UCCTS 2010 Edge Hill University 27-29 July 2010
Using corpora to define targetlanguage use in translation
Rudy Loock
Université de Lille 3, France & CNRS UMR 8163 STL
1. Introduction
2
 Starting point : teaching considerations
 Literal translation belongs to an ideal world
 Translators have to face several types of constraints
when translating from source-language (SL) to
target-language (TL) :



Morphological
Syntactic
Stylistic
1. Introduction
3
 Morphological constraints :
some morpheme associations are possible in SL but
not in TL
(1) Adj + -ly :
slow>slowly / lent>lentement ; quick>quickly / rapide>rapidement ;
clever>cleverly / intelligent>intelligemment
fervent>fervently / fervent>*fervemment (avec ferveur) ;
interesting>interestingly / intéressant>*intéressamment (de façon
intéressante)
(2) success>successful / succès>*successeux (avec succès)
(3) compounding : white-teethed ; leather-bound ; gay-friendly
= lexical gaps
1. Introduction
4
 Syntactic constraints :
Some syntactic organizations are possible in SL but
not in TL
(4) dative passive:
Lily was given flowers. >*Lily a été donnée des fleurs. (Lily a reçu des
fleurs.)
(5) satellite-framed vs. verb-framed language (cf. Talmy, Slobin):
Mary swam across the river. > *Mary a nagé à travers la rivière. (Mary a
traversé la rivière à la nage.)
(6) stranded prepositions:
The article which I referred to > *L’article que j’ai référé à (l’article auquel
j’ai référé)
1. Introduction
5
 Stylistic constraints
Some literal translations are impossible because the
result would be long, complex or clumsy sentences
that do not combine together properly
(7) The reason I don't have him thrown out is because I find all this
curiously thrilling.
=> Si je ne le fais pas jeter dehors, c'est que je trouve toute cette histoire
curieusement excitante.
1. Introduction
6
 But not sufficient : need to explain why one
translation sounds ‘better’, ‘more natural’ twhile
another ‘sounds like translation’ :
« That’s not what native speakers usually say… »
« Your translation is fine, but does not sound completely natural… »
 =Usage/langue use constraint that takes into
account the way real people really use the language
1. Introduction
7
 Problem: how to determine language use/usage?
Some is codified/lexicalized and listed in dictionaries:
table leg vs. pied de table
cast-iron case vs. dossier en béton
But what about non-codified usage?
Intuition of native speakers? (What if you’re not?)
 General conceptions based on personal experience
(talent)?
 More scientific way of determining the usage constraint?

=> Corpora investigation
2. Determining usage
8
 Lexical usage
Expressions to refer to ‘influenza endemic to birds’ :
E : bird flu | avian (in)flu(enza) | H5N1 virus/strain
F : grippe du poulet | grippe aviaire | virus/souche H5N1
The different terms seem to suggest a series of equivalences :
(e.g. bird flu = grippe du poulet)
But speakers do not use these terms in the same way/with the
same frequency in English and in French
=> Search on Google
2. Determining usage
9
3.00% 1.50%
bird flu
avian in(flu)enza
44.50%
51.00%
H5N1 virus
H5N1 strain
3.50%
3.50%
20.50%
grippe du poulet
grippe aviaire
virus H5N1
souche H5N1
72.50%
Google search July 2010
2. Determining usage
10
 Expression of periodicity : weekly vs. hebdomadairement
Google search July 2010
2.
2. Determining usage
11
 Syntactic usage : more difficult to evaluate
e.g. relative clauses :
- not always translated ‘literally’, i.e. using the same
structure
- seems to be some systematicity independently of
syntactic constraints
 Corpus search
 But Google impossible to use
2. Determining usage
12
 Corpus-based study on the translation of RCs from
English to French and from French to English (Loock
2009)
 Corpus: first 25,000 words taken from:


