Handledare: Magnus Levin EN4304Examinator: Hans Lindquist 15 hp

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Birgitta Wernbro-Augustsson

Institutionen för humaniora

Translating “Clarity, Style and Precision”

The Economist 's Language from the Translator's Point of View

2009-06-03

Avancerad nivåEngelska

Abstract The following essay is an analysis of the translation process from English into Swedish of

four articles about the oceans of the world, printed in The Economist in December 2008. This

publication claims to be using a language characterised by “clarity, style and precision”,

wherefore these concepts provide the focus for the analysis. “Clarity” was looked at in terms

of metaphors, “style” in terms of quotes and allusions present in headlines, leads and

subheadings and “precision” was studied in terms of hedging.

Metaphor is employed as a clarifying device in scientific discourse. The 36

occurring metaphors were classified as either ‘dead’, ‘cliché’, ‘stock’ or ‘original’. Dead

metaphors, 50% of all, turned out to be highly effective in scientific discourse and therefore

the term ‘fixed metaphors’ would be preferred. The original metaphors used give evidence to

the writer’s literary ambitions. The translation strategy applied was in most cases literal

translation.

The publication makes frequent use of quotes, allusions and aestheticizing

devices in headlines, leads and subheadings. The origins of those stylistic elements are not

always transparent and had to be identified. In case of existing recognized translations those

were kept; when not available, original translations were attempted. Adopting the house-style

by taking balance, metre, rhyme and alliteration into consideration during the translation

process was time-consuming, indicating that a fully translated edition on a weekly basis is not

feasible. Literal translation was rarely possible, instead equivalence was aimed at.

Hedging is a means for increased precision in scientific discourse. The main

reason for using epistemic hedging with a proposition is face-saving, i.e. the writer avoids

responsibility for the truth value of the proposition. 62% of the sentences were found to

include at least one hedged instance. The instances of hedging of numerical data and

quantifiers were almost equal to the number of hedges referring to the writer’s personal

stance. Literal translation was adequate for the translation process.

Keywords: translation strategies, scientific discourse, metaphors, stylistic devices, hedging

Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Aim and scope................................................................................................... 3 1.2. Material and method........................................................................................ 3 2. Theoretical background......................................................................................................... 5 2.1. Metaphor and clarity – theoretical framework ............................................. 7 2.2. Quotes, allusions and aestheticizing elements as stylistic devices – theoretical framework................................................................................................................ 10 2.3. Hedging for precision – theoretical framework............................................. 11 3. Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 14 3.1. Metaphor and clarity ....................................................................................... 14 3.1.1. Dead metaphors .................................................................................. 15 3.1.2. Cliché metaphors ................................................................................. 16 3.1.3. Stock metaphors................................................................................... 16 3.1.4. Original metaphors.............................................................................. 17 3.2. Quotes, allusions and aestheticizing devices defining style........................... 18 3.2.1. Headlines............................................................................................... 18 3.2.2. Leads ..................................................................................................... 19 3.2.3. Introductory poems ............................................................................. 20 3.2.4. Subheadings.......................................................................................... 21 3.3. Hedging for precision....................................................................................... 22 3.3.1. Types and frequency............................................................................ 22 3.3.2. The translation of hedges .................................................................... 24 4. Conclusion………................................................................................................................... 27 5. References….. ......................................................................................................................... 29

Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

1. Introduction The Economist is an international news and business publication with a weekly circulation of

1.3 million copies worldwide in 2008. Since its foundation in 1843 by a Scottish hat

manufacturer in order to serve the purpose of free trade it has developed into “one of the

world’s most authoritative and influential publications” (www.economistgroup.com/what_

we_do/), in 1996 extended by an on-line version. However, today the name of the publication

is somewhat misleading since besides reports on financial issues its targeted highly educated

readership can also engage in commentaries and in depth analyses on science, technology,

culture, society and the arts. The non-negotiable cornerstones of this in quality newspapers

frequently quoted periodical are editorial independence, a respect for facts, all articles being

anonymously written and a commitment to ensure topicality. Despite being printed on glossy

paper and on a weekly basis The Economist prefers being called a newspaper, justifying this

by the facts that “it covers news as well as opinion and works to a newspaper deadline” (ibid.)

each Thursday. The editorial philosophy has been summed up in the following mission

statement in which the publication aims at taking part in “a severe contest between

intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our

progress”, a statement that aligns naturally with Newmark’s view on translation, namely that

it “is not only the transmitter of culture, but also of the truth, a force for progress” (1988:7),

thus providing a first incentive to translate its texts for a wider audience.

The employed staff, currently a total of 75 journalists, three quarters of whom are

London-based, are subject to The Economist Style Guide which not only offers a set of rules

on punctuation and abbreviations, but also sheds light on the differences between American

and British English in terms of spelling, grammar and usage, where obviously the latter is

recommended. What is more important, to a large extent this guide book has been inspired by

George Orwell’s essay Politics and the English Language, published in 1946. In this work he

points out the importance of clarity in language, emphasizing the fact that only if “vagueness

and lumps of verbal refuse” is avoided can language be adequate enough to facilitate logical

thought and to convey abstract concepts. Examples of “verbal refuse” are pretentious diction

– referring to an exaggerated use of Latin and Greek words firm in the belief that they are

“grander than Saxon ones”−, meaningless or unnecessarily long words, and words wrongly,

or dishonestly, used.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson  Accordingly, on the inside cover of The Economist Style Guide the publication claims

to be famous for communicating with “clarity, style and precision”. Even though the reasons

for quoting the publication apparently are considered frequent and the fact that far from all its

readers are native English speakers The Economist has never been translated into any other

language, the odd article at the most (The Economist’s Customer Services and Mats

Bergstrand, DN). Supported by the principle that “everything without exception is

translatable” (Newmark 1988:6), the purpose of this study is to examine the translatability of

The Economist’s language, with special regard to “clarity, style and precision”.

The following examples will each illustrate the three fields of interest in this study:

(1) That means it may now be profitable to

exploit the manganese crusts and other minerals recently discovered. (p.6)

Det innebär att det nu kan bli lönsamt att exploatera manganskorpan och andra mineraler som nyligen har upptäckts.

(2) Troubled waters (p.1) Mörka vatten

(3) Or so it has long seemed. (p.1) Så har det i alla fall under lång tid sett ut.

The first example includes a ‘metaphor’, manganese crusts, which has been translated with

manganskorpan, by means of literal translation as described by Vinay and Darbelnet, quoted

in Munday (2008:57). Seeing as the singular form is to be preferred in Swedish a minor

modulation (ibid.) was also justified. The second example is a headline illustrating another

common stylistic feature in The Economist; ‘allusions’. Troubled waters to most readers is

likely to bear reference to Simon and Garfunkel’s famous song, however then in the singular,

“Bridge over Troubled Water”. The phrase originates from John Wyclif’s Bible translation

from the end of the 14th century: “The troblid flood that moistith Egipt”, which in the latest

English translation of the Bible (1995) has been altered into “dark waters” and in the Swedish

version mörka vatten, both from Psalm 18:11. This literal translation is now recognized in

Sweden, enforced by Åke Arenhill’s translation of the lyrics, and therefore ought to be kept.

The third example illustrates two cases of ‘hedging’, a scientific journalist’s way of

expressing his attitude to or commenting metadiscoursally on the text. The first hedge is

conjunctional and the second a verbal impersonal phrase, both of which were translated

literally.

