Gendered existence? Existential-there construction in english-polish translation

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Gendered existence? Existential-there construction in english-polish translation

Andrzej Lyda

University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

Abstract

This paper analyses a possible effect of the variable of gender on semantic enrichment of existential sentences translated from English to Polish. Existential-there clauses in English typically take the form there + be + indefinite NP (+place/time adverbial). Since there-constructions lack a structurally congruent counterpart in Polish, they can be rendered in Polish with several syntactic constructions ranging from the verb `bye' (E. to be) through `miec' (E. to have) to verbs semantically richer than `bye' (e.g., verbs of perception, verbs of location, etc). We ask the question of whether the gender factor is correlated with the factor of text type/genre. To this purpose, we compiled a corpus of English texts representing belles-lettres and popular science writing, male-authored, female-authored and multi-authored and translated by male and female translators. Our preliminary results show that the choice of Polish translations of English existential-there follows from the interplay of genre, narrative/descriptive modes of text, and the gender of the translator, with female translators tending to replace the simple copula `be' with a full lexical verb more often than male translators in dialogic parts of belle-lettres.

Keywords: gender, existential there-clause, translation, English, Polish.

Ліда Анджей. Гендерна екзистенція? Екзистенційна конструкція з компонентом there в англійсько-польському перекладі

Анотація

У цій роботі аналізується можливий вплив гендеру на семантичне збагачення речень з екзистенційною конструкцією, перекладених з англійської на польську. Речення з екзистенційним -there в англійській мові зазвичай мають форму there + be + indefinite NP (+place/time adverbial). Оскільки в польських конструкціях відсутній структурно конгруентний відповідник, вони можуть бути передані польською мовою за допомогою кількох синтаксичних конструкцій, наприклад, дієсловом "bye" (англ. to be), "miec" (англ. to have), а також дієсловами, семантично багатшими за `bye' (дієсловами на позначення сприйняття, місця тощо). Піднімається питання, чи співвідноситься гендерний чинник із чинником типу/жанру тексту. З цією метою було складено паралельний корпус англійської художньої та науково-популярної літератури авторів жіночої та чоловічої статей та їхніх перекладів у виконанні різностатевих тлумачів. Наші попередні результати свідчать, що на вибір перекладу польською екзистенційної конструкції із there впливають взаємодія жанру, оповідного/описового способів тексту та статі перекладача, причому перекладачки-жінки прагнули замінити просту зв'язку "бути" на повне лексичне дієслово частіше, ніж перекладачі-чоловіки в сегментах діалогічного дискусу художньої літератури.

Ключові слова: гендер, екзистенційна структура -there, переклад, англійська мова, польська мова.

Introduction

This paper focuses on possible gender-related trends in the translation of English existential-there construction, which, to the best of our knowledge, has received almost no attention in the literature. An incentive for the present study comes from the present author's observation concerning 154 students' in-class translation of an existential-there sentence in Dorris Lessing's short story Among the Roses in the years 2002-2004 and 2010-2010. The sentence `There was no greater pleasure than wandering among roses and deciding...' was translated into Polish by 108 female translators (FT) and 46 male translators (MT) in several ways, of which the following were most common:

1. FT 32; MT 28

Nie bylo wi^kszej przyjemnosci niz spacerowanie mi^dzy rozami i decydowanie...

There was no greater pleasure than wandering among roses and deciding.

2. FT 24; MT 16

Nie istniala wi^ksza przyjemnosc niz spacerowanie mi^dzy rozami i decydowanie...

There did not exist a greater pleasure than walking between the roses and deciding.

3. FT 22; MT 2

Nic nie sprawialo jej wi^kszej przyjemnosci niz przechadzanie sic posrod roz i decydowanie...

Nothing gave her more pleasure than walking between the roses and deciding.

4. FT 13; MT 0

Nic nie sprawialo jej wi^kszej radosci niz przechadzanie sic posrod roz i decydowanie...

Nothing gave her more joy than walking between the roses and deciding.

5. FT 6; MT 0

Odczuwala najwi^ksz^ przyjemnosc przechadzaj^c sic wsrod roz i decyduj^c...

She felt the greatest pleasure walking between the roses and deciding.

6. FT 6; MT 0

Znajdowala najwi^ksz^ przyjemnosc w przechadzaniu si§ posrod roz i decydowaniu...

She found the greatest pleasure in walking between the roses and deciding.

7. FT6; MT 0

Nie znajdowala wi^kszej przyjemnosci niz spacerowanie posrod roz i decydowanie...

She found no greater pleasure than walking between the roses and deciding.

