4.2 Translation Strategies of Topic Chains
4.2.2 The first strategy: Reflecting the Markers
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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.
4.2.2 The first strategy: Reflecting the Markers
In this section, detailed description and examples of the first
strategy—Reflecting the Markers—will be presented. Reflecting the Markers means that translators would demarcate the Chinese topic chains into different EnUs based on the Chinese boundary markers.
After the examination of the linguistic markers at the demarcation points in the
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Chinese topic chains, three types of boundary markers have been found in the English translation: (1) nominal references of topic14, (2) connectives, and (3) punctuation marks. The use of NP or pronoun topics marks a major continuity break. The four types of connectives (Halliday & Hansan, 1976)—additive, adversative, causal, and temporal—mark a break of textual relationship. Chinese punctuation marks such as commas mark different ChUs in the middle of the chain. Below (9) is an example to illustrate the three types of markers. Markers in the example are bordered.
14 Nominal reference is realized in three forms in Chinese: full NP, pronoun and zero form. Full NPs and pronouns reflect a break in continuity while zero form reflects high continuity, which is seldom treated as a demarcation boundary. Since full NPs and pronouns are overt boundary markers, the discussion below will focus on the two forms.
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Zai pian-shou-zhi-zu-de laodong zhong,in callus-hand-callus-foot-of work in 孩子們i 也 常 與 家長 討論 haizi-meni ye chang yu jiazhang taolun child-PL too often with parents discuss 如何 讓 作物 長 得 更好，
ruhe rang zuowu zhang de genghao, how make crops grow DE better
(a’) From hands-on work, the children often discuss with their parents how to make their crops grow better.
(b’) Bringing knowledge learned at school back home, they try to influence their elders to switch to non-toxic farming methods.
(c) 0i試圖 影響 長輩 改 採
(c’) These experiences create an unending source of
conversational topics for the family.
(Taiwan Panorama, April, 2013, pp. 30-31)
The example has four ChUs translated into three EnUs. The four ChUs show different types of markers. Clause (a) is marked by the the full NP haizi-men (孩子們)
15 This comma is not considered a boundary marker because it appears after a preposition phrase.
16 The topic qin-zi (親子) ‘parent and child’ bears the whole-part semantic relation to another full NP topic, haizi-men (孩子們) ‘child-PL.’ In a more flexible sense, they are considered the same topics.
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‘child-PL.’ Clause (b) is marked by a combination of markers: the comma after clause (a) and the connective bing (並) ‘and’ at the beginning of (b). Clause (c) is marked by the comma after (b). Clause (d) is also marked by a combination of two markers: the comma at the end of (c) and the full NP qin-zi (親子) ‘parent and child’ at the
beginning of (d). Although the four ChUs are all separated by markers, not all the demarcations are reflected. The translator reflects the first full NP marker and translates (a) into (a’); the combination of markers in (b) is also reflected in (b’);
however, the demarcation between (b) and (c) marked by a comma is not reflected;
then, the demarcation between (c) and (d) marked by a comma and a full NP is reflected in (c’). These markers can be reference for demarcation in translation because they reflect the continuity break between these clauses. The full NP in (a) marks the beginning of a topic chain. The connective in (b) links global unit (a) and the other unit composed of (b)-(c). Clauses (b) and (c) are considered a unit because they share a close action-goal relationship. The full NP in (d) marks a break from previous clauses, with clause (d) describing the results of actions mentioned in (a)-(c).
The overall frequencies of markers of each type are provided in Table 5 and Table 6 first. After a general description of the overall frequencies, a more detailed explanation of each marker will be provided. Markers can appear at the beginning of a topic chain. They are usually full NPs and pronouns. Table 5 presents the frequencies
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of markers appearing at the beginning of topic chains. The beginning of topic chains is usually marked by nominal references, connectives or the combination of the two.
All of the boundaries indicated by markers at the beginning of the topic chains are reflected in the EnU.
Table 5
Frequencies of Markers at the Beginning of a Topic Chain
Reflected Non-Reflected Total
d There are totally 58 topic chains in the collected data. Three topic chains do not have overt markers in the first clause; one topic chain starts with
background information without the topic; thus, these four units are excluded.
For markers that do not appear at the beginning of a topic chain, they are roughly called “markers in the middle of the topic chain.” Table 6 presents markers in the middle of topic chains.