The translation strategies applied will be analysed and commented on in section 3.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

1.1. Aim and scope

The aim of this essay is to analyse a translation of four articles from The Economist’s Special

Edition from December 2008. The following aspects will be examined:

• The translation of metaphors in view of “clarity”

• The translation of quotes, allusions and aestheticizing devices in view of “style”

• The translation of different types of hedging in view of “precision”

1.2. Material and method

In order to meet the demands of today’s informed society academic popular science is a

growing genre (Brand 2008:1), whose aim it is to inform the public about findings which are

technical in nature in a comprehensible and interesting way (Gunnarsson 1996:1), thereby

applying a register and style adapted to the readership. The study of discourse popularisation

has been described as the “meeting point between science and the general public” (Moirand

1997, cited in Brand 2008:25), or “a three-cornered circuit, including scientists, the general

public and mediators (e.g. journalists)” (ibid.). Since a specialised lexicon is considered an

obstacle in this process, labelled “gobbledegook” by Crystal (1997:382) when intentionally

overused − and beneficial when used for professional communication − scientific journalists

must find ways to clarify concepts unknown to the reader. Also, various means to keep the

reader’s interest may be employed, such as quotes, allusions and alliteration.

The texts selected for the translation are four articles, comprising a total of 7 335

words, from The Economist’s Special Edition focusing on the oceans of the world in view of

carbon dioxide emissions and global warming, issued in December 2008. The first text

describes how ocean living organisms have been affected, the second one discusses the

attraction exerted by the seabed minerals, the third article deals with the reasons for rising sea

levels and the fourth, finally, aims at explaining what remains to be gained from the seas,

mainly in terms of power. Since the topic is the main focus of the communication the text

type is evidently ‘informative’, using Reiss’ taxonomy (Munday 2001:72). However, as

Munday further points out, there is “a host of hybrid of types” (ibid.) and in the text material

selected for this survey there are strong features of an ‘expressive’ text type, considering the

vast amount of figurative language, quotes and allusions. Given that the articles ultimately

have the intended effect on the reader, i.e. that a knowledgeable reader might also take

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson measures against global warming, it can also be argued that the text type is ‘operative’. Such

wide-ranging texts naturally add to the complexity of the translation process.

Besides a thorough study of the four articles constituting the source text (ST) for the

translation a study of translation theories has been undertaken. The main works for this

purpose have been A Textbook of Translation by Peter Newmark and Introducing Translation

Studies by Jeremy Munday, the former a comprehensive and practical guide to the craft of

translation and the latter an overview of translation theory over time. Further useful literature

proved to be Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphor and

Thought compiled by Andrew Ortony, Den populärvetenskapliga texten by Gunnar Eriksson

and Lena Svensson, and Hedging in Scientific Research Articles by Ken Hyland. The use of

parallel texts has been essential in order to access terminology related to the subject area;

primarily Isabella Lövin’s Tyst hav, for example conveniently providing the Swedish word

rovdrift for the translation of slaughter in describing the cod depletion, but also a number of

websites have been consulted, two of them being those of the Swedish authorities

Naturvårdsverket and Livsmedelsverket.

Prior to the translation the three quoted keywords for this analysis “clarity, style and

precision” were defined, for which purpose Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English

was used and whose definitions are copied here. ‘Clarity’ is “the quality of being expressed

clearly, especially about a piece of writing, law or argument”. Undoubtedly, this must be a

crucial quality in science popularisation and the use of metaphors will illustrate a means to

achieve clarity. ‘Style’ is “a typical way of doing something, especially one that is typical of a

particular place, period of time or group of people”. In this study, characteristic features as the

use of quotes, allusions and various aestheticizing devices will be used to represent The

Economist’s style. ‘Precision’ is “the quality of being very exact or correct”. This is

necessarily a further essential feature in a publication that aims at delivering truths and facts

and will be discussed in view of hedging as a means to come to terms with scientific

circumstances. Alongside the translation process notes connected to the three concepts were

taken, notes on which the analysis following will be based.

During the translation process the aim has been to meet the demands of a Swedish

readership, equal to that originally targeted by The Economist, both in terms of scientific

knowledge, interest and commitment. Therefore, the intention was to avoid over-explicitness,

likewise explanatory footnotes have consistently been eschewed. On two particular occasions,

however, explanations of technical terms were strongly considered, namely in the translation

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson of manganese nodules and saline aquifiers. However, after studying a number of parallel texts

in the target language (TL) the decision was made to use direct translation solely (with minor

adaptations for syntactic reasons), mangannoduler and salina akvifärer, thus not running the

risk of underestimating the Swedish reader. For pragmatic reasons the chemical formula CO2

was translated with koldioxid, seeing as the explicit term is much preferred in Swedish science

popularisation.

It must be pointed out that it is advantageous that the two languages in question,

English and Swedish, forming the current ‘language pair’, are closely related in their common

Germanic origin. The fact that they have a similar syntactic structure, at large, and share a

lexicon that often includes parallel Germanic as well as Latin equivalents, facilitates both the

translation of scientific discourse and that of metaphors. To a large extent, literal translation is

hereby permitted. The translator’s awareness of this ‘situational factor’ is vital, also

emphasized by Ingo (2007:15).

The following analysis and the subsequent discussion based on the translation process

will hopefully be of interest to linguists, translation theorists − absolute beginners as well as

fully-fledged −, but also to anyone interested in the characteristic features of scientific

popularisation, such as deployed by a major publication.

2. Theoretical background The translator’s primary mission is to transfer a source language (SL) message into a target

language (TL) equivalent, thereby aiming at evoking the same thought processes, images,

emotions and ultimately responses as originally intended. Apparently, no two translators

would arrive at an identical translation of a given task, indicating that much of the translation

process is based on personal flair, creativity and ambition. Nevertheless, an increasing number

of translation theorists have identified translation strategies, some of which will be presented

below. Since language can be seen as a bag, pragmatically influenced on the outside, but

inside it holding a mixture of lexicon, grammar and syntax, all subject to fixed rules, these

same elements must also be taken into consideration during the translation process.

Nida favours two ‘types of equivalence’ (cited in Munday 2001:42): ‘formal

equivalence’ and ‘dynamic equivalence’. “Formal equivalence focuses attention on the

message itself, in both form and content” (ibid.) and allows the source text to exert a strong

conceptual power on the translation. Formal equivalence can be illustrated by an example

taken from the text material in this study:

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

(4) Warmer water and slimier slime (p.2) Varmare vatten och slammigare slam

Thus, in translating this subheading both form and content were taken into consideration. (The

important role of subheadings will be dealt with in section 2.2.) The intention was to keep

both the double alliteration and the rhythm, with the exception of the two comparative

adjectives, by necessity one syllable longer in Swedish. As regards content slemmigare slem

was considered, as was slemmigare slam, but since the correct noun for the phenomenon in

Swedish is slam, finally slammigare slam was decided upon as it implies a denser condition

of the same substance, just as “slimier slime” does.

Dynamic equivalence, on the other hand, is based on “the principle of equivalent

effect” (ibid.) in which adaptation to the needs and expectations of the target language users is

emphasized. This “receptor-oriented approach” is focused on ‘naturalness’, a pivotal concept

to Nida, implying “the closest natural equivalent to the source-language message”. From the

text material dynamic equivalence might be illustrated by the following sentence, including a

metaphor of the subspecies ‘metonomy’, where “the attribute of an entity is used in place of

the entity itself” (Crystal 1980:303):

(5) Old hands cast doubt on theories that huge

quantities of minerals lie below the seabed. (p.8)

Gamla rävar tvivlar på antaganden om att enorma mängder mineraler ligger under havsbotten.

This is a typical example where the interests of the target language must not only affect, but

even determine, the translation. Gamla händer, i.e. literal translation, would be altogether

incomprehensible to the target reader, at least unnecessarily far-fetched.

