学而不厌 | My Chinese World

Reading list

2011-08-01T15:56:00.000+02:00

Some time ago, on this same blog I made a list of bilingual websites or blogs that I found particularly interesting. Today, I would like to do a similar thing with books. Recently, I have been reading some amazing books about classical Chinese thought, so I would love to share them with you, hoping you find them equally sharp and thought-provoking.

Most of them are in English, just one is available only in Italian at the moment (I've marked it with IT next to the title).

Disputers of the Tao by A.C. Graham: Probably THE most amazing and most insightful book ever written on Chinese classical philosophy, this landmark book by one of the most important Western sinologist of all times is not only well written and witty, but it also has a philosophical and scientific approach lacking in so many works on Chinese philosophy. This is a real mush for anyone interested in Eastern philosophy, or in Chinese culture in general.

Il Confucianesimo (i fondamenti e i testi) by M. Scarpari: I consider this the best book available in Italian on this topic (Confucianism). Whilst it probably doesn't add much for those already familiar with the English-language works on the subject, this is certainly a landmark in Italian-language scholarship, which includes all the recent developments on Confucian studies and explains the matter in a new, more enjoyable and less "scholastic" way.

Focusing the Familiar (a translation and philosophical interpretation of the Zhongyong) by T. Ames and J. Hall: A philosopher and a sinologist put their efforts together to translate one of the most interesting and complex Confucian texts of Ancient China. The result is a somewhat puzzling but absolutely intriguing rendering of the text, which in this edition is throughout detailed with notes and explanations of key terms, philosophical points and justification of certain translation choices. I really loved Ames and Hall's approach, and will keep referring to this book as a very interesting insight into the Zhongyong philosophical and semantic complexity.

Daosim and Ecology (ways within a cosmic landscape) ed. by H.J. Girardot, J. Miller, X. Liu: scholars from all over the world put their efforts together to find out what the Chinese Daoist tradition can teach us about ecology and the safeguard of our planet. From the very Daoist texts, to parallels between Daoist and ecology philosophies, this book (part of a series of book on the relations between ecology and world religions) goes in very deep details to show us how much our ecologists - and maybe ourselves - can learn from ancient texts and modern Daoist practices. Maybe not every scholar will agree with all the conclusions made by the book or its authors, but I still think it's absolutely worth reading.

The Sage and the Second Sex (Confucianism, ethics and gender) ed. by C. Li: Is it possible to find a common ground between Confucianism and Feminism? On surface, it would seem impossible. But, as many of the authors in this book argue, looking closely it becomes clear how the strictly patriarchal Chinese philosophy can and should give more space to women, to their central role in the family and society, and especially to their rights, recognizing at the same time their importance in making Chinese and world history. The book tries to focus on the - maybe few but yet present - similarities between the two schools of thought, and is for sure a thought-provoking reading for sinologists and feminists alike.

Today is the Lantern Festival

2011-02-17T11:30:00.001+01:00

The Lantern Festival (元宵节, Yuánxiāo jié) is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration. This day is for the last moment for setting off fireworks, the last excuse for eating a big feast and the last chance for family getting together before the “年” celebrations are over.
(read more on The World of Chinese Culture)

兔年快乐 | HAPPY YEAR OF THE RABBIT | BUON ANNO DEL CONIGLIO

2011-02-03T00:00:00.010+01:00

祝大家兔年快乐

万事如意身体健康出入平安

Word of the Day: 革命 vs. revolution

2011-02-01T10:24:00.000+01:00

We generally translate the Chinese word 革命 gémìng into "revolution" and vice versa. But is this really accurate? In fact, the two words are socially, culturally and historically very different, thus is the meaning and the associated feelings they bring about to the native speakers of the two languages.

The English "revolution" comes from a Latin root, revolvo, meaning to "roll back, revolve"; from the original sense of rotation, the word came then to mean to subvert an order, to "put upside down" something, that was previously ordered such as a government, ruler or social order. In the word revolution, the stress is in the act of subverting, or changing something into something completely different, which brings about a sense of chaos and deliberate opposition to what came before.

On the other hand, the Chinese word 革命 gémìng has been used since imperial times to indicate the revoke of Heaven's mandate to a ruler. In Ancient and Imperial China, the Emperor was believed to be Heaven's Son, he ruled because Heaven deemed him righteous and suitable for it, thus gave him the Mandate (命 mìng) to do so. But if the ruler didn't comply to his Mandate, didn't rule for the benefit of its people or showed lack of righteousness, that meant a revocation of the Mandate (革命 gémìng), Heaven itself revoked (革 gé) it, and in fact natural disasters, wars and such events were seen as the clear sign that Heaven was no longer in favour of the ruler. As you can imagine, this implies a sense of righteousness and justice to it that is completely absent from the English word. This is not a subverting of a previous order, but it's rather following Heaven's will to find a new, more righteous and suitable person to rule the empire. As Liu Xiaobo argues, "the word 'revolution' in Chinese, [...] possesses a not-to-be-doubted quality of righteousness and a not-to-be-blasphemed sacredness".

Si tende in genere a tradurre il termine cinese 革命 gémìng con la parola italiana "rivoluzione" e viceversa. Ma quant'è accurata tale traduzione? Se le analizziamo più approfonditamente, scopriamo che le due parole hanno un significato storico, culturale e politico molto diversi tra loro, e che l'insieme di immagini e idee che evocano nei parlanti delle due lingue sono ben diverse.

Il termine "rivoluzione" deriva dal latino revolvo, che significa rivolgere indietro, ritornare, voltare. Da qui il significato lato di rovesciare, voltare sottosopra un ordine prestabilito, come ad esempio un governo, un sovrano o un ordine sociale. Dunque nella lingua italiana, il termine porta alla mente un immaginario di rivolta, di sovvertimento, di caos che si oppone all'ordine precedentemente stabilito.

Per quanto riguarda il termine cinese, invece, 革命 gémìng è usato sin dal periodo imperiale per indicare la revoca del Mandato Celeste. Nella Cina imperiale, l'Imperatore era considerato il Figlio del Cielo, che governava dopo aver ricevuto proprio da quest'ultimo il Mandato (命 mìng). Naturalmente si riteneva che il Cielo scegliesse la persona più retta e giusta per il compito, e che se tale persona si fosse dimostrata ingiusta o non all'altezza del compito, il Cielo stesso avrebbe revocato (革 gé) tale Mandato, e che fenomeni naturali quali carestie, alluvioni, terremoti, o altre sciagure fossero un segno inequivocabile della volontà del Cielo di rimuovere tale Mandato (革命 gémìng). Come si può ben immaginare, tale termine ha quindi un senso di giustizia divina, di aderenza a dei princìpi morali e conformità ad una volontà superiore del tutto assente nel termine "rivoluzione". Come sostiene infatti Liu Xiaobo, "la parola 'rivoluzione' in cinese [...] possiede una qualità di aderenza a certi princìpi morali che nessuno osa dubitare nonché una sacralità che nessuno può profanare".

Il concetto di 誠 cheng nel 中庸 Zhongyong

2011-01-18T20:01:00.005+01:00

Eccovi una brevissima e parzialissima analisi che ho tentato di fare del termine 誠cheng così come appare nel 中庸 Zhongyong. Per motivi vari l'analisi non è da ritenersi per nulla completa o esausitva, ma un semplice punto di vista sulla questione, che spera di fare luce su alcune sfumature di questo concetto chiave nel testo confuciano.

Il concetto di cheng 誠, che compare in vari testi confuciani, assume un ruolo centrale soprattutto nella seconda parte del Zhongyong (dai capitoli 20 in poi)¹, dove assurge da virtù morale a principio ontologico, che fa sì che gli esseri esistano e che rende l'uomo partecipe del processo di trasformazione e di divenire di cielo e terra. Tale concetto è stato fino ad oggi ampiamente analizzato e dibattuto dalla critica cinese e sinologica nel mondo, che ne ha proposto svariate e a volte anche in qualche modo discordanti interpretazioni e traduzioni nelle diverse lingue occidentali. Il concetto di cheng, che si può ritenere (alla stregua di tanti altri come, a titolo di esempio, ren 仁, qi 氣 o shu恕) peculiare della filosofia cinese, non è solo complesso da tradurre in modo da renderne la forza e l'ampiezza semantica, ma è addirittura assai complesso da spiegare a chi non abbia familiarità con il modo di pensare e i fondamenti della filosofia cinese classica².

Si cercherà qui di esporre sinteticamente alcune tra le più influenti o interessanti posizioni di sinologi riguardo al concetto, al significato e alla possibile traduzione di cheng. Si passerà poi ad analizzare direttamente i brani del Zhongyong dove le occorrenze sono più frequenti o significative, notandone le collocazioni più significative, le funzioni grammaticali e le correlazioni con concetti affini o collegati, e infine si cercherà di tracciare un profilo di cheng nel Zhongyong, proponendone una traduzione ragionata che sia valida per tutte (o la maggior parte) delle occorrenze del termine nel testo in questione.Nel cercare una traduzione adatta, limitatamente all'ambito del Zhongyong, è per prima cosa interessante rivedere alcune interpretazioni del concetto date da traduttori in lingue occidentali (per motivi logistici, verranno qui considerate solo le traduzioni in italiano, inglese e francese), e i relativi termini o espressioni usati da costoro nelle traduzioni del testo stesso. Il punto di partenza di ogni traduzione è generalmente il dizionario, per cui anche questa analisi parte rileggendo la definizione data dal Grand Dictionnaire Ricci³, che sotto cheng 誠 (nell'ambito della filosofia cinese) glossa:

«Sincérité, rectitude naturelle; pur les confucéens, l'expression première et suprême de la bonté de la nature humaine. Adhésion totale à la réalité naturelle au fond de soi. Rectitude du cœur ouvert a 天道, la Voie du Ciel. C'est le fondement de toutes les expressions de 德, la vertu, des sentiments et pensées justes, du bonheur et de la sagesse; la condition d'une conduite parfaite, fondée sur l'état de nature retrouvé en soi.»

Il dizionario sottolinea non solo la “naturalità” di cheng, ma anche il fatto che esso dimostra, o è l'espressione suprema, della “bontà della natura umana”. Cheng non è una vera e propria virtù, ma appartiene sicuramente all'ambito etico, rappresentando la base stessa di tutte le virtù. E' dunque una rettitudine, un'adesione alla parte più sincera e genuina di sé, che rappresenta allo stesso tempo “lo stato di natura ritrovato dentro di sé”.

Per quanto riguarda le traduzioni in inglese, invece, la più comune e assodata è stata per lungo tempo quella di James Legge⁴ – ancora oggi considerata per molti aspetti “classica” - che traduceva il termine con l'inglese “sincerity”, nel senso di una sincerità e autenticità verso sé stessi e la propria natura. Tale traduzione, pur restando un punto di riferimento e una specie di termine comune utilizzato per riferirsi a cheng in generale, è stata ampiamente criticata e riveduta nei decenni a venire, perché considerata inadatta a coprire tutte le sfumature semantiche e filosofiche del termine⁵.

网络内容同质化时代到来 | E' arrivata l'epoca dell'omologazione dei contenuti

2010-03-22T15:23:00.001+01:00

from: ReadWriteWeb

不知道你有没有发现，我们已经不再有作家，不再有电影制作人，不再有视频出品人，不再有音乐家或漫画家，我们只有内容生成者。
我们经常听到网上有人谈论“内容”已经成为某种同质化商品。比如“我们这个个页面需要10-12kg的内容。能给算批发价不？”然后准备一辆装有内容储罐的卡车，装满卡车，然后你就可以得到一个网站。
如果不考虑这些飘洋越海、装满内容的集装箱，还有一些有意的地方。诚然，同质化内容会忽视个人创造性，但你还可以这样想：如此多的人可以通过不同媒介进行沟通，数字化科技已经在民主化个人表达方面做出了很多贡献。

Non so so l'avevate notato, ma da un po' di tempo a questa parte non esistono più autori, registi, produttori televisivi, musicisti o fumettisti. No, da un po' di tempo a questa parte l'unica cosa che è rimasta sono i "produttori di contenuto".

