Multilingual Discourse Production: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives
Abstract
This volume presents discourse production in multilingual contexts as a specific type of language contact situation. Translation may be seen as the prototypical type of multilingual discourse production, other types would include parallel text production in different languages (e.g. for websites) or the production of versions more loosely connected with the source text. When divergent communicative norms and conventions come into contact in any of these types of text production, one may find that such conventions transcend established language boundaries, potentially leading to the emergence of new genres. This volume represents the first collection of papers that focus on the specific properties of language contact through multilingual discourse production. It brings together approaches by historical linguists, language contact researchers and translation scholars, thus presenting the topic in its full variety and providing valuable suggestions for further research in this emerging field of study.
... Civilisations survive and develop with the help of language. When one civilisation meets with another, translation becomes the bridge of both diachronic and synchronic transfers of significance [4,13]. Translation has helped Chinese culture to interact with the culture of others. ...
Governance is essentially a dynamic mechanism to promote collective action for the common good. The Chinese concept of the public/common (gōnggòng) and its political philosophy of Grand Union governance provide an alternative perspective for understanding such dynamics from the unit of family through institutions to the state-embedded society. Three critical arguments with interconnected elements are analysed: governance as a dynamic mechanism; review of the historical, philosophical and political legacy of Chinese governance; and proposal of a framework for governance of the Grand Union. It concludes that ‘Chinese characteristics’, such as diverse adaptations, gradual flexibility, experimental pragmatism, and polycentric balance with a strong central state are all deeply rooted in its pre-revolutionary ancien régime. In order to understand these seemingly different institutions and values, we need to revisit their original functionality of governing for the common good.
... In vertaalstudies wordt -in het geval van een verplicht aanwezig taalelement in de doeltaal -dan gesproken over verplichte explicitatie (zoals hierboven al vermeld in §2.2.2). In verschillende onderzoeken vanuit taalvergelijkend perspectief (Teich 2003, Becher et al. 2009, House 2011, Kranich et al. 2011, Kranich et al. 2012, Neumann 2013) is al aangetoond dat talen verschillende communicatieve voorkeuren hebben op het vlak van lexicogrammaticale keuzes en dat de voorkeuren van een bepaalde taal weerspiegeld kunnen worden in de vertaalde teksten uit diezelfde taal. ...
Dit proefschrift behandelt de verschillende verklaringen voor toegenomen explicietheid in vertaalde teksten die in vertaalwetenschappelijk onderzoek zijn voorgesteld en presenteert de resultaten van een multifactorieel corpusonderzoek naar twee verschillende Nederlandse alternanties die beide zowel een expliciete als impliciete variant hebben: de om-alternantie (1) en de datiefalternantie (2). (1) a. Hij belooft om op tijd te komen. b. Hij belooft op tijd te komen. (2) a. Jasper geeft een boek aan Emma. b. Jasper geeft Emma een boek. Hoewel de meeste onderzoekers het eens zijn dat vertalingen gekenmerkt worden door toegenomen explicietheid in vergelijking met niet-vertaalde teksten uit dezelfde taal, bestaat er geen consensus over de verschillende verklaringen hiervoor. Kruger (2019) onderscheidt drie verschillende types van verklaringen: (i) vertalers zijn geneigd vaker voor de expliciete optie te kiezen doordat ze een hogere cognitieve druk ondervinden als gevolg van het voortdurend switchen tussen twee talen (processing-strain), (ii) vertalers kiezen vaker voor de expliciete variant om het risico op miscommunicatie te verminderen of zelfs te vermijden (risk-aversion) en (iii) vertalers kiezen voor de expliciete constructie onder invloed van de brontaalstructuur (source-language transfer). Om meer inzicht te brengen in de verschillende verklaringen hebben we met data uit het Dutch Parallel Corpus getest welke taalinterne en -externe factoren een invloed hebben op de keuze voor