Furthermore, the “translation-speak” provided by Vinay and Darbelnet (presented in

Munday 2001:56ff.) as early as in 1958, has constituted a reliable framework for this study. In

brief, their seven-fold model is divided in two major parts: ‘direct translation’ and ‘oblique

translation’. Direct translation contains three sub-levels; 1) ‘borrowing’, meaning that a word

is transferred from the source language into the target language without any alteration at all,

e.g. cap-and-trade system and off-shore, 2) ‘calque’, a borrowing by which an expression is

transferred into the target language by means of literal translation, e.g. rainforest which was

borrowed as regnskog and pre-industrial as förindustriell, 3) ‘literal translation’, which is

‘word-for-word’ translation and the “most common strategy between languages of the same

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson family and culture” (ibid.), by far the translation strategy used most in this study. Oblique

translation is intended for situations when literal translation is not possible and offers another

four procedures; 4) ‘transposition’, “changing one part of speech into another without

changing the sense”, see (18) below, 5) ‘modulation’, implying that the translator finds it

necessary to change “the semantics and point of view” of the source text and a technique

considered the “touchstone” for a good translation. Modulation is the strategy resorted to

when neither literal translation nor transposition has rendered a satisfactory result in terms of

grammar and idiomatic language and (17) below will illustrate this. 6) ‘Equivalence’ is the

strategy suitable for translating idioms and proverbs in that it aims at describing “the same

situation by different stylistic or structural means”, see (5) above. Finally, 7) the ‘adaptation’

strategy is used to replace a phenomenon non-existent in the target language culture by one

that is pragmatically valid and recognized, best illustrated in (23).

Newmark is evidently right in claiming that all translation theory basically consists of

“a large number of generalizations of translation problems” and that there are “no cast-iron

rules” (1998:21). However, he believes, just like Vinay and Darbelnet, that literal translation

is “correct and must not be avoided, if it secures referential and pragmatic equivalence to the

original” (1998:69). Though, usually adequate for one-word metaphors, literal translation has

obvious limitations above word-level, let alone for poetic language.

2.1. Metaphor and clarity – theoretical framework

The intriguing field of metaphor has stimulated a host of linguists attempting to define their

metaphorical nature and function in various text types, categorizing them accordingly. The

following samples of this theoretical framework have all been useful in this study, most of

which will be referred to in the analysis.

Traditionally, there have been two main approaches to the study of metaphor (Ortony

1993:2): ‘non-constructivist’ and ‘constructivist’. The former approach refers to metaphor as

a pure phenomenon of language, where it is “considered to be a trope, an example of non-

literal language and is defined in terms of violations of linguistic rules” (Skorcynska

(2001:43). The constructivist approach, on the other hand, “eliminates the distinction between

the literal and non-literal, and views metaphor as instrumental in constructing reality” (ibid.),

and thereby making it the starting point of this study. Also Lakoff & Johnson share the view

that metaphor is much more than decorative language, they claim that metaphor “is pervasive

in everyday life” (Lakoff & Johnson 1980:3), that even “our ordinary conceptual system… is

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson metaphorical in nature“ (ibid.). Another thinker believing in the absolute “ubiquity of

metaphor” is Black (1993:21), emphasizing the “cognitive aspects” and the explanatory

power of metaphors to tell us “how things are”, be they ordinary objects or scientific

concepts.

Thus, with few exceptions, metaphors will not primarily be regarded as a stylistic

device in this study, but as a vital means to clarify unknown concepts to the readers of popular

scientific discourse, providing access to complex scientific subject areas. This clarification

strategy is essential to a readership like that of The Economist, for the reason that few of the

readers are likely to experience phenomena like ice sheets, kelp forests or manganese crusts

themselves. (It is therefore not surprising that both Newmark (1998:104 and 112) and

Skorcynska (2001:53) have quoted The Economist in order to illustrate the nature and purpose

of metaphors.) The use of metaphors efficiently makes these concepts transparent and

fathomable.

The terminology for the two parts of which a metaphor consists, ‘the object and the

image’ (Newmark 1998:104), offers a number of options: ‘topic and vehicle’ (Steen, cited in

Skorcynska 2001:45), ‘the primary subject and the secondary subject’, but previously ‘the

principal subject and the subsidiary subject’ (Black 1993:27), ‘the concrete and the abstract’

(Eriksson & Svensson 1979:6), among others. Henceforth, in this study ‘object and image’ are

preferred.

Furthermore, Skorcynska distinguishes metaphors as being either ‘implicit’ or

‘explicit’ (2001:45). An explicit metaphor is made clear to the reader through its immediate

context, whereas an implicit metaphor must be deciphered with reference to information

previously or later received, perhaps the reader must even turn to his own knowledge or

experience in order to fully comprehend the metaphor. Also, depending on the part of speech

of the core of the image she defines them as being either ‘nominal’ or ‘verbal’.

Most importantly, Newmark’s metaphor taxonomy (1998:106ff.) will be applied,

since it adequately covers the variety of metaphors occurring in the text material:

‘Dead metaphors’, such as

(6) food chain (p.17) näringskedja

are metaphors that have a defining and clarifying function and are frequent in scientific text

types. According to Ingo this kind of semantic metaphor is often lexicalized and will therefore

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson often be included in dictionaries (2007:119), whereas Black is of the opinion that “a so-called

dead metaphor is not a metaphor at all, but merely an expression that no longer has a pregnant

use” (1993:25). This view is contrary to the assumption underlying this study (and strikingly

remote from Black’s own view previously just cited) and will be discussed in the analysis.

‘Cliché metaphors’ are metaphors “that have perhaps temporarily outlived their

usefulness, that are used as a substitute for clear thought, often emotively, but without

corresponding to the facts of the matter” (ibid.), for which an illustrative example must be:

(7) technology has advanced (p.6) tekniken har gått framåt

‘Stock or standard metaphors’ are not easily distinguished from cliché metaphors and

are a type of “established metaphor which in an informal context is an efficient and concise

method of covering a physical and/or mental situation both referentially and pragmatically – a

stock metaphor has a certain emotional warmth – and which is not deadened by overuse”

(ibid.). This long definition fits the following example from a subheading in the text material:

(8) Scramble for the seabed (p.5) Kapplöpningen om havsbotten

where the source language scramble by necessity was replaced by the Swedish equivalent

kapplöpningen, since in both languages these nouns have connotations with the colonization

of Africa at the end of the 19th century.

‘Original metaphors’ are either created or quoted by the source language writer and,

being used with such afterthought, are likely to be paramount in their context, and therefore

also an enrichment for the target language. The example below will illustrate this:

(9) Coral reefs, whose profusion of life and

diversity of ecosystems make them the rainforests of the sea, … (p.2)

Korallreven, vars överflöd på liv och mångfald av ekosystem gör dem till havets regnskogar, …

Obviously, no taxonomy of metaphors can be crystal clear since factors such as culture,

convention, language inherent connotations and even the language user’s own ability to

recognize images all synergize in the perception of them. Nevertheless, the four categories

introduced above proved adequate for the purpose of this essay and will be further discussed

in section 3.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson  The ubiquitous quality of metaphors is apparent also in the second area of study,

seeing as The Economist makes frequent use of them in headlines and subheadings.

2.2. Quotes, allusions and aestheticizing elements as stylistic devices – theoretical

framework

According to Brand the textual structure of an article is divided into two parts: summary and

story (2008:41). “The summary includes the headline and the lead. They have an immediate

eye-catching and hence attention-getting function and are designed to be distinct from the rest

of the text.” Besides, in popular scientific discourse headlines, introductions and subheadings

help make the text more accessible, they increase the reader’s curiosity, may carry features of

moral and allow time for reflection (Gunnarsson 1996:86). In this text type the delaying

function is of major importance (Eriksson & Svensson 1979:4), as the reader not fully in

command of the subject field would have difficulties following a text too rich in facts. The

delay might also have a relaxing or emphasizing effect.

Aestheticizing devices creating rhythm, balance and sound-effects, e.g. alliteration,

are employed in order to provide the desired ambience. Also, the use of fiction and quotes can

affect the reader in a positive way without ruining the main purpose of delivering facts.

