"...the 'to-/that' complement alternation is sensitive to whether the writer intends the reader to focus on the implications of the proposition expressed by the embedded clause, or on the those of the proposition expressed by the sentence as a whole."
Dr. Riddle said this is wrong: "...the use of the infinitive complement is not unconstrained: on the one hand, it can only be used with stative verbs or those marked for perfective aspect; on the other, it is limited to formal, generally written, genres."
Predictions:
"As Noel found, 'believe' complements which introduce information new to the discourse should be more common in a sample of 'believe(s) that X is/are' cases than in a sample of 'believe(s) X to be' cases."
"There should be a higher incidence of behaviour/reaction-explaining cases in a 'believe(s) X to be' sample, for the reasons explained above."
He didn't find a big difefrence.
Showing posts with label contrastive grammar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contrastive grammar. Show all posts
Monday, May 25, 2009
clause combining across languages: a corpus-based study of english-french translation shifts
christelle cosme.
This study uses bilingual corpora to test “the claim that English shows a strong preference for coordination while French makes more extensive use of subordination” (71). The results support this claim.
This article has two primary goals: “(a) gain more insight into the contrast between English and French in terms of clause-combining; (b) shed more light on clause combining in general – and, more particularly, on the relationship between coordination and subordination” (72). The article also has two secondary goals: (a) demonstrate how “corpus linguistics can serve the needs of syntactic cross-linguistic research” and (b) encourage language teachers to introduce translation corpora as a teaching tool (95-99).
Syntactical Background Information
There are three types of interclausal relations (73-74).
Juxtaposition He ate too much for dinner; he was ill the next day. Parataxis: establishes equivalent relation between clauses
Coordination He ate too much for dinner and (he) was ill the next day. Parataxis
Subordination Because he ate too much for dinner, he was ill the next day. Hypotaxis: establishes hierarchical relation between clauses
“No clear borderline seems to exist between coordination and subordination.”
The claim is that English prefers coordination, while French prefers subordination (76, example 8).
Methodology
Cosme used both monolingual and translation corpora for this study, analyzing two registers: fiction and journalese (78-79).
Monolingual corpus results
“Interclausal and is significantly more frequent than interclausal et” in fiction; this difference is not observed in journalese (80-81).
French is more apt to coordinate full clauses than English, which is more likely to coordinate predicates by ellipting the subject in the second clause (82).
Coordinating conjunctions convey two separate meanings: the static meaning (pure addition) or dynamic meaning (temporal sequence or consequence). In journalese, French tends to use et to convey a static meaning more often than English, which tends to use and to convey a dynamic meaning (83-84).
Translation corpus results
“It is more common for inter-clausal and to be translated by something else other than inter-clausal et ( . . .) than vice-versa” (84). This occurs in both fiction and journalese (85).
In the majority of examples, translators have the option of either coordinating or subordinating: the change is not obligatory (86).
Translations from English to French shift to subordinating structures by use of the following:
• Participle clause (28.3%)
• Purpose clause
• Relative clause (23.9%)
French-to-English translations display the following shift strategies:
• Participle clause (41.2%)
This study uses bilingual corpora to test “the claim that English shows a strong preference for coordination while French makes more extensive use of subordination” (71). The results support this claim.
This article has two primary goals: “(a) gain more insight into the contrast between English and French in terms of clause-combining; (b) shed more light on clause combining in general – and, more particularly, on the relationship between coordination and subordination” (72). The article also has two secondary goals: (a) demonstrate how “corpus linguistics can serve the needs of syntactic cross-linguistic research” and (b) encourage language teachers to introduce translation corpora as a teaching tool (95-99).
Syntactical Background Information
There are three types of interclausal relations (73-74).
Juxtaposition He ate too much for dinner; he was ill the next day. Parataxis: establishes equivalent relation between clauses
Coordination He ate too much for dinner and (he) was ill the next day. Parataxis
Subordination Because he ate too much for dinner, he was ill the next day. Hypotaxis: establishes hierarchical relation between clauses
“No clear borderline seems to exist between coordination and subordination.”
The claim is that English prefers coordination, while French prefers subordination (76, example 8).
Methodology
Cosme used both monolingual and translation corpora for this study, analyzing two registers: fiction and journalese (78-79).
Monolingual corpus results
“Interclausal and is significantly more frequent than interclausal et” in fiction; this difference is not observed in journalese (80-81).
French is more apt to coordinate full clauses than English, which is more likely to coordinate predicates by ellipting the subject in the second clause (82).
Coordinating conjunctions convey two separate meanings: the static meaning (pure addition) or dynamic meaning (temporal sequence or consequence). In journalese, French tends to use et to convey a static meaning more often than English, which tends to use and to convey a dynamic meaning (83-84).
Translation corpus results
“It is more common for inter-clausal and to be translated by something else other than inter-clausal et ( . . .) than vice-versa” (84). This occurs in both fiction and journalese (85).
