Functional grammar in EFL literary translation.

Abstract

Translation of literary texts in their first language offers students of English as a foreign language a unique opportunity to develop further their skills and style of written expression in English. The application of functional grammar to analyze a representative English translation text of an EFL learner can provide support for the rationale for this instructional approach by illustrating the range and complexity of language produced through the translation writing process.

Literary Translation in EFL Instruction

Translation of carefully selected passages from literature in their first language (L1) offers students of English as a foreign language (EFL) at college level a unique opportunity to explore the dimensions of both languages and to develop their skills and style of written expression in English in ways that are both different from and beyond the products of standard composition in the second language (L2). Duff (1989, 7) summarizes the value of translation in language learning as follows:

   Translation develops three qualities essential to all language
   learning: flexibility, accuracy, and clarity. It trains the learner
   to search (flexibility) for the most appropriate words (accuracy)
   to convey what is meant (clarity). This combination of freedom and
   constraint allows the students to contribute their own thoughts to
   a discussion which has a clear focus--the text.

The text for translation requires that "students consider various aspects of meaning they have extracted and rethink it in terms of the target language so that as little is added and as little is lost as possible" (Rivers & Temperley, 1978, 329). They need to think "from the meaning to the words and not the other way round" (Duff, 1981, 22) and let thought shape language, not language structure thought. Rivers and Temperley (1978, 337) describe the translation process in an EFL setting:

   The production of an acceptable translation into English is [for
   students] ... a means for developing sensitivity to the meanings
   expressed in a stretch of discourse in one's own language and to
   the different linguistic mechanisms used by the two languages to
   convey these meanings. Students learn to translate ideas, not
   words. This type of exercise is, therefore, an analytic activity.
   Through a comparative examination of the syntactic and semantic
   systems of English and the native language and the cultural
   contexts in which they operate, students attempt to expand their
   own potential for expression in the English language.

Meaning, indeed, is culture-specific and constructed with the schemata or background knowledge which one brings to the transaction with a text. Literary text in particular is inseparable from its social and cultural origins and the task of translation involves students first in an understanding of the L1 text with conscious application of the schemata from theft L1 background. In the process of translation of an L1 literary text, students deepen their understanding of its social and cultural background and reexamine its essence so that they can aptly communicate it in English. They are involved in a transaction with the L1 text in order to construct an equivalent written L2 (English) text that "reproduce[s] the greatest possible degree of meaning of the original [text]" (Newmark, 1988, 66).

Functional Grammar and Translation in EFL

Newmark (1988) notes that accuracy in a communicative translation is basically lexical, and thus students must engage in a mental struggle to choose the words for their translations. The grammar can be treated more flexibly, so they must undertake transpositions and shifts of structures and changes of word order over a wide range and depth to produce as fluent and as economical a translation as they can. Yet meaning is shaped by sentence structure as well. These language choices are determined by the needs of the target language as "language structures reality" (Duff, 1981, 111).

This point related to the process of translation also forms the basis for the systemic functional model of language developed by Halliday (1994). Functional grammar operates at the level of the whole text and emphasizes how language functions to construct meaning through choices made from the linguistic resources of the language system. The application of functional grammar to analyze an English translation text representative of the work of EFL learners can provide support for the rationale for including a literary translation approach to foreign language writing development (see Porcaro, 2001). It can illustrate in detail the range and complexity of language that learner-translators produce through the translation writing process they employ. The language extends well beyond that which low to high intermediate level EFL college students typically generate in texts produced directly for composition or other assigned forms of writing.

Indeed, the rationale for using L1 literature as texts for translation is precisely that it more suitably elicits the kind of language learning encounter that has been described above than essays or other materials. It also is more interesting and stimulating to students, and it gives them a genuine sense of purpose and achievement to render well a literary work by a renowned author.

For ten years I taught a Japanese-to-English literary translation course in Japan in college level EFL programs. All of the students were Japanese, mostly at low- to upper-intermediate levels of English language proficiency. The following section of this paper presents a representative translation text of an anonymous second-year university student from one of my classes. (The student's errors remain intact.) It is the delicate and challenging text of the short story Amagasa (Umbrella) by Yasunari Kawabata. The story, a brief impressionistic sketch, has been used very successfully as a literary text for translation in my courses over many years. A functional linguistic framework of analysis of this text will reveal the language learning value of literary translation in EFL instruction as outlined above.

EFL Student Translation Text: Umbrella

It was a spring rain, like a mist, which didn't get one wet, but somehow dampened the skin. The girl who rushed outside noticed the rain for the first time. "It's raining?"

