RITA MILIŪNAITĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

A CASE OF THE USE OF ONE TEMPORAL SUBORDINATE CLAUSE WITH THE CONJUNCTION WHEN

KEYWORDS: syntax, temporal subordinate clauses, syntactic innovations, translation, standardization.

1. INTRODUCTORY NOTES

More than a decade ago, when the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language was considering the syntactic rules and deviations from them in the forthcoming Language Advice (hereafter KP), attention was drawn to one type of temporal subordinate clause with the conjunction when, uncharacteristic of Lithuanian, that was becoming more frequent in usage. The discussion was based on data from the Contemporary Usage Card Index, which at the time contained relatively few examples of this type.¹

It was noted that in both the media (translated material) and translated fiction and popular literature, some sentences with the conjunction when create an unnatural relationship between the main and subordinate actions, for example (emphasis mine. – R. M.):

They had been married for only six months, when their newly created happy life began to fall apart. (2003, self-help book, translated from English)

Thinking in Lithuanian, the meaning of this sentence, depending on the context, could be expressed in several ways, for example:

They had been married (or: got married) only six months earlier, and (also) their newly created happy life had already begun to fall apart.

Although they had been married (or: had been wed) for only six months, their newly created happy life began to fall apart.

Just six months after the wedding, their newly created happy life began to fall apart.

¹ Plačiau apie kartoteką žr. Miliūnaitė 2009: 100–106.

98

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

Over time, it can be seen that sentences similar to those calqued into Lithuanian with kai continue to spread in usage, and this case needs to be defined much more precisely. Thus, the aim of the article is to examine new usage data and attempt to refine the definition of the KP recommendation and supplement the entry, that is, to propose a wider variety of possible ways to express the standard language norm.

2. THE KP RECOMMENDATION: AN ATTEMPT AT DEFINITION

The case mentioned in KP was included among sentence-joining errors, in the discussion of the use of the conjunction kai²:

kai trans. conj. = and, ~ to juxtapose two actions: Two hunters are hunting in the woods, w h e n (=and) one of them suddenly collapses. A father and his daughter were travelling through the desert, w h e n (=and) he began to feel ill (| While the father and his daughter were travelling through the desert, he began to feel ill).

Usage: temporal clauses: It was lunchtime when he returned from the town. We’ll see when we get to the bottom.

As can be seen, the phenomenon being corrected is described very concisely. The recommendation can be understood as follows: the conjunction kai used to juxtapose two actions is an unacceptable calque, and the conjunction and or other means of expression are recommended in its place.

Thus, the basis for the correction is the inappropriate expression of the relationship between two actions. In Lithuanian, complex temporal sentences with kai, like all complex sentences, normally indicate that the action in the main clause is more important than the action in the subordinate clause, whereas the definition of the KP recommendation states that subordinate temporal clauses with kai are unsuitable when the relationship between the two actions is one of juxtaposition.

KP offers few corrections, and they are not varied enough to have fully revealed the essence of the new syntactic phenomenon. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that one possible variant of the second example corrected in KP is also given as a complex sentence with kai, but the relationship between the actions is changed to something other than juxtaposition. The action expressed in the main clause,

² See Kalbos patarimai. Vol. 2. Syntax: 3. Miscellaneous matters. Comp. Rita Miliūnaitė, text authors Vitas Labutis and Aldonas Pupkis, editor-in-chief Aldonas Pupkis, Vilnius: Institute of Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing, 2003, 2nd ed. 2005, 29–30.

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

99

the verb traveled, and the subordinate clause, introduced by the conjunction when – traveled, when he felt, have been transposed in the sentence: when traveling, he felt. Thus, the definition “to juxtapose two actions” needs to be qualified.

3. NEW USAGE FACTS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR THEIR STUDY

Observation of usage over the past decade suggests that unnaturally constructed (usually translated) sentences with the conjunction when are becoming more frequent (the main and subordinate actions and their agents are highlighted):

On Sunday, four police officers were shot dead near the city of Tacoma (Washington State). It is reported that the officers were sitting in a café before the start of their shift and working on their computers, when a gunman came through the door and began shooting. (lrytas.lt 2009 11 29)

It is reported that one person died in the unusual incident. A police officer was standing and talking on the phone when the buildings collapsed. However, this information has not yet been officially confirmed. It is reported that the residents of the collapsed buildings managed to evacuate. (lrytas.lt 2010 06 01)

People gathered in the offices after the afternoon break, when an armed man entered the huge Discovery corporation building in the north of the US capital. [...] It was almost five o’clock in the evening, when at least two bursts of gunfire erupted. (lrytas.lt 2010 09 03)

Danijilas Korotkichas, who lives in the northern part of the Curonian Spit, which belongs to Russia’s Kaliningrad region, was calmly walking along the beach with his parents when he noticed a strange object shining brightly in the sun. (LR 2011 03 31)

To examine such cases, a broader context is needed, which usually becomes apparent from more than a single sentence. It is important to consider not only the syntactic and semantic (see Pajėdienė 2008), but also the communicative (information-conveying) aspect of temporal subordinate clauses with when.