Spesso si legge in rete di gente che discute su come "il contenuto" sia diventato un prodotto del tutto omologato. Ad esempio: "Allora, per ognuna di queste pagine web ci servono circa 10-12 kg di contenuto. Possiamo ottenere uno sconto?". Dopo di che, si prepara un bel po' di contenuto da immagazzinare, vi si riempie un camion, et voilà pronto il sito web.

Anche non prendendo in considerazione questo aspetto piuttosto vasto del container di contenuti, ci sono comunque altri spunti interessanti. Naturalmente, il contenuto omologato non terrà conto della creatività individuale, ma si potrebbe vederla anche così: in questo modo molte più persone avranno la possibilità di comunicare tramite mezzi diversi, allo stesso modo in cui le tecnologie digitali hanno ampiamente contribuito allo sviluppo democratico e dell'espressione dell'individuo.

Word of the Day: 文明 vs Civilisation

2010-02-16T19:14:00.003+01:00

I always found it interesting how language reflects deeply the culture and system of thought of a certain folk. Today, I would like to give you an example of this with the very word "civilisation".

The English word comes from the Latin cives, city, and thus implies that those who are civilised, as opposed to those who are barbarians, have no law and no organic social structure, are those who live in the city, or who can refer to a city as their locus of identity, their source for common rules, social structure and historical memory.

The Chinese equivalent for civilisation is 文明 wenming, which literally means literature-understanding. It become immediately clear how the pivotal point for the Chinese civilisation is not the city, cives, but the written text, 文 wen. Thus a civilised man and a civilised folk can be distinguished from a barbarian one thanks to its cultivation of literature, its written production, and the historical memory is here committed to books and the written word rather than to places and buildings.

Thus we can understand clearly why Western cultures are so keen in preserving historical monuments and places, whereas the Chinese empire and Republic history are so full of annals, written reports, Classic texts to be learned by heart and steles full of written inscriptions.

This is yet another example of how language difference implies cultural differences, and of how important it becomes to understand the culture together with the study of a certain language.

Trovo intrigante come la lingua rispecchi profondamente la cultura e il sistema di pensiero di un certo popolo. Oggi vorrei infatti darvi un esempio di questo, partendo proprio dalla parola "civiltà".

La parola italiana viene dal latino e significa inerente alla cives, la città; questo naturalmente implica che coloro sono civilizzati, al contrario dei barbari, che non hanno leggi o strutture sociali ben definite, sono coloro che abitano la città, o che vi si riferiscono come un punto focale della propria identità, come fonte di regole e ordine sociale, nonché come luogo di conservazione della memoria storica.

L'equivalente cinese di civiltà è 文明 wenming, che letteralmente significa letteratura-comprensione. E' subito chiaro come il perno attorno cui ruota la civiltà cinese non ha niente a che fare con la città, ma piuttosto ha uno stretto legame con il 文 wen, il testo scritto. Dunque una persona civilizzata si distingue da un barbaro per il fatto di coltivare le lettere, la produzione scritta di testi, a cui sono affidate l'identità collettiva e la memoria storica.

Ecco che le cività occidentali derivanti dalla latina pongono grande importanza nella conservazione di monumenti e luoghi storici, mentre l'impero e poi la Repubblica cinese sono costellati di annali, testi Classici da imparare a memoria, stele fitte di iscrizioni.

Questo non è che un ennesimo esempio di come la differenza linguistica sottenda anche una profonda differenza culturale, e di quanto importante sia, nel lavoro del traduttore, avere un chiara comprensione di entrambe.

La Festa degli Spiriti

2009-09-03T11:22:00.004+02:00

Presto! Chiudetevi tutti in casa, perché proprio oggi cade il quindicesimo giorno del settimo mese lunare, e cioè la Festa cinese degli Spiriti (中元节 zhongyuan jie), in cui gli spiriti dei defunti, dopo essere ascesi dal regno degli inferi verso la terra, tornano a visitare i vivi.

In questa occasione, i cinesi si preparano a ricevere parenti scomparsi ed antenati della famiglia comprando o costruendo cartamoneta celeste, o altri oggetti di cartapesta che poi bruceranno ritualmente, per consegnarli al defunto che ne faccia buon uso durante il suo soggiorno nell'Oltretomba.

Quindi se vi sembra di sentire strani rumori quest'oggi, delle presenze o semplicemente qualcosa di strano nell'aria, accendete dell'incenso o una candela, perché possa guidare gli spiriti dei defunti che si sono persi a ritrovare i loro cari, e ricevere da loro i dovuti doni.

Buona fortuna! :-)

La Notte dei Sette

2009-08-26T12:55:00.002+02:00

Oggi ricorre la festa cinese della Notte dei Sette (七夕 Qixi), detta anche la Festa delle Gazze, ovvero il San Valentino cinese - che cade ogni anno al settimo giorno del settimo mese lunare.

La storia è legata ad una coppia di amanti, ovvero il pastore Niulang e la divinità Zhinu, che ovviamente vengono separati dal destino, essendo le loro due "categorie sociali" così inconciliabili. Potete trovare la storia intera QUI, ma la parte interessante viene verso la fine:

da allora i due amanti vivono in cielo (rappresentati dalle stelle Altair lui e Vega lei), eternamente separati dalla Via Lattea, posta tra loro dalla Dea madre di Zhinu - che non approva la loro unione. Eppure una volta all'anno tutte le gazze del mondo s'impietosiscono dei due amanti, e volano in cielo per formare un ponte sulla via lattea e permettere loro di riabbracciarsi almeno per quel giorno, appunto il settimo del settimo mese dell'anno lunare. Se per caso piove in quella notte, la pioggia è considerata come le lacrime dei due amanti, visto che se ci sono nuvole in cielo le gazze non li possono raggiungere, ed essi per quell'anno non potranno ricongiungersi.

Trovo questa leggenda particolarmente interessante e romantica, forse più dell'occidentale San Valentino. Insomma, San Valentino è un vescovo ritenuto santo dal Papa, col cui nome la Chiesa ha sostituito la festa romana dei Lupercalia (una festa dell'abbondanza e della fertilità) per renderla meno pagana, mentre la leggenda cinese è intrinsa della cassica tragicità e senso del Destino che sono tipiche della tradizione antica, basti pensare alle stupende tragedie greche.

Blog di traduzioni

2009-07-10T11:37:00.001+02:00

Salve,

volevo segnalare che da ieri ho aperto con un amico il blog Comely, dedicato alla band indie americana Neutral Milk Hotel. Lo segnalo perché vi saranno periodicamente pubblicate traduzioni dall'inglese (rigorosamente fatte da noi) di articoli, interviste, recenzioni e quant'altro riguardanti la band. Se anche non siete rigorosamente interessati ai Neutral Milk Hotel, potete comunque darci un'occhio, e magari suggerire cambiamenti o milgioramenti alle traduzioni, specialmente dei testi delle canzoni. Grazie!

----

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know that I have recently opened a new blog with a friend. The blog is called Comely and is dedicated to the American indie band Neutral Milk Hotel. In it, we will be translating from English into Italian articles, interviews, reviews and all sorts of material regarding the band. Even if you're not into Neutral Milk Hotel, you could drop by and have a look, and maybe you can suggest improvements or changes in the translations, especially for the lyrics. Thanks!

回归 | Ritorno

2009-05-04T11:27:00.007+02:00

回归

不要睡去，
不要亲爱的，
路还很长不要靠近森林的诱惑
不要失掉希望

请用凉凉的雪水
把地址写在手上
或是靠在我的肩膀
度过朦胧的晨光

撩开透明的暴风雨
我们就会到达家乡
一片圆形的绿地
铺在古塔近旁

我将在那儿
守护你疲倦的梦想：
赶开在一群群黑夜
只留下铜鼓和太阳

在古塔的另一边
有许多细小的海浪
悄悄爬上沙岸
收集着颤动的音响

顾城（1956－1993）

----------------------

Traduzione in italiano di Stefania Srafutti, da Gu Cheng: Occhi Neri, Poesie Giovanili

Ritorno

Non andare a dormire, no
Amore mio, la strada è ancora lunga
non accostarti alle seduzioni della foresta
non perdere la speranza

Per favore con gelida acqua di neve
scrivi l’indirizzo sulla mano
oppure appoggiati alla mia spalla
per attraversare la semioscurità dell’alba

Aperta la tempesta trasparente
possiamo ritornare a casa
un cerchio di terra verde
si stende vicino a un’antica pagoda

Io sarò là
difenderò i tuoi sogni sfiniti:
respingerò folle di notti nere
lascerò solo i tamburi di bronzo e il sole

Dall’altro lato dell’antica pagoda
molte minuscole onde del mare
si arrampicano sulla sabbia silenziose
raccogliendo suoni tremolanti…

di Gu Cheng (1956- 1993)

为了两岸统一,恢复繁体字 | Revert to traditional characters to unify the Chinese-speaking world | Ritorno ai caratteri tradizionali per unificare il mondo cinese

2009-03-20T13:30:00.003+01:00

政协委员建议:为了两岸统一,废除简体恢复繁体字

2009-03-03 10:36:37 南方网

为了两岸统一，恢复繁体字

全国政协委员潘庆林提出，建议全国用10年时间，分批废除简体汉字，恢复使用繁体字，原因有三：

一、上世纪50年代简化汉字时太粗糙，违背了汉字的艺术和科学性。

比如爱字，繁体字里有个“心”，简化后，造成“无心之爱”。

二、以前说繁体字太繁琐，难学难写，不利于传播，但是现在很多人都是用电脑输入，再繁琐的字打起来也一样，所以这个问题已经渐渐不存在。

三、恢复使用繁体字有利于两岸统一现在台湾依然用繁体字，并称其为“正体字”，深有意味，还要为“正体字”申请非物质文化遗产，给祖国大陆方面造成了压力。

--------------------

CPPCC representative suggests to abolish simplified characters and restore the use of traditional characters in order to unify all chinese-speaking world.

03.03.2009, Nanfang Net

Revert to traditional characters to unify the Chinese-speaking world?

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) representative Pan Qinglin has suggested that the international community restores the use of traditional characters and abolish simplified characters. Pan suggested that the process should be done in tranches, and take up to 10 years to be completed. Mr. Pan gave 3 main reasons for his proposition:

1. The simplification done on the 1950s was too approximate and rough, it did not take into account the aesthetic and scientific aspects of Chinese characters;
For instance, the simplified character "love" (爱 ai) doesn't have he radical "heart" (心 xin) as in its traditional version (愛ai). The character has thus become a "deliberate version of love".

2. In the past, the biggest issue regarding traditional characters was their complex formation, that makes them difficult to remember and write, or to be spread. However, nowadays most people use computers to write and type characters, and since there is no difference when typing a character that is simplified from a traditional one, this issue seems mainly solved.

3. To revert to traditional characters can benefit and unify the Chinese-speaking community. Today, Taiwan still uses traditional characters, which in Taiwan are also called "standard characters" for a variety of reasons; to these characters is also attributed a theoretical and cultural meaning, which should put pressure on the PRC government.

------------------

Rappresentante del CPPCC propone di abolire i caratteri semplificati e tornare all'uso dei caratteri tradizionali per ristabilire unità nella comunità cinese.

