Spanish equivalents of the English gerund-participle in the ACTRES parallel corpus

Marlén Izquierdo

University of León (Spain)

dfmmif@unileon.es

Outline:

The study:

Object

Relevance

Objectives

Theoretical principles

Methodology

Tools

Stages (analysis + results)

Conclusions

Future research

The study

English gerund-participle (-ing form) from a contrastive & translation-descriptive point of view

Problem-trigger for translation into Spanish:

Multifunctional

Traditionally associated with the Spanish gerund (-ndo)

• Overuse (´translationese´)Real relationship between –ing/ -ndo?

Which other Spanish resources are functionally equivalent?

Set of translational options (one-to-many)

Applications:

• Translator training

• FLT

Theoretical framework

ACTRES research group

Contrastive Analysis and Descriptive Translation Studies

Applied (inter)linguistics

Usage-based description

• Functionalism

• Corpus linguistics

meaning = functional equivalence: tertiumcomparationis for contrast and condition for translation • Qualitative study

Methodology

Tools:

Linguistic corpora:

• ACTRES Parallel Corpus (stages 2 & 3)• Qualitative data

• CREA: control corpus (stage 4)

• Quantitative study

Browser: CWB (stage 1)

Statistical package: Chi-square test (stage 4)

P-ACTRES

Original AmE & BE texts & translation into Spanish (Unidirectional)

2.3 million-word written, general language

Texts from 2000 up to now

3 sub-corpora:

Books (fiction [34%] & non-fiction [43%])

Press (editorials [10%] & magazine articles [10%])

Miscellanea [3%]

Sentence-aligned & pos-tagged

Stage 1: selection

CWB:

Population from P-ACTRES: 244,276 words4,441 Parallel Concordances

Stage 2: description

Original English –ing constructions (from P-ACTRES)

KWIC

Form meaning

Four major functions:

Adverbial Aspectual[progressive]

Characterization Referential

1,436 1,204 1,049 752

32,3% 27,1% 23,6% 16,9%

Adverbial –ing constructionsTime 393 27,3 % Arriving in front of the protective plexiglas,

Sophie held her breath…

Process 311 21,6%

19,3%

8,8%

8,5%

7,02%

3,05%

2,08%

1,4%

0,7%

0,03%

Getting on her hands and knees, she reached beneath her wooden…

Accumulation 278 H-D lent me a poem called Waste Land by Eliot, advising me to read it.

Result 127 …lit the new leaves on the apple trees from behind, turning them a glowing lime green, an

Reason 122 They did not let him join them, preferringhim to study and better himself, but the…

Purpose 101 Hedging his bets, he ordered half of his men back to the Louvre perimeter…

Concession 44 …instead of returning it to the king and claiming his prize, he rode over the hill …

Place (direction) 29 …left on time at 2.10 p.m. […], headingwest, its engine…

Condition 20 I might have a chance, all being well, of being selected…

Disjuncts Stance 10 …following the Kantian tradition of cosmopolitan federalism, I will underscore

Conjunct Conclusion 1 ‘In closing’, Langdon said…

Circumstantial

Aspectual –ing constructions

Past

553 46% She was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt so large that the …

He had been working on the painting for almost two months…

…urgently indicating that what I was being told was completely in…

Present 436 36,2% …but then you can fall off a mountain you’re climbing fore…

…between hope and scepticism that is being fought inside…

…that’s exactly what Mundy has been doing, but he is too polite…

Future 123 10,2% What is he going to do once he is in Paris or London?

How many of them do you think will be voting for Ken Lay’s best…

Langdon was not going anywhere

Conditional 48 3,9% I viewed his movement as if I were standing in the street, looking…

…nor at Tanneke, who would be frowning because I had pushed her...

Infinitive 45 3,7% He must be trying to tell me more than that..

Characterization by –ingconstructions

Participial adjective

492 47% The invading army stopped in its tracks at the sight of…

…needed to strain at creaking wooden carts to maintain..

