Corpus

A brief corpus study on

Poe translated by Cortázar

(and the alter into English)

José Manuel Dávila-Montes

Facultad de Traducción e Interpretación

Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Summary

This paper intends to show the utilisation of corpora studies in the analysis of originals and translations.

It is divided two parts, each with their own objectives and conclusions.

Part one is a semantic prosody study of the famous short story by E. A. Poe, The Black Cat, and its translation into Spanish by the reputed Argentine author J. Cortázar.

Part two, written in Spanish, is a thematic study within the theoretical framework of Halliday’s systemic and functional Grammar. An original by Cortázar and its translation into English are used here.

Both studies, presented from a rather different theoretical approaches, constitute very simple but representative examples of the empirical usefulness of corpora methodology applied within language contrastive studies and translation.

The black cat (read it here)

El gato negro (léalo aquí)

Parallel corpus study of the semantic prosody of words “cat” and gato (and its substitutives) throughout the

original by E. A. Poe and its translation by J. Cortázar

This analysis is divided in two stages of study:

I. frequency and distribution of the studied words both in the original and the translation,

II. comparison of collocates and semantic prosody of the same.

I. Frequency and distribution

The simple comparison of the statistics resulting from the respective word lists, shows that the TT keeps fairly well the extension in tokens and number of sentences of the ST, and it follows the general tendencies or “norms” described by Shlesinger (1991), Toruy (1991) and Baker (1993) regarding the usual tendency of translated texts to avoid repetitions which occur in source texts (higher type/token ratio.)

CONCEPT	SOURCE	TRANSLAT.
Text File	CAT.TXT	NEGRO.TXT
Bytes	21.828	21.437
Tokens	3.940	3.616
Types	1.249	1.316
Type/Token Ratio	31,70	36,39
Standardised Type/Token	44,60	48,47
Ave. Word Length	4,34	4,70
Sentences	181	145
Sent.length	21,77	24,34

From the scrutiny of the resulting wordlist for every text, the following results and conclusions arise:

S.T	Freq.	TT.	Freq.
cat (+1 lemma)	12	gato	16
beast	8	bestia	5
animal (+1 lemma)	8	animal	17
Pluto	7	plutón	6
creature	5	criatura	2
monster	3	monstruo	3
pet	2	--
playmate	1	camarada	1
it	(70)	él	(2)
TOTAL	46		50
Differences			+4

a) By forming the correspondent concordance lines, and merging them into one line-to-line aligned common concordance list, and into two different language dependant lists, the following statements must be settled regarding the above data:

1) Occurrences refer indeed to the concept [cat] and not to any other concept (as in “demon” or “fiend”).

2) English pronoun “It” is not directly comparable with Spanish “Él”, since the verb ending in Spanish quite often implicitly designates the subject. I turn down the analysis of this case. The usage of “It” throughout the text responds more to a syntax contrastivity matter of English and Spanish than to a stylistic question.

3) Excluding this the account of “It”/ “Él”, the difference of occurrences among Spanish and English of the concept [cat] are due to omission in translation. This happens with the omitted translations of “pet” (twice), “Pluto” (once), and the slip at the anaphoric usage of “animal” (several).

b) An analysis of the aligned list yields that the nodes in the TT differ in the following way:

1) An increase of the usage of gato /cat (+4) and animal / animal (+9) over the original

2) A decrease of the usage of bestia / beast (-3), criatura / creature (-3), Plutón /Pluto (-1), and Ø / pet (-2).

In this sense, it can be concluded that the translation glides on more common denominations for the concept [cat] (gato, animal) and is somehow less fond of marked (or metonymic) hyponyms (bestia, criatura…).

It is worth to mention that the translation does not either increase the lexical variety for the concept [cat] by using additional denominations (like felino, minino...) and sticks rather close to the original’s diversity range (8 different types in the ST, 7 in the TT; “pet” presents a void translation: the translator refuses the direct translation mascota.) This happens in spite of the fact that, as remarked before, the TT tends to “enrich” the lexical variety. The fact that the words studied here are central to the topic of the story may constitute a clue on why this apparently universal tendency towards lexical diversification in translation does not take place in this particular word field.

c) A plot study of the different words show that the ST tends to concentrate “cat” and “Pluto” at the beginning of the story. Maximum concentration of “cat” takes place in the stretch 35 – 55% of the story length and “Pluto” completely disappears from the point at the 54% of the story onwards. The choice of “cat” is progressively substituted by “animal” (which shows its maximum concentration in the 43-60% band). The word “creature” is used in a rather uniform pattern all throughout the original (possible neutral connotations).