4. THE NORMATIVE EXPRESSION OF COMPLEX SUBORDINATE TEMPORAL SENTENCES WITH KAI FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SEMANTIC RELATIONS AND THEME–RHEME STRUCTURE

The Grammar of Contemporary Lithuanian states that in complex sentences with the conjunction kai, the temporal relation between clauses “is indeterminate and depends on the meaning of the verbs functioning as predicates, the correlative words

100

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

ir kitų sandaros ypatybių“ (DLKG 2005: 680)³. Be to, laiko sakiniams būdingas dėmenų tariniais einančių veiksmažodžių laikų derinimas: veiksmažodžių laikai abiejuose dėmenyse dažniausiai sutampa, o nuo veikslų santykio priklauso vienalaikiškumo arba veiksmų sekos reikšmės (ten pat).

Aiškumo dėlei, remiantis DLKG teiginiais ir pavyzdžiais (DLKG 2005: 681–682), laiko sakinių dėmenų santykiai pavaizduoti 1-oje lentelėje.

TABLE 1. Relation between actions in complex subordinate temporal sentences with kai

Relations between actions

Main clause

Subordinate clause

Examples from DLKG⁴

Notes

1. Simultaneous actions that overlap only partially:

1.1. actions overlap throughout

ongoing action

ongoing action

(1) When the sun was shining, our flax was blooming.

The subordinate action is backgrounded⁵.

1.2. actions overlap only at a particular moment or during a particular period of time

event action

ongoing action

(2) When I was already going through the green grove, and beyond it there was already a small viburnum bush.

The subordinate action is backgrounded and longer (ongoing), while the main action intervenes in the subordinate action at a particular moment.

1.3. actions often coincide at a particular moment

ongoing action

event action

(3) When the two friends reached the town, the market was in full swing.

The main action is longer (ongoing), while the subordinate action intervenes in the main action at a particular moment.

2. Actions identical in time (their duration is very short or is not taken into account at all)

event action

event action

(4) I was even frightened, uncle, when you started talking to the two of us.

When the clauses are switched, the sequence of actions becomes clear: the subordinate action takes place before the main one.

³ Plačiau apie prijungiamuosius laiko sakinius žr. Pajėdienė 2004: 35–53.

⁴ For the sake of brevity, references to the sources of the sentences given in DLKG are omitted; verbs expressing actions are highlighted.

⁵ To reveal the semantic relations between the main and subordinate clauses, syntacticians use the concepts of figure and ground (cf. Pajėdienė 2008, drawing on the work of L. Talmy: Talmy 1978).

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

101

Relations between actions

Main clause

Subordinate clause

Examples from DLKG

Notes

3. Simultaneous actions:

3.1. actions follow one another

imperfective aspect

perfective aspect

(5) When I get tired, I sleep until noon.

The subordinate action takes place before the main one.

3.2. actions follow one another

perfective aspect

perfective aspect

(6) When the sun had already set behind the forests and the lark had flown off to sleep, the owl came flying.

The subordinate actions take place before the main one.

4. Reversed semantic relationship between clauses, where the time of the action is indicated by the main clause, which always precedes the subordinate clause:

4.1. the actions take place simultaneously

ongoing action

ongoing action

(7) It was the time for gathering, when he returned from the pastures with the halters.

The main-clause action is backgrounded; while it is taking place, the subordinate-clause action also occurs.

4.2. the actions take place simultaneously at a particular moment

ongoing action

event action

(8) The day was already drawing toward evening, when, having ridden up a hill, the two of them saw their native village.

The main-clause action is backgrounded; while it is taking place, the subordinate-clause action occurs.