The boy had opened his umbrella to cover his shyness as he passed in front of the shop where the girl was sitting rather than to protect himself from the rain.

But the boy held the umbrella over the girl in silence. She came under his umbrella in only her one shoulder. Though he was getting wet, he couldn't come closer to her and ask her to come in. While she wanted to hold the handle of the umbrella with him, she looked as if she was about to get away from his umbrella.

They went into a photo shop. His father, who was a government official, planned to transfer far away. This was a farewell photograph.

"Please sit side by side over there." The photographer pointed to a sofa, but the boy couldn't sit with her side by side. The boy stood behind the girl and his finger, which he put on the sofa, touched her haori lightly because he wanted to believe that their bodies were somewhere connected. It was the first time he touched her body. His finger felt her faint temperature and he felt a warmth as if he hugged her naked body. As long as he lived, whenever he looked at this photograph, he would remember her body temperature.

"May I take another photograph? Sitting side by side. I want to take the upper half of your bodies." The boy only nodded and whispered to her. "Your hair?" The girl looked up at the boy, blushed, and then ran to the makeup room gently like a child with her eyes shining with bright joy.

When she had seen him passing in front of the shop, she had rushed outside and had had no time to arrange her hair. She always was worried about her disheveled hair which looked as if she had just taken off a bathing cap. But she was a shy girl who couldn't do up her hair in front of a man. The boy also had thought that what he had told her to do up her hair would have embarrassed her.

The brightness which she went to the makeup room brightened him also. With this brightness, the boy and the girl sat close together on the sofa as a natural act.

As the boy was going out of the photo shop, he looked for his umbrella. As he looked casually, he noticed that the girl, who had gone out before him, had brought the umbrella and stood outside. She didn't realize that she had brought his umbrella and gone out until she was seen by him. And then she was surprised. With her casual behavior, might she have indicated that she felt that she was his?

The boy couldn't ask her to hold the umbrella. The girl also couldn't hand the umbrella to him. But it was a different way from which they had come to the photo shop. Suddenly they had become grown-ups, and they went back with a feeling like a married couple. That was caused only by a thing about an umbrella.

Functional Grammar Analysis and Commentary

Whenever we use language there is a context. The situational context of any particular language text can be characterized by three features, as summarized by Collerson (1994): the field of human activity which is involved, the tenor of the relationship between the people involved, and the mode of language use. "The meanings explicit in the text come directly from the context; they include the purposes of the text, who it's addressed to and who it's from" (p. 4).

The field of this short narrative may have to be described as uniquely Kawabata-esque. It is a simple plotless poetic vignette. The tenor is that of the author relating to his readers a story which reflects his literary sensibilities. The mode is that of crafted written language.

A schematic structure to the story is largely lacking. The atmosphere of a particular day is described, but there is no particular time or place in which the story occurs. The protagonists are introduced simply as 'the boy' and 'the girl' without any further background, except for a passing reference to the girl's father. There is no complication that arises and then is resolved. The narrative proceeds through a series of scenes--in front of the shop where the girl has been waiting for the boy, at the photographer's studio where they have pictures taken of themselves together, and setting out for home again--that can hardly be called events. Analysis of the language features of the text, however:

   reveals throughout delicate movements and feelings that gradually
   add up to a delightful and moving picture of first love awaking
   between two adolescents, not without sadness and a sense of the
   uncertain future. The youthful awkwardness of the boy and girl
   are perfectly conveyed, and the freshness and spontaneity of their
   emotions are disarming ... Kawabata is able to suggest in a very
   subtly understated way a delicate eroticism. (Kirkup & Fukuda,
   1983, 78)

Within a functional approach to English grammar, structural focus is on the clause wherein most of the meaning is organized. The clause is the structure that carries a message. "It allows us to bring several specific meanings together and show how they are related. It also allows us to show what part the message plays in interaction ... and how each message fits into the text and the context" (Collerson, 1994, 12). There are three main kinds of components of experience in the clause: participants, processes, and circumstances. Participants refer to the things in our experience; processes indicate what's going on, or the state of affairs; and circumstances describe features of the context in which the processes take place.

"We build up our picture of the world by putting these resources together in the structure of the clause. They function as component of the clause ... The crucial thing is the way the components are related to each other, through the process. This is called the transitivity relationship" (Collerson, 1994, 19). Thus, as Schleppegrell & Achugar (2003, 23) concisely state: "The key to understanding what a text is about is in the types of processes that each clause presents."

