German sentence: write your English translation before

Edward Martin, Institut für Anglistik, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz
[email protected]
©2005
page
2
German sentence: write your English translation before looking at p. 3
3
German sentence in colour coding; "diagnosis" of syntax problems
- after reading this, look at your translation, improving it if necessary
4
A student's translation with comments
5
A model English translation for comparison with your own translation
Edward Martin, Institut für Anglistik, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz
[email protected]
©2005
German sentence #7
Two main clause, one relative clause, lots of adverbials
- please write your translation before moving on to page 3 Charles sei in der U-Bahnstation nur deshalb gerannt, „weil er nicht zu spät zur
Arbeit kommen wollte”, versicherte im Interview mit der Zeitung „Folha de Sao
Paulo” die 21 Jahre alte Cousine Vivian Menezes, die mit Jean Charles und
anderen Familienangehörigen sich eine Wohnung in London teilte.
Source: FAZ.de
date: 25 July 2005
number of words: 47
Edward Martin, Institut für Anglistik, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz
[email protected]
©2005
Colour-coded analysis and diagnosis
• please read the detailed syntactic analysis in "Practise your syntax 1" to
understand the colour codes and terminology used here
• please read this analysis and diagnosis and then, if necessary, re-write your
translation before looking at the student's translation
Syntactic analysis
Main clauses highlighted
Charles sei in der U-Bahnstation nur deshalb gerannt, „weil er nicht zu spät zur
Arbeit kommen wollte”, versicherte im Interview mit der Zeitung „Folha de Sao
Paulo” die 21 Jahre alte Cousine Vivian Menezes, die mit Jean Charles und
anderen Familienangehörigen sich eine Wohnung in London teilte.
Two main clauses linked by the function of reporting speech.
Relative clauses highlighted
Charles sei in der U-Bahnstation [place] nur deshalb [reason] gerannt, „weil er
nicht zu spät zur Arbeit kommen wollte” [clause of reason], versicherte im
Interview mit der Zeitung „Folha de Sao Paulo” [place] die 21 Jahre alte
Cousine Vivian Menezes, die mit Jean Charles und anderen
Familienangehörigen sich eine Wohnung in London teilte.
Relative clauses isolated and typified
1)
die mit JC ... sich eine Wohnung teilt - relates to Vivian M, non-identifying
Adverbials highlighted
Charles sei in der U-Bahnstation nur deshalb gerannt, „weil er nicht zu spät zur
Arbeit kommen wollte” [clause of reason], versicherte im Interview mit der
Zeitung „Folha de Sao Paulo” [place] die 21 Jahre alte Cousine Vivian Menezes,
die mit Jean Charles und anderen Familienangehörigen [manner/circumstance]
sich eine Wohnung in London [place] teilte.
Adverbials isolated and typified
1. in der U-Bahnstation, place:
relates to gerannt
2. nur, focus:
relates to gerannt
3. deshalb weil er....wollte, reason:
relates to gerannt
4. zu spät, time:
relates to kommen wollte
5. im Interview mit..., place
relates to versicherte
6. mit JC und anderen..., manner
relates to teilte
7. in London, place
relates to teilte
Note that 3 is a complete clause of reason and is separate from the first main
clause (no problem); the word deshalb is actually superfluous from a semantic
point of view (it is a part of - and focuses on - the upcoming clause of reason)
and can't be translated into English in this function. This means that each verb
has no more than two adverbials attached to it, and they are all short except for 5
and 6.
Edward Martin, Institut für Anglistik, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz
[email protected]
©2005
Diagnosis and assessment
One main clause with two short adverbials (no problem) followed by an
adverbial clause of reason (no problem), followed by another main clause
interrupted by a long adverbial of place (could be tricky) and a relative clause
(no problem) which is interrupted by two adverbials (requires some thought).
Edward Martin, Institut für Anglistik, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz
[email protected]
©2005
Student's translation
21-year old cousin Vivian Menerez, who shared an appartment in London with
Jean Charles and other family members, affirmed in an interview for the
newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo that Charles had only run in the underground
station “because he didn’t want to be late for work”.
T-man's emendations and comments
English translation:
21-year old (a three-part adjective - two hyphens!) cousin Vivian Menerez, who
shared an appartment (spelling) in London with Jean Charles and other family
members, affirmed in an interview for the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo (good
syntax) that Charles had only run been running (focus on the activity) in the
underground station “because he didn’t want to be late for work”. (good syntax)
It's a good solution to put the reporting part of the sentence first.
Problems I had in translating:
Here again, I had problems to translate the sentence without changing the
meaning and to make sure the main sentence clause is kept intact.
You did a good job of the syntax!
Edward Martin, Institut für Anglistik, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz
[email protected]
©2005
His 21-year-old cousin Vivian Menerez, who shared a flat in London with Jean
Charles and other family members, affirmed in an interview with the Folha de
Sao Paulo newspaper that Charles had only been running in the tube station
“because he didn’t want to be late for work”.
(48 words)