Is there interference of usage constraints?: A frequency study of existential there isand its French equivalent il y ain translated vs. non-translated texts
C. Bert, and L. Rudy. Target: International Journal on Translation Studies, (2013)
Abstract
We examine the possible impact of frequency differences between a construction in L1 and its equivalent in L2 on translations. Our case is that of existential therein English and existential il y ain French. Using corpus evidence, we first confirm previous claims that existential thereis used more freely in English than existential il y ais in French. Drawing on extensive counts conducted in available corpora and self-compiled samples of translated English and French, intra-language comparisons of translated and non-translated language use show that existential thereis under-represented in English translated from French while existential il y ais over-represented in French translated from English. It is suggested that source-language interference is responsible for these differences. In addition, counts of existentials in individual novels and their translations show that inter-language frequency shifts systematically occur in the direction of target-language norms, most clearly so for translations into French, which suggests that the observed usage constraint on il y astill applies to a noticeable extent in translated French. Methodologically, we argue the need for a large corpus of translated French.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Bert2013
%A Bert, Cappelle
%A Rudy, Loock
%D 2013
%J Target: International Journal on Translation Studies
%K Equivalencia Frances Traducci{\'{o}}n
%P 252--275
%T Is there interference of usage constraints?: A frequency study of existential there isand its French equivalent il y ain translated vs. non-translated texts
%U http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4B71A2820C12A1A5BAED
%V 25
%X We examine the possible impact of frequency differences between a construction in L1 and its equivalent in L2 on translations. Our case is that of existential therein English and existential il y ain French. Using corpus evidence, we first confirm previous claims that existential thereis used more freely in English than existential il y ais in French. Drawing on extensive counts conducted in available corpora and self-compiled samples of translated English and French, intra-language comparisons of translated and non-translated language use show that existential thereis under-represented in English translated from French while existential il y ais over-represented in French translated from English. It is suggested that source-language interference is responsible for these differences. In addition, counts of existentials in individual novels and their translations show that inter-language frequency shifts systematically occur in the direction of target-language norms, most clearly so for translations into French, which suggests that the observed usage constraint on il y astill applies to a noticeable extent in translated French. Methodologically, we argue the need for a large corpus of translated French.
@article{Bert2013,
abstract = {We examine the possible impact of frequency differences between a construction in L1 and its equivalent in L2 on translations. Our case is that of existential therein English and existential il y ain French. Using corpus evidence, we first confirm previous claims that existential thereis used more freely in English than existential il y ais in French. Drawing on extensive counts conducted in available corpora and self-compiled samples of translated English and French, intra-language comparisons of translated and non-translated language use show that existential thereis under-represented in English translated from French while existential il y ais over-represented in French translated from English. It is suggested that source-language interference is responsible for these differences. In addition, counts of existentials in individual novels and their translations show that inter-language frequency shifts systematically occur in the direction of target-language norms, most clearly so for translations into French, which suggests that the observed usage constraint on il y astill applies to a noticeable extent in translated French. Methodologically, we argue the need for a large corpus of translated French.},
added-at = {2015-12-01T11:33:23.000+0100},
author = {Bert, Cappelle and Rudy, Loock},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/22b53cdb86f34f619cf8b049f7dedf0f4/sofiagruiz92},
interhash = {b6f9818cd41004ecb3491b67049239dc},
intrahash = {2b53cdb86f34f619cf8b049f7dedf0f4},
issn = {0924-1884},
journal = {Target: International Journal on Translation Studies},
keywords = {Equivalencia Frances Traducci{\'{o}}n},
language = {eng},
pages = {252--275},
timestamp = {2015-12-01T11:33:23.000+0100},
title = {{Is there interference of usage constraints?: A frequency study of existential there isand its French equivalent il y ain translated vs. non-translated texts}},
url = {http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4B71A2820C12A1A5BAED},
volume = 25,
year = 2013
}