Table 6
Frequencies of Markers of in the Middle of Topic Chains
Reflected Non-Reflected Total
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Since ChUs of topic chains must be separated by punctuation marks, all the ChUs contain M3—punctuation marks.17 Among the boundaries indicated by markers in the middle of a topic chain, around half of them (49%) are treated as a break in English translation. Although punctuation marks (M3s) are the markers used most frequently, only 31% of them are reflected. In terms of the combination of markers, 63% of M3+M1 are reflected; 71% of M3+M2 are reflected. Almost all the ChUs with the combinations of M3+M1+M2 are reflected, except for one.
From the results, we can find that among the three types of markers, punctuation marks are the weakest reference for translators. Punctuation marks are most
frequently used to indicate the boundary between clauses in a Chinese topic chain but only one-third of their occurrences are reflected in the translation. However,
combinations of M3 with other markers are more likely to be reflected. More than half of M3+M1 and M3+M2 are reflected. This suggests that M1and M2 play more important roles than M3 in demarcation.
The results are consistent with Givón’s (1984) iconicity principle. According to Givón, iconicity manifests itself in a number of principles, one of which is the quantity principle:
17 Only commas that occur at ChU boundaries are calculated as a boundary marker. Commas that occur at constituent boundaries within a clause (cf. p.45) are not calculated.
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(10) The quantity principle
A larger chunk of information will be given a larger chunk of code. Less predictable information will be given more coding material. More important information will be given more coding material. (Givón 1984, p. 970) The principle is observed by the translators, too. The results show that the number of types of markers used in the units is highly associated with the number of reflected markers. The reflection percentage of single markers, two markers combined, and three markers combined are 31%, 63%, and 94%, respectively. This is in accordance with the quantity principle. This single marker (M3) indicates smaller chunk of information, more predicable information and minor continuity break. On the other hand, the combination of two or more markers reflects larger chunk of information, less predictable information, and major continuity break. The large continuity break marked by a combination of three markers thus tends to be reflected in English translation.
The three types of markers in a topic chain will each be discussed in more details below. First, we consider only the full NP and pronoun topics in the middle of topic chains. It has been observed that they play a crucial reference for translators. Table 7 shows that in the collected data, there are 40 full NPs and pronouns in the middle of topic chains. Up to 76% of NPs and 73% of pronouns are reflected in English translation as demarcation points.
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Table 7
Reflected and Non-Reflected Full NPs and Pronouns in the Middle of Topic Chains
Nominal Forms Reflected Non-Reflected Total
N (%) N (%) N (%)
Full NPs 19 (76%) 6 (24%) 25 (100%)
Pronouns 11 (73%) 4 (27%) 15 (100%)
Total 30 (75%) 10 (25%) 40 (100%)
The result is in line with previous research (Chen, 1986; Chen, 2010; Chu, 1998;
Li, 1985; Xu, 2010). Full NPs and pronouns in Chinese represent continuity breaks.
Therefore, the break indicated by full NPs and pronouns is usually reflected in
English sentential demarcation. On the other hand, the high continuity marked by zero forms is reflected by the zero break in the English translation.
Contrary to Li’s (1985) argument that pronouns occur in a minor break to mark the beginning of a separate topic chain while NPs are used at the beginning of a paragraph, we have found both NPs and pronouns within the topic chain. In fact, it has also been found in other studies (Chen, 2010; Chu, 1998; Xu, 2010) that the choice among full NP, pronoun and zero form are not entirely conditioned by the discourse structure. For example, one of the reasons that a pronoun is chosen instead of a zero form is to mark a change of the event (Chen, 2010). Syntax and pragmatics may play a role (Chu, 1998). The choice of referent forms may also be subject to the writer’s style (Xu, 2010). According to Xu (2010), the Chinese language in some articles is westernized to some degree, and the zero forms are less used in those works.
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In addition to full NPs and pronouns, connectives also mark continuity breaks.
The breaks may be reflected as demarcation points in English translation. Below is the distribution of each type of connectives and the number of those which are reflected.
Table 8
Reflected and Non-Reflected Connectives in the Middle of Topic Chains Types of Connectives Reflected Non-Reflected Total
N (%) N (%) N (%)
Note. a A token of Chinese correlative conjunction suiran…danshi (雖然…但是) ‘although…but…’ is found in the data. The pair of correlative conjunction is counted as one token.
