The repetitions links: sentence 3
3. Many wild bears have become “garbage junkies, feeding from dumps around human developments.
4.To avoid potentially dangerous clashes between them and humans, scientists are trying to rehabilitate the animals by drugging them and releasing them in uninhabited areas.
5. Although some biologists deny that the mind-altering drug was responsible for uncharacteristic behaviour of this particucular bear, no research has been done into the effects of giving grizzly bears or other mammals repeated doses of phencyclidine.
Although there are two items in both sentences 4 and 5 that connect with the item bears in sentence 3, these are not treated as two repetitions since they connect to only one item in the other sentence. So there is insufficient repetition for sentence 3 to form a bond with any other sentence.
3.3.3.The repetition links: sentence 4
4.To avoid potentially dangerous clashes between them and humans, scientists are trying to rehabilitate the animals by drugging them and releasing them in uninhabited areas.
5. Although some biologists deny that the mind altering drug was responsible for uncharacteristic behaviour of this particular bear, no research has been done into the effects of giving grizzly bears or other mammals repeated doses of phencyclidine.
No link is recognised between scientists and biologists, the grounds being that the greater specificity of the later item provides extra information and is, therefore, doing more than repeating the earlier item. Thus, it can be seen that there is little linkage between sentences 4 and 5 as there was between sentence 3 and the other sentences, therefore no bonds can be established between these sentences. The connections made by sentences 4 and 5 with sentences 1 and 2 of the text may be represented as follows:
(2) (1) (2) (1)
(4) (5)
3.3.4. A representation of the repetition pattern
We are now in a position to consider how the various connections we have established combine to make a cohesion pattern of the text. We do this by combining the diagrams for the separate sentences and obtain the following scheme of the bonds of the text:
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(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
What is the practical interest of the relationships represented in this scheme? To answer this question, we must examine more closely the sentences we have identified by our “three-link” criterion as having been connected with a bond.
3.4. Interpretation of repetition patterning: central and marginal sentences
Treating sentences as interrelated packages of information, connected by multiple repetition links, we might expect those sentences that are the most important for the development of the theme of a text (or, rather, to its semantic nucleus which is the package of information containing the most important elements of the theme of the text and elements which indicate what happensto the theme, i.e. the rheme of the text) to make maximum number of bonds with other sentences. We will call such sentences central. Those sentences that contribute less to the development of its theme show fewer signs of connection with the theme of the text [Hoey 1991: 43] and have low information value. We will call such sentences marginal.
If we examine the Drug-crazed grizzlies text in this way we will obtain the following indicators for each of the sentences (the figures show the number of sentences, before and after, with which the sentence in question shares three or more links, i.e. has a bond):
sentence 1 (-,3)
sentence 2 (1,2)
sentence 3 (0,0)
sentence 4 (2,0)
sentence 5 (2,-)
It is seen from this scheme, that sentence 1 has bonds with three sentences, sentence 2 - also with three, sentence 3 has no bonds at all, sentence 4 has bonds with 2 sentences, sentence 4 has bonds with 2 sentences and sentence 5 also has bonds with two sentences.
3.5. Making summary of a text
The given example is too short for profound statistical analysis, however, we can see from it that there are two sentences, which make three bonds with the remainder of the text, while the rest make two bonds or fewer. These sentences are the first two in the text about Grizzlies, and if we extract them from the text we will obtain a reasonable summary of what the text is about:
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1. A drug known to produce violent reactions in humans has been used for sedating grizzly bears Ursus arctos in Montana, USA, according to a report in The New York Times.
2.After one bear, known to be a peaceable animal, killed and ate a camper in an unprovoked attack, scientists discovered it had been tranquillized 11 times with phencyclidine, or “angel dust”, which caused hallucinations and sometimes gives the user an irrational feeling of destructive power.
The rest of the text provides additional information to these statements, so the sentences that make most connections (i.e. have maximum number of bonds) with the rest of the text seem to be the most important for understanding, interpretation and translation of the text, i.e. they are regarded to be central in terms of making up the semantic nucleus of the text.
It follows that the least connected sentences will be regarded as marginal. Only one sentence in the text about grizzlies stands out as markedly less connected than the rest, and that is sentence 3, which in fact has no bonds at all:
3. Many wild bears have become “garbage junkies", feeding from dumps around human developments.
While the article as a whole is concerned with the effects of drugs applied to wild bears, this sentence describes one of the reasons why such drugs were used and can be easily left out without significant damage to the overall theme of the text.
Sentences 4 and 5, each having bonds with two other sentences, could have been in principle included into the summary. However in this short text, proceeding from the principle to include into the summary sentences with the maximum number of bonds, we believe that these two sentences provide additional information to sentences 1 and 2 and are located in the zone between central and marginal sentences.
Of course, judgements about centrality and marginality of sentences are, to a certain extent, subjective. All we can say at the moment is that our analysis is based on real linguistic facts within the framework of methodology suggested by M.Hoey [1991].
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However, with rapid development of computer software such analysis becomes much more “objective”, easy and quick to perform. Computer assisted text processing is capable to detect bonded sentences and construct summaries of texts. Needless to say that this is of paramount importance for all areas of storing and distributing textual information with the help of informational technologies, starting with compiling library catalogues, making up front page summaries of newspaper and magazine articles and ending with the Internet service.(e.g., constructing hypertexts which by establishing hyperlinks with databases allow the user to get practicailly unlimited amount ol information from the web), as well as transalition and interpretation strategies.
