General considerations

The formal, functional and stylistic aspects of sentence structure are mentioned as an important factor in almost all approaches to translation-relevant text analysis, although they are not dealt with in any systematic way.

In spite of the transcultural repertoire of syntactic figures of speech, such as parallelisms, chiasms, rhetorical questions, etc., the effect of these figures may vary slightly according to the different language structures. Complex hypotactic sentences are generally regarded as an appropriate means to describe complex facts. However, in German, hypotactic sentences are much more likely to look complicated and intricate (partly because the verb has to be put at the end of subordinate clauses) than, for instance, in Spanish, where the syntax has a principally linear character and where isolated non-finite constructions (gerund, participles, infinitives) are often preferred to subor-i clinate clauses.

The analysis of sentence structure yields information about the characteristics of the subject matter (e.g. simple vs. complex), the text composition ("mise en relief, order of informational details), and the suprasegmental features (stress, speed, tension), and some syntactic figures, such as aposiopesis, may indicate presuppositions. Among the extratextual factors it is primarily the aspects of intention, medium and text function that are characterized by particular sentence structures.

How to find out about sentence structure

The translator gets a first impression of the typical sentence structure of a text by analysing the (average) length and type of the sentences (statements, questions, exclamations, ellipses) and the other constructions which replace sentences (infinitives, past and present participles, gerunds), the distribution of main clauses and subordinate clauses -and inclusions - in the text (paratactical vs. hypotactical sentence structures), and the connection of sentences by connectives, such as conjunctions, temporal adverbs, substitutions, etc.. On the basis of such an analysis, s/he is able to find out how the information given in the text is structured. I wish to stress the point, however, that the analysis of sentence structure is not an aim in itself but must lead to a functional interpretation.

Below the level of sentences and clauses it is the order of the constituents (such as Subject-Predicator-Complement/SPC) or words (e.g. the position of adverbials) that may lead to a further structuring. Depending on their respective norms of word order, intonation, pitch patterns, etc., different languages use different means of focussing certain sentence parts or of giving a "relief to the text. By analysing the different aspects of syntax (e.g. distribution of main and subordinate clauses and non-finite constructions, "mise en relief by tense and aspect) the translator may achieve a solid basis for text interpretation.

In addition to the classical figures of speech it is (mainly, but not only, in literary texts) the deviation from syntactic norms and conventions which is used in order to produce a particular stylistic effect. In these cases, the translator has first to find out what kind of deviation is used and how it works before s/he can decide, whether or how to "translate" it (in the widest sense of the word) in the light of the translation brief.

Example

In his short story Los cachorros ("The Little Dogs"), the Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa plays with syntactic structures, boldly mixing narration, direct speech and stream-of-consciousness technique: "Y un dia, toma, su mama, corazon, le regalaba ese pic-up, ipara el solito?, si...". By a syntactic analysis, we can separate the narrative sentence, which conforms to the syntactical norms ("Y un dia su mama le regalaba ese pic-up"), from the inserted elements of direct speech {toma, corazon, si) and interior monologue Qpara el solito?). Reversing these steps of analysis, the translation is easy: "And one day, here you are, his mummy, darling, gave him that record-player, just for him?, yes..."

The syntactic features, too, depend on various other intratextual features, especially content and composition (e.g. distribution of informational details both in the text and in the sentences), lexis (e.g. verbal or nominal constructions), and suprasegmental features (especially focus, intonation). Among the extratextual factors it is mainly the aspects of intention, audience, medium (e.g. speech vs. writing), and function (e.g. conventional structures), which affect the syntactic features.

Checklist

The following questions may be helpful in analysing sentence structure:

1.Are the sentences long or short, coordinated or subordinated? How are they linked?

2.Which sentence types occur in the text?

3.Does the order of sentence constituents correspond to the theme-rheme structure? Are there any focussing structures or deviations from normal word order?

4.Is there any text relief?

5.Are there any syntactic figures of speech, such as parallelism, chiasm, rhetorical question, parenthesis, aposiopesis, ellipsis, etc.? What function do they perform in the text?

6. Are there any syntactic features which are determined by audience orientation, text-type conventions, or by the medium? Does the translation skopos require any adaptations?