If all the connectives in the middle of topic chains are considered, we can see that connectives are as strong reference for demarcation as referent forms. Of all these connectives, 80% is manifested as demarcation point in English translation. Among all the four types of markers, temporal markers are mostly reflected (92%), followed by casual markers (90%) and adversative markers (75%). Even the least reflected markers, additive markers, are reflected as high as 70%. The reflected markers link larger discourse units while the non-reflected markers link closely related units. For instance, in example (9) on page 66, the additive connective bin (並) ‘and’ links global unit (a) with another unit (b)-(c), whereas in example (6) on page 55, the adversative connective que (卻) ‘but’ links local units (b) and (c).
The last type of markers is punctuation marks. As reviewed in Chapter Two,
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different punctuation marks reflect different degrees of continuity break. The
distribution of reflected and non-reflected punctuation marks is presented in Table 9.
Overall, only 41% of the punctuation marks are reflected as demarcation in English.
Compared with nominal referents and connectives, punctuation marks are relatively less reflected in translation. The most reflected punctuation marks are semicolons (67%). Commas are almost half reflected (49%). Only one token of dash and one token of listing marker are reflected.
Table 9
Distribution of Reflected and Non-Reflected Punctuation Marks
Types of Connectives Reflected Non-Reflected Total
N (%) N (%) N (%)
Note. a Dashes and listing markers do not occur at ChU boundaries. However, few reflected examples are found in the data. Thus, they are also included in the calculation.
b Only commas at the ChU boundary are calculated.
c Colons are not found in the data.
d Full stops mark the end of a topic chain, thus not counted.
The results in fact match the function of each punctuation mark. As discussed in Chapter Two, semicolons are mainly used to indicate contrastive ideas. The contrast in ideas marked by semicolons would thus be reflected in English translation. However, semicolons can also mark parallel ideas. The two non-reflected tokens in the data are in fact markers of parallel ideas. Below (11) is the topic chain for illustration.
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jian-zhong zixun de jiankang bao-ma-zai lose-weight information of health report-horse-man
(a’) It launched an email list providing regular weight-loss tips, and held cycling, hiking, and walking activities, as well as starting on-site yoga classes.
(b) 0i不定期 舉辦 鐵馬、 登山、
0i bu-ding-qi juban tie-ma deng-shan
not-regular-time hold iron-horse climb-mountain 健走 等 戶外活動；
jian-zou deng huwai huodong health-walk etc. outdoor activity even distribute health move-move small-card
(b’) Staff were even given reminder cards, helping them remember to get up and get moving from time to time.
(e) 0i提醒 大家 不要 久坐，18 0i tixing dajia buyao jiu-zuo remind everyone not long-sit 不時 起來 動一動。
bushi qilai dong-yi-dong from-time-to-time get-up move-Yi-move (Taiwan Panorama, April, 2013, pp. 84-85)
The topic chain has five ChUs, translated into two EnUs. Clauses (a)-(c) are
integrated into (a’) and clauses (d)-(e) are combined into (b’). There are five markers in the source text: three semicolons, one comma, and one additive marker. However, among the three semicolons, only the one at the end of clause (c) is reflected as a boundary in English translation. The other two semicolons between clauses (a) and (b)
18 This comma is not considered a boundary marker because there is an embedded structure. Dajia buyao jiu-zuo, bushi qilai dong-yi-dong (大家不要久坐，不時起來動一動) is considered a complement of the verb tixing (提醒).
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and between clauses (b) and (c) are not reflected probably due to the local parallel ideas between the clauses. In addition, these two single semicolons show a relatively minor continuity break compared with the marker combination of a semicolon and an additive marker before clause (d).
However, other than semicolons, the other types of punctuation marks are not reflected as frequently. Only half of the commas are reflected. This is in line with previous discussion. Commas are used to separate ChUs apart at both local and global level units. The commas used at local level are usually not reflected. Similarly, dashes and listing markers which are used to connect local units such as noun phrases or verb phrases are not reflected either. Thus only one token of dash and one token of listing marker are reflected.
In sum, the first strategy—Reflecting the Markers—plays an important role in the translation of topic chains. This strategy is used in every topic chain translation in the collected data. Based on this strategy, a Chinese topic chain is demarcated into different units by the three types of boundary markers: nominal references of topic, connectives and punctuation marks. These units are then translated into different English sentences. The more markers appear at the unit boundary, the more likely the boundary is reflected in English translation. Among the three types of markers, nominal references of topic and connectives represent strong indication for
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demarcation. Punctuation marks, on the other hand, are relatively weak demarcation markers. Only semicolons are more likely to be reflected.