Overall frequencies of the three strategies

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referent forms, connectives or punctuation marks in the chains is reflected as a break in the English translation. The other two strategies are found through comparing the information packaging. The translator may demarcate the topic chains into English units based on the internal textual relationship of the text. This is the second strategy,

“Establishing Textuality.” The third strategy “Rearranging Information” is observed when the amount of information, the sequence of information and the textuality are compared. When Rearranging Information is adopted, the translator does not completely follow the original information organization. The translator may add, delete the information or reorder the information flow in the process of translation. In the following section 4.2.1, overall frequencies of strategies used in topic chain translation will be presented first. Following that, sections 4.2.2 to 4.2.4 will present detailed descriptions and examples of each strategy.

4.2.1 Overall frequencies of the three strategies

This section will outline the frequencies of strategies used in translating Chinese topic chains. The frequencies result from counting the use of strategy per topic chain.

A strategy used in a topic chain will be counted only once, even if the same strategy is used at different demarcation points of the same topic chain. Since a topic chain can be quite long, different strategies may be applied to different sections of a topic chain.

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This will be regarded as a combination of strategies in one topic chain. A combination of strategies will be counted once, too. For example, if a topic chain shows the use of Reflecting the Markers and Establishing Textuality, it will be counted once as a combination of two strategies (S1+S2). The use of the three different strategies in different demarcation points of a topic chain is also found in the data; it is counted once as a combination of the three strategies (S1+S2+S3). Example (8) below is an example for illustration. In this example, markers are bordered and added information is underlined.

(8)

(a) 此外， 台灣 也 直接 出資 參與 Ciwai, Taiwan ye zhijie chuzi canyu Moreover Taiwan also directly invest participate 歐銀 的投資案 i ，

Ouyin de touzi-ani

EBRD of investment-project

(a’) In addition to the TC Fund, Taiwan has also made direct investments in EBRD-funded projects.

(b) 這些投資計畫i 的 總 產出 價值 zhexie touzi-jihua de zong chanchu jiazhi these investment-project of total production value 達 38.9 億 歐元，

da 38.9 yi Ou-yuan, up-to 3.89 billion Euro-dollar

(b’) Adding in further investment from other countries and

0i chengxiao zhuoyue result outstanding

(c’) The results have thus been outstanding.

(Taiwan Panorama, April, 2013, p. 42-43)

In this example, there are two NP markers and two commas. These markers are all reflected as demarcation points. This is the application of the first strategy. Clauses (a)

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and (b) describe facts but clause (c) provides evaluation. The different textual relationship is reflected in English as separate sentences. This shows the application of the second strategy. In addition, clause (b’) has added information, which is the application of the third strategy. Example (8) is thus considered a token of S1+S2+S3.

Table 4 summarizes the overall frequencies of translation strategies in the data.

Table 4

Overall Frequencies of Translation Strategies in Topic Chains Strategies Note. ^a S1= Reflecting the Markers

b S2 = Establishing Textuality

c S3 = Rearranging Information

From the table, we can see that S1 is found to be the only strategy that can be used singly. The single use of S2 or S3 in a topic chain is not found. Combinations of two or three strategies are found in the data: S1+S2, S1+S3, and S1+S2+S3. However, S2+S3 is not found. All together, single use of S1 is found in 47% of the topic chains, combinations of two strategies are found in another 43% of the data, and the rest 10%

of topic chains show the use of all the three strategies.

There are several points that should be noted based on the results. First, markers play a crucial role in translating Chinese topic chains. Nearly half (47%) of the total data show single use of S1 but no data show use of S2 or S3 alone. This indicates that translators rely on markers to certain degree. Nearly half of the topic chains are

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demarcated solely based on markers. Similarly, no single use of S2 and S3 indicates that translating a topic chain cannot be achieved without considering markers.

Second, from the combination of strategies, we can see the importance of

markers again. All the combinations of strategies contain S1. The S1+S2 combination is found in 24% of the data and the S1+S3 combination is found in 19% of the data.

The rest 10% of the topic chains show the use of all the three strategies. There is no token of S2+S3 combination, which suggests that topic chain translation cannot be done without applying S1.

Third, the magazine data show more combinations of strategies than the textbook data. The combinations of strategies account for 70% of the magazine data but only 24% of the textbook data. This is probably due to the diversity nature of the magazine data. The authentic language use in the magazine is full of diversities so translators have to resort to a variety of translation strategies.