4.1 General Description of the Data
4.1.1 Types of topic chains
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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.
4.1 General Description of the Data
There are totally 58 topic chains collected for analysis, 37 from Taiwan Panorama and 21 from the five translation textbooks. The 58 topic chains are
categorized into the six topic chain types proposed in Chapter Three. The number of units in topic chains is counted. The results will be presented in this section.
4.1.1 Types of topic chains
The topic chains collected cover all the six types. Examples from the data will first be given below to explain the categorization of each type.
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The first type is typical topic chain.
(1)
(a) 奇寶 輕怡 克力架i 選用 上乘 原料，
Qibao qingyi kelijiai xuanyong shangcheng yuanliao, Qibao light cracker select high-quality ingredient (b) 0i由 獨特 秘方 精緻 而成，
0i you dute mifang jingzhi er-cheng, by secret recipe refine to-become (c) 0i如此 輕巧鬆脆，
0i ruci qing-qiao-song-cui,
so light-flexible-soft-crunchy
(d) 0i 帶 給 您全家 奇寶 特有的 新鮮 美味。
0i dai gei nin-quan-jia Qibao teyoude xinxian meiwei.
bring to you-whole-family Qibao unique fresh good-taste
‘Keebler Snack Crackers are baked to a secret recipe of specially selected wholesome ingredients. The light and crispy crackers bring you and all your family that uncommonly good taste and freshness as only Keebler knows how.’ (A Practical Guide for Business Translation, p. 147)
Example (1) is taken from a translation textbook. In this example, Qibao qingyi kelijia (奇寶輕怡克力架) ‘Qibao light cracker’ is the topic. Established in the first clause, the topic then continues in the form of zero in the following clauses.
The second type is topic chain with an embedded sub-chain.
(2)
(a) 公司i 現 有 員工 300 多 人，
Gongsi i xian you yuangong 300-duo ren, company now has employees 300-about people
(b) 0i有 高中低 檔 兼備的 客房 、餐廳j， 0i you gao-zhong-di dang jianbeide ke-fang cantingj
exist high-medium-low class included guest-room restaurant (c) 0j可容 1000 多 人 就餐， 500 多 人 住宿，
0j ke rong 1000-duo ren jiucan, 500-duo ren zhusu, can house 1000-or-so people dine, 500-or-so people stay
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is Bolou-County to-outside open and economy development strategy 的 重要 窗口 之一。de zhongyao chuangkou zhi-yi.
of important window one-of
‘The corporation has a staff of 300 people. There are guest rooms and dining halls of high, normal and low levels with the capacity of over 1,000 dining seats and over 500 beds. Now the corporation has become strategic windows opening to the outside world and economic development in Bolou County.’ (A Practical Guide for Business Translation, p. 136)
Also taken from a textbook, example (2) has a main topic and an embedded topic. The main topic gongsi (公司) ‘the company’ is established in the first clause and is
continued in the zero form in clause (b). Clause (b) introduces another topic ke-fang canting (客房、餐廳) ‘guest-room and restaurant,’ which is continued in clause (c).
The topic in clause (d) shifts back to the main topic. In this example, clause (b) and (c) is regarded as an embedded topic chain.
The next type of topic chain is telescopic chain.
(3) she once touch-ASP umbrella handle (d) 0j狀 極 驚恐，
0j zhuang ji jingkong, appearance very terrified
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‘As he loved her very much, he handed her a beautiful umbrella. As soon as she touched its handle, she dazed with horror, [and] threw it on the ground. ’ (Translation Strategies, p. 418)
This example is taken from another textbook. The first topic ta (他) ‘he’ is established in the form of a pronoun in clause (a). The topic is continued in clause (b), which introduces another topic ta (她) ‘she.’ The second topic then continues to the end of the chain. This type of topic chain is similar to the previous one, topic chain with an embedded sub-chain. They both have a second topic introduced in the middle of the chain; however, in a telescopic chain, the new topic continues to the end of the chain,
whereas in a topic chain with embedding, the new topic does not continue to the end.
The fourth type of topic chain has the topic in the zero form in the first clause.