de expliciete of de impliciete constructie van de niet-vertaler enerzijds en de vertaler anderzijds en konden we op die manier nagaan hoe de impact van die verschillende factoren verschilt naargelang de vertaalstatus van de tekst. De methode die we hiervoor hebben gebruikt is een mixed-effects logistische regressie. Aan de hand van de verschillende multifactoriële analyses zijn we tot drie belangrijke vaststellingen gekomen. Ten eerste blijkt dat er geen “universele” verklaring bestaat die voor elke alternantie geldt. De keuze van de vertaler hangt af van de eigenschappen van de onderzochte alternantie in de onderzochte bron- en doeltaal. Ten tweede blijkt uit ons onderzoek dat voornamelijk verschillende voorkeuren afhankelijk van het register van de tekst een sleutelrol spelen in het distributionele verschil tussen de vertaalde en de niet-vertaalde data. We pleiten er dan ook voor om in toekomstig onderzoek op een fijnmazigere manier rekening te houden met specifieke registereigenschappen en hoe die verschillend zijn in de onderzochte bron- en doeltaal. Een derde belangrijke vaststelling is dat de onderzochte taalinterne factoren in beide casestudies een zeer gelijkaardig effect hebben op de keuze van zowel de vertaler als de niet-vertaler. We leiden hieruit af dat een goed inzicht in de manier waarop de variatie verklaard kan worden in de niet-vertaalde data ons ook veel kan bijbrengen over de distributie van expliciete en impliciete constructies in vertalingen en dat de enige reden om aan te nemen dat er verschillen zijn tussen vertaalde en niet-vertaalde teksten gelinkt moet worden aan de input waarmee de vertaler te maken heeft: de brontekst en de tweetalige communicatieve setting. In de toekomst moet er dan ook nog meer aandacht besteed worden aan meer vertaalgerelateerde externe factoren die de keuze van de vertaler beïnvloeden, waardoor die keuze afwijkt van die van de niet-vertaler.
... As a contribution to general linguistic theory, the result of the study of translation effects should be related to theories of bilingualism and language contact. Of special interest from the point of view of contact linguistics and language change is the comparison by Kranich, Becher & Höder (2011) of the contact between Latin and Old Swedish and the contact between English and German today and their discussion of the importance of factors such as the degree of standardization overall of the target language and the establishment of the genre in the target language. Old Swedish lacked a written standard. ...
... Furthermore, as scholars such as Becher, House and Kranich (2009), House (2011), Kranich et al. (2011), Kranich, House and Becher (2012), Neumann (2013 and Teich (2003) have shown, languages also demonstrate different communicative preferences across various domains of lexicogrammatical encoding, and such preferences may be transferred through translation. Explicitness has been raised as one domain in which languages demonstrate such differential preferences (House 2004). ...
... House 2015, pp. 97-115;Kranich, Becher, Höder, & House, 2011) inside and outside organisations. This, however, has not directly addressed the challenges presented to the actual processes, methods and instruments of corporate communications in international multilingual contexts, where theoretical and empirical input is scarce. ...
While the nature and status of translators' work are changing due to technologisation and other factors, translation is acquiring a strategic function in organisations. The intercultural component of translation competence makes translators well positioned to play a key role in assuring quality in international corporate communications. But quality models envisage only restricted interactions between translators, clients and communications specialists. Moreover, evidence about translators' self-concepts shows them underequipped to adopt the roles that meaningful cooperation with corporate communications suggests. This chapter reports on a pilot study at the interface between translation and corporate communications in Switzerland. Presenting find57-87ings from a survey of translation and communications professionals, it reveals underdeveloped feedforward and feedback cultures and a translator self-concept that underplays the mediatory, advisory added value of human translation. Concrete implications for quality assurance and translator education are drawn and future research is outlined.