03.03.2009 Nanfang Net

Tornare ai caratteri tradizionali per unificare la comunità cinese?

Pan Qinglin, rappresentante del Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), ha proposto di abolire i caratteri semplificati e tornare all'uso di quelli tradizionali per ristabilire unità all'interno del mondo cinese. La comunità internazionale, secondo Pan, potrebbe e tornare ai caratteri tradizionali entro 10 anni, ripristinandoli progressivamente. Il rappresentante ha dato tre fondamentali motivi per la sua proposta:

1. La semplificazione fatta negli anni '50 dello scorso secolo è troppo approssimativa, non tiene conto degli aspetti estetici e scientifici dei caratteri cinesi.
Ad esempio, il carattere semplificato "amore" (爱 ai) non contiene, come il suo corrispettivo tradizionale (愛ai), il radicale "cuore" (心 xin). Insomma, il carattere è diventato una "deliberata versione dell'amore".

2. In passato, il maggior difetto attribuito ai caratteri tradizionali era la loro complessità, che li rende difficili da memorrizare o scrivere, e anche da diffondere. Tuttavia, oggigiorno la gran parte della gente usa i computer, e visto che non c'è differenza tra lo scrivere al computer un carattere semplificato e uno tradizionale, il problema sembrerebbe essere ormai risolto.

3. Tornare ai caratteri tradizionali aiuterebbe la coesione della comunità cinese internazionale. Ad oggi, a Taiwan sono ancora usati i caratteri tradizionali, che sono anche chiamati "caratteri standard" per profonde ragioni. A questi "caratteri standard" sono inoltre attribuiti significati culturali e teoretici, che dovrebbero esercitare pressione sul governo della Cina Popolare )per adottarli, n.d.t.).

Word of the Day: instrument

2009-02-17T16:09:00.003+01:00

From: The Podictionary (Italian translation to follow)

The podictionary word for today is instrument: You won’t be surprised to learn that our word instrument appeared first in English with a meaning of an article used to produce music. That was back in the year 1290 and in the South English Legendary, that sometimes fanciful account of the lives of the saints.

The word came into English from the French of William the Conqueror, but originated back in Latin in the root struere which means “to pile up.” So literally an instrument is a tool with which one is supposed to be able to build something. In the case of a musical instrument it allows us to create music, but because of its utilitarian roots, for many years in English one could find a piece of construction equipment being referred to as an instrument.

You wouldn’t usually think of instruction and destruction as antonyms, but if you look at them in light of that same Latin root struere, they are, in a way. Instruction is the piling up of knowledge while when you destroy something, you are knocking things off the pile, tearing it down.

The word instrumental can have two quite different meanings. Your uncle could be instrumental in getting you that job, meaning he is an important instrument in achieving your ends. Or you could listen to an instrumental on your iPod, a piece of music with no words in it, just instruments.
As with any word that means a tool of some sort, it doesn’t take long before someone uses the word to mean their sexual equipment.

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La parola del giorno di Podictionary oggi è instrument (strumento): non vi sorprenderà scoprire che tale parola appare per la prima volta in inglese con il significato di oggetto con cui produrre musica. Questo accadeva nel 1290 nel South English Lengedary (Leggende dell'Inghilterra del Sud), racconti a volte alquanto fantasiosi delle vite dei Santi.

La parola entrò nell'inglese dal francese grazie a Guglielmo il Conquistatore, ma ha origine nella radice latina struere, che significa letteralmente "ammassare, accatastare" (da cui l'italiano costruire, con-struere, n.d.t.). Dunque letteralmente uno strumento è un arnese con cui si può costruire qualcosa. Nel caso di uno strumento musicale, esso permette di creare musica, ma vista la radice utilitaristica del termine, per molti anni in inglese ci si riferì a varia attrezzatura da costruzione come strumenti.

Generalmente, non ci passerebbe mai per la testa di pensare ai termini istruzione e distruzione come a due contrari, ma se li si guarda alla luce della loro comune radice, il latino stuere, allora in un certo senso lo sono. Istruire significa raccogliere, accatastare conoscenza, mentre distruggere qualcosa significa smontarlo, farlo a pezzi, in altre parole tirare giù la catasta.
La parola instrumental (strumentale) può avere in inglese due significati alquanto diversi. Uno zio potrebbe esserti strumentale (instrumental) nel procurarti un certo lavoro, il che significa che è stato un importante mezzo per te nel raggiungere un certo obiettivo. Oppure potresti star ascoltando un instrumental sul tuo iPod, cioè un brano musicale senza parole cantate, solo strumenti.
Come ogni parola che significhi un attrezzo (tool) di qualche genere, non c'è voluto molto prima che qualcuno iniziasse ad usarla a significare l'apparato sessuale maschile.

Bilingual websites

2009-02-15T15:21:00.016+01:00

With this post I would like to introduce three of the websites that you can see on the "useful links" listing.

I have chosen these three in particular for a simple reason, that is they all regard at Chinese current affairs from different prospects, but all in a bilingual way, i.e. meticulously translating every headline, article or even comment in both a Western language and Chinese. I found this choice particularly interesting, for it not only allows people from different countries to get updated and involved in Chinese current affairs in an age where China is growing stronger, but also helps raising awareness within China itself of some core issues, such as the environment or human rights.

I have personally been in contact with some of these websites' staff , and I can say that they are all dedicated and passionate people, who enjoy their work and have a genuine passion for China, its culture and history.

These are the three websites:

China Dialogue: a Chinese-English website gathering news from both English and Chinese speaking media regarding the environment. The NGO, fouded by British journalists, is based in London and Beijing, and is about to open a new office in San Francisco. The content is differentiated, and the users have the possibility to post comments (that will be translated in either English or Chinese to help the understanding af all) and discuss about the articles.

Human Rights in China: an English website with both semplified and traditional characters translations, maily focused on human rights violations in Mainland China. The NGO is based in New York and Hong Kong, and has been founded by Chinese rebel students of the 1989 Movement. A part from raising awareness inside and outside China, the association also promotes practical campaigns and encourages people to support them, as well as collaborating with other no-profit organizations.

Polonews: is an Italian website that translates directly from Chinese official news and commentaries regarding Chinese internal and foreign affairs, culture and more. It is basically an archive of information (in both Italian and Chinese)and articles that has been created in order to become a source of genuine material about what's happening in the fast-changing reality of Mainland China for Italian speakers. Everyone who speaks Chinese can collaborate with translations to improve and extend the archive.

I hope you'll become a regular reader of these sites, as I am.

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Con questo post vorrei introdurre tra dei siti che trovate sotto la lista "useful links".

Ho scelto questi tre siti in particolare per una semplice ragione, e cioè perché tutti e tre guardano all'attualità cinese da diversi punti di vista, ma tutti e tre lo fanno in modo bilingue, sarebbe a dire traducono ogni titolo, articolo o perfino commento sia in una lingua occidentale che in cinese. Personalmente ritengo questa scelta degna di nota, in quanto non solo permette a non-cinesi di interessarsi e seguire le vicende cinesi in un epoca in cui la Cina sta diventando uno stato chiave a livello mondiale, ma anche perché permette di sensibilizzare l'opinione pubblica cinese stessa riguardo alcuni importanti problemi, come ad esempio l'ambiente o i diritti umani.

Sono entrata in contatto personalmente con membri dello staff di questi siti, e posso dire che sono persone che si dedicano al loro lavoro con passione ed interesse per la Cina, la sua storia e cultura.

Ecco i tre siti in questione:

China Dialogue: un sito in cinese e inglese che raccoglie informazioni e notizie sia da media inglesi che cinesi, tutte riguardanti problemi ambientali. La ONG, fondata da giornalisti britannici, ha sedi a Londra e Pechino, e sta recentemente per aprire una sede anche a San Francisco. I contenuti del sito sono vari, e gli utenti hanno la possibilità di commentare e discutere gli articoli (ogni commento viene prima tradotto in inglese o cinese, e poi pubblicato, per assicurare una comprensione totale da parte di tutti gli utenti).

Human Rights in China: sito inglese con versioni sia in caratteri semplificati che tradizionali, orientato principalmente su abusi dei diritti umani perpetrati nella Cina Popolare. La ONG ha sedi a New York e Hong Kong, ed è stata fondata da alcuni cinesi ribelli del Movimento del 1989 di piazza Tiananmen. A parte sensibilizzare l'opinione pubblica all'interno e al di fuori della Cina, l'associazione mira a promuovore campagne pratiche contro la violazione di diritti umani, nonché la collaborazione con altre organizzazioni no-profit.

Polonews: sito italiano che traduce articoli di cronaca e di commento direttamente da fonti ufficiali cinesi riguardanti politica interna ed estera cinese, cultura e tanto altro. Il sito è praticamente un archivio di informazioni (in italiano e cinese) e articoli creato per diventare una genuina fonte di informazioni sull'ormai vicino Paese di Mezzo per il pubblico italiano. Chiunque parli cinese può collaborare inviando traduzioni per migliorare ed espandere l'archivio.

Spero diventerete assidui lettori di questi siti come lo sono io.

Word of the Day: formica

2009-01-24T19:40:00.004+01:00

Formica: l'origine della parola è dibattuta. Alcuni la vogliono ricondurre al greco e quindi al sanscrito, altri a lingue indo-germaniche. Ma l'origine che personalmente ritengo più plausibile e probabilmente più affascinante è quella del Calepino, che riconduce la parola ad un composto latino. Egli la ritiene composta del verbo latino fero (io porto) + il sostantivo mica (briciola, grano), un composto che ben rispecchierebbe una delle caratteristiche principali e più vistose dell'animale, cioè il suo continuo trasportare cibo, a volte di dimensioni di più volte maggiori a quelle del proprio corpo, al formicaio. Questa origine potrebbe inoltre spiegare il fatto che la parola trova i suoi affini in altre lingue neolatine, come il rumeno furnica o lo spagnolo formiga.

Formica (ant): the origin of the word is still discussed by scholars. Some think it could be derived from ancient Greek and thus from Sanskrit, others believe it is of Indo-Germanic origins. Still, I find more plausible as well as more amusing the explanation given my Mr. Calepino (an Italian linguist), who interprets the word as derived from the Latin verb fero (to bring, to take) compounded with the noun mica (crumb, bit). This compound well represents the main and most visible activity of the insect, that is to bring food (sometimes bits several times bigger in size than the ant's body itself) to the ant heap. This explanation could also be supported by the fact that the Italian word has several cognates in other Neo-Latin languages, such as the Romanian furnica or the Spanish formiga.

A comparative analysis of the pear stories oral narratives in English, Chinese and Italian.

2008-06-07T11:49:00.005+02:00

It is interesting to see how speakers of different languages often use the same, or similar, linguistic patterns when telling a story, no matter how different the languages they speak are. In this paper the speech of different English, Chinese and Italian speakers telling the same story have been compared, in order to highlight the common features and the main differences in the conventions and linguistic devices used to tell a story in the 3 languages. What has emerged is that, even though there are some distinctions between the three languages, the main features and means used by the speakers narrating the story are basically the same, and that different linguistic structures are often used in different languages to convey the same meaning or effect (Fleischman & Yaguello, 2004).

The major objects of analysis in this paper will be: 1) the presence/absence and the differences in the narratives of all 3 languages of a film perspective, i.e. whether the narrator talks about the movie as a movie or as a story, and what are the choices that determine this difference at the level of language; 2) how and at what extent the characters are described and introduced in the narrative will also be taken into consideration; for example, the way and words used to describe the characters, or how the characters are introduced into the narrative.