When examining the relationship between the verbs in complex temporal sentences introduced by when, it is important, in terms of information structure, to identify the different informational weight of the sentence constituents, that is, to determine how the theme and rheme are expressed⁶. In Lithuanian, the theme usually precedes the rheme; if the rheme is to be stated earlier, at the beginning of the sentence, it is highlighted either by intonation or by reversed word order (DLKG 2005: 646–647).

⁶ Cf.: “the segment of a sentence that denotes things known from the situation or context is called the theme, while the new segment that conveys relevant information is the rheme”; LKE 2008: 19). Thus, one can say that the theme performs a cohesive function in the text, whereas the rheme has an informative function.

102

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

In the examples in Table 1, the theme and rheme can be distinguished as follows:

(1) subordinate clause [theme] + main clause [rheme]: sub [th] + main [rh];

(2) subordinate clause [theme] + main clause [rheme]: sub [th] + main [rh];

(3) subordinate clause [theme] + main clause [rheme]: sub [th] + main [rh];

(4) main clause [rheme] + subordinate clause [theme]: main [rh] + sub [th];

(5) subordinate clause [theme] + main clause [rheme]: sub [th] + main [rh];

(6) subordinate clause [theme] + main clause [rheme]: sub [th] + main [rh];

(7) main clause [theme] + subordinate clause [rheme]: main [th] + sub [rh];

(8) main clause [theme] + subordinate clause [rheme]: main [th] + sub [rh].

In examples 1–6, the theme is expressed by the subordinate clause and, given the neutral order of clauses in a complex sentence with subordination, it precedes the main clause, which expresses the rheme, except in example 4, where the order of the clauses is reversed. In examples 7 and 8, as also noted in DLKG, the semantic relation between the clauses is reversed: the theme is expressed by the main clause and the rheme by the subordinate clause, but importantly, here too the theme precedes the rheme. A final-rheme position is considered a tendency in many Indo-European languages and almost a language universal (see Griškevičienė 2008: 25 and the literature cited there).

5. COMPARISON OF THE ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATION: THE RELATION BETWEEN ACTIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INFORMATION STRUCTURE

Since, as mentioned, the sentences under examination occur predominantly in translated texts, a comparative analysis of translated and original texts would be useful. However, it is almost impossible to compare translated media texts with their originals, because the media usually draw on multiple sources when reporting foreign news and do not identify those sources very precisely. Therefore, we must rely on other available translated texts and their originals, in this case a collection of examples from fiction and popular science literature (see Table 2; in the examples, the subordinating conjunctions are highlighted in bold, and in the translations, the expression of the main and subordinate actions and the participants carrying them out is also highlighted).

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

103

TABLE 2. Comparison of original sentences with a subordinate temporal clause and their translations (p – main clause, š – subordinate clause, t – theme, r – rheme)

Original (English)

Translation

Original and translation from the perspective of information structure

(1)

In November 1997 the team was surveying where we now stood, just a couple hundred yards from the village, when one of its members spotted a fragment of a hominid skull.

In November 1997 the group explored the area where we were now standing, just a couple of hundred metres from the village, when one of its members spotted a fragment of a hominid skull. (NGL 31)

p [t] + š [r]

(2)

George McGowan already had the front door open when his father-in-law arrived and honked the car horn loudly.

When his father-in-law arrived and honked, George McGovern was already waiting with the front door open. (DU 99)

Original: p [t] + š [r]; translation: š [t] + p [r]

(3)

I was filing yet another routinely tragic story of a drive-by fatality when my editor, Daniel Aronstein, leaned into my cube, said “Catch,” [...].

I was writing yet another tragic story that ended in death, when editor Daniel Aronstein, sticking his head into my cage, shouted “catch” and [...]. (B 10)

p [t] + š [r]

(4)

His unit had been resting in a safe house when their look-out was gutted outside the door where he stood guard.

The scouts were resting when behind the guarded door their guard was slaughtered. (B 196)

p [t] + š [r]

(5)

Kim’s claw-hands trembled as she reached up, hooked her fingertips over the lever and pulled down.

Bound Kim’s hands trembled when she touched the lever with her fingertips and pulled it down. (B 17)

p [t] + š [r]

(6)

He watched through the window as the sleek little aircraft lifted smoothly off the runway and took to the wide blue-and-white sky above Honolulu.

He was looking through the window, when a tiny, gleaming plane smoothly lifted off the ground and rose into the vast blue sky above Honolulu. (B 176)

p [t] + š [r]

104

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

Having examined the examples provided⁷, we can see that the most frequent pattern of complex sentences with an adverbial time clause introduced by kai is as follows: the subject of the main clause does something; their action is usually continuous and expressed by imperfective verbs (was looking around, was writing, was resting, was watching, and so on). Meanwhile, something happens, and this second action, expressed by perfective verbs (noticed, exclaimed, lifted off, and so on), forms the basis of the subordinate time clause introduced by kai.

