Download The Syntactic Level

The Syntactic Level
When words change their country, they
change their manners .. (Dr. Johnson)
5.1 Introduction
As mentioned earlier, the relationship that holds between words is either
syntagmatic or paradigmatic.
The syntagmatic level is observable
throughout the text. We talked about collocation as a syntagmatic
relationship. Also on the same level lies grammar which is more concerned
with structure. The main difference between collocation (patterns) and
structure is that the former is unpredictable whereas the latter is obligatory
and largely predictive. (Baker 2000) argued, "structure is always there;
patterns are an additional layer. Patterning can therefore concern the
recurrence of things which are structural."
Lexical information can either be found in dictionaries or through their
patterning (i.e. collocation). However, meanings are not found exclusively
in the words listed individually in dictionaries. The way words are
combined together (i.e. structural behavior) produces meanings that are not
transparent in individual words. So the translator should have knowledge of
the structure and patterning of both the SL and TL.
Structure and linguistic devices play a vital role in determining the phrase
or sentence meaning. To see how important the syntactic structure in the
process of translation, let us consider the following ironic example.
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In 1970 Israel accepted the UN Resolution 242 which called for 'the
withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent
conflict'. The meaning of the withdrawal clause has been contested. Israel
has argued that because the definite article 'the' was not included in the
English version of the resolution ('from territories occupied' rather than
'from the territories occupied') it means that the scope of withdrawal was left
vague and that Israel did not have to withdraw from all the territories it
occupied in the conflict. This is because of the definite article 'the' which
was dropped in the TT.
Sometimes we may have more than one translation version for a given
phrase or sentence in SL. Such phrases or sentences may give the same
meaning, i.e., they are semantically equivalent, and only different as a result
of word choice or styles. Let us consider the following examples.
(1) .‫رفض املدرس عرض املدرسة‬
The teacher refused the school's offer.
The teacher declined the school's offer.
The teacher rejected the school's offer.
The teacher said no to the school's offer
Generally speaking, the three sentences above are semantically
equivalent despite changes in the part-of-speech or the sentence structure.
To a translator, s/he can select any style which is grammatically correct
based on his/her structural preferences, profound knowledge, and/or
preciseness.
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5.2 Word Order
The way words are arranged in sentences may differ from one language
to another. To the translator, languages that share the same word order may
be easier in translation than those having different word order. For example,
English and French have the same word order, i.e. SVO, but for the
translators from English into Arabic and vise versa they should consider the
different word orders in the two languages involved. Although we can spot
some
differences in word order across languages, we can notice that
languages share many commonalities.“It appears that certain features of this
sort of ordering [of words] are universal, or at least very general, and this is
the basis of the translatability of the utterances of one language into those of
another; but other features are peculiar to particular cultural traditions of
particular areas, with the consequence that the translation of words and
sentences relating to such features requires more explanation and
circumlocution” (Robins 1964/1989:67).
In Arabic, sentence structure is mainly based on diacritics, it is a
synthetic language. you can put any word anywhere inside the sentence
boundary so long as diacritics are considered. In English, on the other hand,
every word has a certain position.
Also, we cannot put any word that separates immediate constituents. We
cannot separate the S from V or the V from O. Other information should be
placed initially or finally.
Other Word Order
In English, as mentioned above, extranuclear elements in the sentences,
i.e. other information, should be placed initially or finally. Actually, there
are other ways to start a sentence or clause.
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THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
A. We can start with “other information” as follows:
.‫انل الفريق هذا املوسم مثانية هزائم متتابعة‬
This term, the team had 8 successive defeats.
.‫يشاهد معظم الناس يف مصر كأس العامل لكرة القدم‬
In Egypt most people watch the football world cup.
.‫شعر أبمل حاد وهو يركل الكرة‬
As he kicked the ball he felt an acute pain in his back.
B. We can start with the object to show contrast or strong emphasis.
.1959 ‫ وكان أول دوري أحرزه عام‬.‫فاز فريق األرسنال هذا املوسم ابلدوري العاشر له‬
Arsenal won their 10th trophy this term.
The first trophy they got was in 1959.
.‫عاقب انرظر املدرسة يمي الفصل وهذا ما اعتنرانه طاا‬
The head teacher punished the whole class.
This we thought was wrong.
C. You can start with words and phrases that tell us about your attitude: in
my opinion, as far as I am concerned, in my view, luckily, unfortunately:
.‫لألسف حضروا متأطرين مرة اثنية‬
Unfortunately, they came late again.
Although SVO is the most common pattern, a longer text written using only
this word order may sound very uninteresting.
Compare the following examples:
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A. The team played very poorly. They did not score any goals in their
first season, and they scored only one in their second season..
B. The team played very poorly. In their first season they did not score
any goals, and in their second they scored only one.
Order of adjectives
If we have more than one adjectives in English we should follow a
certain pattern. We often prefer "a nice old bag" to "an old nice bag". "a tall
happy man” to “a happy tall man” In Arabic, on the other hand, we can put
these adjectives in whatever order we like.
‫حقيبة يميلة قدمية‬
‫حقيبة قدمية يميلة‬
Below is the sequence of adjectives in English:
1. Adjectives that give opinions or feelings(e.g. I have a lovely car)
2. Adjectives of size(e.g. I have a lovely small car)
3. Adjectives of age(e.g. I have a small old car)
4. Adjectives of shape(e.g. I have a small round car)
5. Adjectives of colour (e.g. I have a lovely round red car)
6. adjectives of nationality (e.g. I have a German cart
7. material (e.g. I have a German iron car
8. type, ( e.g. I have a German iron sports car.)
Look at the table below for a more detailed picture of
sequence (Quirk and Greebaum 1973: 404).
adjectives
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grey crumbling
his
heavy
social
life
social
life
church
tower
church
tower
old
designs
interlocking
small
Gothic
head
a
denominal
crumbling
a
noun
London
a
some intricate
provenance
Extravagant
participle
the
colour
hectic
age
general
determiner
the
green
carved
Chinese
jade
new
idol
moral
responsibilities
5.3 Variety in Sentences type and length
Good translators do not follow one pattern of sentences throughout the
translated text. They should rather vary the length of the sentences.
