the possessor and the possessed, whole and part, class and member, and relevance (Tsao, 1979). Below is an example for illustration.
(3)
(a) 例如， 由 英國 藝術史家 朱利安‧史帖拉布雷斯 設計的〈路面房〉i， Liru you Yingguo yishu-shi-jia Zhulian Shitielabuleisi sheji-de lumian-fangi,
For-example, by British art-history-scholar Julian Stallabrass design-DE pavement-room 將 房間 布置得 有如 街道 一般，
jiang fangjian buzhi-de youru jiedao yiban, make room decorate-DE like street look
even couch-pillow too be-made sewer-cover picture
‘Art room 2 (“The Architecture of the Pavement”), designed by British art historian Julian Stallabrass, is set up to look like a street scene. The bed covers resemble pavement, the furniture takes the forms of a park bench and streetlight, and the couch pillows are sewer grates.’ (Taiwan Panorama, April, 2013, pp.
54-55)
In this example, there are four topics: i, j, k and l. Nevertheless, this is recognized in the present study as a single topic chain. It is because topic i and the other three topics form a semantic relation of whole and part. The whole topic chain is still about the main topic i.
3.4 Analysis Procedure
The analysis procedure includes four steps. The first step is to sort the topic
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
chains from the magazine and the textbooks into the six types: (1) typical topic chains, (2) the topic chain with an embedded sub-chain, (3) the telescopic chain, (4) the topic chain with a zero-form topic in the first clause, (5) the topic chain without any overt topic, and (6) the topic chain with more than one overt form of the same topic.
The second step is to identify and count the units in each Chinese topic chain and in its English translation. This step aims to make clear how the information package in Chinese topic chains is translated into English sentences. In the present study, a Chinese unit (hereafter ChU) is defined as a clause with a topic and a comment, in which the topic can be realized in the form of a full NP, a pronoun, or zero. The topic-comment structure is considered the smallest unit of a discourse since Chinese is regarded as a topic-prominent language (Li & Thompson, 1976). On the other hand, English is a subject-prominent language, in which the smallest unit of a discourse is a clause. Since a clause is not considered a complete unit in written language, an English unit (hereafter EnU) in the present study is defined as a complete sentence which may include coordinate structures or subordinate structures.
Example (4) below is to illustrate the identification of ChUs and EnUs. Example (4) has six ChUs (a)-(f), which are translated into three EnUs (a’)-(c’). The Chinese topic chain starts with the topic in the form of zero. Each comma in the topic chain marks the boundary between the ChUs. Through translation, ChU (a) is translated into
‧
EnU (a’). ChUs (b)-(e) are combined into one EnU (b’)13. ChU (f) is translated into EnU (c’). The whole Chinese topic chain of six ChUs is thus translated into three EnUs. participate private of thin-body class course
(a’) Six months ago, he began taking classes at a weight-loss studio.
(b) 0i 飲食 控制 加上 每天 走 0i yinshi kongzhi jiashang meitian zou diet control plus every-day walk 一萬 步，
yiwan bu, 10, 000 step
(b’) By controlling his diet and walking 10,000 steps per day, over a 49-day period he lost 8.5 kilograms, shrank his waist by 7.5 centimeters and lowered his blood pressure from 162/106 to 120/80.
(c) 0i 49 天 減掉 8.5 公斤，
0i 49 tian jian-diao 8.5 gongjin, 49 day cut-off 8.5 kilogram (d) 0i 腰圍 縮小了 7.5 公分，
0i yaowei suoxiao-le 7.5 gongfen, waist narrow-ASP 7.5 centimeter (e) 0i 血壓 也從 162/106 降到 120/80，
0i xie-ya ye cong 162/106 jiang-dao 120/80, blood-pressure too from 162/106 fall-to 120/80
(f) 0i 不再 需要 吃 藥。
0i bu-zai xuyao chi yao no-more need take medicine
(c’) As a result, he no longer needs to take blood pressure medication.
(Taiwan Panorama, April 2013, p. 72-73)
It should be noted that commas do not always mark the boundary of a ChU
because they can mark the boundary of any syntactic constituent in Chinese, such as a
13 Reasons of demarcating and combing units will be discussed in Chapter Four.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
noun phrase, a verb phrase, an adjective phrase, an adverbial phrase, a preposition phrase or a connective in Chinese. For example, in (5), the first comma marks a time adverbial phrase jin-nian wuyue (今年五月) ‘this-year May.’ This adverbial phrase does not constitute a ChU on its own. In example (6), the first comma marks a
preposition phrase zai qinggan-weiyan-de yali xia (在情感威嚴的壓力下) ‘under the feeling-strict stress.’ This comma is not treated as a unit boundary marker either because it is used within a clause to set apart the preposition phrase and the comment.