Furthermore, the phenomenon of word-play is increasingly observed both in daily newspapers

and periodicals, most likely encouraged and enhanced by “netspeak” and texting, means of

communication limited by time and space. This emotional charge that can be acquired in a

variety of ways is vital for the perception of the message.

Partington correctly points out that “much of what is seen as creative use of language

is not invented ‘out of the blue’, but is an imaginative reworking of the usual” (1998:121,

author’s italics) labelling the phenomenon “unusuality”. However, this does not depreciate

either the writer’s imaginative ability or the effect on the reader. The concept of adapting or

borrowing ideas in order to produce a new “original” must be considered very common and

one of the oldest of all within the art of writing. In a survey of headlines in The Independent

Partington has found the occurrences of such “preconstructed word strings” to be most

frequent in the arts pages, followed by the sports pages, whereas the news pages displayed the

least (ibid.).

To a large extent, the second area of study has been characterized by Newmark’s

advice: “If you translate for a publication, you adopt its house-style” (1998:159). Much of The

Economist’s style lies within the choice of headlines, leads, introductory quotes or poems and

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson subheadings. In section 3.2., two of each of the constituents mentioned will be analysed in

terms of style and translation strategies.

2.3. Hedging for precision – theoretical framework

Scientific discourse is traditionally expected to be characterized by precision and rational

statements, for the reason that the human brain has an urge to understand how things really

are and function, an urge for the truth, to put it simply. An inherent problem for the scientific

writer, however, is the fact that few phenomena or findings are indisputable facts. Due to

“preliminary results, uncertain predictions, small samples or imperfect techniques” (Hyland

1998:54) items more often than not therefore suggest, indicate or seem, rather than prove. The

technique by which scientific writers convey their attitude or ‘stance’ (Biber et al. 1999:557)

to such propositions is metaphorically labelled ‘hedging’.

Since Lakoff in 1972 first defined the concept of hedges as “words whose job it is to

make things more or less fuzzy” (Hyland 1998:1), limiting the concept to include phrases like

kind of and sort of, the term has been widened and modified by such a large number of

linguists that Markkanen & Schröder even speak about “a state of definitional chaos”

(1997:15). (Lakoff’s definition has been adopted by the grammarians Biber et al. 1999.)

Originating in logic and semantics hedging now “extends to areas like metacommunication

and to communication strategies like mitigation and politeness” (ibid.). The crucial definition

issue appears to be how hedging relates to modality, and which is the wider concept. This

study will adopt the view that both areas “are treated as overlapping domains of language use,

with neither covering the other completely” (Mauranen 1997:115), supported also by

Markkanen & Schröder claiming that the “connection is very clear in the case of modal verbs

with epistemic meanings” (ibid:7). ‘Epistemic logic’, according to Crystal, is “concerned with

the logical structure of statements which assert or imply that propositions are known or

believed” (2008:171).

There is a peculiar paradox in the role of hedging, depending on the type of discourse

in which it is being used. In plain conversational discourse vague language or hedges such as

kind of and sort of may be significant for an unassertive and indecisive character, whereas in

scientific discourse epistemic adverbs such as about and most have the opposite effect. In

truth, hedges may thus “serve to strengthen the argument” “by weakening the claim” (Meyer

1997:21). Obviously, the conclusion cannot be the more hedges, the stronger the argument,

since the above is only valid up to a certain – but vague − point.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson  Not only is the effect of hedging context-dependent, the individual hedge as such is

never an isolated phenomenon; its meaning is always linked to the immediate co-text. Three

sentences from the selected material will illustrate this:

(10) Here can be found sulphur-eating bacteria… (p.7)

Här finns svavelätande bakterier…

(11) …shrimps…that can mend their DNA… (p.7)

…räkor…som är kapabla att laga sitt DNA…

The modal auxiliary can in (10) and (11) indicates a factual statement of ability and are

therefore not classified as hedges. However, in the next example could has an epistemic

function and is therefore regarded as a hedge since it expresses possibility:

(12) Various measures could reduce this pollution. (p.16)

Ett antal åtgärder skulle kunna minska denna nedsmutsning.

Thus, hedges tend to be textual phenomena and therefore it is not possible to establish lists of

these elusive elements of language.

Hedges can be separated in two major types, both of which have been included in this

study: “those that affect the truth-conditions of propositions, ‘approximators’, and ‘shields’,

which do not affect the truth-conditions but reflect the degree of the speaker’s commitment to

the truth-value of the whole proposition” (Markkanen & Schröder 1997:5). Examples (13) and

(14) will illustrate this respectively:

(13) About a third of this CO2 is taken up by the sea… (p.3)

Ungefär en tredjedel av denna koldioxid tas upp av havet…

(14) Even George Bush junior eventually came round to it… (p.6)

Till slut ändrade sig till och med George W. Bush…

There are several reasons why hedging is frequently used in scientific discourse, the

most obvious being that the writer simply lacks knowledge and needs a protective “face-

saving device ” (Meyer 1997:23), in order to prevent future accusations of having been

wrong. Accordingly, hedging also brings the writer “closer to the truth” (ibid:39). However,

this use of hedges also allows the writer to modify his “responsibility for the truth value of the

propositions expressed” (ibid:5) and even manipulate the text by confusing the reader as to

who has claimed what. Furthermore, being deferentially tinged hedging is a strategy to

express politeness to the reader, following conventional discourse rules. Hence, hedging is a

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson rhetorical device, effecting both ‘ethos’ − “emphasising the reliability of the writer” − and

‘pathos’ – “moving the reader emotionally” − (Markkanen & Schröder 1997:9).

This rhetoric of science writers use for “two principal orientations: towards the

content of their propositions and, to their readers” (Hyland 1998:253). Reasons, orientations,

types and context thus synergistically determine each hedge. This study will focus on lexical

and strategic hedges with an epistemic function, “concerned with a writer’s standpoint,

judging the truth of statements in terms of possibility, probability or certainty” (Hyland

1998:44) in the four texts from The Economist. Lexical hedges will be categorized as:

‘epistemic modal auxiliaries’, ‘epistemic lexical verbs’, ‘epistemic adjectives’, ‘epistemic

adverbs’, ‘epistemic nouns’, ‘epistemic prepositions’ and ‘epistemic hedging of numerical

data’ (including quantifiers). The strategic non-lexical hedges referring to limited knowledge

have also been included. However, expressions such as indeed and there is no doubt claim

propositions to be true, and have therefore not been regarded as hedges.

Hedges will also be examined from a translator’s point of view, with particular regard

to Markkanen and Schröder’s warning that in order to adequately translate hedges the

translator must “know the intentions of the original writer, i.e. how assertive or tentative s/he

intended to be” (Markkanen & Schröder 1997:14). No doubt, this is an aggravating factor for

the translation process, besides the fact that “rules of appropriateness vary across cultures”

(ibid:13).

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

3 Analysis In this section the results for the three fields of study will be presented and alongside

comments on the translation strategies applied will be made.

3.1. Metaphor and clarity

Metaphors of all four categories as defined in section 2.1. occurred in the selected articles

from The Economist on word, phrase and sentence level, i.e. they were explicit and some of

the original metaphors were found to be implicit. The frequency and ratio of a total of 36

metaphors were as follows (there were 33 different metaphors, but three dead metaphors were

used twice):

Table 1. Distribution of metaphors in numbers and percent

Dead metaphors Cliché metaphors Stock metaphors Original metaphors

18 7 5 6

50% 19% 14% 17%

From this overview can be concluded that dead metaphors, making up 50% of the in all 36

items, have been considered vivid and lucid enough to play an important and clarifying role in

popular scientific discourse. On the other hand, the in this context relatively high number of

original metaphors, 17%, indicates a journalistic ambition to be creative and inventive. A

further justified step would be to add the number of stock metaphors and that of original

metaphors which then would display a large proportion of metaphors with an emotive quality,

supporting the expressive feature − by extension also the operative feature − within the text

material. Three samples from each category will be examined in greater detail, whereby

examples already used in the study have been avoided.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 3.1.1. Dead metaphors

The following three metaphors may represent the major category – dead metaphors: (15)… on the slopes of continental shelves… (p.7)

…på kontinentalhyllornas sluttningar…

(16)… at the bottom of the food web. (p10) … längst ner i näringsväven.