3.6. Practical implications of the described methodology for translators
Practical application of this method to translation and interpretation is quite obvious. Researchers of translation and interpretation point out that written and oral messaged are perceived by human brain through the so-called peaks of information [Чернов 1987: 166-184] which, in practice, are either lexical items which introduce the themeof the message, or items which describe what happens to that theme (rhematic items). Both are the keywordsof any texts that are “repeated” in one of the ways described above, thus creating repetition links and bonds and ensuring cohesion of the text. Therefore, if a translator or interpreter does not know a certain word or has missed it in oral interpretation there is a great chance that he/she will be able to reconstruct it from the text that follows due to repetitions. In general, repetition links ensure redundancy of the message that is a natural tool of any language designed to transmit as much information as possible and ensure successful comprehending of information by the reader or listener.
Today suggested method of text analysis is successfully applied not only to linguistic studies of text and translation. It is also used by journalists, political analysts, practicing psychologists and forensic linguists for the analysis of what suspects and witnesses say during investigation and in court.
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Another practical application of this method is making summaries of texts (in the original language or in the language of translation), which is a frequent job of any translator[1]. It’s obvious that a detailed lengthy analysis of all repetition 1inks in a text by a translator is unrealistic due to the time constraints, however most experienced translators will easily separate central and marginal sentences in a text by intuition after having quickly read it. As it has been already mentioned “fully objective" approach to singling out central sentences can be ensured by the use ol computer-assisted text processing.
SEMINAR 3
Questions for discussion and practical assignments:
1.Identify the notion of repetition links.
2.Identify the notion of bonds. How many repetition links are relevant for establishing a bond.
3.Comment on establishing bonds between sentences 1, 2, 4, 5 in the text about grizzlies.
4.Discuss what types of repetition links make up bonds in this text, (e.g., links between sentence 1 and 2: drug - drugging: complex lexical repetition, bears - bear: simple lexical repetition, bears - them: substitution, bears - animals: simple paraphrase, etc.). Give reasons for your statements.
5. Find out sentences in which there are enough repetition links to establish bonds in the texts given below. Comment upon the results of your analysis and draw the schemes of bonds you have established. Suggest variants of translation of these texts :
Text 1
Ecology
Ecologists focused much energy in 1991 and 1992 on the topic of chaos. Chaos theory is based on the idea that random variations control the behavior of natural systems that change with time, such as the weather and ecosystems. The theory predicts, in essence, that science cannot predict the changes in some systems.
Scientists believe that chaotic systems, such as the weather, are those in which very small changes produce unexpectedly dramatic results. Small changes in temperature, air pressure, or wind speed or direction, for instance, may produce weather wildly different five days later than if that change had not occurred. Because of a shortage of precise data from longterm studies of ecological systems, however, it has been difficult to determine where and when chaos is occurring.
In October 1991, ecologists David Tilman and David Wedin of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis reported the results of a five-year study showing that growth patterns of Agrostis scabra, a common prairie grass, exhibit many properties of chaotic systems. The scientists planted different groups of the plant in soils with varying degrees of nutrients.
The scientists found that plants in nutrient-rich soils grew more unpredictably than the plants in the poorer quality soils. Plants in the better soil grew better during the first two years of the experiment, but then growth became unpredictable in the third year and remained unpredictable for the rest of the experiment. The plants’ populations dropped wildly compared with plants in poorer soils.
The researchers attributed this drop to the accumulation of litter (dead plant material) at the end of the previous growing season. As litter accumulated, the scientists discovered, it blocked light to the plants. Plant growth thus varied most in the most favorable conditions, suggesting that plants with the most luxurious growth may be susceptible to unpredictable changes.
Science Year
Text 2.
Dog catchers battle bad image
By Evgenia Mussuri
Some people look at them with disgust and call them “monsters”, others regard them as saviors. But in reality they are dog catchers, who work for the municipal organization Animals in the City.
Every day the firm’s 15 catchers go out to hunt stray dogs around Kyiv, acting on notification from municipal authorities about new packs of wandering animals in their area.
Dogs roaming Kyiv streets usually are peaceful, some even cross the street on green lights together with people. But their quantity and wild nature is what worries dog catchers most.
“A stray dog in a Western country is usually the one that’s lost by its owners, whereas in Ukraine it’s a dog born in a pit with rubbish, and most likely his parents were born exactly the same way”, said Animals in the City veterinarian Ihor Derevyanko.
Last year, Animals in the City catchers rid the capital of some 12,000 dogs. The figure may look impressive, but in fact the company’s operation to eliminate stray dogs from Kyiv is only beginning.
“There is an estimated 120,000 stray dogs in Kviv now," Derevyanko said. “Since the issue wasn’t tackled for two years before our department was started, we still can’t reach a point of balance”.
Kyiv Post
LITERATURE
1.Чернов Г.В. Основы синхронного перевода / Г.В.Чернов. - М.: Высшая школа, 1987.-256 с.
2. Ноеу М. Patterns of Lexis in Text / М.Ноеу. - Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991. - 276 c.
3. Солганик Г.Я. Синтаксическая семантика (Сложное синтаксическое целое) / Г.Я. Солганик.- М.: Высшая школа, 1973. - 214 с.
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