WHAT TRANSLATION TELLS US ABOUT MOTION: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF TYPOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

• Main Author: Iraide Ibarretxe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Murcia 2003-12-01
• Series: International Journal of English Studies (IJES)
• Subjects: cognitive linguistics; contrastive typology; translation; lexicalisation patterns; motion events
• Online Access: http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/48421

Slobin (1991, 1996a,b, 1997) has argued that the typological differences between languages with either a satellite-framed or a verb-framed lexicalisation pattern (Talmy, 2000) have important
 discourse and rhetorical consequences for the expression of 'paths of movement' and 'manner
 of movement'. These differences are especially significant for the translator since s/he has to
 adapt the rhetorical style of the source language to that of the target language. According to
 Slobin (1996a, 2000, ms.), the major difference lies in the loss or gain of information about path
 and manner specifications during the translation process.We will focus on three languages,
 English (satellite-framed), Spanish and Basque (both verb-frarned but with important intratypological differences). Basing ourselves on data from translations of the same English text
 (Tolkien's The Hobbit) into these two target languages, we will compare and analyse in detail
 the different strategies that Spanish and Basque translators follow when adapting the English text
 to the stylistic and typological characteristics of their own languages.