From the perspective of information structure, in translated sentences following this pattern, the main clause expresses the theme—the information already known from the context or secondary in informational terms—while the subordinate time clause expresses the rheme, i.e. a new idea, not mentioned before and/or more important than the secondary information. This corresponds to example 8 in Table 1 of DLKG (case 4.2), and thus represents an inverse relationship between the meanings of the sentence’s actions. This is not particularly common in Lithuanian; rather, it is exceptional and seems characteristic only of sentences with certain defined content (the subject of the main clause is usually expressed by nouns denoting time).

Word order in English, an analytic language, is considerably more rigid than in synthetic languages, and the possibilities for expressing information structure through word order are quite limited: fixed word order primarily expresses the grammatical relations between sentence constituents, rather than the information structure of the sentence (cf. Griškevičienė 2008: 25). Translation researchers therefore argue that in English “a sentence is formed according to the syntactic function of words and their combinations, whereas in Lithuanian logic is much more important: new information is placed at the end of the sentence, so translating requires transforming word order in the sentence” (Navickienė, Kasteckaitė 2010: 44). In other words, to convey the communicative structure of a sentence accurately, translating a text from English may require changing the sentence’s syntactic structure. Since in Lithuanian it is much more usual to express the theme (in the sentences under discussion, the time of the action) in a subordinate time clause, and the rheme in the main clause, regardless of whether the subordinate clause comes before or after the main clause, the translated sentences in Table 2, with the exception of (2), should be edited.

6. POSSIBLE WAYS OF EXPRESSION IN LITHUANIAN

Brief news items in the written media (print and online), probably translated from English (even if this is not stated in the source), about varie-

⁷ It should be noted that in the original language, subordinate time clauses are introduced by the conjunctions when (most often), as and sometimes (although this is not evident from the examples provided) while.

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

105

The most unusual events occurring around the world are presented in a similar style and in sentences following the same pattern (p [t] + š [r]) as in the examples in Table 2. Table 3 lists, alongside a range of examples from the media, at least one possible alternative—a mode of expression customary in Lithuanian. This is important when seeking a wider variety of equivalents than those given in KP. In both the usage examples and the corrections, the expression of the main and subordinate actions and of the actors performing them is highlighted.

TABLE 3. Possible Lithuanian modes of expression in place of translated subordinate clauses of time with when

Usage

Corrections

Comments on the corrections

(1) Once, at the homeless shelter, I was organizing documents in my office, when a particularly quarrelsome student knocked at my door. She did not want to do the tasks assigned to her. (bernardinai.lt 2011 01 26)

Once, when I was sorting papers in my office at the homeless center, I was sorting documents, one particularly quarrelsome knocked student student at my door.

The subordinate clause of time is turned into the main clause, and the former main clause becomes subordinate.

(2) Seventeen-year-old Vumilija Makojė (Vumilia Makoye) is having dinner when she hears a noise outside the window. Vumilija’s mother, Jeme, immediately rushes to the door to barricade it. Too late. (R (B ir J) 2010 11 13)

While having dinner, seventeen-year-old Vumilija Makojė (Vumilia Makoye) hears a noise outside the window.

Instead of a subordinate clause with when, the time of the main action is expressed by a half-participle.

(3) On June 5, nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola were lying in their cots, when their parents Pauline and Nick Koupparis heard a cry. Rushing into the room, the parents saw their children covered in blood and the fox that had attacked them. (LR 2010 07 24)

On June 5, when nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola were lying in their cots, their parents Pauline and Nick Koupparis heard a cry.

The subordinate clause becomes the main clause, while the former main clause becomes subordinate.

106

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

Usage

Corrections

Comments on the corrections

(4)

The teenagers who live on Atafu Atoll in Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand, were reported missing on October 6. 14-year-old Etueni Nasau, 15-year-old Samu Pelesa, and his peer Filo Filo were sailing from their island to a neighboring islet, when their boat’s engine suddenly failed. A massive search effort was launched to find the teenagers, but the boys could not be found by ships or aircraft. (LR 2010 11 27)

While 14-year-old Etueni Nasau, 15-year-old Samu Pelesa, and his peer Filo Filo were sailing from their island to a neighboring islet, their boat’s engine suddenly failed.