... Firstly, it has been argued that translated registers tend to demonstrate patterning that is distinct from the patterning of non-translated registers in the target language, as a consequence of "interference" or "transfer" of register patterns from the source-language; in other words, CLI at the level of register (Becher et al. 2009;Kranich et al. 2011Kranich et al. , 2012Kruger and Van Rooy 2016b). A second proposal has been that translated registers tend to exaggerate or overuse the features of the corresponding non-translated register, as a consequence of a tendency towards conventionalisation in translation. ...
Previous research suggests there are register differences between native and non-native varieties of English, as well as translated English. This article reports on a multidimensional (MD) analysis of register variation in the published written registers of 16 varieties of English, and tests expectations for register variation in contact varieties evident from existing research. The study finds that the effects of variety and register are largely independent of each other, indicating that overall, registers pattern in similar ways across varieties. register is the strongest factor accounting for variance in the data, but variety also contributes significantly to variation. Non-native varieties before phase four in the Dynamic Model (Schneider 2007) and translations draw more extensively on markers of formality than non-native varieties at phase four and native varieties. Contact varieties display fewer involvement features than native varieties. Persuasive strategies and reported speech are variable across varieties, suggesting local stylistic and cultural differences.
... 1 Our understanding of exclusive we is different from Junge's (2011). We think that the firstperson plural is addressee-inclusive, i.e. including both the CEO and the board of directors or the management or the company, but Junge (2011) considers it addressee-exclusive in the sense that it does not include shareholders and other potential readers of the CEO letter. ...
As China internationalizes its own banks more and more, and the Chinese are an expanding market in Western banks, the linguistic specificities of communication strategies may be understood and applied in the professional environments of banks. The present comparison is based on the key features of metadiscourse markers in the Chinese English-version CEO letters and the Western English-version CEO letters in banking annual reports. Metadiscourse in business genres is an under-represented topic, particularly across cultures; this study invites further inquiry. This paper applies corpus-based contrastive analysis to CEO letters in English from Chinese and Western banks. Comparing distribution patterns of metadiscourse markers, we found that both interactive and interactional metadiscourse was more frequently used in the Western letters. This suggests that Western CEO letters tend to use more credibility and affective appeals, while Chinese CEO letters are based more on rational appeals. Variation in use of metadiscourse is discussed with a focus on the interplay of linguistic and cultural features. This study contributes to the fields of Chinese English professional written communication, and cross-cultural writing in workplaces.
... As a contribution to general linguistic theory, the result of the study of translation effects should be related to theories of bilingualism and language contact. Of special interest from the point of view of contact linguistics and language change is the comparison by Kranich, Becher & Höder (2011) of the contact between Latin and Old Swedish and the contact between English and German today and their discussion of the importance of factors such as the degree of standardization overall of the target language and the establishment of the genre in the target language. Old Swedish lacked a written standard. ...
This article studies translation effects by comparing the use of verbs meaning SIT, STAND and LIE in original and translated texts in the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus (ESPC). Effects on both the frequency of use and the use of lexical and structural translation shifts are studied. Postural verbs have a much higher frequency overall in Swedish than in English. In Swedish translated texts, postural verbs are significantly under-represented in comparison to original texts, whereas postural verbs are significantly over-represented in English translations. At a more fine-grained level, it is possible to show that various categories are treated differently, in particular the types of subjects. The effect on frequency is stronger for Human subjects, which represent an unmarked category, than it is for Inanimate subjects, which are more marked. However, the pattern of over-and under-representation presupposes a functional overlap across languages. Writing as subject, which is a category that is unique to Swedish in relation to English, follows a different pattern. (This type of subject appears in examples such as: Nyheten står i tidningen 'The news is (literally: stands) in the paper'). The result is discussed both from the point of view of the research methodology used in contrastive studies based on translation corpora and from a theoretical point of view. For methodology, the conclusion is that frequencies can be considerably skewed, whereas a language remains true to its system of basic semantic contrasts in professional translations. Theoretically, the result can be related to theories of language contact and studies of second language acquisition and bilingual development.