Sometimes they use short, simple sentences and another time they give
longer complex sentences. If they come across a text which consists of short
simple sentences, they should combine some sentences by conjunctions, or
by using relative clauses or reduced relative clauses.
The translator should not stick to only one type of sentences. The use of
short and long sentences will make a pleasing change to the eye and ear.
This might help the translator avoid monotonous writing. Let us consider
the following example quoted from Macaulay’s History of England.
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Carter was the first who broke the French line. He was struck
by a splinter from one of his own yardarms, and fell dying on
the deck. He would not be carried below. He would not let go
his sword. ‘Fight the ship’’ were his last words: ‘Fight the ship
as long as she can swim.’ The battle lasted till four in the
afternoon.”
You can notice that there is only one type of short sentences used in the
above paragraph. Let us consider another example which employed longer
sentences.
The globe has been covered with monuments of their power,
and the voice of history transmits their renown from one
generation to another. But when we pass from the living world
to the dead, what a sad picture do we behold! –the fall and
desolation of human nature, the ruins of man, the dust and ashes
of many generations scattered over the earth! The high and low,
the mighty and the mean, the king and the cottager, lie blended
together without any order! A few feet of earth contain the
ashes of him who conquered the globe; the shadows of the long
night stretch over all alike; the monarch of disorder, the great
leveller of mankind, lays all on the bed of clay in equal
meanness!
It is advisable if we produce long sentences to avoid inserting parenthetical
clauses as much as possible, particularly between nuclear elements: SVO.
Exercises
Rewrite the following translated text by varying the length of the sentences.
Sara Taylor arrived in Caracas on June 14. Her uncle met her at
the airport. They were walking to the luggage counter. They
saw a young boy. He was wearing a blue shirt. He was wearing
dark pants. He was with an older woman. She was in a white
dress. He was with an older man. The older man was dressed in
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a business suit. The boy was carrying a large present. The
present had a ribbon on it. The boy looked at Sara and her uncle
carefully. They were the only Americans. They were speaking
English. They were in the airport. The young boy came up to
Sara and her uncle. The young boy was in the blue shirt and the
dark pants.
“Excuse me,” he said. Are you Sara Taylor? I am Roberto
Perez. Welcome to Caracas!”
The woman was Roberto’s mother. She was in the white dress.
The man was Roberto’s father. He was in the business suit.
They gave the present to Sara. They welcomed her to
Venezuela.
5.4 Sentence Structure
Unlike English, Arabic is a synthetic language; it allows pronouns to
combine with words forming one single word. Such personal pronouns can
be suffixed to nouns, verbs or particles. We may form an Arabic word
representing a whole sentence. Consider the following word in (2) below.
(2) ‫ ضربوك‬they hit you.
Also, the word order in Arabic is more flexible than in English. The
grammatical functions in English are mainly based on the word order. For
example the verb is often preceded by a verb and followed by an object. In
Arabic, on the other hand, you can identify any grammatical function
throughout the sentence by the inflection it carries.
In English we can distinguish seven types of basic or kernel clauses
(Quirk& Greenbaum, 1973: p.166-7).
1) SVA
Mary is in the house.
2) SVC
Mary is kind (a nurse).
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3) SVO
Somebody caught the ball.
4) SVOA
I put the plate on the table.
5) SVOC
We have proved him wrong.
6) SVOO
She gives me expensive presents.
7) SV
The child laughed.
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In Arabic, on the other hand, the canonical structure of a sentence is VSO.
The alternative basic order which is SVO is also possible provided that we
have a good reason. For example, iyyaka na'budu 'You-(alone) we-worship'
(surah Al-Fatihah: 5). According to the Arabic grammar you can say,
na'buduka 'worship-You' but a pronoun referring to Allah preceded the verb
to exclude any other one from the act of worshipping. So the translator
should not be restricted to the word order unless there is a rationale behind
that order.
5.5 Clauses and Phrases
In English we may drop some of the above elements for compactness. In
example 7 above, we can notice that the most basic English clause contains
at least subject and verb. These two elements, i.e. S+V can be dropped
without infringing the meaning of the sentence. Words without S and V
makes a phrase. As mentioned earlier, the translator should consider varying
the type of sentences and phrases can also be another type of sentences.
However, the absence of the finite verb from clauses means that they have
no distinctions of person or number. This, coupled with the absence of
subjects, provides another way of making sentences and reduction of the
number of word forms.
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To translate a phrase, we need to change it into a clause before giving the
equivalent TL forms. This process could be straightforward if the main
clause gives the clues of the dropped element in the sub-clause. Let us
consider the following examples,
Phrase: While walking to school, Sam met his teacher.
Clause: While Sam was walking to class, he______________.
.‫بينما كان سام يسري متجهاً إىل املدرسة قابل معلمه‬
We can notice that "Sam" which is only mentioned in the main clause is
transferred first because the referential pronoun in Arabic cannot pre-modify
the noun. So we should decompose the phrase into its minimal units for an
appropriate translation.
Sometimes the adverbial word in addition to the subject and verb are
dropped to form a phrase. This is mainly used when expressing the idea of
“during the same time”. For example,
Walking in the corridor, I met the head teacher.
While I was walking,__________________.
The initial -ing phrase gives the meaning and function of “while”. Then
the above sentence can be translated as:
……………… .‫بينما كنت أسري يف املمر قابلت النارظر‬
Reading a new book, he heard a baby crying.
While he was reading the book,________________.
.‫بينما كان يقرأ كتاابً جديداً مس رضيعاً يبكي‬
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The initial -ing phrase can express cause and effect as well, i.e. it gives
the meaning of “because”. Let us have a look at the following example.
Working hard, he passed the exam.
Because he worked hard, ________________.