The narratives considered here are taken from the work of Professor Wallace Chafe who, in the 1970s, produced with his collaborators a short movie, with colour and sound but no spoken word, to be shown to people all around the world, in order to compare narrative discourse in different languages. The film was designed to be as much universal as possible, i.e. any references to American culture were avoided, and the story shown in the movie has to do with actions and situations that every man and woman could have experienced in his/her life (Erbaugh 2001). The movie has been shown to speakers of different languages, and they have then been asked to tell what they have seen in the film. In 1975 Professor Chafe recorded the story told by 50 English speakers in California, then the same experiment has been conduct with 20 speakers of Mandarin Chinese in Taipei by Erbaugh, and with speakers of other languages such as Japanese, Malay, Greek, German, etc (Freedle 1980).

The samples chosen for closer analysis in this paper are the narratives of two English speakers and two Chinese speakers, which best exemplify the key features here discussed. Yet some data and references will be given considering the whole corpus of Chinese and English spoken narratives, when needed. The whole samples consist in the narratives of 20 American undergraduate students and 20 Chinese university students aged between 19 and 28, whose first language is Mandarin Chinese or who have spoken Mandarin since childhood (original transcripts from www.pearstories.org).

In addition to this material, I have recorded and transcribed 6 Italian speakers of Northern Italy. The pear stories film was shown to them, and they were then asked to tell what they have seen in the film. The 6 Italian speakers chosen are university students aged between 19 and 23, with a similar level of education of their Chinese and English counterparts. They were recorded on December 2006, and then their narratives were transcribed (without a formal marking of intonation, pauses, etc. but dividing the speech according to the notions of “idea units” and “focuses”) in order to compare them with those of the Chinese and English speakers. Two samples of the Italian narratives, which well represent the typical narrative amongst the six recorded, are included in Appendix 2, and will be more often used for the comparison, even though references and examples will be taken from the remaining 4 narratives as well. I also translated into English the Chinese and Italian examples, trying to be as faithful as possible to the original, eve though this sometimes can result in a odd or non-natural English.

Firstly, with regard to the film-viewer perspective, it is useful to take into consideration Tannen’s (1980) comparative study of English and Greek narratives based on the pear film. Contrasting the speech of the two groups, Tannen argues that Greek and English speakers differentiate in their account of the story mainly in one aspect: the American students interviewed, trying to be objective, tended to describe the story as a film, using specific cinematographic jargon, describing the zoom close-ups or noticing the costumes used. On the other hand, Greek speakers tended to effectively tell a story, and often gave moral and personal judgements, seldom mentioning words such as “film” or “camera”. According to Tanmen, this difference is mainly due to the fact that American students are more used to memory tests, and are thus concerned in scoring well, trying to remember as much details as possible and to be objective. On the contrary, Greek speakers are more interested in telling a story successfully, and are then more concentrated in the narrative effect they produce, focusing on the main points of the story and trying to extrapolate a moral or philosophic meaning from it.

The case of Chinese narratives is more complex. As Erbaugh (1990) pointed out, when Chinese and English narratives of the pear film are compared, the difference is narrower, since 12 out of the 20 Chinese students interviewed mentioned the word 电影 dianying or 片 pian (film) and some of them also referred indirectly to the movie, commenting on the change of scene or other film-specific features. Erbaugh suggests that

“the national splits in film-viewer perspective are far from absolute” (1990: 27),

stressing the fact that the difference between the two groups of speakers can not be misunderstood, or used to support the lack of critical point of view of Chinese speakers. Erbaugh’s argument is confirmed by statistic evidence, but to clarify this point it is useful to examine more in details some examples from the narratives, in order to understand the qualitative difference in the use of film perspective between the two groups of speakers. The speech of E14 for English and M05 for Chinese (see Appendix 1) are taken here as examples of narrations with a film-viewer perspective in both languages.

The first, immediate sign that the narrator is talking about a film is, of course, the direct use of the word “film”, or its equivalents in other languages (Tannen 1980). In the samples considered, the American speaker mentions the word “movie” five times all along her narration:

1 1.1 The movie opened up on this[.3] nice scene,
was that all the noises in the movie,
9.2 like the movie[.2]the ..sound track had been slowed down,
14.7 and ..nobody ever smiles in the movie,
19 19.1 And that’s the end of the movie. (ibid)

In contrast, the Chinese speaker M05 only uses the word 影片yingpian (film) once, in her conclusive sentence:

71.1 uh.....這個影片就結束了。
a…zhège yĭngpiàn jiù jiéshùle
(uh… then this film has finished)

and so does the Italian speaker IT6, who is, in fact, the only one of the six Italians interviewed to mention the word “cinema” (film). Exactly as the previous example from the Chinese narrative, he uses the word at the very end, as a conclusion:

9 Qui finisce il cinema.
(the movie ends here)

The fact that the American speaker makes use of the word “movie” all along her narration (and not only at the beginning or at the end, as do the majority of Chinese and Italian speakers who use the word) is the first signal that her narration is maintain a film-viewer perspective (ibid.). Besides these direct references to the word “movie”, E14 also uses a lot of cinematographic jargon to refer directly to the film, such as “open up”, “nice scene”, “zoomed on”, so as to make clear to her audience that what she is talking about is a movie (ibid.). Some of the Chinese speakers used cinematographic jargon too, even though not as much as the Americans did. Of the six Italian speakers, only two (IT01 and IT05) used film-specific terminology such as “la scena” (the scene) or “zoom”.

However, the mere reference to the word “film” or to other film-specific words (if sporadic in the narration) does not necessarily imply the maintenance of the film-viewer perspective along the whole narration. There must be something more to indicate to the listener that the narrator is talking about a film, and not simply narrating a story. In order to better analyze how and at what extent the students used or not the film perspective indirectly, it is useful here to briefly introduce the concepts of idea unit and focus proposed by Chafe. In his work ‘The Deployment of Consciousness in the Production of a Narrative’ (1980), Chafe defines idea units as the short segments into which a natural flow of speech is divided. He underlines the fact that, even though when we listen to someone talking we get the impression of a fluent talk, this is an elaboration of the listener’s mind, but that in fact natural speech is fragmented and jerky. According to Chafe, the different parts in which our speech is divided represent the different, temporary focus of our conscience on the small part of information needed. Idea units are practically identified in various ways, such as intonation, pausing, rising or falling pitch etc. (ibid.). For example, according to this classification, the following abstract from the speech of E09 represents one focus of consciousness, composed by 3 idea units, here separated in different lines:

9 9.1 [2.95[.9]A..nd um[.25]{throat clearing}[.35]]he goes up the ladder,
9.2 and picks some more pears…And he's up there picking,
9.3 [.4]and a little boy comes on his bicycle.

This subdivision of the narratives is here useful to understand how much importance (which means how many focuses or idea units) is given, for example, to the film-viewer perspective, and consequently how relevant this perspective is in the economy of the entire narrative.
It is then possible to maintain indirectly (i.e. without mentioning directly the word “film” or using cinematographic jargon) the viewer approach. In the narratives analyzed here, this indirect use of the film-viewer perspective is often maintained by using a sensorial point of view; that is to say that the speaker who summarizes a movie is likely to emphasize what s/he have seen or heard (Tannen 1980). This is semantically expressed by the use of lexical items from the visual and auditory semantic fields, but other devices are also a sign of the viewer perspective adopted, as for example describing the scene first, and in full details, or introducing the characters by recounting their look or clothes (ibid.). These techniques are largely used by the American students, but also by the Chinese and the Italians: four out of the six Italian speakers used an auditory or visual perspective, even though none of those four talked directly about a “movie”.

The narrative of M05 gives an example of this indirect approach. As previously said, she mentions the word yingpian (film) only once, at the end of her account, but she maintains the visual or auditory perspective all along her narration, devoting many idea units in her speech to express a sensorial perspective, as in the following examples:

4 4.1 uh.....附近還可以聽到羊叫的聲音。
am… fùjìn hái kĕyĭ tīngdào yáng jiào de shēngyīn
(am…near you can also hear the sound of a goat)
7 7.1 uh.....陽光照在..... ，
am… yángguāng zhàozài…
(the sunlight shines on…)

Besides these isolated idea units, that occur frequently and all along her narration, at some points she also uses whole focuses to express a sensorial point of view:

51 51.1 這個這個時候那三個小孩兒也走了，
zhègè　zhègè　shíhòu　nà　sān　gè　xiăoháir　yĕ　zŏule,
(in that that moment those 3 boys went away too)
51.2 看起來很輕鬆愉快，
kàn　qĭlái　hĕn　qīngsōng　yúkuài,
(they look very relaxed and happy)
51.3 uh身體很健康的樣子。
a 　shēntĭ　hĕn　jiànkāng　de　yàngzi
(their appearence is healthy)

Two out of three idea units in this focus are employed to expresses her opinion about the appearance of the three boys; notice the use of visual expressions such as 看起来 kan qilai (it looks like) or 样子 yangzi (appearance), which remind the speaker of the fact that she is talking about something she has seen. The same use of visual and auditory words can be noticed in the speech of IT03. Differently from the Chinese narrative of M05, IT03 never mentions the word film or any cinematographic jargon, yet she also refers to what she have seen or heard. Here are some examples of idea units, taken from her speech, which express this viewpoint. IT03 never devotes a whole focus on a visual or auditory description, but rather refers to those sensory perception in various idea units along her narration:

2.1 Poi si vede, un uomo… in lontananza e il rumore di una capra
(and then you see a man…on the distance and (you hear) the sound of a goat)
non si vedeva bene dall’immagine
(I couldn’t see clearly from the picture)
6.8 perché dopo si vede l’immagine in cui
(because later you see the picture where)

On the contrary, American speakers often devote whole focuses to a description of the sounds or images in the film; in fact, four American narrative revolve around the sound heard in the movie (ibid.), as in the following focus from the speech of E14:

6 6.1 [1.4]Like you could hear the[.15]the creaking [.35]of the[.4]ladder,
6.2 [.8]and the picking of the pears,
6.3 and then from a long way off[.35]they zoomed in on a[.35]/on
a/[.2]a[.2]child on a bicycle,
6.4 and you could hear the [.4]the gears on the bicycle going round,

The same American and Chinese speakers mentioned above, emphasize the film-viewer perspective also by assigning a whole focus to the description of the setting. E14 does it at the very beginning (lines 1.1-2.2), devoting two focuses in describing the land and trying to find a geographical collocation for the setting (mentioning in the same focus words like “movie or “scene”), while M05 opens her account more “traditionally”, i.e. introducing the character and the first scene (a man picking pears). She leaves the description of the setting to the second focus; but then she assigns 9 focuses to it (lines 2.1-10.2), and adds frequently personal comments such as 非常漂亮 feichang piaoliang (very beautiful) or 这个风景非常平静 zhe ge fengjing feichang pingjing (this scenery is very relaxing). None of the Italian speakers interviewed mentioned the landscape or the setting at any point; only the pear tree has been mentioned by all the 6 speakers.

