Translating the Expressive Intensifiers Very and So into Thai: a Corpus-based Study

Article Sidebar

Published: Jan 1, 2009

Main Article Content

Tongtip Poonlarp
Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin

Abstract

This article explores how intensification as realized through the two English intensifiers very and so is translated into Thai. Three major linguistic processes are found: the lexical processes (intensifiers, metaphorical expressions, deictics), the morpho-syntactico-phonological processes (reduplicatives, semantic doublets, negative constructions, combinatory structures), and the phonological process in the final particles. It investigates how the expressive meaning, in this case intensification, is transferred from English to Thai, and shows how the different degree of intensification of the English very and so correlates with the degree of intensification conveyed by the translated intensifiers in Thai.

Article Details

Issue
No. 1 (2009): Thoughts 2009
Section
Articles

Copyright by the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

Photocopying is allowed for internal, non-commercial use only. Photocopying for other uses or for purposes other than indicated must be permitted in writing from the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

All views or conclusion are those of the authors of the articles and not necessarily those of the publisher or the editorial staff.
Author Biographies

Tongtip Poonlarp

Tongtip Poonlarp earned a BA (First Class Honors) in English and an MA in French-Thai translation from Chulalongkorn University. She is currently a lecturer of translation at the MA Program in Translation and Interpretation, the Chalermprakiat Centre of Translation and Interpretation, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University.

Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin

Dr. Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin has a BA and MA in Education from the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, a Graduate Diploma in Phonetics from the University of Leeds, and a Ph.D in Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. At present, she is a senior staff member of the Graduate Program in English as an International Language.

References

Anchaleenukul, Sunant. Lexical System in Thai Language. Bangkok:

Chulalongkorn U, 2003.

Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and Edward Finegan. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman, 1999.

Bolinger, Dwight. Degree Words. The Hague: Mouton, 1972.

Caffi, Claudia, and Richard W. Janney. “Towards a Pragmatics of Emotive Communication.” Journal of Pragmatics 22.3-4 (1994): 325-73.

Catford, J. C. A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford UP, 1965.

Chesterman, Andrew. Memes of Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1997.

Cooke, Joseph. Thai Sentence Particles and Other Topics. Canberra:

Australian National U, 1989.

Cruse, Alan. Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and

Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.

Guillemin-Flescher, Jacqueline. “Qualification and Point of View.” Function and Structure. Ed. Akio Kamio. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999. 159-91.

Haas, Mary. “Techniques of Intensifying in Thai.” Word 2 (1946): 127-30.

Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.

Ito, Rika, and Sali Tagliamonte. “Well Weird, Right Dodgy, Very Strange, Really Cool: Layering and Recycling in English Intensifiers.” Language in Society 32.2 (2003): 257-79.

Jespersen, Otto. A Modern English Grammar. London: Bradford &

Dickens, 1956.

Johansson, Stig. “‘Sweetly Oblivious’: Some Aspects of Adverb-Adjective Combinations in Present-Day English.” Data, Description, Discourse: Papers in Honour of John Sinclair. Ed. Michael Hoey. London: HarperCollins, 1993. 39-49.

Kullavanijaya, Pranee. “Verb Intensifying Devices in Bangkok Thai.” Southeast Asian Linguistic Studies in Honour of Vichin Panupong. Ed. Arthur S. Abramson. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn UP, 1997. 147-52.

Labov, William. “Intensity.” Meaning, Form, and Use in Context. Ed. Deborah Schiffrin. Washington: Georgetown UP, 1984. 43-70.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1980.

Leech, Geoffrey N. A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. London: Longman, 1969.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Harlow: Pearson, 2003.

Lorenz, Gunter. “Really Worthwhile or Not Really Significant? A Corpus-Based Approach to the Delexicalization and Grammaticalization of Intensifiers in Modern English.” New Reflections on Grammaticalization. Ed. Ilse Wischer. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2002. 143-61.

Luksaneeyanawin, Sudaporn. “Semantic Functions of Reduplicatives in Thai.” Selected Papers from the International Symposium on Language and Linguistics. Ed. Pintip Tuaycharoen and Frederick Jackson. Chiang Mai: Chiang Mai U, 1984. 125-44.

Michaelis, Laura A. “Exclamative Constructions.” Language Typology and Language Universals. Ed. Martin Haspelmath. Berlin: Mouton, 2001. 1038-50.

Paradis, Carita. “Reinforcing Adjectives: A Cognitive Semantic Perspective on Grammaticalization.” Generative Theory and Corpus Studies: A Dialogue from 10 ICEHL. Ed. Ricardo Bermudez-Otero, David Denison, Richard M. Hogg, and C. B. McCully. Berlin: Mouton, 2000. 233-58.

Phurahong, Winai. “Lexical Units.” Thai 3. Bangkok: Sukhothai Thammatirat U, 1983.

Renkema, Jan. Discourse Studies: An Introductory Textbook. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1993.

Schoknecht, Colin. “Three Systems of Thai Transcription.” Interdisciplinary Approaches to Language Processing. Ed. David Burnham and Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin. Bangkok: National Electronic and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), 2000. 329-36.

Tagliamonte, Sali, and Chris Roberts. “So Weird, So Cool, So Innovative: the Use of Intensifiers in the Television Series Friends.” American Speech 80.3 (2005): 280-300.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Retrieved 12 Mar. 2009. <http://www.bartleby.com/61/>.

Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean Darbelnet. Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation. Trans and ed. Juan C. Sager and M.-J. Hamel. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2000.

Wierzbicka, Anna. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: the Semantics of Human Interaction. Berlin: Mouton, 1991.

Wood, Francis. “Iteratives, Blends, and ‘Streckformen.’” Modern Philology 9.2 (1911): 157-94.