(17)… deep beneath the ocean floor. (p.7) … djupt under oceanens botten.

By means of direct translation, more precisely literal translation, metaphors (15) and (16)

have been translated into the TL. For pragmatic reasons in (17) this was not possible, since

the literal translation oceangolvet would definitely conjure up the wrong picture to a Swedish

reader. Oceanens botten is simply the Swedish equivalent and it cannot be helped that a copy

of the image could not be transferred, a slight modulation was necessary. (In truth, the

suitability of the word floor might be questioned, having connotations to a flat surface and

polish. Is it perhaps possible that the metaphor was coined in the days of trodden earth

floors?) Just like (17), example number (15) makes use of the conceptual mapping of the

ocean as a home or house and the image of shelves makes perfect sense. The English word

web can mean either ‘nät’ or ‘väv’ in Swedish and only culture specific usage can determine

which is right. The dead metaphors are also nominal and explicit, i.e. they are understood

within the sentence, usually within their co-text. It can hardly be a coincidence that in this

study all dead metaphors were nominal, and therefore also more concrete than the other

categories. Surely it is nearer at hand to apply the term ‘dead’ to the body of a noun, than to a

verb. However, it is beyond the scope of this study to pursue this hypothesis.

A further observation of the dead metaphors is their common Germanic origin, which

again emphasizes their intrinsic power to efficiently explain scientific phenomena since their

meaning will be deeply rooted in the reader familiar with a Germanic language.

Taking the above into account, it cannot be argued that this type of metaphor is no

metaphor at all (Black 1993:25), or that they “have no pregnant use”. On the contrary, they

avoid ambiguity and serve an immediate purpose of clarification. However, a change in

terminology is hereby suggested – ‘fixed metaphor’ would be more adequate – saving

linguists the trouble of dealing with the complex task of issuing death certificates to

metaphors.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

3.1.2. Cliché metaphors

In order to represent the cliché metaphors the three samples below were selected: (18) Investment in deep-sea mineral extraction came to a halt. (p.6)

Investeringarna i mineralutvinning i djuphaven gjorde halt.

(19) … a series of happenings is set in motion. (p.4)

… en rad händelser har satts i gång.

(20) In all, about 15m square kilometers are at stake. (p.5)

Totalt står ungefär 15 miljoner km2 på spel.

Examples (18) to (20) are verbal metaphors, just like (7) above, seemingly typical of cliché

metaphors. Even though the examples above all include a noun, the conceptual focus is on the

verbal part, thus the verbal ‘image’ turns the ‘object’ into an action, viz. ‘stop’, ‘initiate’ and

‘risk’ respectively. In the ST a post-modifying prepositional phrase follows the verb, in (19)

and (20) also transferred into the TT. In (18), for pragmatic reasons, a minor transposition

was necessary in the translation process in that a phrasal verb was used to replace the

prepositional phrase. The cliché metaphors were explicit, on phrase level, and it must be

agreed, act as “a substitute for clear thought”. Just like the dead/fixed metaphors the cliché

metaphors are likely to be found in dictionaries.

3.1.3. Stock metaphors

Another three examples will illustrate the stock metaphors: (21) … far removed from the scene of the event. (p.18)

…på långt avstånd från platsen för skådespelet

(22) … the Arctic Ocean was used …as the resting-place for 18 unwanted nuclear reactors… (p.15)

…användes den Arktiska oceanen…som vilorum för 18 icke längre önskvärda kärnkraftsreaktorer...

(23) …the plankton through photosynthesis would descend to Davy Jones’s locker… (p.18)

…planktonen genom fotosyntesen stiga ned till sjömännens grav…

The sampled stock metaphors are frequent − they are in stock – and certainly have a touch of

“emotional warmth” (Newmark 1998:108), whereas their clarifying function seems to be less

emphasized. It is not surprising that (22) and (23) are euphemisms for ‘grave’, seeing as this

is a “life domain” which is rather not mentioned in so many words, and the number of

metaphors in this field is abundant. The current language pair facilitated literal translation in

both (21) and (22), whereas (23) required equivalence. Few TL readers will know the

reference of Davy Jones’s locker – a euphemism for the ocean as the resting place of drowned

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson mariners (www.phrases.org.uk) − for which a close TL equivalent is en sjömansgrav, but in

order to fit into the wider, general context this had to be slightly altered and the plural was

used. (Davy Jones is in nautical slang the spirit of the sea, the sailor’s devil, according to the

OED.) The stock metaphors were all nominal and explicit on word or phrase level.

3.1.4. Original metaphors

A final three metaphors will illustrate the fourth category, original metaphors: (24)…the waters angry or calm, the ocean itself is eternal. Its moods pass. Its tides keep to a rhythm. (p.1)

…vattnet ursinnigt eller lugnt; oceanen själv är evig. Dess humör växlar. Dess tidvatten behåller sin rytm.

(25) But the sea can be harnessed for energy, and to store carbon . (p.15)

Men havet kan tämjas för att leverera energi och för att lagra koldioxid.

(26) A vast amount of carbon is swilling about or sitting in the deep sea below 200 metres, where a biological pump pushes it round in such a way that any carbon atom entering ... The pump is driven by phytoplankton, the tiny… (p.9)

En enorm mängd koldioxid sköljs omkring eller ligger i djuphavet under 200 meters djup, där en biologisk pump driver runt det på ett sådant sätt, att varje kolatom som kommer… Pumpen drivs av växtplankton, de mycket små...

Example (24) occurred in the very first paragraph of the first article on the oceans and is of

paramount importance. The purpose of this metaphor, tinged with a literary style, is to set the

reader in the right mood, explaining that the oceans are immensely powerful and also have a

life of their own. The conceptual mapping is that of an animal − or a human being −,

providing the ocean with a range of moods, with a pulse and with a self. Lakoff & Johnson

rightly claim that this metaphorical ‘personification’ “allows us to comprehend a wide variety

of experiences with nonhuman entities in terms of human motivations, characteristics, and

activities” (1980:33). Also in (25) the same image is evoked. The ocean is here an animal – or

a slave − on which humans have put a harness in order to domesticate it and to gain as much

as possible from it. For the translation of (25) the TL utnyttjas was considered, but was

discarded as being too flat. Example (26) is more down-to-earth, but nevertheless original,

and it differs from the previous two in that it is obviously intended to clarify how the carbon

dioxide is circulated. (24), (25) and (26) are all on context level and implicit, i.e. the readers

must use their imagination or knowledge previously gained in order to comprehend the

metaphor. Literal translation was possible in all three metaphors.

It can be concluded, that at least 50% of the metaphors used in the text material

primarily have a clarifying function and in the name of this explanatory ability should not be

called “dead”, but “fixed”. Another 19%, the cliché metaphors, can also be argued to

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson contribute to the understanding of the scientific discourse in view of their verbal

reformulation technique. Of the remaining 31%, the original metaphors mostly display a

fictional function whereas the stock metaphors seemingly carry a combined task.

3.2. Quotes, allusions and aestheticizing devices defining style

In order to explain to its readership the fact that there is something rotten in the state of our

oceans The Economist in headlines, leads and subheadings has made use of a number of

stylistic devices such as quotes and allusions. The examples below will illustrate this and the

attempts to adopt the “house-style” in the translation process.