... In this, the translator's intentionality or attitude is not a necessary precondition for foreignising effects, or eventual changes in the shared social primings of a language community, leading to new forms and expectations of fluency (see also Delabastita 2010, 132 for a related point). Recent studies have demonstrated that translation can play a role in language change and changes in language-specific textual norms (see House 2011;Kranich et al. 2011), and the potential for translation to contribute to new expectations of fluency clearly exists. Hoey (2011, 166) argues that in translation the collocational and colligational primings of the source language may well be carried over into the translation -and this may lead to changes in readers' primings, which may eventually lead to drift and language change. ...
This paper argues for the addition of a cognitive perspective to the concepts of fluency/resistancy and domestication/foreignisation. Given the disjunctions between the ontological levels (and analytical levels of specificity) implied in these concepts (cognitive, linguistic and socio-cultural), the paper first sets out an argument for how these ontologies are related, demonstrating how cognitive processing, and specifically cognitive effort for both translators and readers, form a second-level constituent of both these sets of concepts, by drawing on usage-based theories of language. From within this conceptual frame, the paper turns its attention to an empirical investigation. The study demonstrates how a combination of product and process methods may be utilised to explore the cognitive effort involved in domesticating and foreignising choices. The findings of the study are used to formulate some suggestions regarding how investigations of cognitive effort in translation may contribute to an understanding of fluency/resistancy and domestication/foreignisation in diverse contexts.
... Recent research has pursued this line of investigation in relation to the conventionalisation of the innovative use of the progressive in BSAfE (Kruger & Van Rooy 2016b; Van Rooy & Kruger in review). In the third instance, research investigating translation as a form of language contact that may contribute to language change (see Kranich et al. 2011;Kranich 2014;Neumann 2011;Ožbot 2014) has highlighted the need for research on how translation between English and the other South African languages may have contributed to language change in both SAfE and other South African languages (primarily Afrikaans), raising awareness of the need for diachronic translation corpora to match the diachronic corpora compiled for the IDG and STL strands, as discussed above. ...
As a contribution to the Varieties of English in the Indo-Pacific (VEIP) project, we propose to investigate the effects of a genuinely multilingual society on the uses and forms of English from within a framework that we call “Constrained Language”. Our proposed contribution is set against the background of an assessment of the current state of the art in corpus-linguistic, world Englishes and other varieties-of-English-inspired work on South African English (SAfE), followed by a brief introduction of the notion of constrained language, before we identify the challenges that have not yet been considered and integrated into previous research. On the basis of the survey, we identify a number of unanswered research questions, and consider the kinds of corpus and other forms of data required to attempt an answer to some of these questions. Critical foci of our current and planned future research are the processes by which new linguistic features are innovated, and even more importantly, how and why these eventually stabilise as new conventions (or not). Alongside questions about innovation and conventionalisation, we raise questions about the extent to which there is evidence for convergence between the varieties of SAfE that are distinct for historical reasons related to the colonial and apartheid history of the country. The complex interplay of multiple histories, both local and global, and changes in local and global communicative ecologies, which form the terrain that individual speakers navigate, require that these various processes be considered simultaneously. The speakers who shuttle between various complex and interwoven linguistic “worlds” do so against the background of this constellation of factors, and their communicative behaviour and choices are in response to all these factors.
This paper analyzes adjective positioning in French through the lens of language contact. Though some adjectives are nearly always either before their noun (pre-nominal) or after (post-nominal), others – usually adjectives that depict a positive or negative value – can be found in either position without any detectable semantic change. Our aim is to investigate the possible influence of English on the positioning of these adjectives by using a corpus of native French TV media as well as media translated from English. The categorical pre-nominal pattern of English might be causing a higher rate of pre-nominal adjectives to be used in translated media in comparison to native media. Our findings indicate that the translated corpus shows a preference for pre-nominal adjectives compared to the native French corpus. It was also revealed that some adjectives seem more flexible in translated media. Thus, while French media prefer one position over the other for a specific adjective, the translated media will more easily place the same adjective on either side of the noun. Therefore, we conclude that language contact has a role to play in the positioning of adjectives in TV media in French.