.‫جنح يف االمتحان ألنه كان يعمل (يذاكر) جبد‬
Other adverbs time can also be inferred as in the following example.
Having watched the movie, he does not want to go.
Because he watched the movie before, _______________.
.‫ال يريد أن يذهب ملشاهدة الفيلم ألنه قد شاهده من قبل‬
The initial -ed participle can give the same function of ing-participle. For
example,
Motivated by Orwell’s political writings, he wrote his magnificent
novel.
Because he was Motivated by Orwell’s political writings, he wrote his
magnificent novel.
.‫كتب روايته الرائعة ألنه كان متأثراً بكتاابت أورول السياسية‬
5.6 Parts of Speech
The above structures are composed of units, which is called parts of speech.
There are ten categories of parts of speech in English (Quirk, 1973: 18).
(a)
noun: John, room, answer, play
adjective: happy, steady, new, large, round
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adverb: steadily, completely, really, very, then
verb: search, grow, play, be, have, do
(b)
article: (the, (a)n),
demonstrative: that, this
pronoun: he they, anybody, one, which
preposition: of, at, in without, in spite of
conjunction: and, that, when, although
interjection: oh, ah, ugh, phew
5.6.1 Nouns
Nouns as shown in the examples above can be of many kinds: proper,
common, abstract, concrete, countable, uncountable, singular, plural. Some
kinds of nouns are language-specific. So, it is important, for both linguists
and translators, to consider the major differences between the different
classes of nouns when accounting for another language. For example, some
nouns are countable in Arabic not in English.
‫" واجب – واجببت‬homework", ‫" ضبر – أضبرا‬harm" ‫" شبرر – أشبرت‬poetry",
‫" سلوك – سلوكيت‬behaviour" ‫" حزن – أحبزان‬sadness, melancholy", – ‫مرلومب‬
‫" مرلومت‬information", etc.
5.6.2 Definite/indefinite Articles
The use of definite articles in both English Arabic languages presupposes
an earlier mention of a given word. Singular countable nouns, such as
"boy", "car", etc. must follow a definite or indefinite article. For example,
(3) A boy came quickly.
(4) The boy came quickly.
Plural countable nouns can either follow definite or zero articles.
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(5) The boys are strong. (specific reference)
(6) Boys are strong. (generic reference)
Uncountable nouns can either follow definite or zero articles, or optional
"some".
(7) We will buy the furniture. (definite specific reference)
(8) We will buy (some) furniture. (indefinite specific reference)
For generic references, non-count and plural count nouns follow zero
article.
(9) Children are easy to please.
(10) Furniture (freedom) gives comfort.
In Arabic on the other hand, nouns of generic references, as in example
11 below, must take a definite article. Abstract nouns in English do not take
definite/indefinite articles as in 12 & 13 below.
(11) Tigers are dangerous animals.
.‫النمور حيواانت طارة‬
(12) Freedom is the shortest way to progress.
.‫احلرية هي أقصر طريق للتقدم‬
(13) Faith glows in the believer's heart.
‫اإلميان يتقد يف قلب املؤمن‬
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However, with generic references, uncountable concrete and abstract nouns
as well as plural nouns can take articles when they are postmodified by an
of-phrase as in 14, 15 and 16 below.
(14) The music of Egypt
(15) The faith of strong Muslims is stronger than that of the weak.
(16) The tigers of Africa are more dangerous.
5.6.3 Tenses
Arabic has three tenses: past, present, future. The range of verb tenses in
English is quite wider in English; there are some twelve tenses in English.
However, the three Arabic tenses can still account for any action along the
timeline. For example, the verb " ‫" "يأكب‬eat" can mean both "eats" and "is
eating". Thus, "English has a system of verb tenses in the proper sense; that
is to say, particular tenses relate fairly consistently to natural time. Arabic,
on the other hand, operates with a system that combines tense and aspect"
(Dickins: 2002, 99).
In Arabic, the context can indicate the sentence tense. We can also use
certain expressive words to give the exact meanings of the English verb
tenses. In English the time of tenses (present, past, etc.) is marked by means
of grammatical elements (inflectional morphemes such as "s", "ed", etc. or
grammatical markers such as the auxiliary verb "will", have") Cruse, 2000:
274). In Arabic, on the other hand, timing is marked lexically. For example,
to put an action in the present progressive in Arabic we can use some words
such as ‫" اآلن‬now", ‫ اليزال‬،‫" متزال‬still", etc.
(17) Muhammad is eating.
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)‫)ما زال) أيكل حممد (اآلن‬
The future simple tense in Arabic is marked by the prefix "s" or the word
"sawfa" where the former is used to express near future and the latter
expresses the open future. The English Past, Future Continuous and Perfect
is phrased the same way in Arabic by using ‫ كبتن‬the copulative verb "be" to
pre-modify the verb, as in "I was eating" ‫ككب‬
‫سبأكون ووتهابت أو حين)بآك ككب‬, "I had eaten"
‫كنب‬, and "I will be eating"
‫كنب تبأ أكلب‬, etc. Perfection of an
action is expressed in Arabic with the article ‫تبأ‬. It is a word when used with
the Arabic past it denotes the completion of an action, but with the present,
it means less possibility of its occurrence, e.g. ‫" تبأ أكب‬he has eaten" ‫تبأ يأكب‬
"he may eat". In short, context must be considered in determining Arabic
tenses.
5.7 Absolute object
In translation it is hard to keep such parts of speech without changing
their categories all the time. The translator may change the position or form
of a given word to make it fit in the TT. So s/he can change a V into N, adj.,
adv. etc. In other words, the structural patterning may differ from a language
to another. The point is to keep the naturalness and typicality of the TT
along with the content of the SL. In Arabic, for instance, we tend to derive a
noun from the same verb used in the sentence and put it in a final position in
the sentence for the sake of emphasis. This is called maf'ul mutlaq which is
commonly translated as absolute object.