The differences between FTs and MTs in the translation of the sentence are immediately striking. First, while MTs produced only three Polish versions of the source text (ST), FTs produced as many as seven. Secondly, although most common in both gender groups were translations using Polish `bye', i.e., instances of literal translation, they were observed in as much as 61% of MTs and only 22% of FTs. Even when the cases of translation by means of Polish `istniec' (Eng. exist) were accounted for as `existential', the figures still show that the literal `existential' translation was almost an exclusive solution among MTs (95%), while for FTs the figure amounted to only 52% of all translations. The remaining translations of FTs resorted to notional verbs that replaced the English copula.

Given such discrepancies in rendering English existential-there sentences, which belong to a larger class of presentational constructions, this study has been launched to examine whether our preliminary observations find support in a larger and more varied corpus of translations.

Presentational Scale and existential sentences

Presentational scale.

The notion of presentational (also known as presentative) scale was introduced by Firbas (1992) to reflect the distribution of communicative dynamism in a sentence. The presentational scale includes three basic functions: the setting (S), the presentation of a phenomenon by means of a verb (Pr), and the phenomenon (Ph) itself as in the following set of model sentences (Adam, 2013, p. 59) gender existential translated

(1) All of a sudden, there was (Pr) a picturesque castle (Ph) on the hill (S).

(2) All of a sudden, on the hill there was a picturesque castle.

(3) All of a sudden, there appeared a picturesque castle on the hill.

(4) All of a sudden, a picturesque castle appeared on the hill.

(5) All of a sudden, a picturesque castle could be seen on the hill.

All sentences employ the same recurring semantic pattern, yet in different syntactic configurations and with different presentational verbs (`be', `appear', `be seen'). Example (1) represents the most prototypical way of presenting a phenomenon in English: the existential there construction. Actually, as Tarnyikova (2009, p. 96-97) argues, the existential-there performs two functions: first, its is existential as it "denotes mere `hearer -new' existence of an entity" and secondly it is presentational "bringing something `discourse-new' into sight." In the remaining sentences the existential verb `to be' is replaced with other (semantically richer) presentational verbs. Among these richer verbs one can find `arrive', `be in sight', `become plain', `come forward', `come into view', `come up', `emerge', `exist', `evolve', `develop', `grow out of', `happen', `issue', `recur', `rise', `spring up', `show up', `take place' (Firbas, 1992) and `appear', `come out', `come over', `fall', `happen' (Adam, 2013). Each of them can substitute for the existential `to be', yet, as has been demonstrated, they usually represent approximately 5% of all presentational verbs in a text, whereas the existential `to be' is ranked by far as the most frequent subtype (see, e.g., Duskova, 2005a; 2005b; Adam, 2011).

Existential sentences in English

Existential sentences, known also as `existential there' (Jespersen, 1969) and `existential construction with there' (Langacker, 2008) express the existence or nonexistence, or the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a particular phenomenon. In English, existential sentences commonly involve the dummy subject construction with there. They are presentative structures that function to create end-focus: a subject that includes new information is set in a position after the verb and the common subject slot is completed by `there'. This arrangement complies with the general information principle, the principle of end focus, appearing in Indo-European languages. According to this principle, the most natural way of presenting ideas is ordering elements in line with a gradual rise in communicative importance (Firbas, 1992, p. 7).

The process in the existential sentences is usually expressed by the verb `be' (Petroniene, 2007). Apart from this verb, the verbs occurring in English there- sentences "must be intransitive [...], and of fairly general presentative meaning: verbs of motion (arrive, enter, pass, come, etc.), of inception (emerge, spring up, etc.), and of stance (live, remain, stand, lie, etc.)" (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 1408).

It is generally accepted in the literature (see, e.g., Brevik, 1981, 1983; Lumsden 1998, and Petroniene 2007) that the function of existential-there consists in introducing new entities into discourse. Breivik (1981, p. 15) argues that existential- there conveys `signal information' and "functions as a signal to the addressee that he must be prepared to direct his attention toward an item of new information." A similar view is held by Lambrecht (1994, p. 179), for whom the pragmatic purpose of existential-there constructions is not normally to confirm the existence of some entity but "to introduce the NP referent into the discourse world of the interlocutors by asserting its presence in a given location." Within Fauconnier's (1985) theory of mental spaces `the given location' would be a space where conceptual entities are located. A similar interpretation is also offered by Lakoff (1987), for whom "narratives create mental spaces of th eir own, and when an existential construction is used within a narrative, it is the mental space of the narrative that is designated by there" (1987, p. 570). In the context of the present research on 'semantic enrichment' of existential claims, it is worth repeating here what Lakoff (1987, p. 570) noted: "A good narrative is one that allows the hearer to vividly picture the events of the narrative as they are told. English has an existential construction that is specialized to narratives. It allows speakers to introduce a new narrative element, while simultaneously sketching a scene."

Existential sentences in Polish

In Polish, there is no formal construction parallel to the existential - there, as there is no empty subject in Polish in any counterpart of any type of English there- constructions (Grzegorek, 1984). The most common verbs used in existential sentences are the copula `bye' (Eng. to be) and `istniec' (Eng. to exist).