(5) 今 年 5 月， 打開聯合團隊i 將 在台北 及 台南 Jin-nian wuyue Dakai-lianhe-tuanduii jiang zai Taibei ji Tainan this-year May Open-Union-team will in Taipei and Tainan 啟動 兩間 「出租公寓」，…
qidong liang-jian chuzu gongyu start two-CLASS rental apartment
‘This coming May, OU is going to open a pair of rental apartment
properties in Taipei and Tainan…’ (Taiwan Panorama, April 2013, p. 56) (6) 竹竹i 在 情感威嚴的 壓力下，不得不 拿，...
Zhuzhui zai qinggan-weiyan-de yali xia, bu-de-bu na, Zhuzhu under feeling-strict-of stress under not-DE-not take
‘Because of his affection for her and her deference to his wishes, Chu-chu had to take it. …’ (Translation Strategies, p. 418)
The third step is to analyze the demarcation markers and examine how they are treated in the translation. To begin with, the linguistic forms used at the demarcation points in the Chinese topic chains are analyzed. Previous literature has indicated that the degree of topic continuity is reflected by three major linguistic markers: nominal forms, connectives, and punctuation marks. Among the nominal forms, full NPs,
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
pronouns, and zero forms constitute a scale of topic continuity, with full NPs indicating a major continuity break while zero forms indicating high continuity.
Connectives can be used at both global and local demarcation; global connectives link larger discourse units while local connectives link closely related clauses or sentences.
The Chinese punctuation system includes a full stop (。), a semicolon (；), a comma (，), and a listing marker (、). These four marks form a scale. A full stop marks a major continuity break while a listing marker marks a minor continuity break.
After the demarcation markers are identified, the number of markers in the Chinese topic chains is counted. Each appearance of a marker at the demarcation point is counted once. If two or three markers are used at the same boundary, they will be treated as a combination of markers and will be counted once. Below (7) is an example for illustration. Markers are bordered.
‧
Zhuzhui zai qinggan-weiyan-de yali xia, Zhuzhu under feeling-strict-of stress under
不得不 拿，
bu-de-bu na, not-DE-not take
(a’) Because of his affection for her and her deference to his wishes, Chu-chu had to take it.
(b) 可是，她 i 每 提起 傘，
keshi, tai mei tiqi san, but, she every-time take umbrella
(b’) But every time she took the umbrella, she was horrified, burst into tears and fainted.
(c) 0i都要 驚哭 一陣，
0i douyao jing-ku yi-zhen, has-to frightened-cry a-CLASS (d) 0i昏厥 過去 為止。
0i hunjue guoqu weizhi.
faint past until (Translation Strategies, p. 418)
Example (7) is a topic chain with more than one overt form of the same topic. This topic chain has four ChUs. The first ChU (a) contains a full NP topic Zhuzhu (竹竹), followed by a preposition phrase zai qinggan-weiyan-de yali xia (在情感威嚴的壓力 下) ‘under the stress of strict affection,’ followed by the comment. The second ChU (b)
has the topic in the pronoun form, followed by a comment. In the third and fourth ChUs, the topic is realized in the zero form. The four ChUs are marked by different markers. The full NP Zhuzhu (竹竹) marks the beginning of the topic chain. Clause (b) is marked by a combination of three markers: a comma at the end of (a), a connective keshi (可是) ‘but,’ and a pronoun ta (她) ‘she’ at the beginning of (b). This is counted
as a combination of three markers “pronoun+connective+punctuation.” Clauses (c)
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
and (d), each marked by the comma at the end of the previous clause, are incorporated in (b’) as one sentence in the English translation. In other words, the translation reflects the two demarcation points indicated by the markers: one at the beginning of clause (a), and the other between clause (a) and clauses (b-d). However, the other two breaks indicated only by commas are not reflected. These two commas are counted as non-reflected markers.
The fourth analysis step is to compare the content of topic chains with their English translations. The purpose is to explore translation strategies that translators adopt in dealing with the information packaging. The amount of information in both texts is compared to see if the information is intact, added or deleted in the English translation. Translators may choose either to reflect the same amount of information or to adjust the amount of information for different considerations. Furthermore, the sequence of information is compared to see if the sequence is intact or reordered.
Translators may choose to follow the same sequence or change the sequence of information presented in Chinese. Last, the textual relationship in both texts is compared to see if it is kept or changed. Even though the translators choose to keep the same order of information, the textual relationship may be changed. For example, when a temporal relation also implies a causal relation in a Chinese topic chain, causal connectives may be used in the English translation to indicate such relation
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
even though it is not explicitly marked in the Chinese version.
In short, the analysis procedures include (1) sorting topic chains into the six types, (2) identifying and counting the units, (3) analyzing and counting the boundary markers, and (4) comparing the information packaging.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Chapter Four
Results and Discussion
This chapter presents and discusses the results derived from data analysis.
Section 4.1 presents an overall description of the collected data. Examples of each topic chain type, and numbers of units in the collected topic chains will be presented.
Section 4.2 presents the translation strategies found from the analysis of the data. A general picture of strategies used in the topic chain translation will be presented first.
Following that, each strategy will then be discussed in detail with examples. Section 4.3 will summarize the findings presented in this chapter.