However, towards the end of the story, the concept [cat] is mainly conveyed by the words “Beast” (at 81 and 99%) and “Monster” (63, 85, 99%).

II. Collocates and semantic prosody

The insights provided by the previous paragraphs were contrasted against major generalist Spanish and English language online corpora. The resulting concordance lines and most usual collocates, as for the semantic prosody of the word choice in the ST and TT, confirm the following sequence of negative connotative load, from less negative (neutral) to more negative.

Under the light of the above results, the following conclusions can be drawn.

1) Gato, animal, “cat” and “animal”, show no negative or positive connotations in either language. Hence, perhaps, the translator’s choice when conveying the concept [cat] in a neutral fashion: he tends to use gato and animal for a few cases of “beast” and “creature”, in which these ST words do not connote negatively.

2) Bestia is more negatively connoted than “beast”, which appears as a node surrounded by “negative” collocates (dread, hatred, strange, brute, hideous…) in the ST. In the TT, “bestia” is intuitively used when the original’s “beast” has no strong negative connotations and appears as a more neutral or softened node (poor beast, brute beast, inocente bestia, bestia cuyo semejante había yo destruido). Hence its less frequent use in the TT: it seems to spare the stylistic strength of bestia --appearing at is own-- for the latest occurrences (when the cat becomes more a monster in the view of the narrator). Other occurrences are distinctly modified by univocal collocates.

3) In a similar way as in 2), but less intensely, the semantic prosody of criatura tends to place the concept within the borders of the supernatural or child-care terminology semantic fields in Spanish, whereas “creature” presents a wider case of use which enters broadly in the area of natural sciences. In our text, the TT spares again the use of criatura for the marked occurrences of “creature”. It is no surprise that these take place toward the last third of the tale (65% and 83%), when the fiendish [cat] can hardly be designated as an animal. (The previous, unmarked, three uses of “creature” had indeed been translated as animal.)

4) Monstruo and “Monster” show the same negative strength. ST and TT keep their locations exactly.

Finally, the translation of “Pet” is elided in its two appearances. The semantic prosody of its direct translation (mascota) lingers in a more playful, almost infantile, context, which “pet” does not fully share in English.

General conclusions

The word choice of the ST presents a clear tendency to move from the particular, real and tangible towards de supernatural and evil, which stylistically reflects the contents of this horror story. The translation manages to discriminate the importance of this word choice, by sparing the usage of unmarked and univocal negatively loaded occurrences for the moments which this emphasis is stressed in the ST. This seems to reveal a (intuitive?) sense of semantic prosody by the translator that prevented him from using the direct lexical translation when an occurrence was not clearly connoted by its collocates. This language sensibility is beyond question being the translator such acknowledged writer in Spanish as Julio Cortázar.

Although it is difficult to talk about collocates in such short text, the words surrounding the node behave, thus, as “modulators” of the word choice by the translator. All the above seems to point rather clearly to the fact that, stylistically and from the narrative point of view, the word choice parallels very accurately the process of “demonization” of the cat by the storyteller. Not surprisingly, the TT, which has shown a tendency towards avoiding marked forms and sticking to the more particular forms for [cat] (gato, animal), DOES NOT fail to reproduce the original word choice used towards the end of the story, keeping completely the stylistic significance of bestia and Monstruo and, thus, faithfully pinpointing the above mentioned demonization process.

Continuidad de los parques (léalo aquí)

Continuity of parks (read it here)

Análisis temático de un corpus paralelo a la luz de la Gramática Sistémico-Funcional de Halliday

Original: Continuidad de los parques (J. Cortázar).

Traducción inglesa: Continuity of parks (P. Blackburn).

I. Discriminación y establecimiento del marco teórico y marco procedimental

Se adoptan los siguientes criterios iniciales:

a) en español, la frecuente aparición del verbo conjugado en posición temática (inicial) permite asumir su calidad de “no marcado” como tema tópico;

b) para estos casos, utilizo el signo Ø después del verbo en posición temática no marcada;

c) respecto al punto anterior, se acerca a los planteamientos teóricos de Munday (1998) y Gouveia (2001), que consideran que el tema, designado por la desinencia verbal es el sujeto elidido, no marcado, con valor cohesivo y etiquetado si procede como “tema tópico participante”. Mi hipótesis, no obstante, plantea una óptica alternativa que observa la desinencia verbal como POSTERIOR al lexema verbal. Así cuando, en casos así, el tema sea tópico, lo consideraré, por regla general “de proceso” [1]. Por tanto, aparecerá así en oraciones como:

“Gozaba del placer casi perverso […].”,

que quedarían marcadas de la siguiente manera:

<tema simple>Gozaba Ø <tema no marc><tópico proceso> del placer casi perverso […].”;

d) independientemente de los razonamientos de c), la calidad de “marcado” puede manifestarse de nuevo en este tipo de estructuras cuando constituyen el segundo término de un tema múltiple, como en:

<tema múltiple>no<tema interpersonal> había Ø venido<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple> para repetir […].”;

e) la calidad de “no marcado” se da también en estructuras con sujeto elido y objeto pronominal personal en posición tónica (en el español actual, sería marcado su uso átono). Por ejemplo:

<tema simple>La abandonó Ø<tema no marc><tópico proceso> […],

y no:

“Abandonóla, […]”;

f) las formas pronominales e impersonales castellanas a principio de oracion se consideran también de “no marcadas”, como en los siguientes ejemplos:

“[…]<tema simple>se dejaba Ø<tema no marc><tópico proceso>interesar lentamente por la trama.”

“<tema simple>Empezaba<tema no marc><tópico proceso> a anochecer.”

II. Habilitación de herramientas de marcado.

Se ha elaborado una utilidad de Visual Basic sobre Microsoft Word para garantizar la homogeneidad de las marcas y agilizar su introducción en el texto. Éstas se han establecido con un color gris que permite conservar, en cierta medida, la legibilidad del texto original, que se mantiene en negro sólido.

Se ha establecido la marca de “cierre” de tema múltiple (</tema múltiple>) para facilitar la compresión de la estructura de los temas simples que los componen. Para garantizar la coherencia de esta marca doble de apertura y cierre, se ha establecido una rutina de verificación que garantiza, por un lado, que el número de aperturas es igual al de cierres y, por otro, que no aparece una marca de apertura nueva antes del cierre de la anterior (es decir, que toda apertura queda cerrada).

Para facilitar el recuento automático y evitar superposiciones al producir líneas de concordancia, se ha modificado la correspondencia formal de las etiquetas “marcado” y “no marcado” (<tema marcado> y <tema no marc>).

Siguen a continuación los textos marcados según todo lo anterior.

ORIGINAL

<título>Continuidad de los parques</título>

<tema simple>Había Ø <tema no marc><tópico proceso> empezado a leer la novela unos días antes. <tema simple>La abandonó Ø<tema no marc><tópico proceso> por negocios urgentes, <tema simple>Ø volvió<tema no marc><tópico proceso> a abrirla cuando regresaba en tren a la finca; <tema simple>se dejaba Ø<tema no marc><tópico proceso>interesar lentamente por la trama, por el dibujo de los personajes. <tema simple>Esa tarde<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, después de escribir una carta a su apoderado y discutir con el mayordomo una cuestión de aparcerías Øvolvió al libro en la tranquilidad del estudio que miraba hacia el parque de los robles. <tema simple>Arrellanado<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>en su sillón favorito de espaldas a la puerta que lo hubiera molestado como una irritante posibilidad de intrusiones, dejó que su mano izquierda acariciara una y otra vez el terciopelo verde <tema múltiple>y<tema textual>se puso Ø<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple> a leer los últimos capítulos. <tema simple>Su memoria<tema no marc><tópico participante> retenía sin esfuerzo los nombres y las imágenes de los protagonistas; <tema simple>la ilusión<tema no marc><tópico participante> novelesca lo ganó casi en seguida. <tema simple>Gozaba Ø<tema no marc><tópico proceso> del placer casi perverso de irse desgajando línea a línea de lo que lo rodeaba, y sentir a la vez que su cabeza descansaba cómodamente en el terciopelo del alto respaldo, que los cigarrillos seguían al alcance de la mano, que más allá de los ventanales danzaba el aire del atardecer bajo los robles. <tema simple>Palabra a palabra<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, absorbido por la sórdida disyuntiva de los héroes, dejándose ir hacia las imágenes que se concertaban y adquirían color y movimiento, fue testigo del último encuentro en la cabaña del monte. <tema simple>Primero<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> entraba la mujer, recelosa; <tema simple>ahora<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> llegaba el amante, lastimada la cara por el chicotazo de una rama. <tema simple>Admirablemente<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> restallaba ella la sangre con sus besos, <tema múltiple>pero<tema textual> él<tema marcado><tópico participante></tema múltiple> rechazaba las caricias, <tema múltiple>no<tema interpersonal> había Ø venido<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple> para repetir las ceremonias de una pasión secreta, protegida por un mundo de hojas secas y senderos furtivos. <tema simple>El puñal<tema no marc><tópico participante> se entibiaba contra su pecho, <tema múltiple>y<tema textual> debajo<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia></tema múltiple> latía la libertad agazapada. <tema simple>Un diálogo<tema no marc> anhelante corría por las páginas como un arroyo de serpientes, <tema múltiple> y<tema textual> se sentía<tema no marc><tópico proceso></tema múltiple> que todo estaba decidido desde siempre. <tema múltiple>Hasta<tema interpersonal> esas caricias<tema no marc><tópico participante></tema múltiple> que enredaban el cuerpo del amante como queriendo retenerlo y disuadirlo, dibujaban abominablemente la figura de otro cuerpo que era necesario destruir. <tema simple>Nada<tema interpersonal><tópico participante> había sido olvidado: coartadas, azares, posibles errores. <tema simple>A partir de esa hora<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> cada instante tenía su empleo minuciosamente atribuido. <tema simple>El doble repaso<tema no marc><tópico participante> despiadado se interrumpía apenas para que una mano acariciara una mejilla. <tema simple>Empezaba<tema no marc><tópico proceso> a anochecer.