In the majority of examples, translators have the option of either coordinating or subordinating: the change is not obligatory (86).
Translations from English to French shift to subordinating structures by use of the following:
• Participle clause (28.3%)
• Purpose clause
• Relative clause (23.9%)
French-to-English translations display the following shift strategies:
• Participle clause (41.2%)
Relative clauses
edward l. keenan
"Our purpose here is to characterize the types of relative clauses which the langauges of the world present."
restrictive relative clause (RCS):
"I picked up two towels that were lying on the floor
John gave a check to the farmer whose cows Bill stole
Every student who Mary advised passed the exam."
restrictive clause includes:
determiner (optional)
domain noun (optional)
restrictive clause (S rel)
"There is a general tendency across languages to favor postnominal as opposed to prenomical RCS. More specifically, postnominal RCS are almost the only type attested in verb-initial languages."
In SVO languages, "postnominal RCS are the overwhelming norm..."
"...it is only in verb-final languages that prenominal RCS are the only or most productive form."
Corelatives
"These are not NPs and thus a fortiori not RCS on our definition, but they are the functional equivalent of RCS in many languages..."
Hindi:
COREL man GEN dog sick is, that man DO I ERG saw
Which man's dog is sick, that man I saw
"...corelatives are not attested in rigid verb-final languages such as Japanese and Turkish. Nor are they attested in rigid SVO or verb-initial languages"
'I saw the man whose dog is sick'
"Our purpose here is to characterize the types of relative clauses which the langauges of the world present."
restrictive relative clause (RCS):
"I picked up two towels that were lying on the floor
John gave a check to the farmer whose cows Bill stole
Every student who Mary advised passed the exam."
restrictive clause includes:
determiner (optional)
domain noun (optional)
restrictive clause (S rel)
"There is a general tendency across languages to favor postnominal as opposed to prenomical RCS. More specifically, postnominal RCS are almost the only type attested in verb-initial languages."
In SVO languages, "postnominal RCS are the overwhelming norm..."
"...it is only in verb-final languages that prenominal RCS are the only or most productive form."
Corelatives
"These are not NPs and thus a fortiori not RCS on our definition, but they are the functional equivalent of RCS in many languages..."
S
S rel S main
COREL + NP rel NP ana
S rel S main
COREL + NP rel NP ana
Hindi:
COREL man GEN dog sick is, that man DO I ERG saw
Which man's dog is sick, that man I saw
"...corelatives are not attested in rigid verb-final languages such as Japanese and Turkish. Nor are they attested in rigid SVO or verb-initial languages"
'I saw the man whose dog is sick'
Noun Phrases in Chinese and English: A study of English structural problems encountered by CHinese ESL students in Hong Kong
alice y.w. chan
"This paper attempts to find the sources of the problems and proposes a system of teaching priorities for the benefit of teachers and students."
"In terms of usage, Chinese pronouns are used more sparingly than their English counterparts--they are normally omitted if their referents are contextually clear."
ze5 bun2 syu1
this CLASSIFIER book
tung4 hok6 mun4
student plural
"While plural nouns (whith plural determiners when necessary( in English are obligatorily used to mark plurality...the Chinese plural marker mun4 is not used across the board."
"Like English, Chinese nouns also have the common case...and the genitive case...but neither Chinese nouns nor CHinese pronouns are distinguished by the subjective or objective case--the same form is used no matter whether the pronoun is the subject or object of a sentence."
Chan got confused between written and spoken.
"...the Chinese third person singular pronouns are also distinguished in gennder, i.e., taa1 (he), taa1(she)."
"Determiners introduce noun phrases."
"CHinese has no articles equivalent to the ENglish articles."
jat1 go 3 jan 4
one CLASSIFIER person
(a person)
dik1=possessive
ngo5 dik1 ji1 fuk6
I GEN clothes
(my clothes)
"Though the inclusion of a possessive dterminer does not make the imperatives ungrammatical, it tends to destroy the favorite style of terseness typical of the CHinese language.
baa2 (nei5 dik1( daai6 ji1 tyut3 haa6
BA (you GEN) big coat take off
(Take off your coat.)
"Classifiers in Chinese are important because in many cases the absence of a classifier, such as the direct translations from corresponding English noun phrases, would result in ungrammatical structures."
"Unlike ENglish, CHinese does not have post-modifiers."
Table 1 has ungrammatical ENglish sentences.
Topic-comment structure: "*My father he alays get my mother's money."
Resumptive pronouns: "*She is the teacher that she taught me grammar last year."
Missing relatives: "*You are the first person come to Hong Kong."
"*There is only one people look after my whole life."
"*One obvious smptom can be detected is insomnia."
Missing verbs: "The reduced relative clause in ENglish"
"*I have a large family which including grandmother, grandfather...."
"*After enjoying our delicious food which cooked by my mum, we wnt to school together."