3.2.1. Headlines

The headlines are short, eye-catching and include both sound-effects and balance. (27) The curse of carbon (p.9) Förkolnad förbannelse

(28) More abused than used (p.15) Mer utnyttjat än nyttjat

When translating (27) into the TL literal translation, kolets förbannelse, was out of the

question for several reasons. First, carbon in the given context is koldioxid in Swedish, and

besides, the alliteration would have been lost. In view of our burning of fossil fuels the choice

of förkolnad (without the traditional connotations of charcoal) is justified, and the repeated

prefix för- allows for keeping both alliteration and rhythm. The repetitive l-phoneme adds to

this effect. The SL original cur/car syllables of course show signs of alliteration, but with a

tinge of assonance. In the attempt to take both form and content into account the translation

strategy applied was formal equivalence, let alone in combination with obligatory

transposition, where for ‘the coal part’ in the TL a participle was used as an attributive

modifier, instead of the SL postmodifying of-phrase. On the other hand, in (28) literal

translation was conveniently used. The English prefix ab-, implying ‘to remove’ finds an

equivalent in the Swedish prefix ut-, with a similar meaning, and therefore both balance and

rhythm could be retained. As expected, a Google search proved that the pair abuse/use is not

rare in word-play.

3.2.2. Leads

The leads are longer than the headlines and have the primary aim to provide the reader with

the intended emotional setting. (29) obviously displays a feature of moral, encouraging the

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson readers to reflect on their origin and to recognize the importance of the oceans.

(29) All of us have in our veins the exact percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean… And when we go back to the sea… we are going back from whence we came. John F. Kennedy (p.1)

Blodet vi alla har i våra ådror har exakt samma salthalt som oceanerna har… När vi återvänder till havet... återvänder vi till vårt ursprung.

(30) The latest land-grab is under water and under way (p.5)

Nutida landerövringar – på botten på väg

The two selected examples are of two different kinds: a quotation of the US president John F.

Kennedy in 1962 from a speech given in connection with the America’s Cup Races (sailing),

and a witty lead that turned out a challenge translation-wise. In translating (29) an equivalent

effect was aimed at, recommended also by Newmark: “Authoritative statements, being

addressed to a readership rather than individual readers, if written in ‘public’ language should

produce equivalent effect” (1998:49). The quote is in this position given a somewhat more

serious charge, notwithstanding its original context. The word order had to be altered, the

singular form of the noun ocean was traded for the generic plural form in Swedish, go back

was translated with the more poetic återvända (compared with gå tillbaka), which also can be

considered a compensation for the modulation where the archaic adverbial whence was

translated with the prepositional object vårt ursprung.

Also in (30) literal translation was discarded as being inadequate. The SL under water

and under way is imaginative in its parallelism and ambiguity and the ambition was to

transfer this aesthetic and expressive combination. First, the dash was used to replace the

verbal function. No satisfactory solution including vatten/väg was found, and in the final på

botten på väg the alliteration has been sacrificed, however, the parallel prepositional phrases

and the ambiguous use of the preposition as both literal and figurative has been retained. The

conjunction och was considered in joining på botten och på väg but was decided dangerously

misleading and was therefore omitted.

The parallel expression “under water and under way” is also a typical example of the

frequent similar parallels in all four articles; “courage and adventure”, “fear and romance”,

“the landscape and the atmosphere” are a few more. The traditional magic number of three

has apparently been replaced by two, thus creating balance and conveying a sense of “all

inclusive”.

The translation strategy applied in both leads was mainly formal equivalence with a

strong influence of the SL in terms of both form and content.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

3.2.3. Introductory poems

As an extension of the lead two of the articles included an introductory poem, with the same

aesthetic and expressive function as the lead, but of course with a more fictional touch.

(31) Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean – roll! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; Man marks the Earth with ruin – his control Stops with the shore (p.5) Lord Byron

Upprulla, djupblå ocean, din prakt! Dig tiotusen flottor fåfängt rida. Folk ödelägga landen, deras magt Sin bölja lägger här. D.A. Kruhs

(32) Sad were my thoughts that anchor’d silently Of the dead waters of that passionless sea Unstirr’d by any touch of living breath: Silence hung over it, and drowsy Death, Like a gorged seabird, slept with folded wings On crowded carcasses – sad passive things (p.15) Thomas Hood

Sorgsna mina tankar, stilla för ankar I lama havets döda vatten Försmått av livets andedräkt: Tystnad rådde och döden dåsig Likt övermätt albatross, i sömn på vingen vikt På välbesökta kadaver – sorgliga, passiva ting. B. W-A

In 1882 D.A. Kruhs successfully – keeping the iambic pentameter − translated Lord Byron’s

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812−1818) into Swedish (31), and since this is a near

contemporary and recognized version there was no reason for a new attempt.

However, Thomas Hood’s poem The Sea of Death: A Fragment from 1827 has not

previously been translated into Swedish and the translation above (32) is mostly a result of

dynamic equivalence. In order to achieve naturalness alterations on the structural, semantic

and lexical levels have been performed, a few of which will be commented on here. As there

is no consistent metre in the ST there was no such requirement for the TT. The abandoned

rhymes breath/Death and wings/things can be said to have been compensated for through the

use of the in-line rhyme tankar/ankar and the alliteration of vingen vikt. The major goal,

however, was to enable the final three words – sorgliga, passiva ting – reference to: tankar,

havet, döden, albatross and kadaver, a goal that was reached. As this is the essence of the

poem the desired equivalence can be said to have been achieved.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 3.2.4. Subheadings

Each of the four articles included in the study contained at least two subheadings, all of which

were either imaginative (containing puns, word-play etc.) or allusions (i.e. no transparent

quotations) to world literature. Two of them will be analysed below.

(33) Inestimable stones, unvalu´d jewels (p.7) Otaliga juveler, ädla stenar

(34) Realms of ocean, fields of air (p.18) Makt över alla hav och himlens vindar

Both subheadings were without source reference and the lucky serendipity principle made it

possible to trace the origin of the allusions. (33) turned out to be a quote from Shakespeare’s

Richard III (approx. 1591), act 1:4. Allan Bergstrand translated the play into Swedish (1977),

for this passage using ädelstenar, pärlor och juveler. However, an older version by Carl

August Hagberg (1893), otaliga juveler, ädla stenar, is an equivalent much preferable in

terms of metre, balance and content and was therefore copied here.

Example (34) is a quote from Virgil’s last hexameter epic, the Aeneid, Book 1 (29−19

BCE). In Ingvar Björkeson’s translation (1988) the current line goes: makt över alla hav, den

fruktade treudden, erhöll jag genom lottning, ej han. Thus,”fields of air” was omitted in the

translation process. This is unfortunate since the “realms” covers both “oceans” and “fields of

air”, referring to the powerful winds, essential in times when ships were the most important

means of transport. Above all, the second part, fields of air, is paramount in this context since

the article focuses on wind power. Consequently, och himlens vindar was added, also yielding

balance to the passage and making Virgil speak Swedish, referring to Dryden’s preface to his

translation of the Aeneid (quoted in Munday 2001:35), where he writes: ”I have endeavoured

to make Virgil speak such English as he would himself have spoken, if he had been born in

England…” The translation strategy applied in both subheadings was formal equivalence,

since both form and content were taken into consideration.