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This is an Arabic part of speech which has nothing to do with the object
function or absoluteness. Let us consider the following example quoted
from an exam sheet of one of my students: ‫االسبم يتهبر ارأبرأح احهرامبت كبيبرا‬
"Islam respected the woman a great respecting". If we consider the function
of ‫ احهرامبت كبيبرا‬in the Arabic sentence, we may link it with quantifiers in
English. So, we can translate the above sentence as follows: "Islam respects
the woman very much". maf'ul mutlaq is called maf'ul object because it is a
noun assigning an accusative case. Also it is called mutlaq because it ends
with a long vowel "alif", so the final sound is released not absolute. The
definitions of
‫مطل ب‬
in Hans Wehr are "free; unlimited, unrestricted,
absolute; general". These definitions may distract the attention of the
translator from the real meaning of the term. They should rather consider the
notion of the term, which refers to the released pronunciation of the final
letter of the word and has nothing to do with the content.
Dickins (2000: 103) called this phenomenon "root repetition" which
involves repeating the same word root in the same sentence. He divided it
into three types:
1) system-intrinsic when deriving a nuclear part of speech from another one
in the same sentence. E.g. ‫كهتببت‬
‫" كهب‬wrote a book". This should be avoided
in English. For example if we have a sentence like ‫ شرب شبرابت‬we should try
another verb which can give the same meaning like "he had a drink".
2) absolute accusative is mainly used to function as an adverbial, a
quantifier or a prepositional phrase. Let us consider the following examples.
Adverbial:
(3) ً‫لقد تاورت رظاهرة التارف يف مصر تاوراً جذري‬
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The phenomenon of extremism has developed radically in Egypt.
Quantifier:
(4) .ً‫حيبون املال حباً يما‬
The love money so much
Prepositional Phrase:
(5) ً‫شرحت الدرس شرحاً وافيا‬
I explained the lesson in detail.
Sometimes we keep the noun without changing its category and make the
change to the verb.
(6) ً‫يدعم احلزب الفقراء دعماً حقيقيا‬
The party gives a genuine support to the poor people.
3) The third type of root repetition, highlighted by Dickins, is not limited to
a particular part of speech. We can make use of it to give a sense of
emphasis implied in its rhythmic tone. This does not belong to the Arabic
case of maf'ul mutlaq, but it is worth mentioning it here for they are
employed for the same purpose.
(7) ‫أطماع الاامعني‬
The ambitions of the covetous
(8) .‫صبغ أتباعه بصبغة الصوفية‬
He made his followers Sufi-like people.
(9) .‫اثر اثئرته‬
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Fly into a rage.
5.8 Passivization
In semantics, to passivize is to make the more active element functions as
subject whereas the less active element functions as direct object. Passive is
used to promote the less active element and demote the logical subject.
Passivization works well when the logical subject is ignored. Once we have
both subject and object, it becomes less formal to passivize, particularly in
Arabic.
(18) .‫بيعت السيارة‬
The car was sold
But consider the following example,
(19) The car was sold by Mandy
‫بيعت السيارة بواساة مندي‬
The example in (19) above is not typically used in Arabic. The active
voice is more recommended in such a case. In English to give prominence
to the object is mainly done through passivization. The central item in
sentence (18) is the word "car" this is why it was fronted. However, the
same evocative meaning can be represented in different ways in Arabic
without any need to use passive voice. To keep the metaphorical meaning of
passive in English intact, we can resort to nominal sentences. To translate
the sentence in (18), we can put it in active voice as follows:
(20) .‫السيارة ابعها مندي‬
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Fronting the word ‫" ارسببيت ح‬car" maintained the evocative meaning of
passive voice in English while keeping the formality and typicality of the
Arabic usage. A more frequent way for translating Arabic passive sentences
that contain ‘by’ phrase is to use
‫ مب تببلب‬. It depends on the genre under
examination. The sentence in (20) fits well with classic texts, whereas with
modern texts we often use the phrase ‫م تب‬, for example,
.‫اآلراء املتضاربة اليت طرحت من قبل احلزب أصبحت ابلية‬
.‫اآلراء املتضاربة اليت طرحها احلزب أصبحت ابلية‬
5.9 Irregular Sentences
There are several ways in which sentences undergo irregularities.
Sometimes we come across verbless sentences or sentences which lack
auxiliary verbs, articles or finite forms. Such a diversion from the grammar
of continuous discourse is not used haphazardly. It is mainly used for
packing content words into small spaces. “Language so used may be termed
‘block language’. It appears in such functions as labels, titles, headings,
notices, and advertisements (Quirk and Greenbaum: 1985, 205). For
example,
Election a landslide for socialists
In the above example, you can notice that the verb is missing. Also
consider the following headlines coupled with some detail below to show
the real structure of the headline.
Israel admits air strike on Syria
Israel confirms for the first time that it carried out a strike on a Syrian
military site almost a month ago.
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‫‪Kabul hit by new suicide bomb‬‬
‫‪At least 13 people were killed in the second suicide attack in the Afghan‬‬
‫‪capital, Kabul, in four days.‬‬
‫إسرائيل تفرج عن‪ 29‬معتقال من غزة‪ ..‬وتعتقل‪ 500‬فلسطيين خالل شهر سبتمرب!‬
‫يف الوقت الذي أفرجت فيه إسرائيل أمس عن‪ 29‬أسريا فلساينيا من سكان قااع غزة يف طاوة وصففت‬
‫أبهنا جاءت لدعم الرئيس الفلسايين حممود عباس (أبفو مفازن) كشفف تقريفر دوع عفن أن قفوات االحفتلل‬
‫اإلسرائيلي اعتقلت ما يزيد علي‪ 500‬فلسايين طلل شهر سبتمنر املاضي‪.‬‬
‫الربيطانيون يسحبون ألف جندي من العراق‬
‫رئففيس الففوزراء النرياففان جففوردن بفراون يقففول إن ألففف جنفدي برياففان سففيغادرون العفرا‬
‫قبففل هنايففة العففام‪.‬‬
‫وخماوف من اندالع قتال بني امليليشيات يف البصرة‬
‫ملك األردن يتوجه إىل الكويت‬
‫يتوجففه العاهففل األردن عبففد هللا الثففان إىل الكويففت اليففوم األحففد إلجفراء حمففاداثت مف أمريهففا الشففي صففبا‬
‫ّ‬
‫األمحد اجلابر الصبا ‪.‬‬
‫‪5.10 Coordination and Subordination‬‬
‫‪Coordination and subordination are used to express related ideas. The‬‬
‫‪former involves linking of units which are equal syntactically and‬‬
‫‪semantically, whereas "[the latter] is a non-symmetrical relation, holding‬‬
‫‪between two clauses in such a way that one is a constituent or part of the‬‬
‫‪other" (Quirk et al., 1973: 309).‬‬
‫‪Words, phrases, clauses, and sentences can be connected by coordinators‬‬
‫‪or conjunctions. There are three coordinators in English: and, or and but.‬‬
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95
Subordination can be made by (1) a subordinating conjunction (such as
after, because, since, etc.); (2) a wh-element (who, when, etc.); (3) the item
that; (4) inversion; (5) the absence of a finite verb form (Quirk et al., 1973:
313).