2 novels originally written in French and translated into
English (N. Hornby’s How to be Good and D. Lodge’s
Thinks…)
2 novels originally written in English and translated into
French (F. Beigbeder’s Windows on the world and B. Werber’s
Les Fourmis)
 Search for some systematic differences/patterns
2. Determining usage
13
 Global results : RCs not systematically maintained
Corpus
Number of RCs
Translation with RC
Translation with
other structure*
HORNBY
154
93 (60,4%)
61 (39,6%)
LODGE
119
82 (68,9%)
37 (31,1%)
BEIGBEDER
100
56 (56%)
44 (44%)
WERBER
152
73 (48%)
79 (52%)
* Participle clauses, independent clauses, adjectives, noun phrases, parentheticals, ellipsis…
2. Determining usage
14
 Systematic non-literal translations (ceteris paribus):
- (Much) more frequent use of cleft structures (it is [X]
that…/c’est [X] qui…) in F than in E:
(8) Et tout d'un coup c'est David qui prend la parole, en fixant les marches
de l'escalier au milieu desquelles coule une rivière. (Beigbeder 99)
=> Then, suddenly, David starts to speak, staring at the river running
down the steps.
(9) C'est une antenne anonyme qui vient d'émettre cette phéromone
phrase. (Werber 71)
 An anonymous antenna had just emitted this pheromone sentence.
(10) Ce sont tout d'abord les murs qui subissent une grande secousse
latérale. (Werber 110)
=> First the walls were shaken by a big lateral tremor.
2. Determining usage
15
 In general, RCs are often reformulated when translated from
E to F with prepositional phrases:
(11) He had a glass of white wine in his hand and I guess it wasn't the first one he'd
imbibed that evening. (Lodge 51)
=> Il tenait à la main un verre de vin blanc et ce n'était sûrement pas pour lui le
premier de la soirée.
(12) Or we may develop computers that are carbon-based, like biological organisms,
instead of silicon-based ones.' (Lodge 90)
=> Nous pourrions aussi élaborer des ordinateurs à base de carbone comme les
organismes biologiques, au lieu qu'ils soient à base de silicone.
(13) David's only steady income derives from a newspaper column he contributes to
our local paper. (Hornby 15)
=> David tire son seul revenu régulier d'une rubrique dans notre journal local.
2. Determining usage
16
 Frenchs RCs, when they are reformulated, are often
replaced with –ing clauses (25% in our corpus):
(14) Si un Boeing entrait sous mes pieds, je saurais enfin ce qui me torture
depuis un an : je saurais la fumée noire qui monte du sol, la chaleur qui
fait fondre les murs, les fenêtres explosées… (Beigbeder 21)
=> If a Boeing were to crash below my feet, I would finally know what it is
that has tortured me for a year now: the black smoke seeping from the
floor, the heat melting the walls, the exploded windows...
(15) L'écrivain est comme la cavalerie, qui arrive toujours trop tard.
(Beigbeder 25)
=> The writer is like the cavalry, always arriving too late.
2. Determining usage
17
 Some
general tendencies can be defined for
syntactic usage and help translation learners to
provide translations that respect such usage.
N.B. :
small corpus (4x25,000 words)
no hard rules
3. Questions and issues
18
 Why is this important?
Cf. study by Cappelle on translation from E to F, specifically
on VPs expressing direction :
Mary
[swam]
[across]
the river.
Mary
[traversa]
la rivière
[à la nage]/[en nageant].
What happens when translators translate from a verb-framed
(F)to a satellite(E)-framed language (or vice-versa)? Do
they reframe or do they otherwise rephrase?
3. Questions and issues
19
Comparison between 3 corpora :
A corpus of translated texts from SL to TL (e.g. Victor Hugo in English)
(ii) A corpus of SL texts (e.g. Victor Hugo in French)
(iii) A corpus of TL texts (e.g. Charles Dickens in English)
(i)
 Cappelle’s results show that translated texts and original
texts clearly differ:
“under-representation of manner-of-motion verbs (typical of
Germanic languages) in English translated from French as
compared with original English”
=> What does this mean about the quality of the
translations?
3. Questions and issues
20
 Isn’t there a danger of trying to reduce a language to
a stereotypical series of linguistic properties?
e.g. The fact that grippe du poulet (bird flu) is hardly
ever used in F does not mean it is *never* used.
Rigidify
language use and personification of
language (E uses bird flu while F used grippe
aviaire).
Should not be considered as hard rules but
tendencies translators should be aware of.
3. Questions and issues
21
 Languages change with time, so usage changes with time
 can corpora show such evolution?
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
bird flu
40.00%
avian in(flu)enza
30.00%
H5N1 virus
H5N1 strain
20.00%
10.00%
01-Jun-10
01-Apr-10
01-Feb-10
01-Dec-09
01-Oct-09
01-Aug-09
01-Jun-09
01-Apr-09
01-Feb-09
01-Dec-08
01-Oct-08
01-Aug-08
01-Jun-08
01-Apr-08
01-Feb-08
01-Dec-07
01-Oct-07
01-Aug-07
01-Jun-07
01-Apr-07
01-Feb-07
0.00%
01-Jun-10
01-Apr-10
01-Feb-10
01-Dec-09
01-Oct-09
01-Aug-09
01-Jun-09
01-Apr-09
01-Feb-09
01-Dec-08
01-Oct-08
01-Aug-08
01-Jun-08
01-Apr-08
01-Feb-08
01-Dec-07
01-Oct-07
01-Aug-07
01-Jun-07
01-Apr-07
01-Feb-07
3. Questions and issues
22
90.00%
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
grippe du poulet
grippe aviaire
30.00%
virus H5N1
20.00%
souche H5N1
10.00%
0.00%
Conclusion
23
 At a time when usage-based linguistics/grammar is
becoming more and more popular, one might also
consider usage-based translation.
 Permits the discovery of systematic tendencies that
are characteristic of specific languages.
 Final aim : Taking usage into account improves the
quality (fluency, natural character) of translations.
References
24




Cappelle, B. 2010. Reframing and rephrasing in translation, Talk given at the Verbes et complexités
verbales Symposium, Paris 7, France, May 31-June 1.
Loock, R. 2009. ‘Parce qu’en plus il faut traduire la syntaxe ?!’ : contraintes et stratégies dans la
traduction de la structuration d’un texte , in D'Amélio (ed.), Actes du colloque international « La forme
comme paradigme du traduire » Mons; CIPA : 173-190.
Slobin, D. 2004. The many ways to search for a frog: linguistic typology & the expression of motion
events. In S. Strömqvist & L. Verhoeven eds. Relating Events in Narrative. Vol 2, 219-257. Mahwah,
NJ: LEA.
Talmy, L. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring, vol. 2.
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Relative clauses corpus:
- Hornby, N. 2001. How to Be Good. Viking Airside Ed.
Translated by I. Chapman. La Bonté mode d’emploi. 10-18.
- Lodge, D. 2002. Thinks. Penguin New Ed.
Translated by S. Mayoux. Pensées secrètes. Rivages Poche.
- Beigbeder, F. 2005. Windows on the World. Gallimard.
Translated by F. Wynne. Windows on the World. Harper Perennial.
- Werber, B. 1991. Les Fourmis. Livre de poche.
Translated by M. Rocques. The Empire of the Ants. Bantam books.
25
Thank you for your attention!
Contact:
rudy.loock@univ-lille3.fr
http://stl.recherche.univ-lille3.fr/sitespersonnels/loock/index.htm