The above examples give support to Newmark’s conclusion that “the greater the

quantity of a language’s resources (e.g. polysemy, word-play, sound-effect, metre, rhyme)

expended on a text, the more difficult it is likely to be to translate, and the more worthwhile”

(1998:17). The pieces interdepend and interact in the jigsaw puzzle of such language in the

ST already and transferring the intended response into the TL obviously requires the

translator’s awareness and commitment.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson  A word must be said on the advantages and disadvantages on the use of anonymous

subheadings as exemplified in (33) and (34). As previously stated, the intention is to allow the

reader time to think, to relax and above all to want to read on. Surely, the initiated reader will

smile in recognition, flattered and admiring the journalist’s literary skills. Partington has

defined this “smugness effect” (1998:140) by which the reader and the paper will gain mutual

respect and admiration for a cleverness they have in common, “a sense of collusion” is

created (ibid.). However, what if the allusion is never discovered? What if the reader, on the

contrary, is made to lose his focus and does not want to read on? There must be an obvious

risk that not only the non-native reader never discovers the origin of the allusion, and even

worse, that the reader much later finds out and most probably will feel patronized, perhaps

even ostracized, by the paper. A risk that The Economist apparently is willing to run.

3.3. Hedging for precision

All hedges have been identified, counted and categorized according to type and listed

according to frequency. The first section contains tables and comments on the findings. Then

follows a section on the translation procedures applied.

3.3.1. Types and frequency

In the study material a total of 233 lexical and strategic hedges were found. This might at first

seem very few out of a total of 7 335 words in the ST, more precisely 3.2%, however, it must

be remembered that each hedge affects a string of language and often a complete sentence.

205 sentences were hedged, implying that in some of them 28 hedges occurred in clusters of a

minimum of two hedges. The four texts comprise 332 sentences, which in fact means that

62% of all sentences contained at least one hedge. Evidently, hedging is a device frequently

used in scientific discourse.

Table 2 displays the different types of hedges according to the previously explained

classification:

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

Table 2. Distribution of hedges in numbers and percent

Lexical hedges N %

Epistemic modal auxiliaries 65 28

Epistemic lexical verbs 16 7

Epistemic adjectives 7 3

Epistemic adverbs 28 12

Epistemic nouns 5 2

Epistemic prepositions 1 0.4

Epistemic hedging of numerical data 101 43

Non-lexical hedges

Reference to limited knowledge 10 4

Total 233 100

By far the most frequent type of hedging, 43%, applied in the articles from The Economist is

obviously connected to numerical data and quantifiers; e.g. many of these creatures, several

effects on the sea, plenty of rubbish and most of the coral reefs. In other words, the journalist

is “saying no more than is warranted by available evidence” (Hyland 1998:1). It must be

beyond the individual journalist to know exactly how many of these creatures, how many

effects on the sea, how much rubbish and how many of the coral reefs are included in the

proposition, since not even scientists can be expected to have this information, especially not

in the case of an ongoing process. (The fact that they make up 43% of all hedging instances is

particularly interesting, since quantifiers were not originally meant to be included in the study,

having been considered far less important than other categories.) Modal auxiliaries as a group,

on the other hand, account for 28% of all hedges in the study, a result that could be expected.

Hyland claims that they “occur more often in informal speech and in personal writing than in

published texts” and further that “overall, scientific writing seems to contain a lower density

of epistemic modals and employs a more restricted range than academic writing generally”

(1998:108).

It is by no means possible to give a full coverage of all hedging instances (and their

context) in this study, but Table 3 nevertheless presents the most frequent lexical ones in each

category, numbers out of 233:

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

Table 3. Distribution of the most frequent epistemic hedges

Mod. aux. Lex. verbs Adjectives Adverbs Nouns Prep. Num. data

would 25 seem 6 vast 2 too many/

much 6

possibility 2 according to 1 some/of 25

may 23 suggest 2 huge 2 likely 3 evidence 2 most/of 14

could 8 tend 2 newish 1 chiefly 2 appearances

1

many/of 12

might 6 think 2 uncertain1 almost 2 about 10

should 4 consider 1 enormous 1 relatively 2 much/of 6

must 1 appear 1 perhaps 1 more/than 6

Since hedging is a means to express hypotheses it is hardly surprising that the modal auxiliary

would is the most frequent single item (together with some/of) in this study, nor that may,

expressing possibility, is third after would and some/of. It is worth mentioning, however, that

can was never used with a clear epistemic function. In all instances where can might have

been suitable, may was used instead. The lexical verbs are either judgemental or evidential,

used by the journalist to express an attitude to what is actually known, and it is important to

point out that think both times was used to quote: Most scientists think… Again, the striking

findings are those related to hedging of numerical data and quantifiers which writers use to

reach “an acceptable degree of imprecision to specify the accuracy with which information is

presented, often suggesting that imprecision is adequate for current purposes” (Hyland

1998:140).

The only 4% non-lexical hedges in the survey with reference to limited knowledge

were for example: no one quite knows and the big question is when. These reader-oriented

hedges enable the writer to reduce “the reader’s expectations of exactitude” (Hyland

1998:142) and differ from lexical hedges in that they depend on content rather than on

structure.

3.3.2. The translation of hedges

Was Markkanen and Schröder’s warning about the translation difficulties of hedging

justified? Was it necessary to make cultural adaptations, and, above all, was it important to

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson “know how tentative or assertive the original writer intended to be” (Markkanen & Schröder

1997:14)? Having translated the 233 hedges in the study material, with 205 sentences

affected, the answer to both questions above is rather ‘no’, than ‘yes’. With the single

exception of the modal auxiliaries all hedges in Table 3 have lexical equivalents in Swedish

and literal translation was the natural option for all of them. For example, the six instances of

seem were translated with either tyckas, verka or förefalla and suggest was translated with

peka på and antyda. The remaining categories, especially the quantifiers, offer few translation

alternatives, if any. They all seem to have their natural equivalents.

The translation of the epistemic modal auxiliaries was much facilitated by the

closeness in grammatical structure within the current language pair; however, a few

comments are justified. The 25 instances of would were 24 times translated with skulle, all of

them being part of more or less explicit conditional clauses. On one occasion, for pragmatic

reasons, the sentence was reformulated and the present tense of the main verb was used. May

occurred 23 times and all but two were translated with kan. The two exceptions were actually

translated with må, which is slightly more formal than kan, but were selected for stylistic

reasons. Example (35) will illustrate this:

(35) Such cautions may be wise, but they will

not stop the scramble. (p.8)

Sådana varningar må vara kloka, men de

stoppar inte jakten.

As was explained earlier, in (10) and (11), the modal auxiliary could (and can) was not easily

distinguished in terms of ability and possibility. Thus, the following example must be said to

provide a border-line instance:

(36) Humans could afford to treat the sea as an

infinite resource when they were relatively few

in number,… (p.4)

Vi kunde unna oss att betrakta havet som en

outsinlig resurs när vi var relativt få till

antalet,…

The implication of the proposition expressed is that the writer thinks it was possible for

humans to treat the sea as an infinite resource, and that they therefore also were able to do

this. After some consideration, this instance was included in the study, because it seems that

the phrase primarily expresses possibility. In six out of eight instances could was translated

with skulle kunna, (36) being one exception, and once the tense was altered and kan was used.

Might was the modal auxiliary varying most in the translation process. Out of the six

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson occurrences the translation was twice a construction with kanske, twice with kan and twice

with skulle kunna. Might seems to have an inherent flexibility within this language pair.

Should was used four times and three of those were translated with borde and once with

skulle, but with the same implication. The single must was translated with måste.

Thus, the distribution of the different types of hedging was a striking finding. The

hedges applied by the journalist to express a personal attitude or stance to propositions in the

text were 53% of all instances. The remaining 47% were either hedges with regard to

numerical data or quantifiers or strategic hedges with reference to a lack of knowledge. In all,

hedging was employed in order to achieve precision almost equally frequently for both

personal judgement and approximate data. Finally, translating the hedges into Swedish turned

out to be less complicated than expected.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson 

4. Conclusion

It has been the aim of this essay to analyse a translation into Swedish of four articles printed

in The Economist in December 2008. The texts focus on several aspects of the oceans of the

world in view of CO2 emissions. Since the publication claims to communicate with its

readership in a language characterized by “clarity, style and precision” these concepts were

made the departure for the essay and were looked at in terms of ‘metaphors’,

‘quotes/allusions/aestheticizing devices’ and ‘hedging’ respectively. Newmark provided two

main threads for the translation process; first and foremost, “…that everything without

exception is translatable…” (1988:6) and second, “If you translate for a publication, you

adopt its house-style.” (ibid:159). For the efforts to achieve naturalness in the target text and

an equivalent effect on the target reader the translation theories of mainly Nida, Vinay and

Darbelnet were applied.