Conjunctions between words or phrases is a straightforward process. The
conjoined parts are connected by "and" and "or" directly.
(21) James and Bill are happy.
With more than two items "and" or "or" is used right before the final
item. In a series of three or more items with a conjunction, a comma is used
after each item except (in the US usage) or including (in the UK usage) the
one preceding the conjunction.
(22) Bill likes apple juice, chicken and pizza. (UK)
(23) Bill likes apple juice, chicken, and pizza. (US)
All coordinators are used for linking phrases, whereas there are only two
subordinators which can be used to link adjective phrases and adverb
phrases: "though" and "if" as shown below.
(24) He speaks fast though clearly.
(25) I have a nice though old glasses.
(26) A very pleasant if talkative child.
(27) He looked at me kindly if somewhat skeptically.
In clauses both coordination and subordination are utilized. But the latter
is more preferable in English than the former. Subordination is more
employed in formal and academic writing
than coordination. Othman
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96
(2004) argues that "the use of subordination, rather than coordination, will
immensely help in making one's writing more mature, sophisticated,
interesting and effective. He quoted Oshima's commentary on an example
paragraph whose clauses are conjoined by coordinators and another time
with subordinators. She says, on one hand, "the overuse of coordination
makes it both boring to read and difficult to focus on the ideas expressed"
(Oshima, 1991: 165, quoted in Othman, 2004). On the other hand, when
subordination is employed, the writing style becomes more interesting and
effective. Let us consider the two paragraphs examined by Oshima.
Version (1)
John F. Kennedy was the thirty-fifth President of the United
States, and he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1917.
His father was Ambassador to England, so he was exposed to
politics at an early age. Kennedy decided to enter the political
arena, so he ran for Congress from Massachusetts, and he was
elected to the Senate in 1953. His term ended in 1960, for he
was elected President that same year at the age of 43. He was
the first Roman Catholic, and he was the youngest man ever to
occupy the presidency. He had planned to run again in the 1964
election year, but he was assassinated on November 22, 1963,
in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy served America for such a short
time, but he inspired people all over the free world because of
his youth, his spirit, and his style.
(From Oshima, 1991: 165)
Version (2)
John F. Kennedy, who was the thirty-fifth President of the
United States, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1917.
Because his father was Ambassador to England, he was
exposed to politics early in life. Deciding to enter the political
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
97
arena, he ran for Congress from Massachusetts and was elected
to the Senate in 1953. His term ended in 1960, when he was
elected President that same year at the age of 43. He was not
only the first Roman Catholic but also the youngest man ever to
occupy the presidency. He had planned to run again in the 1964
election year, but he was assassinated on November 22, 1963,
in Dallas, Texas. Although Kennedy served America for such a
short time, he inspired people all over the free world because of
his youth, his spirit, and his style.
(Oshima, 1991: 165, quoted by Othman, 2004)
When translating we should consider the target language and how this
language combine words, phrases and clauses. Does this language employs
coordination and subordination on the same footing. We have mentioned
earlier that formal English mainly employs subordination. Both phenomena
exist in Arabic. Unlike English, Arabic mostly employs coordinators like ‫و‬
"and", ‫" ف‬then", ‫" ثب‬then" ‫" أو‬or" ‫" ركب‬but". The first coordinator is widely
used in Arabic. It can connect words, phrases, clauses, sentences, even
paragraphs. It is more frequently used in Arabic for a number of reasons:
(1) It should be mentioned before every conjoined item. In Arabic, the use
of comma does not replace ‫" و‬and" as in English.
.‫جاء علي وحممد وزيد‬
Ali, Mohamed and Zayd came.
(2) It can introduce an adverbial clause of manner (‫)حتل‬.
ِ ‫ف وهو‬
‫حيم ُل کفُتفُبَه‬
َّ ‫حضر الاالِبُ إلی‬
ِّ ‫الص‬
َ
The student came to class carrying his books.
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98
(3) It can start a paragraph or a sentence without a previous mention of any
paragraph or a sentence to link them. It is called then ‫" واو ارتكتيب‬narrative
conjunction and"
Othman (2004) argues that coordination is more frequently used in
Arabic than in English. To maintain the naturalness and typicality of the
translated text, the translator should bear in mind which syntactic device
s/he will employ throughout translation: subordination or coordination. This
entirely depends on language idiosyncrasies. In English language for
example, as mentioned earlier, subordination is more frequently used than
coordination. The latter characterizes the Arabic language. Let us consider
the following examples.
(28) .‫ذاكر علي جبد فنجح يف امتحانه‬
-Ali studied hard, and (therefore) he passed the test. (coordination)
-Because Ali studied well, he passed the test. (subordination)
-Having studied well, Ali passed the test. (subordination)
You can notice that the sentences which employ subordination above are
more natural, more effective and smoother. Let us now consider a longer
example from the Arabic language, quoted from the Book of Misers by AlJahiz, coupled with its translation by a professional translator.
