Strategie linguistiche di redazione e traduzione (inglese)

STRATEGIE LINGUISTICHE DI REDAZIONE E TRADUZIONE (INGLESE) 2022-2023

• Where pauses are made

• And where commas and/or quotation marks are inserted 39 Commas and quotation marks, cont.

• Examples from P. Rogerson and J. B. Gilbert's "Speaking Clearly", CUP, 1990.

Semicolon

• It signals falling intonation and a pause.

Semicolon

• It can separate items on a list, especially if these are long and syntactically complex (e.g. if they are encoded in clauses); e.g.

– You will need to bring the following: sleeping bag, pillow, and pyjamas for the overnight stay; water bottle, waterproof jacket, sweatshirt, and walking boots for the afternoon trek; and a swimming kit for the river activities.

• Cf. You will need to bring the following: a sleeping bag, a pillow, pyjamas, a water bottle, a waterproof jacket, a sweatshirt, walking boots, and a swimming kit.

Semicolon, cont.

• It can separate clauses that are part of the same

sentence,– The conjunctive adverb is preceded by a semicolon or colon or full stop, which◆ signals a longer pause and falling intonation– but it is followed by a comma, which signals a shorter pause and level intonation;◆ e.g. ● • It’s quite appropriate to ask someone how much he makes; however, one should not delve [indagare] too deeply into how it was made.• Conjunctive adverbs, cont.– In the middle of a clause/sentence,◆ ● • The conjunctive adverb is preceded and followed by commas and short pauses, and pronounced at lower pitch○ – E.g. It’s quite appropriate to ask someone how much he makes; one should not, however, delve too deeply into how it was made.– At the end of a clause/sentence,◆ ● • The conjunctive adverb is preceded by a comma and followed by a full stop.6STRATEGIE LINGUISTICHE DI REDAZIONE E TRADUZIONE (INGLESE) 2022-2023○ – It’s quite appropriate to ask someone how much he

Makes; one should not delve too deeply into how it was made, however. Avoiding mistakes:

• A run-on sentence has two or more potentially independent (i.e. self-standing) clauses that are not correctly joined - The punctuation mark and/or linker joining them signal(s) an incorrect intonation contour and also an incorrect semantic-syntactic relationship.
• Reminders:
  • The full stop (.), the semicolon (;), and the colon (:) signal falling intonation and a pause.
  • The comma signals level intonation and a short pause.
• Dash:
  • It serves various functions like parentheses or commas, it may signal the boundaries of a backgrounded text segment (e.g. a clause or phrase), which is to be uttered at a lower pitch than the rest of the sentence; e.g.
• Various functions, cont.:
  • Like a colon, it may mark an upcoming expansion/elaboration; e.g.:
  • They are particularly active with their speech - they create new words.

andterms at such a rate that they struggle to keep up with themselves incommunicating

– The second clause is more specific than “particularly active withtheir speech”

• She demanded just one thing from her students – effort.

• “effort” is more specific than “one thing”

• Various functions, cont.

– It may signal that an afterthought (i.e. something extra) is being added to a message that was already complete; e.g.: 7STRATEGIE LINGUISTICHE DI REDAZIONE E TRADUZIONE (INGLESE) 2022-2023

– It may also signal that a speaker has broken off or has been interrupted, which creates suspense; e.g.:

• And so they –

• I think I am fall––

– In such cases, the dash also marks level intonation

Dot dot dot [three dots]

• They mark an unfinished statement or thought, a pause/silence, an attention-grabbing hint, an echoing voice

– Carpe Diem… This time tomorrow

When signalling interest, surprise, incredulity:

• You have told him our secret? - When attracting attention
• Excuse me?
• Hello? - When inviting the interlocutor to take the floor
• And?

Full stop (Br.) / Period (Am.) - It signals a pause and falling intonation at the end of a sentence:

• Have a nice day.

It may signal a pause and falling intonation, even in the absence of a complete sentence; e.g.:

• I want it. Now.
• This is common in fiction and advertising.

It may mark the end of an abbreviation:

• No. [number]
• p. [page]
• i.e. [id est]
• e.g. [exempli gratia]

Parentheses:

• They enclose a joke
• The author wanted "eats" to be a verb
• And "shoots and leaves" to be its direct objects (patients)

He/she meant that a panda's diet

comprises a) shoots [‘germogli’] and b) leaves.➔ • However, the comma after shoots gives the wrong impression that that text segment➔ – comprises three verbs listing in sequence the panda's characteristic conduct:◆ ● • First it eats, then it shoots, and finally it leaves.• It should have been written like this:➔ – “[It] eats shoots and leaves.” or like this:◆ – “[It] eats shoots, and leaves.”◆ 9STRATEGIE LINGUISTICHE DI REDAZIONE E TRADUZIONE (INGLESE) 2022-2023

A bookWhen a missing comma is worth a lot of money• Three lorry drivers from Main (USA) claimed that they were owed years of unpaid overtime➔ wages from their employer, a dairy company, all because of a missing comma.• The state’s laws declared that overtime was not due for workers involved in “the canning,➔ processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment ordistribution of: 1)

agricultural produce; 2) meat and fish products; and 3) perishable foods”.

• The text segment packing for shipment or distribution can be interpreted in two ways:
• (packing for shipment) or distribution = the task done by packers and the task done by drivers (2 tasks)
• The employer’s interpretation
• And thus he/she did not pay either packers (i.e. those involved in packing for shipment) or truck drivers (i.e. those involved in distribution)
• Packing for (shipment or distribution) = the task done by packers (1 task)
• The employees’ interpretation
• And thus they claimed that this text segment only applied to packers, but not to drivers, because the task of driving was not clearly set off from the other information units
• The text segment packing for shipment or distribution, cont.
• Those truck drivers claimed that, instead, distribution could have been considered a distinct task only if a

• •packing for shipment, or distribution…– The truck drivers concluded that, since distribution was not presented as a distinct item on➔ the list, it was not part of those tasks that don’t receive overtime pay– The court ruled in favour of the drivers, who were to receive $5,000,000 dollars 59 When a➔ missing comma is worth a lot of money, cont.
• • So, the bottom line is➔ – It is better to insert a comma to separate higher-order phrases◆ – Otherwise, the linker may be intended as linking lower-order information units◆ 10STRATEGIE LINGUISTICHE DI REDAZIONE E TRADUZIONE (INGLESE) 2022-2023

Study questions

• • Is there any difference (e.g. in meaning, emphasis) between these➔ two sentences (from P. Rogerson and J. B. Gilbert’s “Speaking Clearly”, CUP, 1990)?
• – A. The man and the woman dressed in black came out of the restaurant.◆
• – B. The man,

and the woman dressed in black, came out of the restaurant.

What is wrong here: There are a few grammar rules, however, that are easy to remember?

Consider this sentence: Language attitudes can have behavioural consequences, once evoked. How should you formulate a wh-question based on that sentence such that the answer should be Behavioural?

Are the following sentences correctly punctuated? Why or why not? 11STRATEGIE LINGUISTICHE DI REDAZIONE E TRADUZIONE (INGLESE) 2022-202312STRATEGIE LINGUISTICHE DI REDAZIONE E TRADUZIONE (INGLESE) 2022-2023

Study questions

On the basis of the texts in