To begin with, metaphors were looked upon as a clarifying device, rather than one of

many stylistic devices. A total of 36 metaphors were identified and classified as either dead,

cliché, stock or original. Lakoff’s view, that “human thought processes are largely

metaphorical” (1980:6) is supported already by the fact that 50% of the metaphors in this

scientific discourse were classified as dead metaphors, thus making obvious their usefulness

and ability to make facts explicit, to add to clarity. This, in turn, proves the inadequacy of the

term ‘dead metaphor’, since they seem highly valid and effective. Instead, ‘fixed metaphor’

would be a justified term. Furthermore, a consequence of Black’s limiting definition of

metaphors; “dead metaphors have no pregnant use” (1993:25), and considering the fact that

also cliché and stock metaphors are likely to be lexicalised, would be that only original

metaphors are true metaphors, and giving them a stamp of being disposable like paper coffee

mugs. Once used, used. This is of course a waste of imagination and useful language. Given

the closeness between English and Swedish, and the fact that the metaphors included lexemes

of Germanic origin, literal translation was possible in most cases.

The second characteristic feature of The Economist’s language examined in this essay

is the extensive use of quotes, poetry and allusions in headlines, leads and subheadings.

According to several linguists, (Brand 2008:42, Gunnarsson 1996:87, and Eriksson &

Svensson 1979:4) the functions of headlines and subheadings are to be eye-catching, to

provide the reader with an incentive to read on, to allow for a short break for reflection, and to

convey the right emotional state for the reading experience. Included in this style concept is

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson the journalist’s awareness of aestheticizing devices such as rhythm, alliteration and word-

play. However, allusions are printed without the slightest hint as to their origin and surely

some readers will be disconcerted by headlines and subheadings that simply do not make

sense. On the other hand, the knowledgeable reader is likely to feel pleased and flattered in

the recognition of such items which therefore gives evidence to the “smugness effect”

(Partington 1998:140). From a translator’s perspective this was the more challenging part of

the three areas studied. First, the allusions had to be identified, a task for which Google

provided an efficient tool. Translations that were considered recognized in the target language

were consistently kept, but in one case two parallel alternatives were at hand, one of which

was obviously more suitable regarding reference and metre than the other. Not all allusions,

quotes or poems had previously been translated into Swedish and striving for an equivalent

effect turned out to be a time-consuming challenge, especially when taking balance,

alliteration, metre, rhyme and ambiguous word-play into account. As expected, literal

translation could rarely be employed in the translation of these stylistic devices and the

experiences gained suggest that a translated edition of The Economist on a weekly basis is not

feasible. Translating world literature, even in minute quantities, requires more patience,

imagination, commitment – and therefore time – than would be reasonable to ask in the fast

moving world of newspapers.

The third area explored in this essay was the use of epistemic hedging for increased

precision in scientific discourse. No doubt, hedging is a justified rhetoric device in scientific

texts, mainly for the “face-saving” (Meyer 1997:3) purpose, in case the writer should later be

proved to have been wrong. In the study material 62% of the sentences included at least one

hedge. 43% of the hedges regarded numerical data or quantifiers, indicating instances where it

must be beyond the writer to know exact amounts or measures. Expressions such as some of

and most of were frequent. Hedges can also be used by the writer to display an attitude to the

truth of a proposition and 53% of all instances were related to this function. The remaining

4% of the hedges the journalist used with reference to limited knowledge. Hedging does bring

the writer closer to the truth, but it would be interesting to further examine to what extent this

is valid. There must be a point at which a text is too vague, where too many propositions are

hedged so that the text is of no interest at all to the reader. Surely, George Orwell, who

inspired The Economist’s guidelines, would have accepted the amount of “vagueness”

demonstrated in the study material. Hedges such as I’m afraid, and stuff and sort of Orwell

most likely would have classified as “verbal refuse” and did not occur at all. At least within

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson this language pair translating the hedges was not a major difficulty and literal translation was

convenient at most times. Also, the “rules of appropriateness” (Markkanen & Schröder

1997:14) are probably rather homogeneous within the world of science.

5. References Bergstrand, Allan. 1977. William Shakespeares dramatiska arbeten. Richard III. Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren. Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad & Edward Finegan. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow. Pearson Education Limited. Björkeson, Ingvar. 1988. Aeneiden. (Vergilius, Maro Publius. BC 29-19. Aeneis) Stockholm: Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur. Black, Max. 1993. More about metaphor. In Ortony (ed.) 19-41. Brand, Christiane. 2008. Lexical Processes in Scientific Discourse Popularisation. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag. Chanell, Joanna. 1994. Vague Language. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Crystal, David. 1997. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crystal, David. 2008. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Malden, Oxford and Victoria: Blackwell Publishing. Economist Style Guide. 2003. London: Profile Books Limited. Eriksson, Gunnar and Svensson, Lena. 1979. Den populärvetenskapliga texten. Funktion och struktur. Umeå Papers on Scientific Communication. Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise. 1996. Populärvetenskapens register – om texten, syftet och läsaren. Språk och stil. Stockholm: HLS förlag. Hagberg, Carl August. 1861. Shakspere’s Dramatiska Arbeten. Richard III. Bd 5. Lund: Gleerups förlag.

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Växjö universitet    Translation  Institutionen för humaniora                                                                                                                 Essay   EN4304 Birgitta Wernbro‐Augustsson Hyland, Ken. 1998. Hedging in Scientific Research Articles. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Ingo, Rune. 2007. Konsten att översätta. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Kruhs, D.A. 1882. Riddar Harolds vallfärd. (Byron, George Gordon. 1812−1818. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage). Stockholm: C.E. Fritze’s K. Hofbokhandel. Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English. 2003. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Markkanen, Raija and Schröder, Hartmut (eds.). 1997. Hedging and Discourse. Walter de Gruyter: Berlin and New York. Markkanen, Raija and Schröder, Hartmut. 1997. Hedging: A Challenge for Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis. In: Raija Markkanen and Hartmut Schröder (eds.) 3−18. Mauranen, Anna. 1997. Hedging in Language Revisers’ Hands. In: Raija Markkanen and Hartmut Schröder (eds.) 115−133. Meyer, G. Paul. 1997. Hedging Strategies in Written Academic Discourse: Strengthening the Argument by Weakening the Claim. In: Raija Markkanen and Hartmut Schröder (eds.) 21−41. Munday, Jeremy. 2001. Introducing Translation Studies. Oxon and New York: Routledge. Newmark, Peter. 1998. A Textbook of Translation. Harlow: Pearson Educational Limited. Ortony, Andrew (ed.). 1993. Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Orwell, George. 1946. Politics and the English Language. London: Horizon. Partington, Alan. 1998. Patterns and Meanings. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Skorcynska, Hanna. 2001. Metaphor in scientific business journals and business periodicals: an example of the scientific discourse popularisation. Madrid: Ibérica.

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Parallel text Lövin, Isabella. 2008. Tyst hav. Stockholm: Ordfront. Internet source Oxford English Dictionary – online. http://www.economistgroup.com/  

E-mail references "Economist.com Customer Services" customerservices@economist.com (19 February and 24

March, 2009)

mats.bergstrand@dn.se (6 April, 2009)