feelings but the content in an
accurate & appropriate way
- Ex.: textbooks, technical reports, scientific articles
Conative (vocative) function -> reader-centred
(affecting the reader’s behaviour)
- Ex.:
Advertising,
propaganda,
official
recommendations, polemical & persuasive writing
- Use of lg geared towards the receiver of the TT. TL
conventions + pragmatic equivalence bet ST & TT
- Use of formality in addressing people: you < tu, Lei,
loro
In conclusion,
•
•
•
•
≠ types of texts, predominant function
Focus: author, information, reader
Denotative, neutral, connotative lg
Polemical, persuasive, authoritative judgmental
(warnings, recommendations, advice)
• Thus, Expressive text – SL-oriented (personal
component), informative text – text-oriented
(accurate and intelligible message to the intended
TT
reader),
vocative
textTL-oriented
(comprehensible + warning, recommending,
instructing, persuading)
In terms of translation… (2)
 Poetic (aesthetic) function -> centred on form
of the message (sensitivity to stylistic aspects
(phonological features, rhythm & rhyme
- To be relayed into the TT or through some
compensation strategies
Phatic function -> socialisation – contact set up
- Standard phrases – standard equivalents
- Ex. Openings & closings of official correspondence
 Metalingual (aesthetic) function
- Ex.: Standard terminology as lexicographic
annotations
in
dictionaries,
explanations,
descriptions in grammar books or lg textbooks
- Clarify or re-negotiate the code
• The identification of text types & genres builds
expectations on the lg content. The translation may
more smoothly make hypotheses & lexical,
grammatical, syntactic choices
Rhetorical functions
• Next step: what rhetorical functions has the SL
writer used
• Persuasion by: narrating, describing, arguing &
counterarguing
• Werlich’s dominant contextual focus (the
predominant function of the text)
• Lg MARKERS identify each text type
• Translator’s aid to select linguistic features in
the TL
Werlich’s text types
• The textual organisation of the domain is
reflected in the way linear relations develop:
they stand for temporal, causal, spatial, or
social relations between referents in the world
described by that text (Ramm 2000, 156).
• Narrative, descriptive, expository, instructive
and argumentative
Narrative text types
• Ex. My itinerary was a 3 day one, during the peak of
summer in Mid July. The 1st night I stayed in Pisa,
from memory the last train from Pisa central to
Monterrosso was at 9.30pm and to be conservative
I did not think I would arrive in time to make the
train. (JD Chronicles)
• Historic/temporal factual or conceptual events,
action-recording sentences .
• Events and participants are chronologically
portrayed through temporal circumstances or
participant roles.
• Narration is often agent-oriented. Narration
refers to the development of the trip through the
use of predicate verbs such as start and change.
Facts develop along an itinerary: we spotted, we
did not, we continued, we came across, etc.
Adverbials of place but especially of time are
frequent.
• 1st ps + simple past. The report as the most
formal one
• positions and directions in space, to technical
objective descriptions
• By means of a judicious mixture of concessions and tax
relief, Eleonora brought the country under control
within a few months. Her popularity increased when, in
1392, she published the Carta de Logu, a written
constitution … (Insight Guide 2001: 49)
• In 1478 yet another Sardinian dream of maintaining
the island’s independence was shattered near the little
town of Macomer, which lies some 15 km (810 miles)
further southwards. (ibid.: 226)
Descriptive text types
• Analysis of places, people and relations (subject
matter), by the use of spatial chaining strategies
indicated by spatial positions in the sentence.
• Spatial circumstances occupy the theme position
• Descriptions range from technical, objective
neutral properties to, and more frequently,
attitudinal
and
evaluative/hyperbolic,
metaphorical, comparative and evocative
viewpoints
• Subjective impressions of relations and qualities,
impressionistic descriptions. Adverbials of place
to reinforce the style.
• “There’s only so much panini, pizza and pasta you
could stomach everyday so we went to a Chinese
restaurant just downstairs our hostel for dinner.
The food was not bad but we had the most
ridiculous fried wantan here, which was a deep
fried ravioli actually lol” (vkeong).