14-year-old Etueni Nasau, 15-year-old Samu Pelesa and his peer Filo Filo were sailing from their island to a neighboring islet, and their boat’s engine suddenly failed.

Instead of a subordinate clause with when, the time of the main action is expressed by a gerund.

Both clauses of the compound sentence are turned into independent sentences and joined by the conjunction and.

(5)

Other witnesses said that when the crowd surged, people jostled and tried to break out of the crush. “We were walking across the bridge to Diamond Island, when people began pushing from the opposite side.” (LR 2010 11 24)

Then, as we were walking across the bridge to Diamond Island, people began pushing from the opposite side.

As we were walking across the bridge to Diamond Island, people began pushing from the opposite side.

The subordinate clause is turned into the main clause, and the former main clause into a subordinate one.

Instead of a subordinate clause with when, the time of the main action is expressed by a gerund.

(6)

Born four days earlier, the girl was sleeping on Wednesday in her family’s home in the town of Seremban, when an intruding macaque snatched her and took her into a room. (LR 2010 10 08)

On Wednesday, when a girl born four days earlier was sleeping in her family’s home in the town of Seremban, she was snatched by a macaque that had broken into the room.

The subordinate clause is turned into the main clause, the former main clause into a subordinate one, and the temporal adverbial expressed in the accusative is moved to the beginning of the sentence.

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

107

Usage

Corrections

Comments on the corrections

(5)

According to former officer Robert Salas, he himself became (= Former officer Robert Salas says he himself became) a witness to one such incident, which occurred on March 16, 1967, at an Air Force base in the U.S. state of Montana. “I was on duty when the object arrived and circled directly above the base. The missile systems shut down—all ten nuclear missiles.” (LR 2010 09 28)

While I was on duty, an object arrived and began circling directly above the base.

The action of the main clause is shifted into an adverbial participial construction, the subordinate clause is turned into the main clause, the word order is changed, and the grammatical expression of the action in the new main clause is altered.

(6)

The brother and two sisters of former football star Diego Maradona fell victim to a robbery in Buenos Aires, news agency AFP reports. Raul, Ana Maria and Rita, according to their own account, were driving a car on Monday evening, when they were stopped by several armed individuals. (alfa.lt 2010 12 29)

According to Raul, Ana Maria and Rita, several armed individuals stopped them, who were traveling by car, on Monday evening. Raul, Ana Maria and Rita, according to their own account, were traveling by car on Monday evening, when several armed individuals stopped them.

The subordinate clause is turned into the main clause, while the action of the former main clause is shifted into an adverbial participial construction. The beginning of the sentence may be edited in several ways.

(7)

“The government should never [...] tell people how to pray and where to pray,” New York Mayor M. Bloomberg assured them. [...] “Our commitment to religious freedom must be steadfast,” President B. Obama told the nation. But not everyone listened to them. Last week, near

Last week, near a mosque in the state of Connecticut, as a crowd of protesters chanted “Jesus hates Muslims” and “Islam is a lie,” young men who had prayed in the street appeared.

The action of the main clause is shifted into an adverbial participial construction, and the subordinate clause is turned into the main clause.

108

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

Usage

Corrections

Comments on the corrections

a group of protesters at a mosque in Connecticut chanted “Jesus hates Muslims” and “Islam is a lie”; when, having prayed in the street, young men appeared. The organizer of this protest, Philip Benham, stated that this was a war that would begin in mosques across the country. (LR 2010 08 28)

It can be seen that the simplest ways of correcting the sentence, and those most suited to the Lithuanian sentence model, are (a) to make the action of the subordinate clause the action of the main clause, and the action of the main clause that of the subordinate clause, or (b) to move the action of the main clause into a participial (half-participial) or gerundial adjunct. In both cases, the expression of the actual division of the sentence, which is not entirely natural, is rectified; moreover, in case (a), model p [t] + š [r] is changed into model š [t] + p [r]. Less often (in the examples, only in sentence 4), the actions can be made equivalent, i.e., the subordinate clause can be eliminated altogether and a compound coordinate sentence formed.

Since clauses linked by subordination are asymmetrical, and “[t]he subordinate clause’s lack of independence is indicated first and foremost by connective words, which are very closely associated with that clause and cannot be moved to the main clause” (DLKG 2005: 660), except in exceptional cases (cf. Pa-jėdienė 2008: 4), exchanging the subordinate clause with the main clause should distort the semantic relations (logical relations) between the actions (background and figure). For example, let us change sentence 6 of Table 1:

When the sun set beyond the forests and the lark flew off to sleep, the owl flew in.

