Lexis and Grammar for Translation

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Lexis and Grammarfor Translation
Lingua e Traduzione Inglese I

• Dott. M. Gatto
• Lingue e Culture per il Turismo

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• ? It is of crucial importance to realize that
  some words are in more than one word class and
  that if this is overlooked translations can be
  inadequate
• E.g. Beneath the magic lies

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PHRASES

• Words do not combine directly to form clauses
  and sentences, but there is an intermediate level
  the phrase - which plays a key role in the
  syntactic structure of the clause.
• This intermediate level can be extremely useful
  for the purpose of translation
• it helps the translator mark clear boundaries
  within the text
• it helps understand the text to be translated
  through a clearer understanding of the syntactic
  structure of its sentences

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• A phrase (sometimes called a group) is a string
  of words forming a syntactic unit which typically
  contains more than one word. Phrases are named
  after the most important word they contain,
  called the head of the phrase. If the head is a
  noun, for example, the phrase is called a noun
  phrase, if the head is a verb the phrase is
  called a verb phrase, and so on.

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• All the four major word classes and one minor
  word class (i.e. preposition) form phrasal
  constructions, so there are five types of phrase
  the noun phrase, which includes the pronoun
  phrase as a minor type, the verb phrase, the
  adjective phrase, the adverb(ial) phrase, and the
  preposition (al) phrase.

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PHRASE gt a group of words classified according
to the class of the word operating as main (i.e.
head) element
 
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• ?Phrases play a key role in the syntactic
  structure of the clause it is therefore
  extremely important to decide what is the exact
  syntactic function they perform. Consider the
  following examples
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• People ride bikes in Oxford
• 2) People in Oxford ride bikes
•  

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• People /ride/ bikes/ in Oxford (SVOA)
• People in Oxford/ ride/ bikes (SVO)
• In the first sentence, the prepositional
• phrase in Oxford is an adjunct whereas
• in the second sentence it is part of the
• noun phrase People in Oxford!
• What about translation?

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•  
• People ride bikes in Oxford
• Ad Oxford la gente va in bici
• People in Oxford/ ride/ bikes (SVO)
• La gente di Oxford va in bici

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• Intrepid sailor crosses the channel on foot,
  (A.Sage), The Times, 21st December 2000
• A RUSSIAN evaded the Channel Tunnels supposedly
  sophisticated security yesterday, when he made
  the 30-mile undersea journey from Britain to
  France.
• The 36-year-old man slipped past video cameras,
  barbed wire and fences, and dodged high speed
  trains, all in the hope of joining the Foreign
  Legion.
• His effort was thwarted when he was detected
  beneath the sea by one of the drivers of the
  trains that hurtled past him at 92mph . He was
  arrested as he prepared to emerge in Calais by
  French police, who said that it was a miracle he
  had survived.
• Their surprise was nothing compared to the shock
  of Eurotunnel when told that its allegedly
  high-tech system had been defeated by a somewhat
  eccentric sailor from Murmansk by what was almost
  certainly the first illegal hike from Britain to
  France a previous attempt was foiled last years
  when a man was arrested near the British
  entrance.

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Intrepid sailor crosses the Channel on foot
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