This article examines lexical borrowing from Russian that takes the form of loanwords and loan translations, often in connection with an explanation of the concept, in Finnish journalistic writing. The material consists of news articles that were published in three major Finnish online news outlets in the three-month period (one month per news outlet) that led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. During that time, with interest in Russian foreign politics growing and political tensions rising, news reporting on Russia also increased. The present study focuses on what was borrowed from Russian during that time and the kinds of translation strategies that were used by journalists to convey the meanings of Russian concepts to Finnish readers. Loanwords and loan translations are analyzed qualitatively and discussed from the point of view of the context of their use from December 2021 – February 2022. The results show that loanwords were not numerous and often did not appear to aim to emphasize the foreign aspect.
Like its Goidelic cognate trom, analysed in Dereza (this volume), Welsh trwm is highly polysemous. In contrast to Dereza’s more general approach, I discuss here in detail the usage of this adjective in one relatively short period, based on the Welsh Prose 1300–1425 corpus (Luft et al. 2013). In order to make the Goidelic and Welsh data comparable, I analyse my data using the same classification of senses as Dereza. Despite some difficulties arising from the structure of the corpus used, I discuss the frequency of the usage within the four domains: experiential, parametrical, psycho-physiological and emotional. The last domain is the main focus of my attention due to the diversity of constructions in which trwm is thus used. I end by drawing some conclusions concerning the use of Celtic data in lexical typology.
This paper investigates argument structure borrowing as regards the verb tuitear from the model of the English verb tweet. In order to test this borrowing hypothesis, two research questions are posed: 1) To what extent does the Spanish verb mirror the argument structure of the English verb?; and 2) Is the argument structure of tuitear dissimilar to other semantically related Spanish verbs? This study is based on empirical evidence from Davies’s News on the Web (NOW) English and Spanish corpora. The analysis of two samples of 1,000 constructions of tweet and tuitear reveals a striking similarity
in structural behavior. The contrast with other Spanish instrument-of-communication verbs (e.g. telefonear, telegrafiar, faxear, radiar, televisar, cartear and cablegrafiar) shows that the behavior of tuitear is unique in this class.
Keywords: tweet, tuitear, borrowing, argument structure, instrument of communication verbs
This chapter first examines the concept “lingua franca”, moving from an historical overview to the present status of English as a lingua franca (ELF). English as a lingua franca is today used in many domains across many different ethnic groups, nation states and regions, and it is steadily becoming more important as a default language in many parts of Asia. As a lingua franca, English is also the first truly global language in history. And it is this unrivalled position of English today which has thrown up massive criticism – criticism directed at the assumption of the cultural neutrality of English as a lingua franca, at the elitist nature of English in many parts of the world, and at its potential for harming local languages in Asia. These points of criticism will be examined in the chapter from a socio-cultural and economic perspective.
A significant addition to the theoretical and descriptive accounts of corpora in translation studies is Corpus-Based Translation Studies: Research and Applications, an edited volume by Alet Kruger, Kim Wallmach, and Jeremy Munday. This review aims at examining this edited volume in detail, focusing on each chapter, and highlighting specific strengths and limitations. Overall, the book delivers its aim to describe how corpus-based studies have assisted translation scholars, and reports on a wide range of research using corpora. As such, it should be of interest to any academic interested in the use of corpora in translation and interpreting research, but also to postgraduate modules or programmes on corpus-based translation and interpreting studies
Translations represent a specific type of language contact. A text is translated from a source language (SL) into a target language (TL) by a bilingual individual, and the product of this process can exhibit an impact of features of the SL on the TT — a phenomenon known as interference. If the same type of interference occurs repeatedly in translations from a SL, the new feature might not remain limited to translated texts. Under favourable circumstances, it might spread to monolingual text production, introducing innovations into non-translated texts produced in the TL.