‫قصة أسد بن جان‬
‫فأما أسد بن جان فكان جيعل سريره يف الشتاء من قصفب مقشفر ألن النراغيف‬
‫ وكان إذا دطل الصيف وحر عليه بيته‬.‫تزلق عن ليط القصب لفرط لينه ومالسته‬
‫ ويتوطؤه حفىت‬.‫فر‬.‫ مث يصب عليه جراراً كثرية مفن مفاء الب‬.‫أاثره حىت يغر املسحاة‬
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
99
‫ فؤإذا امتفد بففه النفد ودام بففرده‬.ً‫ فؤال يفزال ذلففل البيفت ابرداً مففا دام نفدي‬.‫يسفتوي‬
‫ وإن جففف قبففل انقضففاء الصففيف وعؤؤاد عليففه‬.‫بدوامففه اكتفففل بففذلل التنريففد صففيفته‬
‫ري‬.‫ طيشيت أرض وماء طيشيت من ب‬:‫ وكان يقول‬.‫احلر عاد عليه ابإلاثرة والصب‬
.‫ وأان أفضلهم أيضاً بفضل احلكمة وجودة اآللة‬.‫وبييت أبرد ومهنيت أطف‬
(Al-Jahiz, Al-Hayawan, (Cairo 1969) ed. Abd al-Salam Harun)
The tale of Asad ibn Jani
Now, in winter, Asad b. Jani used to make his bed peeled
(marsh)-reed since fleas slide off the surface of cane because of
its great suppleness and smoothness. It was his practice, when
summer came in and his room became too hot for him, to dig
up its (hard earth floor) enough to sink his spade. Then he
would pour many jars of well-water onto it and tread it down
till it became level. So that room would stay cool as long as it
retained any moisture. If it continued to hold moisture and
stayed cool he would be content with this cooling while it lasted
for his summer. If it dried out before the summer ended and
brought back the heat on him he would dig it over and pour
water on it again. He used to say: "My cloth bower is earth and
the water for my cloth bower comes from my well. My room is
cooler and my costs lighter. Moreover I surpass all of them by
virtue of (my) greater wisdom and excellence of the appliance
(I use)."
(Al-Jahiz, the Book of Misers, (England, 2000) trans. Prof. R.B.
Serjeant)
You can now notice that there are 19 occurrences of coordinators in the
Arabic text, whereas they are only 8 in its English counterpart. This shows
the high frequency of coordinators in Arabic. To translate from Arabic into
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
100
English, such coordinators (1) disappear, (2) correspond to punctuation
markers or (3) become subordinators.
5.11 Grammatical Gender
The Arabic language makes distinction between two genders: masculine
and feminine. These two genders are also employed for neutral
nouns/adjectives. Unlike English, any Arabic noun/adjective has to be either
masculine or feminine. So the translator from English into Arabic will be
confused when he/she comes a cross a word in English which can be used
for masculine or feminine reference such as "teacher, worker, president,
etc." Once a translator makes a decision on the gender of the pronominal
reference of such words he will exclude the other gender. However, the use
of the ‘dominant’ masculine form does not exclude the possibility of
feminine reference in Arabic (Al-Qinai: 2000, p. 515).
Sometimes the translator is intrigued by the distinction between
masculine and feminine in Arabic and tries to give the exact gender for
every word he comes across. This is too simplistic in English. Most words
in English can be used either way: feminine and masculine. For example,
"teacher, doctor, professor, worker, player, etc." can refer to both men and
women. To translate such words into Arabic you should decide from the
very beginning the gender at hand. Conversely, in translation from Arabic
into English, most translators put the equivalent without showing the gender
if it refers to masculine. To show the femininity of a word, translators used
to add the word "feminine" as in
‫" مأ سبت‬feminine teachers". This is not
typically used in the English language. In English the same word can be
used for masculine and feminine. The referential pronouns employed
throughout the text can give a clue what gender is at play.
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL 101
For the translator from Arabic into English he/she will be more inclined
to use the masculine pronoun for general and generic references. This is not
plausible to the English readers/listeners today. To avoid this pitfall he/she
can insert an optional pronoun like "he/she, his/her". Nouns with general
reference can also be used like "spokesperson", "chairperson", etc.
5.12 Punctuation
Punctuation is defined as the use of standard signs to divide words into
phrases, clauses and sentences to clarify meaning. It is also used to maintain
the coherence and cohesion of writing. For example, commas which are
used in English to separate words and make the text easy to read can give
meaning, consider the following sentence.
(29) My cousin who lives in France arrived.
(30) My cousin, who lives in France, arrived.
In sentence 21 the relative clause is a restrictive apposition, whereas the
sentence in 22 which uses commas is non-restrictive. In other words,
sentence 21 means that the speaker has a number of cousins, one of them
lives in France. So, the subject can only be identified to the listener through
the relative clause "who lives in France". The modification in sentence 22 is
not essential for identifying the subject.
The other punctuation markers can also give meaning, such that colon is
used for introducing a quotation, an explanation, a description, a list of
items. See also the use of semicolons, periods, question markers, etc.
Traditionally, punctuation was not utilized in Classical Arabic. As a
matter of fact, there were some punctuation markers introduced in Classical
Arabic but were limited to the Holy Qur'an. Such markers are drawn above
102
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
words to indicate pauses, non-pauses, and so on. The other registers in
Arabic lacked such markers. However, punctuation in its modern sense is
not employed in classical Arabic texts. This is because writings and
speeches were transmitted orally in the early days of Islam. The Qur'an and
Hadith themselves were first transmitted orally and from scattered scrolls.
As far as I know, the main purpose of the early Arabic writings was to be
delivered to the people orally, since books were not widely used in the
Muslim world because of the high cost of the manual writing and copying.
So, the Arabic style relied heavily on phonic tools even in writing. This is
why Arabic favors coordinators which are more explicit than subordinators.