As existential sentences express the idea of existence and of nonexistence, it should be noted that Polish distinguishes between the expression of existence and of nonexistence not only with regard to negation but also by changing the copula `bye' (to be) to the copula miee (to have) in the present tense.'

Na biurku jest laptop.

[On the desk is a laptop.]

Na biurku nie ma laptopa.

[On the desk not has a laptop.]

English existential-there in Polish translation

1. English `to be' and Polish `bye' (Eng. `to be')

There are other education loans. / S3 jeszcze pozyczki edukacyjne. [Are other education loans]

2. English `to be' and Polish ellipted verb

There is no news. / Zadnych wiadomosci. [No news]

3. English `to be' and Polish `nie ma' (lit. Eng. `not has')

There is no bread in the shop. / Nie ma chleba w sklepie. [Not has bread in the shop]

The second group includes notional verbs and consists of two types:

4. English `to be' and Polish notional presentational verb other than `bye' (Eng. to be)

And then there was a scandal. / Wtedy nastijpil skandal. [Then occurred a scandal]

5. English `to be' and Polish notional non-presentational verb

There is no door that opens automatically. / Nie zainstalowali jeszcze automatycznych drzwi.

[Have not installed automatic doors yet]

Finally, the English existential-there can be expressed by a Polish nonverbal element, which is not to be analysed in the present study.

6. English `to be' and Polish non-verbal element

There is a report that it was a bribe. / Wedlug pewnego raportu to byla lapowka.

[According to a report, it was a bribe]

Of prime importance for the present study is the second group (4-5) that includes notional non- presentational verbs and notional presentational verbs other than `bye', which may replace the lexically empty `bye''. The choice of a preferred verb is determined by the semantic features of the subject. Grzegorek (1984, p. 160) classifies the verbs in the following way:

1. Verbs of location, with two subtypes: a. synonyms of `bye': znajdowae sic (`be located'), `odbye si§' (`take place') and b. verbs which depict the characteristic manner of spatial existence of the referent: `slup - stoi' (`pillar - stands'); `obraz -wisi' (`picture - hangs'), etc.

2. Verbs which describe the typical state or action of the referent of the subject NP: `gwiazdy - swiecT (`stars - shine'), `orkiestra -gra' `(`band -plays'), etc.

3. Verbs expressing perception in impersonal forms: `plamy - widae' (`patches - one can see'), `mroz - czue' (`frost - one can feel'), etc.

4. Verbs that are idiomatically linked to the subject noun, namely, in collocation with a particular noun the verb acts as a synonym of `bye': `cisza - zapase' (`silence- fall'), etc.

The choice of a lexical verb is predictable in the light of the meaning of the subject noun phrase and the fact that the sentence is existential. However, the very decision of the translator to resort to this mode of translation rather than to `bye' is not. As we expect, a partial answer to the question can be found in analysing the factor of gender.

Gender and translation

Early studies on differences between male and female language production focused on its social and sociopsychological aspects, often in terms of stereotypization and power differential of gender roles. Since the launch of Lakoffs `Deficit Theory' in 1975, the research has proceeded along different tracks by focusing not only on the language-and-power link but also on findings in other fields. Abundant scientific evidence brought forward from the field of neurology, psychology, or psycholinguistics (e.g., Harris, 1978; Benbow, 1988; McGuinees, 1985) points to several differences of qualitative type. Reporting on such frequent findings, Moir and Jessel (1989) claim that the fact that male s are better than females in respect of the recognition of spatial relations, visualization of 3-D forms, and perception of analogies, but worse in the adaptation for receiving sensory impulses, is attributable to differences in the brain anatomy and function rather than different modes of socialization.

Irrespective of the source of the differences, as Gal (1991, p. 181-182) claims, differences in speech associated with men and women "have been found in every society studied; but the nature of the contrasts is staggeringly diverse, occurring in varying parts of the linguistic system: phonology, pragmatics, syntax, morphology, and lexicon." Shlesinger et al. (2009) provide a long of studies of such early studies list that seem to confirm Gal's claim (see e .g. Muchnik, 1997; Mulac et al., 1990); Mulac & Lundell, 1994; Herring, 1996 or Argamon et al., 2007; Lyda, 2003). Such studies on the variable of sex/gender in communication have now accumulated to the point where a complex of convergent results is apparent: females excel at verbal production and comprehension, make fewer grammatical errors, construct longer sentences, articulate more clearly, and achieve an impressive level of fluency (Thorne & Henlay, 1987). In the context of these findings, Leonardi (2007) hypothesizes that if men and women speak differently, they are also likely to translate differently. We take Leonardi's hypothesis as the starting point for the study of gender -related choices in rendering an English presentational structure known as existential-there in Polish.

Method