<tema múltiple>Sin<tema interpersonal> mirarse<tema marcado><tópico cláusula></tema múltiple>ya, atados rígidamente a la tarea que los esperaba, Øse separaron en la puerta de la cabaña. <tema simple>Ella<tópico participante> debía seguir por la senda que iba al norte. <tema simple>Desde la senda opuesta<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> él se volvió un instante para verla correr con el pelo suelto. <tema simple>Corrió Ø<tema no marc><tópico proceso> a su vez, parapetándose en los árboles y los setos, hasta distinguir en la bruma malva del crepúsculo la alameda que llevaba a la casa. <tema simple>Los perros<tópico participante> no debían ladrar, <tema múltiple>y<tema textual> no<tema interpersonal>ladraron Ø<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple>. <tema simple>El mayordomo<tópico participante> no estaría a esa hora, <tema múltiple>y<tema textual> no<tema interpersonal>ØooooooØestaba Ø<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple>. <tema simple> Subió Ø<tema no marc><tópico proceso> los tres peldaños del porche <tema múltiple>y<tema textual>entró Ø<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple>. <tema simple>Desde la sangre<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> galopando en sus oídos le llegaban las palabras de la mujer: primero una sala azul, después una galería, una escalera alfombrada. <tema simple>En lo alto<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, dos puertas. <tema simple>Nadie<tema interpersonal><tópico participante> en la primera habitación, <tema simple>nadie<tema interpersonal><tópico participante> en la segunda. <tema simple>La puerta<tema no marc><tópico participante> del salón, <tema múltiple>y<tema textual> entonces<tópico circunstancia></tema múltiple> el puñal en la mano, la luz de los ventanales, el alto respaldo de un sillón de terciopelo verde, la cabeza del hombre en el sillón leyendo una novela.