• Use of the simple past + simple present of static
or motion verbs (not leading to a change) is
existential (e.g., There’s) and shows timelessness.
We may get a vivid image of the writer’s
experience.
• Use of 1st p and of a non-personal third p.
• Following Via Cagliari, 3 km south of Oristano is the
suburb of Santa Giusta, named for a local martyr and
her church, set in a fine position on a low hill, in front
of a little park incongruously lit by street lamps from a
Jetson cartoon. (2002: 126)
• Dominating a high point in the centre of Santa Giusta,
virtually a satellite of Oristano just 3km south on the
Stagno di Santa Giusta lagoon, is the proud basilica of
the same name. (Lonely Planet 2003: 177)
• Three kilometres south of Oristano, eucalyptus woods
round the Stagno di Santa Giusta provide shade for
picnics and birdwatchers …. (Rough Guide 2002: 175)
Instructive text type
• Stages to be followed by the reader, constructed
through sequential chaining strategies of temporal
circumstances or processes. People and objects are
related through intended future behaviour (Bondi
1999: 16). The reader is expected to follow the steps: “
Start out at the FORK WHERE THE SURFACED ROAD ENDS by
following the gravel track to the right. (…) Cross the
bridge, go up the opposite embankment for a few
paces. And turn right at the junction. Now follow …”
(Flower Landscapes 2001: 70)
• Recipes, instructions or prescriptions “Bring your
binoculars: the lagoons are flamingo heaven … you’ll
find blinds where you can watch them …” (Cadogan
Guide 2003: 157)
• An evident future behaviour, an actiondemanding sentence, constructed through
sequential chaining strategies of temporal
circumstances or processes. The reader is
expected to follow the steps, through the use of
the imperative form, e.g., Trust me, always
remember, the passive voice and modal verbs.
• Would is used to give advice and when history is
uncertain; must shows evaluation, e.g. “must be
painful”; will is employed when giving
recommendations and introducing the following
site on the itinerary, as in “you will need to spend
at least three good hours to see…”, “you will also
see …”.
• If clauses are employed with the same
purpose: persuasion. Directions are followed
on the authority of practical validity
• The point of view may be subjective, as in
instructions, or objective, as in directions and
regulations. It is expressed through the 1st
person or the 2nd person
Argumentative text type
• Present, through the use of through- and
counter-argument patterns, and of a conjunctive
theme:
“Summer would be the best time to see Rome,
when the temperature is at an average 25°C and
the weather is calmer too. But that is also during
the tourism peak season so plan your trip early,
especially the accommodation part.” (vkeong)
• Attitudes sustained in relation with their
opposites. Recommendation is often introduced
by expressions such as It is advisable, would be
the best time, or
• “Dripping with washing strung across the
balconies, many of the high blocks are run-down
and don’t admit much light, though the lack of
fuss or traffic makes for an agreeable stroll
through the long alleys …” (2002: 73)
• “Although Poetto may do for a morning dip or an
evening out, it probably won’t meet your
requirements for the perfect beach – and you
don’t need to go very far from Cagliari to find
something nearer the mark.” (ibid.: 94)
• Typical expressions are opinion verbs, or
expressions of intention, decision, expectations
and beliefs. Expectations may not be fulfilled:
“But honestly most of the food did not really suit
our tastebuds, and I am not a drinker so I wasn’t
able to appreciate their wine too. So, only the
spicy roast pork managed to leave us with a
memorable taste.” (vkeong, 2010, Rome).
• Negative sentences and contrastive expressions
• Five types of argumentative style: informal,
ironical, appreciatory, depreciatory, and
persuasive (1st p. s. & present tense)
Expository text type
• Involved where generic concepts are dealt
with, through characterisation specified by
participant roles.
• Ideas and impressions are summarised or
analysed
• The writer’s presentation of statement &
stance aiming at persuading the reader and
generate consensus
For the translator…
• Understand the dominant contextual focus to
understand how the text is manipulated & its
main lg markers
• Identification of the lg function “for the creation
and reception of coherent discourse and for
successful communication and translation”
(Ulrich 64)
• Interpretation of SL writer, matching them w the
linguistic features of the TL to achieve same effect
in the TT