Thus when narrating the film from a film-viewer perspective, the speakers of the three different languages all use the same or similar devices to keep the film frame. But there is a main difference in how the speakers use this perspective. As Tannen (1980) argues, the American students tend to use this viewpoint in order to give an objective account of the film, thus they try as much as possible to avoid adding personal or moral judgement to the story. On the contrary, Chinese speakers who describe the film in a viewer perspective frequently add their own point of view, their personal comments or moral judgements. Again, speaker M05 and E14 are good examples of this difference. Though E14 gives her personal point of view sometimes in her narrative, as in “but there was pear trees in it…and that was odd” (lines 3.1-3.2), she still tries to give an objective reason for it: in fact, the previous example is preceded by the description of the setting, from which it can be inferred that a pear tree in such an environment is to be considered “odd” (see lines 1.4-2.2). In other cases, she points out clearly that what she has just said was her own impression, and not part of the film. On the other hand, speaker M05 often adds to her descriptions personal judgments, especially by means of pejorative or positive adjectives referred to what she wants to comment on. As an example, when she describes the setting, she specifies that the landscape is “beautiful” or “relaxing”, employing 4 idea units and a whole focus for it (see 10.1-10-2). From these examples it is clear that, even though the film-viewer perspective is present in both narratives, the way in which the speakers decline this viewpoint is very different: it is a way to be objective for the English speaker, but a way to express her personal comments for the Chinese speaker. As regards Italian speakers, they generally did not add personal comments during the narration; only one of them (IT04) used a whole focus at the end of her account to express her point of view regarding the end of the story:

9.1 però…
(but)
9.2 strana la cosa perché comunque
(this thing is weird because anyway)
9.3 glien’è sparita una cesta
(a whole basked disappeared)
9.4 e loro ne avevano tre.
(but they (the boys) just have three (pears))

Another sign of the use of a viewer perspective can be observed in the description of the characters. Generally speaking, in all the three languages the speakers who do not mention directly or indirectly a film-viewer perspective, simply introduce the protagonist or protagonists of the story, without spending more than one or two idea units in describing them. On the other hand, the visual-oriented accounts generally have full descriptions of the people involved, with specification (or guessing) of their age, their appearance, their nationality or even their social status (Dowing 1980). The following examples are taken from visual-oriented narratives:

3.1 [.35]There’s [.65]a farmer,
[.l5]he looks like ay uh..Chicano American, (E09)
34.1 這個女孩子.....給給我的印象比較深，
zhègè　nǚháizi…　gĕi　gĕi　wŏ　de　yìngxiàng　bĭjiào　 shēn,
(this girl gave me a quite deep impression)
34.2 因為她的頭髮是黑顏色的，(M05)
yīnwèi　tā　de　tóufà　shì　hēiyánsè　de,
(bacause her hair is black)
2.1 C’era ‘sto signore qua che era su una scala sull’albero
(there was this man here who was on a ladder on the tree)
aveva un vestito che era blu. (IT05)
(he was wearing blue clothes)

On the other hand, the introduction and description of the same characters in narratives without (or only with a partial) film-viewer perspective are as follow:

uh…..就是有一個男的，(M17)
am, 　jiùshì　yŏu　yí　gè　nánde,
(am…it’s that there was a male)

[.3+u—h[.3]]there’s a--..man,
[.45]picking pears (E08)

C’era un contadino che raccoglieva delle pere (IT06)
(there was a farmer who was picking some pears)

It is clear from the above examples how the speaker who decides to adopt a visual perspective to narrate the film, is influenced by this choice to use a more specific, “visual” vocabulary in describing characters, but also actions and settings.

These considerations lead to a consistent difference from one speaker to another (but also between languages): the choice about which nouns and adjectives to use in describing the people in the film. Since some speakers tend to be more generic, giving only information strictly useful for the progression of the narrative while others are far more specific, (see above examples), this implies and is reflected also in a different word choice between the speakers (ibid.). As an example, some nouns used in the different languages to refer to the man picking pears, are the following (equivalent words are in the same line):

ENGLISH: man, guy, farm laborer, farmer; CHINESE : 人 ren (man), 农人 nongren (farmer), 男的 nande (male), 外国先生 waiguo xiansheng (foreign gentleman); ITALIAN: uomo (man), contadino (farmer), signore (mister).

What is interesting to notice here is that, in this case, Americans used more generic, non-interpretative nouns to refer to the protagonists, and only 4 of them mentioned the pear-picker’s social status or ethnicity; Chinese speakers, on the other hand, were far more explicit, using frequently nouns such as 外国先生 waiguo xiansheng (foreign gentleman), 种树的人 zhongshu de ren (tree grower) or 摘芭乐的人 zhai bale de ren (guava picker) (Erbaugh 1990). As regards Italian speakers, they typically used words such as “uomo” (man) or “signore” (mister), both very common and generic words in Italian to refer to a male adult. Only two of them referred to the man as a “contadino” (farmer), and none of them mentioned his social status or ethnic origin.

It is interesting at this point to notice how the speakers introduce the characters in their narratives. The speakers of the three languages, no matter weather they were using a film-viewer perspective or not, generally begin their narration or indicate the change of scene with the introduction of the main character involved in that section of the story, sometimes using a full focus to describe in details his age, nationality or social condition. A remarkable similarity between the three languages is the use of an identical structure to topicalize the noun that refers to the character, in order to introduce him in the narration (Erbaugh 1990). The topic is usually defined as “what the sentence is about” (Li & Thompson 1989: 82) and in these cases it is introduced by the locution “there is/was” in English, and its Chinese and Italian equivalents “有” and “c’è/c’era” (see speaker E09 line 3.1, speaker E08 line 1.2 and speaker IT06 line 1.1). While topicalization is a device commonly used in both spoken and written Chinese, which has been defined a topic-prominent language (ibid.), it is not so common in standard English or Italian. In English, topicalization is not usually explicitly marked, with a few exception in spoken English or in structures where expressions like “regarding”, “speaking of” etc. clearly mark the topic of the sentence (Huddleston & Pullum 2002). The same can be said about Italian: in many varieties of spoken Italian the structure is quite commonly used (Frascarelli 2000), yet it is not as common in formal or written Italian. So, marking the topic in the sentence can be considered a feature common to all the three languages considered here. However, in Chinese the use of this structure is overwhelming: in the narrative here considered, Chinese speakers use frequently topicalization to focus the attention of the listener on the main object of the rest of the sentence (comment), and, differently from the Italians and the Americans, who marked the topic only by means of the structure mentioned before, they did it also by using other grammatical structures. The marked topic can be almost every component of the sentence, for example the subject, but also the location or time of the action (Li & Thompson 1989). Some examples of topicalization can be seen on the speech of M05 and M17:

32.1 在那個路上，(M05)
zài　nàgè　lùshàng,
(in that street)
23.2 那個農人呢，（M17)
nàgè　nóngrén　ne,
(that farmer NE)

Here the topic is marked in two different ways, both very typical of spoken language. In the first case, a pause in the speech is the only marker of the topic; in the second example, the topic is more distinctly separated from the comment by the pause particle 呢 ne (ibid.).
Analyzing the characters in the narratives, another cross-language feature can be noticed: when talking about a character in a certain situation, some speakers decide to adopt a first-person point of view to describe his thoughts. This is present in both Chinese and English narratives, but in none of the Italian narratives. Good examples of the use of this “character perspective” are the narrative of E09 (lines 12.2-13.1) and the following part in the speech of M04:

43 43.1 我想，
wŏ xiăng,
(I think) 　
43.2 這個農人可能心裡覺得，
zhège　nóngrén　kĕnéng　xīnlĭ　juédé,
(this farmer maybe inside his heart thinks)
43.3 ie., 少了一簍果子.
ei, 　 shăole　yì　　lóu　guŏzi .
(hey, It’s missing a basket of fruit)

In both cases, to make the distinction between the thoughts of the speaker and those of the characters clearer, the direct speech is separated from the rest of the narration by an interjection, such as “ie” in Chinese or “well” in English (even though the English speaker also uses the verb “says” to introduce the direct speech). In these examples, the Chinese speaker specifies clearly that the thoughts of the character are her guessing, while the American speaker narrates them as if they were part of the movie itself.

In conclusion, even though some differences can be noticed in the narrative discourse between Chinese, English and Italian speakers, the example of the pear film shows clearly how some general patterns are similar, if not identical, across languages. An example of such patterns is the use in the narration of a film-viewer perspective, which is a viewpoint adopted more consistently by American speakers, but which is also present in Chinese and Italian narratives. Furthermore, similar patterns in the three languages can be found in the introduction and description of the characters, especially in the topicalization of the introductory sentence, in the use of equivalent or similar nouns to refer to them or in the degree of specificity in descriptions. In general, the pear film linguistic experiment and the comparative studies carried on until now on the basis of it are of great interest, and not only to linguists. In fact, they can also be useful for cross-language communication or in order to translate between languages, since they help to compare and understand the deep differences but also the similarities between speakers of different languages.

REFERENCES:

Chafe, W. L. (1980) ‘The Deployment of Consciousness in the Production of a Narrative’ in Chafe, W. L. (Ed.) The Pear Stories, Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production, Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Downing, P. (1980) ‘Factors Influencing Lexical Choice in Narrative’ in Chafe, W. L. (Ed.) The Pear Stories, Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production, Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Erbaugh, M. S. (1990) ‘Mandarin oral narratives compared with English: the pear/guava stories’ in Journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association, Vol. 25, No.2, pp. 21-42.

Erbaugh, M. S. (2001), The Chinese Pear Stories: Narratives Across Seven Chinese Dialects, available at: http://www.pearstories.org/default.htm (Accessed: 10/11/2006).

Fleischman, S. and Yaguello, M. (2004) ‘Discourse markers across languages’ in Moder, C. L. and Martinovic-Zic A. (Ed.) Discourse Across Languages and Cultures, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.

Frascarelli, M. (2000) The Syntax-Phonology Interface in Focus and Topic Constructions in Italian, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Freedle, R. (1980) ‘Preface to the series’ in Chafe, W. L. (Ed.) The Pear Stories, Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production, Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Huddleston, R. and Pullum, G. K. (2002) The Cambridge grammar of the English language, Cambridge University Press.

Li, C. N. and Thompson, S. A. (1989), Mandarin Chinese: a functional reference grammar, Berkeley: University of California Press.

McEnery, A. M. and Xiao, R. Z. (2006) ‘Collocation, Semantic Prosody, and Near Synonymy: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective’ in Applied Linguistics [Online], Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 103-129, available at: http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/45/ (Accessed: 21/11/2006).

Tannen, D. (1980) ‘A Comparative Analysis of Oral Narrative Strategies: Athenian Greek and American English’ in Chafe, W. L. (Ed.) The Pear Stories, Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production, Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation

假行僧 | Suposed Wandering Monk | Presunto Monaco Errante

2008-05-14T13:12:00.006+02:00

Music and Lyrics by 催健 Cui Jian

我要从南走到北,我还要从白走到黑.
我要人们都看到我,却不知知道是谁.
假如你看我有点累,就请你给我倒碗水.
假如你已经爱上我,就请你吻我的嘴.

我有这双脚,我有这双腿,我有这千山和万水.
我要这所有的所有,但不要恨和悔.
要爱上我你就别怕后悔,总有一天我要远走高飞.
我不想留在一个地方,也不愿有人跟随.
我要从南走到北,我还要从白走到黑.
我要人们都看到我,但不知道我是谁.

我只想看你长得美,但不想知道你在受罪.
我想要得到天上的水,但不是你的泪.
我不愿相信真的有魔鬼,也不愿与任何人作对.
你别想知道我到底是谁,也别想看到我的虚伪.

-------------------------------------------

I want to go from north to south, I want to go from white to black too.
I want everyone looking at me without recognizing me.
If you see me weary, please just pour me some water.
If you already love me, then please just kiss my lips.

I’ve got these two feet, I’ve got these two legs
I’ve got those thousand mountains and million waters.
I want everything of everything, except for hate and remorse.
If you want to love me, don’t you be afraid of future regrets,
'Cause there will always be a day when I'll want to go further, fly higher
I don’t mean to stop anywhere, I don't want to follow anyone.
I want to go from north to south, I also want to go from black to white.
I want everyone looking at me without recognizing.

I'd like to see you growing up, becoming a beautiful woman,
but I don't want know you're having a hard time.
I’d like to own all the waters over the sky, but I don't want your tears.
I don’t want to believe in demons,
Neither I want to fight against anyone.
Don't think you know me, after all, and please don't try to see my shame.