"*The negative consequence that brought by its growth was...."
Missing subjects: "Chinese pronouns are used much more sparingly than their English counterparts...Chinese learners tend to produce English sentences with the subjects missing..."
"*I think my most important person in my life is not one, is my family."
"This paper attempts to find the sources of the problems and proposes a system of teaching priorities for the benefit of teachers and students."
"In terms of usage, Chinese pronouns are used more sparingly than their English counterparts--they are normally omitted if their referents are contextually clear."
ze5 bun2 syu1
this CLASSIFIER book
tung4 hok6 mun4
student plural
"While plural nouns (whith plural determiners when necessary( in English are obligatorily used to mark plurality...the Chinese plural marker mun4 is not used across the board."
"Like English, Chinese nouns also have the common case...and the genitive case...but neither Chinese nouns nor CHinese pronouns are distinguished by the subjective or objective case--the same form is used no matter whether the pronoun is the subject or object of a sentence."
Chan got confused between written and spoken.
"...the Chinese third person singular pronouns are also distinguished in gennder, i.e., taa1 (he), taa1(she)."
"Determiners introduce noun phrases."
"CHinese has no articles equivalent to the ENglish articles."
jat1 go 3 jan 4
one CLASSIFIER person
(a person)
dik1=possessive
ngo5 dik1 ji1 fuk6
I GEN clothes
(my clothes)
"Though the inclusion of a possessive dterminer does not make the imperatives ungrammatical, it tends to destroy the favorite style of terseness typical of the CHinese language.
baa2 (nei5 dik1( daai6 ji1 tyut3 haa6
BA (you GEN) big coat take off
(Take off your coat.)
"Classifiers in Chinese are important because in many cases the absence of a classifier, such as the direct translations from corresponding English noun phrases, would result in ungrammatical structures."
"Unlike ENglish, CHinese does not have post-modifiers."
Table 1 has ungrammatical ENglish sentences.
Topic-comment structure: "*My father he alays get my mother's money."
Resumptive pronouns: "*She is the teacher that she taught me grammar last year."
Missing relatives: "*You are the first person come to Hong Kong."
"*There is only one people look after my whole life."
"*One obvious smptom can be detected is insomnia."
Missing verbs: "The reduced relative clause in ENglish"
"*I have a large family which including grandmother, grandfather...."
"*After enjoying our delicious food which cooked by my mum, we wnt to school together."
"*The negative consequence that brought by its growth was...."
Missing subjects: "Chinese pronouns are used much more sparingly than their English counterparts...Chinese learners tend to produce English sentences with the subjects missing..."
"*I think my most important person in my life is not one, is my family."
Multiple Modification in English and Spanish NPs: A corpus-based contrastive study
noelia ramon garcia
"The aim of this study is to unveil the inetraction between meaning and grammar in this linguistic area in English and Spanish, revealing the different grammatical structures used in the two languages to actualise a particular meaning."
"Adjectives,,,occupy...a premodifying position in English...and a postmodifying position in SPanish..."
"A handful of English constructions allow the postposition of an adjective, particularly in noun compounds (attorney general, heir apparent) or when the head is an indefinite pronoun (something awful, nothing interesting). IN Spanish, on the other hand, premodifying adjectives may occur and usually mark affectivity: un viejo actor (an old actor)."
"...semantic constraints in this field are based on different factors in the two langauges: implicitness versus explicitness in English, and non-restrictiveness in SPanish."
Descriptive adjectives (a big bear) versus classifying adjectives (a polar bear).
"This implies that in Spanish premodifying adjectives carry only descriptive meanings (un buen coreografo, un gran hombre)..."
"el dia en que me dieron de baja (the day I was made redundant)" British English for getting laid off
"Multiple modification in NPs is thus not an uncommon phenomenon in Spanish, contrary to what some authors have claimed."
"The aim of this study is to unveil the inetraction between meaning and grammar in this linguistic area in English and Spanish, revealing the different grammatical structures used in the two languages to actualise a particular meaning."
"Adjectives,,,occupy...a premodifying position in English...and a postmodifying position in SPanish..."
"A handful of English constructions allow the postposition of an adjective, particularly in noun compounds (attorney general, heir apparent) or when the head is an indefinite pronoun (something awful, nothing interesting). IN Spanish, on the other hand, premodifying adjectives may occur and usually mark affectivity: un viejo actor (an old actor)."
"...semantic constraints in this field are based on different factors in the two langauges: implicitness versus explicitness in English, and non-restrictiveness in SPanish."
Descriptive adjectives (a big bear) versus classifying adjectives (a polar bear).
"This implies that in Spanish premodifying adjectives carry only descriptive meanings (un buen coreografo, un gran hombre)..."
"el dia en que me dieron de baja (the day I was made redundant)" British English for getting laid off
"Multiple modification in NPs is thus not an uncommon phenomenon in Spanish, contrary to what some authors have claimed."
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