When the conjunction when is moved from one clause to another, the meaning of the sentence changes—the sequence of actions shifts:

When the owl flew in, the sun had already set beyond the forests and the lark had flown off to sleep.

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

109

However, if we reverse the model of sentences translated word for word from English with when, everything (i.e., the background and the figure) will fall into place. This proves that the translated model under consideration is atypical.

Incidentally, a text was found in the media containing compound temporal sentences with almost identical content using the conjunction when; however, in one, the subordinate clause introduced by when precedes the main clause, while in the other it is inserted into the main clause. The first sentence (1) (and the adjacent one) is presented as the article summary in larger type, while the second (2) appears farther on in the article text:

(1) On New Year’s Eve, Darco Sangermano was wandering the streets of Naples with his girlfriend when suddenly he was hit by a bullet directly in the head. But the Italian miraculously simply sneezed the bullet out.

It is still unknown who fired the bullet that pierced the head of 28-year-old D. Sangermano. It is believed that the Italian was not deliberately targeted.

(2) At that moment, when a bullet hit the man, he was wandering with his girlfriend through the crowded streets of Naples, noisy with anticipation of the beginning of 2011. (LR 2011 01 12)

The phrasing of the first sentence conforms to the atypical information-structure pattern p[t] + š[r]. The logic of presenting information in the article, based on the natural progression of the narrative, calls for a corresponding version of this sentence in which the two clauses are syntactically equivalent (i.e. coordinated):

Naujųjų metų išvakarėse Darco Sangermano su mergina klaidžiojo Neapolio gatvėmis, ir staiga jam tiesiai į galvą pataikė kulka.

Sentence (2) conforms to the typical Lithuanian information-structure pattern š [t] + p [r], because the immediate context of this sentence shows that, unlike in sentence (1), the subordinate clause expresses the topic, while the main clause conveys new information that supplements what was previously presented, i.e. the rheme.

Thus, when attempting to correct similar sentences, it is impossible to apply any rule mechanically; the semantic relations across the entire text must be examined.

7. THE FOG OF MEANING IN IMPROPERLY TRANSLATED SENTENCES

Sentences of the model under consideration, when improperly translated from English, can sometimes be understood ambiguously in Lithuanian and may therefore obscure the intended meaning. Here is an example:

110

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

The Indian newspaper “The Times of India” reports that the bomb blast in Mumbai not only killed 11 people but also devastated local jewellers.

An explosion thundered near the Opera House, scattering jewels worth $5.6 million through the alley. The district, home to the theatre currently under reconstruction, is known as a diamond-trading centre. The bomb exploded while the jewellery shops were still open. Some traders were in the street, while others were counting diamonds, when they were scattered by the blast wave throughout the alley. (LŽ 2011 07 21)

The penultimate sentence of the excerpt is constructed correctly: the action of the main clause (exploded) occurred while the action of the subordinate clause (were open) was still taking place (continuing), since this is the usual model of the informational functions of subordinate and main clauses, p [r] + sub [t]. The final sentence, however, can be understood according to the same logic of events only in this way: when the diamonds, after the bomb exploded, scattered through the alley, some traders were in the street at the same time (i.e. the actions were partly simultaneous), while others began counting the diamonds; it would therefore follow that the actions of the main clause began after the action of the subordinate clause had occurred. The full context, however, shows that the final sentence was intended to express a different idea: while the background action of the main clause was already taking place (continuing over time) (some traders were in the street, while others were counting diamonds), the action of the subordinate clause also occurred (the diamonds scattered). Thus, the sentence reproduces the English model p [t] + sub [r]. If we reversed the order of the subordinate and main clauses (sub [t] + p [r]), the sentence would become logical:

While some traders were in the street, others were counting diamonds, which were scattered by the blast wave throughout the alley.

Having clarified the relationships between the actions, and in order to fit the sentence smoothly into the text without repeating the subordinate temporal clause with when, which already occurs in the preceding sentence, it would need a little more editing; a compound sentence joining the clauses as coordinate clauses might also work, with the insertion of a phrase akin to a temporal adverb, at that time:

An explosion thundered near the Opera House, scattering jewels worth $5.6 million through the alley. The district, home to the theatre currently under reconstruction, is known as a diamond-trading centre. The bomb exploded while the jewellery shops were still open. Some traders were in the street at that time, while others were counting diamonds, and the blast wave scattered the diamonds throughout the alley.