-------------------------------------------

Voglio andare da nord a sud, voglio anche andare dal bianco al nero
Voglio che tutti mi guardino, ma nessuno mi riconosca
Se mi vedi stanco, per favore versami una tazza d'acqua
Se senti già di amarmi, per favore bacia le mie labbra

Ho questi due piedi, ho queste due gambe
Ho questi mille monti e milioni di acque
Voglio tutto di tutto, tranne odio e rimorsi
Se mi vuoi amare, non temere i rimpianti del futuro
perché ci sarà sempre un giorno in cui vorrò andare più lontano, volare più in alto
Non voglio fermarmi in alcun luogo, non voglio avere nessuno da seguire
Voglio andare da nord a sud, voglio anche andare dal bianco al nero
Voglio che tutti mi guardino, ma nessuno mi riconosca

Voglio solo vederti crescere, diventare una bellissima donna
ma non voglio sapere quando sei in difficoltà
voglio possedere tutte le acque al di sopra del cielo, purchè non siano le tue lacrime
non voglio credere nei demoni, e non voglio scontrarmi con nessun altro uomo.
Non tentare di sapere chi sono veramente, e non scoprire le mie vergogne.

Word of the Day: 缘分 Yuanfen

2008-04-25T16:22:00.002+02:00

The Chinese expression 缘分 (yuán fèn) is defined by the dictionary as as "lot or luck by which people are brought together", and is generally used to describe the fate by which lovers (or sometimes friends) are bound to meet and be together.

The word is in fact derived from the Buddhist concept of Karma, meaning "action", which is linked to the concept of 因缘 yinyuan, "cause-effect": what we do will have a consequence in our present (or future) life and in the relationships we have with others (friends, lover, parents, etc.).

The character 缘 in itself has the meaning of "cause, reason".

L'espressione cinese 缘分 (yuán fèn) viene definita dal dizionario come "sorte o fortuna che fa sì che determinate persone di conoscano", ed è generalmente usata per descrivere come amanti (o a volte amici) siano destinati ad incontrarsi e stare assieme.

Il termine deriva, in realtà, dal concetto buddhista di Karma, che significa "azione", il quale a sua volta è legato all'idea di 因缘 yinyuan, "causa-effetto": quello che facciamo avrà conseguenze nella nostra vita, presente o futura, e nelle relazioni interpersonali che intratteniamo con gli altri (amici, amante, genitori, ecc.).

Il carattere 缘 di per sé significa "causa, motivo scatenante".

明天，不 | Domani, no

2008-04-18T15:26:00.005+02:00

di 北岛 Bei Dao

这不是告别
因为我们并没有相见
尽管影子和影子
曾在路上叠在一起
象一个孤零零的逃犯

明天，不
明天不在夜的那边
谁期待，谁就是罪人
而夜里发生的故事
就让它在夜里结束吧

traduzione italiana a cura di Claudia Pozzana

Questo non è un addio
perché non ci siamo visti affatto
malgrado ombra e ombra
per strada si sovrapponessero insieme
come un evaso solitario

Domani, no
il domani non è oltre la notte
chi aspetta è il colpevole
ma le storie che accadono di notte
si lasci che nella notte finiscano

Italians hold second day of polls | Gli Italiani al secondo giorno di elezioni

2008-04-14T10:07:00.009+02:00

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2008/04/14 07:20:39 GMT

Voting has resumed in Italy on the second day of elections for a new parliament and prime minister.
The main contenders for the premiership are centre-right former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-left former mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni.
With the economy a key election issue, both men have promised modest tax cuts and reductions in bureaucracy.
Official figures suggest that nearly two-thirds of voters have already cast their ballots.

Correspondents say the race is likely to be close, and the winner may have to broker a deal with smaller parties.
The general election is being held three years ahead of schedule following the collapse of a left-of-centre coalition government led by Romano Prodi. The new government will be Italy's 62nd in 63 years.
Exit polls from the first partial results will be known shortly after the polls close at 1500 (1300 GMT) on Monday. The counting is to be scrutinised by party observers from both right and left to forestall any accusations of cheating.
Camera-phones banned
Voting got off to a smooth start on Sunday with millions of Italians casting their ballots at polling stations set up in schools and public buildings across the country.

The counting is to be scrutinised by party observers from both sides

Some three million Italians living abroad are also taking part.
By the time polling ended at 2200 (2000 GMT) on Sunday, 62.5% of voters had cast their ballots, four percentage points lower than at the same stage in the 2006 election.
Two years ago, a final total of more than 80% of the 47 million people eligible cast their votes.
New regulations prevented anyone from taking mobile telephones equipped with cameras into the polling booths to record which way they voted, as "vote buying" has been detected at previous elections.
Some 158 different parties are contesting the regional and national polls, including Mr Berlusconi's new conservative People of Freedom (PDL) and Mr Veltroni's recently formed Democratic Party (PD).
Mr Berlusconi was applauded as he walked past voters in the northern city of Milan to cast his ballot. He paused only to kiss a three-year-old boy.

"Save us, Silvio," one of his supporters shouted.
The 71-year-old billionaire, believed to be Italy's richest man, is the head of a business empire that spans media, advertising, insurance, food and construction and includes the successful football club AC Milan.
He has served two terms as prime minister, last resigning in May 2006.
His main opponent was meanwhile forced to wait in a long queue at a polling station in the capital, Rome, on Sunday until officials let him through to vote.
"I hope it goes well," Mr Veltroni told reporters outside.
Mr Veltroni, 52, is a former communist who served for seven years as mayor of Rome, before taking over the leadership of the centre-left coalition led by Mr Prodi, after his government collapsed in January.
Economic ills
Although Italy faces a massive public debt, both candidates have promised tax cuts and handouts to voters, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome.

Italy's economy has been slipping in the face of low productivity and a strong euro, and analysts say young people, pensioners and low-income workers are feeling the pressure.
One voter in the southern town of Sorrento, Ciro d'Esposito, publicly tore up and ate his ballot paper in an unusual form of personal protest at what he described as his disgust at the failure of politicians to deal with his country's economic ills.
"What future are we preparing for our children? Who should I have voted for? Something has to change, we're heading towards ruin," the 41-year-old businessman told the Ansa news agency.
Mr d'Esposito was briefly detained by police, as it is an offence to destroy ballot papers.
Correspondents say that whichever candidate is declared the winner, both know a period of painful political and economic reforms is essential and unavoidable

Le votazioni per l'elezione del parlamento e del Presidente del Consiglio italiani sono riprese per il secondo giorno .

I due principali avversari per la Presidenza sono l'ex-presidente di centro-destra Silvio Berlusconi e l'ex-sindaco di Roma Valter Veltroni, centro-sinistra.

L'economia del Paese rappresenta uno dei nodi chiave di queste elezioni, eppure entrambi i candidati hanno promesso modesti tagli alle tasse e riduzione della burocrazia

I sondaggi ufficiali mostrano che [dopo la prima giornata di votazioni] quasi due terzi dei votanti hanno gia' espresso la loro preferenza.

I corrispondenti [dall'Italia] suppongono che la corsa tra i due principali contendenti sara' molto serrata, e che il vincitore dovra probabilmente' scendere a patti con i partiti piu' piccoli.

Le elezioni generali si sono tenute tre anni prima del previsto, in conseguenza alla caduta del governo della coalizione di centro-sinistra capeggiato da Romano Prodi. Il nuovo esecutivo sara' il 62esimo Governo italiano in 63 anni.

I primi exit poll si avranno poco dopo la chiusura dei seggi alle 15:00 di lunedi'. Al conteggio delle schede saranno presenti osservatori di entrambe le parti, destra e sinistra, per evitare eventuali accuse di brogli.

Vietati i cellulari con fotocamera

L'operazione di voto ha avuto un inizio regolare domenica, con milioni di italiani che che si sono recati a votare nei seggi stabiliti in scuole e altri edifici pubblici in tutto il territorio nazionale

Il conteggio verra' supervisionato da osservatori di entrambe le parti.

Inoltre, qualcosa come 3 milioni di italiani all'estero parteciperanno alle elezioni a distanza.

Alla chiusura dei seggi, alle 2200 di domenica, avevano espresso la loro preferenza il 62.5% di votanti, il 4% in meno rispetto alla stessa fase nelle elezioni del 2006.

Due anni fa, [ala fine dei due giorni di elezioni] avevano votato un totale di 80% dei 47 milioni di aventi diritto.

Nuove norme vietano l'introduzione in cabina di voto di cellulari con fotocamera che possano registrare il voto, in quantodurante la precedente consultazione elettorale si sono verificati episodi di "compravendita dei voti" .

A livello locale o nazionale vi sono un totale di circa 158 partiti in lizza per le elezioni, compresi il nuovo partito conservatore di Berlusconi, il Popolo della Liberta' (PDL) e il Partito Democratico (PD) di Veltroni, anch'esso di recente formazione.

A Milano, Berlusconi e' stato applaudito mentre passava tra gli elettori per andare ad esprimere il suo voto. [Il candidato] Si e' fermato solo per baciare un bambino di 3 anni [lungo il suo percorso].

"Salvaci, Silvio" ha urlato uno dei suoi sostenitori.

Il 71enne milionario, considerato la persona piu' ricca d'Italia, e' a capo di un impero finanziario che comprende media, agenzie pubblicitarie, compagnie d'assicurazione, prodotti alimentari e imprese edili, nonche' la famosa squadra di calcio AC Milan.

Berlusconi e' stato Presidente del Consiglio per due mandati, fino alla scadenza [del secondo mandato] nel Maggio 2006

Il suo principale avversario, nella stessa domenica, ha dovuto attendere in una lunga fila ad un seggio di Roma, la capitale, finche' gli scrutatori non l'hanno fatto entrare per votare.

"Spero che vada bene" ha detto Veltroni ai giornalisti che l'attendevano fuori.

Il 52enne Veltroni, ex-comunista, e' diventato leader della coalizione di centro-sinistra (prima capeggiata da Prodi) dopo essere stato per sette anni sindaco di Roma; la leadership e' passata a Veltroni dopo la caduta del Governo Prodi a gennaio.

L'economia malata

Sebbene l'Italia debba affrontare un enorme debito pubblico, entrambi i candidati hanno promesso ai loro elettori tagli nelle tasse e sussidi, dichiara il nostro corrispondente da Roma Christian Fraser.

L'economia italiana ha avuto un calo repentino dovuto alla bassa produttivita' e alla crescente forza dell'euro; gli analisti spiegano che coloro che ne risentono di piu' sono i giovani, i pensionati e i lavoratori a salario basso.

Un elettore a Sorrento, Ciro d'Esposito, ha fatto a pezzi e mangiato in pubblico le sue schede elettorali in una protesta personale piuttosto inusuale contro quello che d'Esposito definisce comeun profondo disgusto per l'incapacita' dei politici di affrontare i seri problemi dell'economia italiana.

"Che futuro stiamo peparando per i nostri figli? Per chi avrei dovuto votare? Wualcosa deve cambiare, stiamo andando verso la rovina" ha dichiarato il 41enne businessman all'Ansa.

D'esposito e' stato brevemente trattenuto dalla polizia in quanto distruggere le schede elettorali e' contro la legge.

I corrispondenti [dall'Italia] spiegano che chiunque dei due candidati sia dichiarato vincitore, entrambi sanno che un doloroso periodo di riforme economiche e politiche e' essenziale e inevitabile per il Paese.