Reduced –ing relative clause

312 29,8% Two billiard balls rolling towards each other at the same speed have equal but opposite…

[two billiard balls which are rolling towards each other…]

Noun post-modifier

196 18,6% …he is in the process of losing his taste for Shakespeare…

…more entertaining method for preserving dates and details

Adjective post-modifier

49 4,7% …each of whom looked capable of tearing up oak trees…

Flikschuch’s argument is worth considering in some detail…

Referential –ing constructions

Catenativecomplement

381 50,6% Funny how his mind kept going back to that song…

I found myself just staring at him in wonderment…

He needs to hear someone speaking quietly to him…

Prepositional verb complement

119 15,8% I thought about walking out but decided to…

I accuse the general who stands besides you of stealing the other…

Subject 106 14,1% Being at least half dressed would speed his getaway if…

The praying stopped and cursing began.

Direct Object 49 6,5% Leave the talking to me.

Complement 41 5,4% German paratroops were reported fighting in Polish uniforms, assisted by ethnic Volksdeutsche dressed in distinctive…

Comparative 30 4% That is like throwing up a ball with exactly the right escape velocity…

Others 26 3,4% …and echoing the negating movement of his finger with a rapid shaking of his head…

Stage 3: contrast

Meaning form

Recurrent translational options

Translational options of -ing adverbials

Fleeing the men’s room, they moved into…Abandonando el servicio, se internaron en las sombras…

…concentrated on smoking while stamping our feet to ……nos concentramos en fumar mientras pisoteábamos con fuerza el suelo…

Following the first Gulf War, he went into Iraq repeatedly…Con posterioridad a la Guerra del Golfo, fue enviado repetidas veces..

35,7

18,2

9,5 9,2 8,2 7,9

3,2 2,7 1,6 1,5 0,9 0,6 0,70

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40 Gerund

Sub. Adverbial [nFin]

Sub. Adverbial [fin]

PP

Simple clause

Coordination

Adjective

Relative cl.

Omission

No TR

NP

Adverb

Others

Translational options of -ing aspectual constructions

47,75

29,4

11,8

2,2 1,5 1,4 1,07 0,6 0,5 0,4 0,2 0,21,07 0,7 0,60

10

20

30

40

50

60 VP [finite]

Estar + G

Complex VP

Estar + Adj

Estar + PP

Clause

Infinitive

NP

PP

Adjective

Passive

No TR

Gerund

Omission

Others

Mundy is listening hardMundy escucha con atención

Tell me what is happeningContad lo que está ocurriendo

…but they were still using orange crates for storage…… pero seguían aprovechando las cajas de naranjas para almacenar…

Translational options of –ing modifiers

30,9

5,2 4,82,7 1,9

0,8 1,04

18,3

13,2 12,7

7,8

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Adjective

Relative cl.

PP

N/Adj+prep+inf.

Clause

NP

Gerund

No TR

Omission

Adverb

Others

…between the talking heads, he can see the sea’s black horizon and..…entre las cabezas parlantes, ve el horizonte negro del mar y…

Among the evacuees returning from Holland was Sir Neville Bland, the…

Entre los evacuados que regresaban de Holanda estaba sir Neville Bland, embajador…

…isn’t even going to get to the starting line……no va a llegar siquiera a la línea de salida

Translational options of –ing referential constructions

25,9

16,2

12,3 11,810,1

2,2 1,9 1,2 1,6

12,9

3,7

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Infinitive

NP

Gerund

Subordination

VP

Simple clause

PP

Adjective

No TR

Omission

Others

Driving a car takes up all Sasha’s attentionConducir exige a Sasha toda su atención

If I didn’t have my sculpting, I don’t know if I’d be okSi no tuviera mis esculturas, no sé si…

… its serene beauty I find myself wondering why Lucy has turned not……su serena belleza me descubro preguntándome por qué la actitud de Lucy…

Stage 4: ‘translationese’ control

Overuse of the Spanish Gerund?CREA & Chi-square testQuantitative study

E.g. ‘esperando’instances in CREA: 523

P-ACTRES: 57

p-value: 0 [significant]instances/million CREA: 32,1/m

P-ACTRES: 84,1/m

Overuse: 33,9%

Conclusions

Spanish G:

Central equivalent: adverbial and aspectual

Marginal equivalent: characterization & referential

Functional/translation equivalence –ing & Spanish: one-to-many

Translationese in the use of the G

CA ∞ Parallel Corpora ∞ DTS

Future research

PhD dissertation

Larger amount of data

Non-finite –ing constructions

Comparable-corpus-based yuxtaposition –ing/-ndo prior to the contrastive-descriptive parallel-corpus-based analysis

Stage 4: qualitative extension

Lexical analysis

Comments and questions?

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Thank you!