In view of the broader context of the news report, this paragraph should also be edited stylistically (unnecessary repetitions and the like should be removed).

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

111

Another example:

On Saturday, operators at Unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant tried to reduce the temperature and pressure inside the reactor, when the earthquake cut off the power supply and the generators failed, causing the primary cooling system to shut down. Officials recorded radiation levels eight times higher than normal in the area around the plant, and a thousand times higher than normal in the plant’s control room. (delfi.lt 2011 03 12)

The abundance of sentences following this incorrect pattern, by affecting language users’ linguistic awareness, gives rise to the question: when did the actions in the subordinate clause occur (the power supply was cut off and the generators failed)—before the main action (attempted to reduce) or after it? In other words, which pattern does this sentence follow: main clause [background] + subordinate clause [rheme], or main clause [rheme] + subordinate clause [background]? The logic of the Lithuanian pattern in the first sentence suggests that when the action in the subordinate clause took place (the power supply was cut off and the backup generators failed), the action in the main clause began (the operators attempted to reduce the temperature and pressure; that is, when the power supply was cut off and the generators failed, the operators attempted to reduce the temperature and pressure in the reactor). With the second, incorrect pattern, however, the sentence can also be read differently: while the action in the main clause was taking place (continuing), the action in the subordinate clause also occurred. This, in turn, contradicts the logic of the context.

Thus, the spread of sentences following the incorrect pattern undermines the established Lithuanian logic for constructing complex sentences with subordinate clauses of time and confuses the temporal relations between actions, obscuring the intended meaning.

8. INSTEAD OF CONCLUSIONS: THE KP RECOMMENDATION NEEDS REVISION

When translating complex sentences with subordinate clauses of time introduced by the conjunctions when, while, as from English, care is needed. Unlike English, whose rigid word order in the sentence is dictated by rules characteristic of a non-inflectional language, in Lithuanian particular attention should be paid to what, in terms of information structure and in the context as a whole, constitutes the sentence’s theme (what is already known or serves as background), what constitutes its rheme (the most important new information in the sentence), and where the logical stress should fall.

When sentences of this pattern are translated incorrectly, the means used to express the timing of actions change in Lithuanian: participial and adverbial-participle constructions of time become less common,

112

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

and their place is taken by subordinate clauses of time attached incorrectly. This claim could be better substantiated by a more detailed (including statistical) study of current usage and a comparative analysis of original and translated texts. Nevertheless, it can already be said that some such sentences follow the English pattern, which sometimes makes the semantic relations between the parts of a complex sentence unclear and creates a risk of ambiguity—something that undoubtedly harms communication.

Analysis of the translated sentences examined shows that in incorrectly constructed subordinate clauses of time calqued from English and introduced by when, the relationship between the actions is more often than not one of contrast, since the two actions do not occur as equivalent events: one is background information, either partly overlapping with the main action or preceding it. In Lithuanian, the background action tends more often to be expressed not by the main clause but by the subordinate clause. In terms of information structure, the background action is usually the theme, while the main action is the rheme. Accordingly, the neutral sentence pattern should be subordinate clause [theme] + main clause [rheme], or the reverse clause order: main clause [rheme] + subordinate clause [theme], whereas the pattern in calqued sentences is main clause [theme] + subordinate clause [rheme].

Thus, the definition of the revisions to sentences following this pattern given in Kalbos patarimuose needs to be refined in light of sentence information structure. The recommendation should state that subordinate clauses of time introduced by when are unsuitable for constructing complex sentences with subordinate clauses of time when the main clause expresses already known information (the theme), while the subordinate clause conveys new information (the rheme), and the action in the main clause provides the background for the action in the subordinate clause.

Participial, adverbial-participle, and half-participle time adjuncts should be recommended as the most appropriate alternatives, taking the place of the main clause in the translated pattern; another option is to swap the syntactic roles of the main and subordinate clauses by moving the conjunction when, and only in rarer cases to use compound coordinate sentences.

ŠALTINIAI

alfa.lt – interneto naujienų portalas http://www.alfa.lt.

B – James Patterson, Maxine Paetro. Bikini. Iš anglų kalbos vertė Rima Kardelytė. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2009. Originalas: James Patterson, Maxine Paetro. Swimsuit. 2009.

bernardinai.lt – interneto portalas http://bernardinai.lt.

delfi.lt – interneto naujienų portalas http://www.delfi.lt.