TRADUCCIÓN

<título>Continuity of Parks</título>

<tema simple>He<tema no marc><tópico participante> had begun to read the novel a few days before. <tema simple>He<tema no marc><tópico participante> had put it down because of some urgent business conferences, opened it again on his way back to the estate by train; <tema simple>he<tema no marc><tópico participante> permitted himself a slowly growing interest in the plot, in the characterizations. <tema simple>That afternoon<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, after writing a letter giving his power of attorney and discussing a matter of joint ownership with the manager of his estate, he returned to the book in the tranquility of his study which looked out upon the park with its oaks. <tema simple>Sprawled<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> in his favorite armchair, its back toward the door -- even the possibility of an intrusion would have irritated him, had he thought of it -- <tema simple>he<tema no marc><tópico proceso> let his left hand caress repeatedly the green velvet upholstery <tema múltiple>and<tema textual> set<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple> to reading the final chapters. <tema simple>He<tema no marc><tópico participante> remembered effortlessly the names and his mental image of the characters; <tema simple>the novel<tema no marc><tópico participante> spread its glamour over him almost at once. <tema simple>He<tema no marc><tópico participante> tasted the almost perverse pleasure of disengaging himself line by line from the things around him, and at the same time feeling his head rest comfortably on the green velvet of the chair with its high back, sensing that the cigarettes rested within reach of his hand, that beyond the great windows the air of afternoon danced under the oak trees in the park. <tema simple>Word by word<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, licked up by the sordid dilemma of the hero and heroine, letting himself be absorbed to the point where the images settled down and took on color and movement, he was witness to the final encounter in the mountain cabin. <tema simple>The woman<tema no marc><tópico participante> arrived first, apprehensive; <tema simple>now<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> the lover came in, his face cut by the backlash of a branch. <tema simple>Admirably<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, she stanched the blood with her kisses, <tema múltiple>but<tema textual> he<tema no marc><tópico proceso></tema múltiple> rebuffed her caresses, <tema simple>he<tema no marc><tópico participante> had not come to perform again the ceremonies of a secret passion, protected by a world of dry leaves and furtive paths through the forest. <tema simple>The dagger<tema no marc><tópico participante> warmed itself against his chest, <tema múltiple>and<tema textual> underneath liberty<tema no marc><tópico participante></tema múltiple> pounded, hidden close. <tema simple>A lustful, panting dialogue<tema no marc> raced down the pages like a rivulet of snakes, <tema múltiple>and<tema textual> one<tema no marc><tópico participante></tema múltiple> felt it had all been decided from eternity. <tema múltiple>Even to<tema interpersonal> those caresses<tema no marc><tópico participante></tema múltiple> which writhed about the lover's body, as though wishing to keep him there, to dissuade him from it; <tema simple>they<tema no marc><tópico participante> sketched abominably the frame of that other body it was necessary to destroy. <tema simple>Nothing<tema interpersonal><tópico proceso> had been forgotten: alibis, unforeseen hazards, possible mistakes. <tema simple>From this hour on<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, each instant had its use minutely assigned. <tema simple>The cold-blooded, twice-gone-over reexamination<tema no marc><tópico participante> of the details was barely broken off so that a hand could caress a cheek. <tema simple>It<tema no marc><tópico participante> was beginning to get dark.

<tema múltiple>Not<tema interpersonal> looking<tema marcado><tópico cláusula></tema múltiple> at one another now, rigidly fixed upon the task which awaited them, they separated at the cabin door. <tema simple>She<tópico participante> was to follow the trail that led north. <tema simple>On the path<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia> leading in the opposite direction, he turned for a moment to watch her running, her hair loosened and flying. <tema simple>He<tema no marc><tópico participante> ran in turn, crouching among the trees and hedges until, in the yellowish fog of dusk, he could distinguish the avenue of trees which led up to the house. <tema simple>The dogs<tema no marc><tópico participante> were not supposed to bark, <tema simple>they<tópico participante> did not bark. <tema simple>The estate manager<tema no marc><tópico participante> would not be there at this hour, <tema múltiple>and<tema textual> he<tema marcado><tópico participante></tema múltiple> was not there. <tema simple>He<tema no marc><tópico participante> went up the three porch steps <tema múltiple>and<tema textual> entered<tema marcado><tópico proceso></tema múltiple>. <tema simple>The woman's words<tema no marc><tópico participante> reached him over the thudding of blood in his ears: first a blue chamber, then a hail, then a carpeted stairway. <tema simple>At the top<tema marcado><tópico circunstancia>, two doors. <tema múltiple>No<tema interpersonal> one<tópico participante></tema múltiple> in the first room, <tema múltiple>no<tema interpersonal> one<tópico participante></tema múltiple> in the second. <tema simple>The door<tema no marc><tópico participante> of the salon, <tema múltiple>and<tema textual> then<tópico circunstancia></tema múltiple>, the knife in hand, the light from the great windows, the high back of an armchair covered in green velvet, the head of the man in the chair reading a novel.

<Cortázar, Julio. End of the game and other stories. Trans. Paul Blackburn. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1978. p.63-65.>

III. Análisis temático mediante Word Smith Tools.

El análisis de frecuencias de las marcas de interés junto con el original y la traducción marcados y alineados (ver materiales subsidiarios adjuntos, “aligned.vwr”) arroja los siguientes resultados:

Parámetros	Original	Traducción
Temas simples	30	31
Temas múltiples	22	22
Temas textuales	8	7
Tópicos	40	41
Temas circunstancia	12	9
Temas marcados	18	12
Temas no marcados	16	24
Temas proceso	14	5
Temas participantes