Reordering

1
Reordering

• Reordering concerns the field of comparative
  syntax.

2
inversion

• At its simplest level reordering involves the
  need for the translator to operate inversion
  procedures. The most common of these are a (a)
  adjective (attributive) noun sequences
• e.g. white horse/ cavallo bianco
• (b) verb object positioning
• e.g. io ti amo/ I love you
• However, it is important to know when and where
  not to operate such inversions.
• Taylor (p.61) gives the example of high
  pressure translated by either alta pressione or
  pressione alta.
• Inversion would be appropriate only in the case
  of the medical condition, while inversion would
  be avoid for the meteorological meaning.

3
Varieties of set binominal pairings

1. Vita e morte/ life and death (perfect match)
2. Sano e salvo /fit and well (partial match/ same
   semantic field)
3. Bianco e nero/ black and white (perfect match but
   inverted order)
4. Il diavolo e lacqua santa/ the devil and the
   deep blue sea (maintains half pairing)
5. Spick and span/ (no equivalent binominal form).

4
Reordering at sentence level

• Fronting intransitive verbs to introduce a new
  subject into Italian
• e.g. è successa una disgrazia.
• Inversion would be the norm in translation into
  English.
• Further examples (Taylor p.62)
• Non è ancora giunto il tempo
• Passavono i plotoni
• Spuntò una donna alla svolta

5
Disclocazione a sinistra

• In Italian this typically involves shifting the
  topic leftwards and placing its corresponding
  pronoun before the verb, to signal that it is the
  constituent about which the writer or speaker
  wants to talk.
• Taylor (p. 62) provides the following examples
• Certi lavori li faceva lui.
• (certain jobs were done by him/ he was the one
  who took care certain jobs/ it was he who did
  certain jobs)
• Anche la storia della luna i falò la sapevo
  (io)
• (I also knew all about the story about the moon
  and the bonfires.)
• As a rule, translators should attempt to render
  such structures into more congruent English
  syntax. In the following ways
• changing aspect, tense, or voice,
• fronting verbs or objects for emphasis,
• using cleft or pseudo cleft sentences
• The general rule in cases like these is to
  re-order the syntactic units into the most
  familiar patters of the target language.

6
The passive voice and reordering

• The passive voice is often used when translating
  impersonal constructions into English.
• Because English has a relatively rigid thematic
  structure, the use of the passive voice normally
  requires that the object of a clause be
  thematised, so moved into subject position.
• The main patterns of reordering are the
  following
• 1. No reordering (though this passive form is
  less common in Italian)
• È amato da tutti/He is loved by everyone.
• 2. Impersonal si construction.
• Tigers are found in India/ Le tigre si trovano
  in India.
• 3. An active form using verbs with impersonal
  agents
• Ive been told that (to)/ Mi hanno detto che
  (di)

7
Reordering and aspect

• Reordering is obligatory with translating the
  continuous aspect of the passive voice in
  English.
• Continuous verb forms in the passive voice are
  translated in a number of ways
• e.g. He is being interrogated
• 1.lo si interroga
• 2.lo stanno interrogando
• 3. Viene interrogato