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

113

DU – Sandra Brown. Dūmų uždanga. Iš anglų kalbos vertė Jovita Liutkutė. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2010. Originalas: Sandra Brown. Smoke screen. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.

lrytas.lt – interneto naujienų portalas http://www.lrytas.lt.

LR – dienraštis Lietuvos rytas.

LŽ – dienraštis Lietuvos žinios.

NGL – Mokslo populiarinamasis žurnalas National Geographic Lietuva. Alma littera, 2010, nr. 7 (10). Originalas: National Geographic.

R (B ir J) – dienraštis Respublika (priedas Brigita ir Julius).

LITERATŪRA

DLKG 2005: Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika. Red. Vytautas Ambrazas. 4-as pataisytas leidimas. Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas.

Griškevičienė A. 2008: Reminių lietuvių kalbos pagrindinių sakinio dalių perteikimas norvegų kalboje. – Kalbotyra 58(3), 25–34.

LKE 2008: Lietuvių kalbos enciklopedija. Parengė Kazys Morkūnas, redagavo Vytautas Ambrazas. 2-as patikslintas ir papildytas leidimas, Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas.

Miliūnaitė R. 2009: Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos vartosenos variantai, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas.

Navickienė G., Kasteckaitė D. 2010: Gramatinių ir leksinių transformacijų panaudojimo aspektai Stephen J. Dubnerio ir Steven D. Levitto knygos „Freakonomics“ vertime. – Kalbų studijos 16, 44–49.

Pajėdienė J. 2004: Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos prijungiamieji laiko sakiniai. – Acta linguistica Lithuanica 50, 35–53.

Pajėdienė J. 2008: Kai kurie prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių semantikos aspektai. – Lietuvių kalba. Prieiga per internetą: http://www.lietuviukalba.lt/index.php?id=109 (žiūrėta 2011 11 10).

Talmy L. 1978: Figure and Ground in Complex Sentences. – Greenberg J. H., Ferguson Ch. A., Moravcsik E. A. (eds.), Universals of Human Language 4. Syntax. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 625–652.

Gauta 2011 11 21

114

KALBOS KULTŪRA | 84

SUBORDINATE CLAUSES WITH THE CONJUCTION KAI: A CASE STUDY

Summary

The paper analyses a type of subordinate clauses with the conjunction kai, which are not characteristic of Lithuanian. Currently, they tend to appear in texts translated from English (cf. He watched through the window as the sleek little aircraft lifted smoothly off the runway and took to the wide blue-and-white sky above Honolulu).

Word order in English, due to its analytical character, is much more fixed than in Lithuanian, which is a synthetic language. Therefore, the word order in an English sentence has limited possibilities to express functional sentence perspective. In English, it first of all expresses grammatical relationships between words rather than the information structure of the sentence.

The above syntactic pattern has been adopted from English, which makes ample use of the conjunctions when, while and as rendered in Lithuanian as kai. It consists of the main clause, which expresses background information (rendered by an imperfective verb), and a subordinate clause, which focuses on the main action or activity (rendered by a perfective verb). From the point of view of functional sentence perspective, the theme of a sentence is expressed by the main constituent and the rheme—by the subordinate constituent.

Such sentences in actual Lithuanian usage were noticed more than a decade ago, and their number tends to increase. In the publication on usage recommendations Kalbos patarimai (2003) an attempt was made to define such sentences; there was also a proposal made to amend them; however, the data of their actual usage was scarce. After collecting more data, they were analysed from the point of view of the functional sentence perspective. As a result, we can see that Lithuanian tends to express the relationship between an action or activity in the main clause and action or activity in the subordinate clause in a completely different way: the theme is expressed by the subordinate clause with the conjunction kai, and the rheme is expressed by the main clause. An inadequate translation of the clauses of time with the conjunction kai sometimes causes confusion. Therefore, background timing of the action or activity in standard Lithuanian should be expressed in other ways, mainly by participial, half-participial and gerundial adverbial modifiers of time, sometimes by subordinate clauses, where actions or activities in the two clauses go in parallel, are contrasted on an equal basis.

KEY WORDS: syntax, subordinate clauses of time, syntactic innovations, translation, codification.

RITA MILIŪNAITĖ

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius

[email protected]

R. MILIŪNAITĖ. Vienas prijungiamųjų laiko sakinių su jungtuku kai vartosenos atvejis

115