For example, ‫" و‬and" ‫" ف‬then/and" used in Arabic to start a new sentence
and even a new paragraph because punctuation markers were not considered
before. In the same vein, many punctuation markers are lexicalized in
Arabic. For example ‫ أمبت بربأ‬which marks the end of a preamble and the
beginning of the body of the message. We can simply ignore it and start a
new paragraph. This is the typical English use. However, if we want to
produce a literal translation, especially in the Prophet's sayings we can use
an equivalent phrase which introduces a transition such as "Now, with this in
mind, having said so, etc.".
Today the Arabic language is influenced by the modern developments in
writing, including punctuation. However, it is subject to the writer's taste
and discretion. In other words, it is inconsistent and arbitrary. It does not
necessarily have to follow the exact signs of the TL text. Furthermore, some
punctuation markers are misused in Arabic. For example, "…" which is
used for ellipsis in English is used for a long pause or change of tone in
Arabic. Also, some translators combine some punctuation signs for the sake
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL 103
of emphasis such as ":-" which is used instead of colon, "?!" for emphatic
questions and "!!" for strong interjection.
5.12.1 How sentences are made?
The way in which sentences are put in Arabic differs from that in
English. In English, the division between sentences is consistently indicated
by a period (full stop). In Arabic, on the other hand, the range of the Arabic
sentence could be quite bigger than in English. For instance, we may find
the subject or the object of a given sentence is located far apart in the
sentence irrespective of how many words intervening between it and its
verb, so long as the referential pronoun is considered. So, it is left to the
translator's discretion to divide long Arabic sentences into smaller ones that
correspond to the English sentence. Let us consider the following example:
‫توالك هللا حبفظه وأعانل علل شكره ووفقفل لااعتفه وجعلفل مفن الففائزين برمحتفه‬
‫ حفظ ففل هللا أن ففل ق ففرأت كت ففا يف تص ففنيف حي ففل لص ففو النه ففار ويف‬- ‫ذك ففرت‬
‫تفص ففيل حي ففل س فرا اللي ففل وأن ففل س ففددت ب ففه ك ففل طل ففل وحص ففنت ب ففه ك ففل ع ففورة‬
‫وتقدمت مبا أففادك مفن لافائف ا فدع ونبهفل عليفه مفن غرائفب احليفل فيمفا عسفل‬
‫أال يبلغففه كيففد وال حيففوزه مكففر وذكففرت أن موق ف نفعففه عظففيم وأن التقففدم يف درسففه‬
‫ اذكر ع نفوادر الفباللء واحتجفاا األشفحاء ومفا جيفوز مفن ذلفل يف‬:‫واجب وقلت‬
‫ابب اهلففزل ومففا جيففوز منففه يف ابب اجلففد ألجعففل اهلففزل مسفااحا والراحففة يمامففا فف ن‬
.‫مراجعته‬
‫للجد كدا مين من معاودته وال بد ملن التمس نفعه من‬
May Allah take you to preserve you under His charge, aid you
to show Him gratitude and set you among those to receive His
mercy. You remarked, Allah preserve you, that you have read
my book on the classification of the ruses of thieves who rob by
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
104
day and the detailed exposé of the tricks of thieves who rob by
night. (You also remarked) that thereby you have stopped up
each crack and fortified each breach, surpassing (others)
through what it told you of subtle deceits and strange devices
against which it cautioned you—that perchance no stratagem
will succeed in countering or cunning manage (to foil).
You remarked (furthermore) that it has been of great benefit (to
you) and that it is essential to devote oneself to) the study of it.
"Tell me", you say, "humorous anecdotes of misers and the
logic of stingy persons—those falling under the heading of
pleasantry into a means of relaxation and relief. For seriousness
involves exertion that impedes reversion to it and he who
wishes to benefit by it must keep coming back to it."
You can notice in the above example quoted from the Book of Misers by
Al-Jahiz, translated by Serjeant (2000) that one Arabic sentence (ending
with a full stop) was translated into six in English. This sort of coordination
can continue for the whole paragraph. Then the translator has to split such
coordinated sentences into shorter ones which can conform to either a
coordinate or subordinate English sentence.
5.12.2 Paragraphing
A paragraph is a group of sentences that discuss one central idea.
However, this device is not used in Arabic as a division of ideas and
thoughts. Sometimes the translator tends to split the Arabic paragraphs
when he feels a given paragraph became longer than the other paragraphs in
the same text. Another time s/he produces extremely short paragraphs that
fragment ideas. Actually, the main function of paragraphing is not for
decoration; it is rather for maintaining the cohesion of the text and to
minimize memory load. Paragraphing makes the process of reading and
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL 105
assimilating the text easy by dividing the ideas and information presented in
the text into manageable sections.
Bearing in mind the nature of paragraphing in English vs. Arabic we
would be able to play with sentences within the paragraph contours to
improve the textual effectiveness of a TT. But it is not common in
translation to divide a long paragraph into short ones or joining short
paragraphs together to form a long one because this may render incohesive
paragraphs. In fact, we need to stick to the main function of paragraphing,
namely, the division of ideas and thoughts.
Strictly speaking, reparagraphing may be necessary in Arabic-English
translation to be in conformity with the TT system of structural paragraphs.
On the contrary, when we translate from English into Arabic, we can switch
to the Arabic style of paragraphing, bearing in mind that we still can keep
the main function of paragraphing: Each paragraph should discuss a central
idea.
5.13 Explicitness
Olohan and Baker (2000) defined explicitness as "the spelling out in a
target text of information which is only implicit in a source text." Actually,
the translated text tends to be more explicit and larger than the source text
for a number of reasons. (1) Literal translation tends to be longer than other
types of translation. (2) The translator sometimes intervenes in the text by
making glosses for ambiguous items, i.e. adding words or phrases for the
sake of explanation. (3) Lexical repetition (4) Semantic repetition (cf. Ch. 4)
(5) syntactic simplification.
106
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
The translator tends to create some sort of relationship between his
sentences by means of repetition of names and noun phrases rather than the
use of pronouns and other types of lexical equivalence1. This also makes his
translation more explicit than the source text.