Transitivity Analysis

Even a limited analysis of the student translation text, Umbrella, referring just to the functional grammar category of processes, suggests the richness of the text that EFL college students are capable of producing in literary translation work. The Kawabata story unfolds through a full range of process types: relational, material, mental, behavioral, and verbal. The action verbs in the material processes render some movement by the boy or girl in almost every sentence. (The boy had opened his umbrella ...; the boy and girl sat close together ...) The behavioral processes reveal more subtly the relationship between the two of them. (The girl looked up at the boy, blushed ...) The sensing, feeling, wanting, and thinking verbs of the mental processes depict further the sensuality within the story. (It was the first time he touched her body.) The delicate verbal processes perform a similar function. (The boy only nodded and whispered to her.) The relational processes describe inner emotions as well as the surrounding soft atmosphere of the day. (Suddenly they had become grown-ups.)

The principal participants are specific concrete things (a spring rain, the girl, the boy, his umbrella, the sofa, his finger, her hair). Some participants are described in complex nominal groups (a warmth as if he hugged her naked body; the brightness which she went to the makeup room).

Circumstances are very important in narrative writing. They accompany process types "to 'contextualize' a story--to set it in time and place, to describe in detail how characters behave, to explain their motives, ... [to describe] the manner in which a process is performed ... and so on" (Christie, Martin, & Rothery, 1991, 85). The telling detail and suggestive quality of Umbrella are typical of the works of Kawabata and there is a plethora and variety of types of circumstances in the story to frame these aspects of the narrative. The translator needs to be particularly attentive to note these and careful to render them accurately in the translation. There is some variety in the grammatical structures that can express them. Manner: (It was a spring rain, like a mist, which didn't get one wet, but somehow dampened the skin; they went back with a feeling like a married couple.) Place: (She came under his umbrella; The boy stood behind the girl...) Purpose: (... to cover his shyness ... rather than to protect himself from the rain.) Time: (... the girl, who had gone out before him ...)

To conclude the transitivity analysis very briefly, regarding modality, the story is almost entirely in the declarative mood, except for four interrogatives, three of which are the only dialog in the story and they lead to further movement at each point (It's raining?; May I take another photograph?; Your hair?). The narrative interrogative near the end of the story reveals the girl's uncertain feelings about what she had done with the umbrella (With her casual behavior, might she have indicated that she felt that she was his?). Finally, the endophoric reference pronouns (he, she, they, his, her) pervade the text and serve as cohesive devices whose function is to bind the text together and establish its unity.

Conclusion

L1-to-L2 literary translation can be an important element of college level EFL writing instruction. The aim of this study has been to employ the systemic functional model of language from the work of Halliday and others with a representative student translation text in order to demonstrate the complexity of language generated and utilized by students in their English translation products and thus the effectiveness of literary translation instruction for the development of students' written expression and writing competence in English. As suggested by the analysis of the translation of the Kawabata story Umbrella, for narrative translation students need to develop control in their writing of a variety of processes and constructions that may be required for the elements of participants and circumstances in the rendering of the text. It has been observed that "narrative, a sequence of events, is likely to be neater and closer to translate than description, which requires the mental perception of adjectives and images" (Newmark, 1988, 50). Other kinds of stories taken as literary texts for translation, of course, will have other demands, the treatment of which, too, can provide student translators with valuable insights and practical applications of English language expression. The work of students translating carefully selected excerpts from short stories and novels in their LI literature can be remarkable. The potential role of literary translation, and the understanding and application of functional grammar, need to be appreciated and applied on a far greater scale in the world of EFL instruction.

References

Christie, F., Martin, J. & Rothery, J. (1991). Teaching English Literacy. Australia: Northern Territory University, Centre for Studies of Language Education.

Collerson, J. (1994). English Grammar: A Functional Approach. Newtown, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association.

Duff, A. (1981). The Third Language. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Duff, A. (1989). Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold.

Kawabata, Y. (1960). Tenohira no Shousetsu. Tokyo: Shinchou-bunko.

Kirkup, J. & Fukuda, T. (1983). Miniature Masterpieces of Kawabata Yasunari. Tokyo: Eichosha-shinsha.

Newmark, P. (1988). Approaches to Translation. London: Prentice Hall.

Porcaro, J. (2001). A Rationale for L1-to-L2 Literary Translation in College EFL Instruction. JALT Journal, 23 (2), 248-268.

Rivers, W. & Temperley, M. (1978). A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Schleppegrell, M. & Achugar, M. 2003. Learning Language and Learning History: A Functional Linguistics Approach. TESOL Journal, 12 (2), 21-27.

James W. Porcaro, Toyama University of International Studies, Japan

Porcaro is Professor of English as a Foreign Language