This chapter explores the syntactic hybridity features in translated Chinese with the focus on ‘SHI’ structure. It first introduces the categories and functions of ‘SHI’ structure in Chinese, then explores its different collocation structures in translated and native Chinese. The concordancing results from English-Chinese parallel corpora illustrates that the high frequency of ‘SHI’ structures in translated Chinese is the influence of the source language in the translation processes and nominalization tendency in the translated Chinese.
This chapter introduces the development of corpus translation studies (CTS) and it offers a good approach to investigate the hybridity features in the translated texts. It reviews the convergence between corpus linguistics (CL) and CTS, previous research on translated languages. It also explores the hybridisation in the translation norm continuum, and the norm continuum of translation properties can show the tendencies of hybrid features which can be located anywhere between the typical patterns of the SL and those of the TL.
This article starts from the claim that knowledge about contrastive systems of cohesion and textual instantiations of these systems between English and German is important for translation, but that this knowledge is still fragmentary and insufficiently supported by empirical studies. This claim will be followed by three generalizing assumptions about contrastive differences in English-German cohesion which relate to (1) different degrees of local encoding of ambiguity in texts in terms of co-reference, (2) different degrees of registerial distinctions along the written-spoken and formal-informal distinctions, and (3) different orientations of discourses along the explicitness and information-density dimensions. These assumptions are being tested in corpus-based work in our group, and the currently available results will be summarized. The summary will be followed by a discussion and exemplification of implications for translation in both directions between English and German. As will be seen, an awareness of the main differences between English and German cohesion, between registers within these two languages and between written and spoken modes in particular are an important background for guiding translation strategies.
Seit der 48. Fortsetzung erscheint die " Kleine Bibliographie fachsprachlicher Untersuchungen " auch online unter www.fachsprache.net (Link Bibliography) und trägt den Titel " Bibliography of Recent Publications on Specialized Communication ". Die Datenbankversion der Bibliographie bietet verbesserte Suchmöglichkeiten, wie beispielsweise eine Schlagwortsuche. Derzeit finden sich in der Datenbank alle Titel, die seit der 48. Fortsetzung in der Bibliographie enthalten sind. From the 48th installment on, the " Kleine Bibliographie fachsprachlicher Untersuchungen " has appeared under the title " Bibliography of Recent Publications on Specialized Communication ". The references it contains can also be accessed online at www.fachsprache.net (Link Bibliography). The online version of the Bibliography offers additional search options, for example a keyword search. Currently, the database contains the titles included in this Bibliography since the 48 th installment.
Although Faroese exhibits extensive linguistic variation and rapid social change, the language is near-uncharted territory in variationist sociolinguistics. This article discusses some recent social changes in Faroese society in connection with language change, focusing in particular on the development of a de facto spoken standard, Central Faroese. Demographic mobility, media and education may be contributing to this development in different ways. Two linguistic variables are analysed as a first step towards uncovering the respective roles of standardisation, dialect levelling and dialect spread as contributing processes in the formation of Central Faroese: morphological variation in -st endings and phonological variation in -ir and -ur endings. The analysis confirms previously described patterns of geographically constrained variation, but no generational or stylistic differences indicative of language change are found, nor are there clear signs that informants use Central Faroese. The results may in part be due to the structure of the corpus used.
In this paper I will look at the controversy surrounding the current status of English in the world. I will consider the question of whether the dominant role of English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a menace to other languages, to multilingual communication and to the profession of translation and interpreting, or whether a positive evaluation of the omnipresence of English as a default means of communication can be justified. I will argue for a compromise position: neither demonizing global English nor welcoming it uncritically. I will support this stance from different perspectives, drawing on my own work on ELF and translation.
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