Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies

1. Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies Lexical Level (Collocations and Idioms) 9 October 2007

2. Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies • Categories in Linguistics • Sound structure (phonology) • Grammatical structure (syntax) • Word and sentence meaning (semantics) • Types of Organisation in Language • Syntagmatic • Paradigmatic

3. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms)

4. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • Collocation • The tendency of certain items to co-occur regularly in a given language (Baker 1992:285) • Lexical Set • Items which share a like privilege of collocation (share collocates) • e.g. for hair: dark, black, red, blonde, auburn

5. Lexical Level (Collocations and Idioms) • Grammar • Structure • Obligatory • Largely predictive • Lexis • Patterning • Largely not predictive • Organised on top of structure • Can concern the recurrence of structural items

6. Lexical Level (Collocations and Idioms) • Word • e.g. die, dies, died, dying • Word-form • Token (e.g. man, men) • Lexeme • Base form of a word, without inflections (e.g. DIE)

7. Lexical Level (Collocations and Idioms) • Applying Lexical Analysis in T&I • Meaning does not totally organise the vocabulary of a language • Meaning in a text is cumulative • Categories of lexis different from grammar and semantics • Collocation • Lexical Set

8. Lexical Level (Collocations and Idioms) • Lexical item • Any word or expression which has a unique pattern of collocation and which represents an independently meaningful stretch of language • Grammar and lexis are two complementary ways of looking at language

9. Lexical Level (Collocations and Idioms) • Types of collocation • Collocations which exist for semantic reasons (brown cow) • Culturally conditioned collocations (cottage cheese) • Arbitrary collocations (running commentary but not running discussion)

10. Lexical Level (Collocations and Idioms) • Domain-specific collocations (e.g. vigorous depressions) • Collocation and metaphor (e.g. time is money) • Marked/unmarked collocation • Collocational range and range extension • Idioms and Fixed Expressions

11. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • Some major functions of MWUs • Sequencing ideas: first and foremost • Anaphoric connections: in other words • Argumentation: as a result of, for that matter • Greetings and closings: How are you? See you later • Politeness routines: if you don’t mind, I beg your pardon • Assent/agreement: sure thing, you’re absolutely right • Rejection/conflictive: no way, you’re kidding, not on your life • Fluency/interactive devices: you see, I mean, you know

12. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • Some major functions of MWUs • Markers of new information: guess what, you’ll never believe this • Suggestions: if I were you • Concessions: it’s up to you, never mind • Support: not to worry, don’t let it get to you • Qualification: mind you, and yet • Expression of emotions (gets more idiomatic): have/get cold feet, have butterflies in one’s stomach, turns one’s stomach • Expression of evaluation/assessment: small fry, not worth the paper it’s written on, worth peanuts

13. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • Idioms • Literal (as a matter of fact) • Semi-transparent (skate on thin ice) • Opaque (spill the beans) • Misleading idioms (public school)

14. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • Transparency/opacity continuum • Concretising (playing on visual dimension) • Playing on both literal and idiomatic meanings simultaneously

15. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • Semantic fields and idiom • Parts of the body • Syntactical structure • Can be extremely ‘fixed’ • Ellipsis common with sayings • The grass is always greener • Cultural references • East End, Harley Street, cucumber sandwiches • Idioms vs. Allusions • ‘The Origin of the Species’/’The Origin of the Spices’

16. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • References • Abu-Ssaydeh, Abdul-Fattah (2004) ‘Translation of English Idioms into Arabic’, Babel 50(2): 114–131. • Baker, Mona (1992) In Other Words, London & New York: Routledge. (Chapter 3: Equivalence Above Word Level) • Baker, Mona (in press) ‘Patterns of Idiomaticity in Translated vs. Non-translated English’, Belgian Journal of Linguistics. [Available on Intranet] • Baker, Mona and Michael McCarthy (1988) ‘Multi-Word Units and Things Like That’. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Birmingham. [Available on Intranet]

17. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • References (cont.) • Bolinger, Dwight and Donald Sears (1981) Aspects of Language, New York: Harcourt Brace, 3rd Edition. (Chapter 4: Words and their Make-Up) • Fernando, C. (1996) Idioms and Idiomaticity, Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Gabrielatos, Constantinos (1994) ‘Pedagogical Grammar. Collocations: Pedagogical Implications and Their Treatment in Pedagogical Materials’. Unpublished Article, Cambridge: Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics’. [Available on Intranet]

18. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • References (cont.) • Gottlieb, Henrik (1997) ‘Quality Revisited: The Rendering of English Idioms in Danish Television Subtitles vs. Printed Translations’, in Anna Trosborg (ed.) Text Typology and Translation, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 309-338. • Mitchell, T. F. (1975) Principles of Firthian Linguistics, London: Longman. (Chapter 4: ‘Linguistic “goings on”: collocations and other lexical matters arising on the syntagmatic record’, pp. 99-136). • Newman, A. (1988) ‘The Contrastive Analysis of Hebrew and English Dress and Cooking Collocations: Some Linguistic and Pedagogic Parameters’, Applied Linguistics 9(3 293-305.

19. Lexical Level (Collocation and Idioms) • References (cont.) • Rose, James H. (1978) ‘Types of Idioms’, Linguistics 203: 55-62. [Short Loan Collection] • Shei, Chi-Chiang. (2005) ‘Fixedness in genre-specific language and intercultural differences: Comparing English and Chinese fire news corpora’, International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 10(2): 199-225. • Sinclair, J.M. (1987) ‘Collocation: a progress report’, in R. Steele and T. Threadgold (eds) Language Topics: Essays in Honour of Michael Halliday, Vol II, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 319-331. • Sinclair, John (1991) Corpus, Concordance, Collocation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.