Now let us consider some features of syntactic simplification. The
economic use of language in a given language may not work in another
language. In Arabic for example, the complement is linked to a subject
directly without a copulative verb. In English the copulative verb is nuclear.
Consider the following example:
(31) ‫الرجل يف البيت‬
The man is at home.
Now let us consider the following example.
1
There are many factors to be considered when writing more than a sentence. In the first
place sentences should be semantically related. Secondly we should make sure that all
sentences are lexically related through the usage of lexical equivalents. I would like to put
more emphasis on lexical equivalence because this is a more practical way to keep your
sentences relevant. Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) stated, "We can expect successive
sentences to show some relationship through their vocabulary, some equivalence in the
lexical items. The simplest form of such lexical equivalence is through the repetition of
words and phrases."
Below are some types of repetition which can be used along with simple repetition pf
words:
1. simple repetition: planet – planets
2. complex repetition: planet – planetary
3. Pro-forms: planets- they
4. simple paraphrase: path- track
5. Co-reference (for text): Bush- the American president
6. Ellipsis: some astronomers = one
7. Particular-general: Pluto- planet
8. Complex paraphrase: solar – sun
9. Closed sets (including numbers if accompanied by another type of repetition):
Pluto- Neptune
10. Antonymy: small- massive
11. Representative- Represented: America –Mr. Bush.
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL 107
(32) The man in the bus.
‫الرجل الذي جيلس يف احلافلة‬
The man sitting in the bus.
The man who is sitting in the bus.
You can notice that the last sentence is more explicit than the previous
ones. The above English phrase which lacks the copulative verb employs
ellipsis. To translate it into Arabic we should rephrase it into its original
form.
Another aspect of explicitness in language is the use or omission of the
word that. We must bear in mind that our aim throughout this book is to
keep the content of the source text intact. So we will be dealing with the
word that which is used for grammatical functions vs. that which functions
as a nuclear element in the sentence is beyond the scope of this study. For
example,
That he speaks English fluently is already known.
Your score, that astonished the teacher, was great.
For non-nuclear that, Storm (1966: 265) notes, "that has no inherent
semantic meaning but only a functional, grammatical meaning, i.e., it
constitutes the grammatical means of joining two clauses". Generally
speaking, McDavid (1964) notes, in English "that was missing most often
when the clause was the object of a verb, frequently with such common
verbs as know and say." Storm (ibid: 266-7) gives a detailed list of the
words that precede the that-clause as follows.
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
108
a. Verbs which are on the whole more objective: say, tell, state,
declare, remark, observe, announce, pronounce, protest, profess,
proclaim, assert, aver, avouch, write, print, telephone, wire, report,
answer, reply, rejoin, retort, propose, suggest, submit, add, have it,
recall, remember, forget, foresee, foretell, predict.
b. Verbs which are on the whole objective: affirm, confirm, maintain,
ensure, prove, deny, doubt, show, manifest, point out, demonstrate,
indicate, postulate, find out, find, discover, mean, signify, establish,
ascertain, learn, teach, dream, promise, threaten, hint, claim, pretend,
recommend, infer, conclude, deduce, take it, follow, (it follow that),
imply, argue, reason, judge, settle, object, agree, stress, emphasize,
reflect, consider, estimate, admit, acknowledge, confess, accept,
assume, presume, recognize, grant, concede, beg, pray, convince s.b.
c. Verbs which are fairly objective: see, feel, hear, perceive, note,
notice, (observe), sense, understand, realize.
d. Verbs which are predominantly subjective: think, believe, suppose,
guess, reckon, trust, bet, imagine, (feel), fancy, suspect.
e. Verbs which may be objective or subjective: fear, dread, worry,
hope, wish, desire, prefer, regret, deplore, lament, complain, rejoice,
brag, boast, astonish s.b., surprise s.b., amaze s.b., puzzle s.b.,
wonder, annoy s.b., anger s.b., vex s.b., strike s.b.
f.
Link verbs which occur only in personal constructions: seem,
appear, happen, occur, be.
g. Verbs that are said to govern clauses of purposes: instruct, direct,
will, want, rule, order, arrange, command, urge, insist, (ask),
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL 109
demand, request, require, stipulate, decide, determine, resolve, make
up one's mind, insist, take care, see (to it).
Storms (ibid: 262) concluded, "the-that clause tends … to be less
personal, less familiar, less warm, less friendly, less emotive. It is objective,
factual, formal, official, sometimes tending to hostility". She gave the
following examples in (33) & (34) to support her argument:
(33) I hope he will be able to play on Saturday (supporter).
(34) I hope that he will not be better on Saturday (opponent).
Syntactically speaking, we cannot easily determine where and when we
can omit that; it is mainly based on the context. On the other hand, McDavid
(ibid: 109) argues, it is possible to figure out where we can include that. 1)
when one of the verbs mentioned in the list above is modified, (e.g. I think
generally that the book is useful). 2) When the subordinate clause is
compounded, both parts are generally preceded by that (e.g. He found,
however, that the patient's associations never led him immediately to the
root of the matter, but that they flowed and skipped in a haphazard way.) 3)
When the that-clause occurs as an object of the infinitive (e.g. we came to
confirm that he will come tomorrow).
Let us now discuss the phenomenon of explicitness with regard to the
inclusion or deletion of the optional that with the reporting verbs "say" and
"tell" in translation as investigated by Olohan and Baker (2000).
Based on the classification of Storms mentioned above Burnett (1999)
examined some verbs using translated English corpus. He concluded that
"subjective verbs would favour a zero-connective" (Brunett, 1999: quoted in
110
THE SYNTACTIC LEVEL
Olohan & Baker, 2000). Having assessed the phenomenon more extensively
on the various forms of "say" and "tell" Olohan and Baker (ibid: 154)
supported Brunett premise that that-clause is more frequently used in
translated texts than in original English. This proves the prevalence of
syntactic explicitness in translation.