Comment on the translation (from Chinese into English) of lexical items within a text-fragment

2008-04-13T13:41:00.006+02:00

Lu Xun, 狂人日记 Kuangren riji (Diary of a madman), chapter 7

Original Text:

我晓得他们的方法，直捷杀了，是不肯的，而且也不敢，怕有祸祟。所以他们大家连络，布满了罗网，逼我自戕。试看前几天街上男女的样子，和这几天我大哥的作为，便足可悟出八九分了。最好是解下腰带，挂在梁上，自己紧紧勒死；他们没有杀人的罪名，又偿了心愿，自然都欢天喜地的发出一种呜呜咽咽的笑声。否则惊吓忧愁死了，虽则略瘦，也还可以首肯几下。
他们是只会吃死肉的！——记得什么书上说，有一种东西，叫“海乙那”的，眼光和样子都很难看；时常吃死肉，连极大的骨头，都细细嚼烂，咽下肚子去，想起来也教人害怕。“海乙那”是狼的亲眷，狼是狗的本家。前天赵家的狗，看我几眼，可见他也同谋，早已接洽。老头子眼看着地，岂能瞒得我过。
最可怜的是我的大哥，他也是人，何以毫不害怕；而且合伙吃我呢？还是历来惯了，不以为非呢？还是丧了良心，明知故犯呢？
我诅咒吃人的人，先从他起头；要劝转吃人的人，也先从他下手。

Lyell’s translation:

I'm on to the way they operate. They'll never be willing to come straight out and kill me. Besides, they wouldn't dare. They'd be afraid of all the bad luck it might bring down on them if they did. And so, they've gotten everyone into cahoots with them and have set traps all over the place so that I'll do myself in. When I think back on the looks of those men and women on the streets a few days ago, coupled with the things my elder brother's been up to recently, I can figure out eight or nine tenths of it. From their point of view, the best thing of all would be for me to take off my belt, fasten it around a beam, and hang myself. They wouldn't be guilty of murder, and yet they'd still get everything they're after. Why, they'd be so beside themselves with joy, they'd sob with laughter. Or if they couldn't get me to do that, maybe they could torment me until I died of fright and worry. Even though I'd come out a bit leaner that way, they'd still nod their heads in approval.
Their kind only knows how to ate dead meat. I remember reading in a book somewhere about something called the hai-yi-na. Its general appearance is said to be hideous, and the expression in its eyes particularly ugly and malicious. Often eats carrion, too. Even chews the bones to a pulp and swallows them down. Just thinking about it's enough to frighten a man.
The hai-yi-na is kin to the wolf. The wolf's a relative of the dog, and just a few days ago the Zhao family dog gave me a funny look. It's easy to see that he's in on it too. How did that old man expect to fool me by staring at the floor?
My elder brother's the most pathetic of the whole lot. Since he's a human being too, how can he manage to be so totally without qualms, and what's more, even gang up with them to eat me? Could it be that he's been used to this sort of thing all along and sees nothing wrong with it? Or could it be that he's lost all conscience and just goes ahead and does it even though he knows it's wrong?
If I'm going to curse cannibals, I'll have to start with him. And if I'm going to convert cannibals, I'll have to start with him too.

My Comment:

Diary of a madman was first published in 1918 on the journal New Youth, which gathered a group of intellectual trying to give a radical change to Chinese culture. It is commonly considered

“the first truly modern short story – modern in content, structure, and language – in the Chinese literature of the period” (Lyell 1990).

The short story is the diary of a man afflicted by “persecution complex”, who sees people around him as cannibals, trying to eat him; with the description of the madman’s hallucinations, Lu Xun harshly criticizes traditional Chinese culture, seen as a society of men eating men, expressing at best the feelings of a new generation of intellectuals in a modernizing and culturally alive China (Huss 2003). The language used is a spoken, colloquial Chinese (baihua, the language of people), and contrasts sharply with the tendency of that time amongst Chinese intellectuals to use a highly formalized and literary language (called wenyan). Lu Xun writes his short story with a brief introduction in wenyan, which contrasts sharply with the style and language of the rest of the story, creating a modern and ironical piece of literature, that is still considered the starting point and one of the best works in modern Chinese literature (Lyell 1990).
In this context, it is easy to understand how the use of language, and the lexical choices made by the author, play a central role in achieving the literary, stylistic and ideological aims of the text, and how their translation can be very challenging.
Before starting the analysis of the text-fragment, it is useful here to point out what can be defined a word, and the problem of equivalence related to it. The definition of “word” has always been a challenge for linguists (Saeed 1997). Is it what Baker considers as “any sequence of letters with an orthographic space on either side” (1992: 11)? This could be true for languages such as English, German or Greek. But what about languages such as Chinese or Japanese, where no spaces separates one character to another, to distinguish the different words? Is it then the smallest unit in a language which can stand on its own to carry a meaning? This is also arguable, since sometimes, as in the case of an idiom, a whole sentence (composed of many words) can carry a single meaning, or in other cases a word can be composed of different morphemes, each of those having a meaning in its own (Saeed 1997). The debate is still opened, and a univocal definition of “word” is still to be found (ibid.).
What is certain is that, in whatever way a word is defined,

“on the level of interlingual translation, there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units” (Jakobson 2004: 139).

This issue, which Jakobson defines as “equivalence in meaning”, has been one of the pivotal point in translation studies for more than 20 years, and is basically linked to the interlingual differences in the categorization of the world by mean of words and, at a higher level, semantic fields (Munday 2001). In other words, the fact that every language encodes the world in different ways implies that not all the languages have the same “set” of words. For example, English speakers have a word to express the concept of “privacy”, which other languages do not lexicalize; while Chinese people use the word mianzi (whose English direct equivalent is “face”) to express a set of values typical of the traditional organization of Chinese society (which include honour, integrity, reputation, etc.), absent in the English “lose your face”. Thus the problem of lexical equivalence between different languages implies a series of choices that the translator has to make, and in doing so s/he has to consider carefully the meaning of the word itself, the meaning of its possible equivalents in the target language and the extra-textual references that the word could bring to the source text (Baker 1992).
Looking now at the text fragment considered, an example of such extra-textual references if found is line 1. The word huosui, that Lyell translated as “the bad luck it might bring down on them”, refers to an ancient popular belief in rural China, namely the conviction that bad spirits are responsible for bringing bad luck to the family of people committing a misdeed. As it can be seen, the word is semantically complex (ibid.), and can not be translated simply as “bad luck” without losing a large part of its meaning. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, Lu Xun sharply criticizes traditional Chinese culture; in particular, one of the main targets of his critic are the popular superstitious beliefs, which the author sees as generated by ignorance and prejudice, but which are strongly rooted in rural China in the early 20th century. Therefore the use of the word huosui here has a further expressive meaning added by the author, since the word is used ironically in this context to satirize these popular beliefs, and thus it gives to the text not only a reference to traditional popular culture, but also an ironical effect. Of course, this culture-specific concept is not lexicalized in English; subsequently the translator is forced to use a paraphrase or a whole sentence to express the meaning of the word. In translating the word, Lyell adds “might bring down on them” to refer to the fact that the bad luck is caused by the misdeed committed, and in this way he avoids to lose the whole semantic complexity of the word. Yet he can not avoid to omit all the cultural references and the consequent ironical value added to the word, losing in the passage a whole “level” of meaning.
Another example of Chinese lexical items not lexicalized in English are the onomatopoeic words (often verbs or adjectives, sometimes used as adverbials) for sound, largely employed in Chinese literary texts. There is a great variety of such words, and each of them identify different natural sounds and, in some cases, emotions expressed by such sounds (Li And Thompson, 1989). English language is also provided of onomatopoeic words (such as “bang” or “crash”), but those are far less used than in Chinese, and the range is not as wide as it is in Chinese (Ibid). As a consequence, such words/expressions are not easily translatable into English with the same effect they have in the source text. A good example of such difficulty is found in this line:

自然都欢天喜地的发出一种呜呜咽咽的笑声
ziran dou huan tian xi di de fa chu yi zhong wuwuyeye de xiaosheng
(naturally all merry-sky-happy-earth de-DET let out one zhong-CL sob-sob de-DET laugh-sound.)
They'd be so beside themselves with joy, they'd sob with laughter.

Here Lyell decided to translate the meaning of the Chinese expression leaving the onomatopoeic stress of the original sentence, which is probably the only possible solution in this case. Moreover, in this example another morphological device, often used in Chinese, has been used with the onomatopoeic verb. The morphological process is called reduplication, and consists in doubling the morphemes of a verb or adjective in order to make a new word, generally stronger or weaker in meaning compared to the original (Li & Thompson 1989). In this case, the reduplication of the onomatopoeic verb has the double function of attenuating the meaning of the verb (which could be translated literally as “sob a little bit”), and emphasizing the “sound” effect of the onomatopoeia. The lack of such a morphological process in the target language makes the expression particularly difficult to translate. In this case, Lyell decided to sacrifice the complex morphological meaning of the word in order to give a more plain and readable translation.
A similarly semantic construction, which contains a specific semantic meaning in itself, can be found on line 10:

前天赵家的狗，看我几眼
Qiantian Zhao jia de gou, kan wo ji yan
(two-days-ago Zhao family de-DET dog, look me some eye)
just a few days ago the Zhao family dog gave me a funny look.

In this sentence, the verbal classifier ji yan (some eye) used with the verb kan (look) have a semantic function (ibid.). It adds an expressive meaning (Baker 1992) to the whole verb phrase, and communicates to the reader that the dog’s intentions towards the protagonist are not good at all, that it is giving him a black look. In this case, though, Lyell found a way to convey effectively the same meaning in the English translation by adding the adjective “funny” to “look”, thus expressing semantically the expressive meaning conveyed by the verbal classifier construction.
Another challenging difference between the two languages at word level is the different conventions and rules for word collocations. “Collocation” indicates the fact that a couple of words or expressions are often found together in a language (Saeed 1997). For instance, in the following sentence:

e.g.: 眼光和样子都很难看
yanguang he yangzi dou hen nankan
(eye-sight and appearance all very ugly)
Its general appearance is said to be hideous, and the expression in its eyes particularly ugly and malicious.

“Ugly” is here used in Chinese with the eyes, but this is a collocation seldom found in English. Translating this sentence, Lyell had to find some synonyms of the adjective ugly that can collocate better with “eyes”. Moreover the Chinese yanguang, which means “the trajectory of the eyes when looking at something”, has no equivalent in English. For these reasons, Lyell has re-written the whole sentence here, using three different adjectives to translate the Chinese nankan (namely hideous, ugly and malicious), and paraphrasing in “expression of his eyes” the Chinese word yanguang.
The repetition in the source text of the word sirou (“dead-meat”), as in lines 7-8, which expresses the maniacal anxiety of the protagonist, can not be translated with the same repetition in English, where the recurrence of the same word many times in a paragraph is considered “bad” style. Thus Lyell has to translate it in different ways in the different occurrences of the word (dead meat, carrion). This lessen the maniacal effect that the repetition of the word gives to the source text; furthermore, the link between people eating “dead meat” and the hyena eating “dead meat” – rendered as “carrion” in the target text - becomes less direct in the English translation.
These intra-textual links between words have generally different conventions from one language to another. This is particularly true if the languages considered are as different as Chinese and English are. In some cases, the translator has to add or change completely some words or expressions in the target language in order to maintain the same word-to-word links present in the source text, or in order to meet the conventions of the target language. Considering now the following sentence:

所以他们大家连络，布满了罗网，逼我自戕
Suoyi tamen dajia lianluo, bu man le luo wang, bi wo zi qiang.
(so they all-together interconnect, spread-full le-MOD trap, force me self kill.)
And so, they've gotten everyone into cahoots with them and have set traps all over the place so that I'll do myself in.