(4) from idea to walk finish whole-process Windmill spend-ASP 5 year time (c) 0i終於 在 2011 年底 在 新北市 萬里區 畫下 句點。
0i zhongyu zai 2011 nian-di zai Xinbei-shi Wanli-qu hua-xia judian.
finally in 2011year-end in NewTaipei-City Wanli-District draw-down period
‘The troupe encountered all kinds of difficulties, and it took five years from start to finish. The program came to a close with a final performance in New Taipei City’s Wanli District at the end of 2011.’ (Taiwan Panorama, April 2013, pp. 100-101)
Example (4) is cited from the magazine. The way that a topic is established is
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different from general topic establishment. In this type of topic chain, the topic appears in the zero form in the first clause. It is not established in the second or even the third clause in the topic chain. In example (4), the topic zhifengche (紙風車)
‘Windmill’ is established in the full NP form in the second clause. Though the topic establishment is quite unusual, readers still can follow the idea because the topic has already been mentioned in the previous context.
The fifth type of topic chain does not have any overt topic throughout the chain.
(5)
(a) 半 年 前 0i 開始 參加 坊間 的 纖體 班 課程，
Ban nian qian 0i kaishi canjia fangjian de xian-ti ban kecheng, half year before start participate private of thin-body class course (b) 0i 飲食 控制 加上 每天 走 一萬 步，
0i yinshi kongzhi jiashang meitian zou yi-wan bu, diet control plus every-day walk 10, 000 step
‘Six months ago, he began taking classes at a weight-loss studio. 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. As a result, he no longer needs to take blood pressure medication.’ (Taiwan Panorama, April 2013, pp. 72-73)
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Taken from the magazine, this topic chain has the topic in the zero form throughout the chain. Not a single topic is established in this chain. Such unusual treatment is allowed because this topic chain is not the beginning of a discourse. Preceding this topic chain are four clauses, in which the topic is established.
The last type of topic chain has more than one overt form of the same topic.
(6) it not-have five-star hotel of layout and standardized process (c) 0i 卻 以 台南 特有的 真情 流露、待 客 如 交友
‘In Patrick’s eyes, there should have been an unusual hotel like this long ago. It has neither the swank of a five-star hotel, nor the standardized business practices, but it does exude the Tainan way of treating guests like friends.’ (Taiwan Panorama, April 2013, p. 52-53)
The last example is taken from the magazine, too. The topic luguan (旅館) ‘hotel’ is established in the form of a full NP in the first clause. It is continued not in the form of zero but in the form of a pronoun in the immediately following clause.
The total 37 topic chains collected from the magazine cover all the six types of topic chains while the 21 topic chains from the textbooks cover only four types. The frequency count and percentages of the topic chain types found in the magazine and
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textbooks are summarized in Table 2 below.
Table 2
Numbers and Percentages of Each Topic Chain Type
Magazine Textbooks (6) Chain with more than one overt form
of the same topic
7 (19%) 10 (48%)
Total 37 (100%) 21 (100%)
The distribution of topic chain types of the magazine data and the textbook data presents some interesting results. To begin with, the magazine data cover more types of topic chains than the textbook data. The variety of topic chain types in the
magazine shows that people would make use of diverse structures, even including uncommon structures like topic chains without any overt topic, in different contexts and different situations to achieve their various goals of communication. Textbook sentences, however, are carefully chosen as models for instruction. It is likely that textbook writers choose more typical and well-organized sentences. Textbook data thus show fewer varieties.
Second, among the six types, three types of topic chains take up a major proportion in both the magazine data and the textbook data: (1) typical topic chains, (2) telescopic chains, and (3) topic chains with more than one overt form of the same
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topic. The three types of topic chains account for more than 80% in the two sets of data. Nevertheless, the three types show different distribution patterns in the magazine data and in the textbook data. In the magazine data, typical topic chains account for the largest proportion (46%). Telescopic chains (19%) and topic chains with more than one overt form of the same topic (19%) are both the second largest types. On the other hand, in the textbook data, topic chains with more than one overt form of the same topic are most frequently found (48%), followed by typical topic chains (29%) and telescopic chains (14%). The reason of the correlation between a certain type of topic chain and the genre of data has not been identified yet. More research is needed on this issue.
The third finding is that two types of topic chains account for the smallest proportion in both the magazine and the textbook data: (1) topic chains with
zero-form topic in the first clause, and (2) topic chains without any overt topic. There are only two tokens for each type in the magazine. Such low proportion of the two types may result from difficulty of comprehension. The two types of topic chains do not have an established full NP topic in the beginning. Readers have to depend on the previous discourse to resolve the topic, which brings extra load in processing.
Moreover, the two types of topic chains are not found in the textbook data because these types of topic chains require previous discourse to be understood, which is
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usually not available in textbooks. Topic chains collected from textbooks are usually example sentences or exercises without previous discourse. In order for readers to understand, textbook writers would choose sample topic chains that present complete meaning without referring to previous context.