It is interesting to see how the translator, to maintain the reference to the traps mentioned before in the sentence, decides to change completely the last verb of the sentence, and to use “do myself in” instead of the ST “to kill” to refer back to the traps, whereas the Chinese author did not feel the need to keep the reference.
A frequent difficulty encountered when translating is the difference in the “evoked meaning” conveyed by apparently similar words in the two languages. Baker (1992) identifies different types of meaning of a word, based on what a specific word indicates in “reality”, what is the feeling of the speakers when they use this word, its collocational restrictions and so on. In her work, she defines the meaning of a word given by the variation of register or dialect in which the word is used as “evoked meaning”. As mentioned above, Lu Xun in the short story plays a lot with the switch in register between the formal language of the introduction and the spoken language of the rest of the story. In fact, Lu Xun is also trying to demonstrate how the baihua can be a literary language even better that wenyan, and so he gives at different points a literary flavour to the language by adding many words or expressions from the literary language (Lyell 1990). Chinese language is provided of a great number of 4-character idioms, mainly derived from the classic literature or from words of famous poets or philosophers. Such expressions, called chengyu, are used when the writer/speaker wants to give to the speech or text a certain literary flavour. Thus chengyu are employed mainly when using the language at a formal register, and are generally found in written texts. Lu Xun also uses them for his purpose of demonstrating the literary value of baihua, as in the following example:

自然都欢天喜地的发出一种呜呜咽咽的笑声
ziran dou huan tian xi di de fa chu yi zhong wuwuyeye de xiaosheng.
(naturally all merry-sky-happy-earth de-DET let out one zhong-CL sob-sob de-DET laugh- sound.)
They'd be so beside themselves with joy, they'd sob with laughter.

Since the chengyu here notably contributes to create a “formal” register, a plain and literal translation of it would make the English target text lose an important part of the text itself. Even though it is impossible to give exactly the same evoked meaning to the English translation, because of the lack in English of such expressions, it is still possible to render them into a literary flavoured English, in order to maintain the same register and to produce a similar “effect” on the target reader as the chengyu produces on the source text reader. This is the strategy adopted here by Lyell, who uses an expression not commonly used in English (“ be so beside themselves with joy”), which denotes the high level of the text.
Interesting from the point of view of the “effect” of specific words on the overall text, and thus on the reader, is the case of the loan word hai-yi-na. It is, in fact, the Chinese transliteration of its English counterpart, hyena, since in China, at the time when Lu Xun wrote his novel, there was no Chinese word to denote this animal. The choice of leaving the word in its pinyin (roman) transliteration could seem awkward at first glance. Yet, it fairly conveys the same “foreign” connotation of the original text. Nowadays, in Chinese, loan words transliterated from English are quite common, but at the time when Lu Xun wrote his Diary of a madman it was not. Therefore the word has a strong “foreign” connotation in the source text, i.e. is read and understood by the Chinese reader as foreign word. Furthermore, the choice of this word expresses well Lu Xun’s “political” thought: the need for modernity and change in a poor and traditionalist China during the first decades of the 20th century. To keep the word in pinyin in the English text gives the same “foreign” connotation, since nowadays in English no many loan words come from Chinese. So in this case the translator choice has made it possible to keep the original “flavour” of the word.
In conclusion, the problem of translating specific lexical items within a text is surely one of the first, and can sometimes be one of the most troublesome, a translator has to face when starting his work. As Baker points out, “every translation is open to improvement” (1992: 7) and Lyell’s translation is a good example of it. Even though his translation of Lu Xun’s short story is the most authoritative – and probably the best – English translation of the masterpiece, it still has a lot of (sometimes unavoidable) omissions and changes if compared with the source text. This could suggest that a translation between two languages so structurally different, as Chinese and English are, can probably never be perfect. This is to some extent true; however, despite the loss of some inferred meaning or some cultural references, Lyell’s translation still reflects faithfully Lu Xun’s spirit and style, and thus effectively allows the English reader to enjoy the writer’s masterwork similarly to how the Chinese reader enjoys the original work.

REFERENCES:

Baker, M. (1992), In Other Words: A coursebook on translation, London and New York: Routledge.
Huss, A. (2003), ‘The Madman that was Ah Q: Tradition and Modernity in Lu Xun’s Fiction’, in Mostow, J. S. (ed.) The Columbia Companion To Modern East Asian Literature, New York: Columbia University Press.
Jakobson, R. (2004) ‘On linguistic aspects of translation’, in Venuti, L. (Ed.) The Translation Studies Reader (Second Edition), New York and London: Routledge.
Li, C. N. and Thompson, S. A. (1989), Mandarin Chinese: a functional reference grammar, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lu Xun (1990), Diary of a madman (trasl. by William A. Lyell), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Lu Xun 鲁迅 (1976), Kuangren riji 狂人日记, Beijing: Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe.
Lyell, W. A. (1990) ‘Introduction’, in Lu Xun , Diary of a madman (trasl. by William A. Lyell), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Munday, J. (2001), Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications, London and New York: Routledge.
Saeed, J. I. (1997), Semantics, Oxford: Blackwell Publisher.

Noam Chomsky, pt.1: about language and politics

2008-03-31T12:30:00.008+02:00

We would like to ask you something about your work in linguistics. Do you think there is any connection between your specialized work there and your political views [...]?
Scientific ideas and political ideas can converge and, if they converge independently because they have each developed in the same direction, that is fine. But they should not be made to converge at the cost of distortion and suppression, or anything like that.

For instance, in your work in linguistics, you use concepts like 'freedom', 'spontaneity', 'creativity', 'innovation' and so on. Is that connected in any way with your political views? Or is it just accidental?
A little of each. It is accidental in that the way these concepts arise in the study of language and theses they sustain are appropriate or inappropriate, true or false, quite independently of politics. In that sense, it is independent. And similarly, in my opinion, a Marxist-anarchist perspective is justified quite apart from anything that may happen in linguistics. [...] But I still feel myself there is a kind of tenuous connection. I would not want to overstate it but I think it means something to me at least. I think that anyone's political ideas or their ideas of social organization must be rooted ultimately in some concept of human nature and human needs. Now my own feeling is that the fundamental human capacity is the capacity and the need for creative self-expression, for free control of all aspects of one's life and thought. One particular crucial realization of this capacity is the creative use of language as a free instrument of thought and expression. Now having this view of human nature and human needs, one tries to think about the modes of social organization that would permit the freest and fullest development of the individual, of each individual's potentialities in whatever direction they might take, that would permit him/her to be fully human in the sense of having the greatest possible scope for his freedom and initiative."

(From Language and Politics, by Noam Chomsky)

Word of the Day: Guru

2008-03-27T13:14:00.005+01:00

Guru : the word is the Hindi for "teacher, priest". It comes originally from the Sanskrit word guru-s, whose latest meaning is "one to be honored, teacher". The Sanskrit word has its origin on the Indo-European base *gru-, litteraly meaning "heavy, weighty" (see, for exampe the English adjective grave). The generalized sense of "mentor" is recordet to be employed since 1940, whereas in the sense of "expert in something" it's been first recorded c.1966 in Canadian English, namely in reference to Marshall McLuhan.

Guru: parola hindi che significa "maestro, sacerdote"; derivata originariamente dal sanscrito guru-s, il cui signifucato più tardo è di "degno d'onore, maestro". La parola sanscrita ha a sua volta origine dalla radice indo-europea *gru-, che significa letteralmente "grave, pesante" (vedi l'aggettivo italiano "grave"). L'impiego nel senso generico di "mentore" è documentato dal 1940, mentre nel significato di "esperto in qualcosa" è documentato per la prima volta intorno al 1966 in Canada, con particolare riferimento a Marshall McLuhan.

論語 | Confucius Analects | I Dialoghi di Confucio

2008-03-26T13:48:00.011+01:00

9.31

「唐棣之華，偏其反而豈不爾思？室是遠而;。」子曰：「未之思也，未何遠之有？」

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
The flowers of the cherry tree,
How the petals wave and turn.
How could it be I do not long for you?
But your home is so far distant.

The Master commented, “He couldn’t really have longed for her, could he –if he had, how could any distance have been too great?”
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
I fiori di ciliegio
fluttuano e ondeggiano.
Come non pensare a te?
La tua dimora è però lontana.

Il Maestro commentò: "E' che non pensa veramente a lei, altrimenti quale importanza avrebbe la distanza?"

References:
論語
English translation by R. Eno, Indiana University, August 2005
Traduzione italiana a cura di Tiziana Lippiello

300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues

2008-03-25T12:15:00.009+01:00

Music and lyrics by The White Stripes

I'm bringing back ghosts
That are no longer there
I'm getting hard on myself,
Sitting in my easy chair
Well, there's three people in the mirror
And I'm wondering

Which one of them I should choose.
But I can't keep from laughing
Spitting out these three hundred m.p.h.
Outpour blues

I'm breaking my teeth off
Trying to bite my lip.
There's all kinds of red-headed women
That I ain't supposed to kiss.
And it's that color which never fails
To turn me blue.
So I just swallow it,
and hold on to it,
And use it to scare the hell out of you.

I have a woman that says
“Come and watch me bleed”.
And I'm wondering, just how I can do that
And still give her everything that she needs.
There's three people in my head that have the answer
And one of them's got to be you.
But you're holding tight to it –
the answer
Singin' these three hundred m.p.h.
outpour blues.

Put on gloves, a tight scarf
And wrap up warm
On this winter night.
Every time you get defensive
You're just looking for a fight.
It's safe to say somebody out there's
got a problem
With almost anything you'll do.
Well, next time they stab you
Don't fight back
Just play the victim
Instead of playing the fool.

And the roads are covered with a million
tiny molecules
Of cigarette ashes
And the school floors are covered
With pieces of pencil eraser too.
Sooner or later the ground's gonna be holding all
Of my ashes too
And I can not help but wonder
If after I'm gone
Will I still have these
Three hundred m.p.h.
Finger breaking
No answers making
Broken back
Dirty cancer
Bee stung
And busted up
Empty cup
Torrential outpour blues

One thing's for sure: in that graveyard
I'm gonna have the shiniest pair of shoes.

Sfogo torrenziale in blues a 300 km/h [lett: 300 miglia orarie]

Sto riportando alla luce fantasmi
Che non ci sono più
Divento duro con me stesso
Qui seduto sulla mia morbida sedia
Beh, ci sono tre persone riflesse allo specchio
E mi domando
Quale delle tre dovrei scegliere.
Ma non ce la faccio a non ridere
Sputando fuori questi 300 km/h
Di sfogo in blues

Mi sto rompendo i denti
Nel tentativo di mordermi le labbra.
Ci sono tutta una serie di donne dai capelli rossi
Che non dovrei baciare.
Ed è proprio quel colore che non manca mai
Di rendermi triste.
Quindi semplicemente lo mando giù
Mi ci aggrappo,
e lo uso per spaventarti a morte.

Ho una donna che mi dice
“Vieni a vedermi sanguinare”.
E mi chiedo, come faccio a farlo
E allo stesso tempo darle ciò di cui ha bisogno?
Ci sono tre persone nella mia testa che hanno la risposta a questo
E una di loro devi essere per forza tu
Ma tu invece te la tieni stretta -
La risposta
Cantando questi 300 km/h
Di sfogo in blues

Metti un paio di guanti, una sciarpa ben stretta
E copriti bene per stare calda
In questa notte d’inverno.
Ogni volta che vai sulle difensive
In realtà stai solo cercando un pretesto per litigare.
E’ facile dire che qualcuno là fuori
Ha un problema
Con quasi tutto ciò che fai
Beh, la prossima volta che ti pugnalano
Non reagire
Semplicemente fai la parte della vittima
Invece di fare la parte dello scemo.

E le strade sono coperte di un milione
Di minuscole molecole
Di cenere di sigaretta
E anche i pavimenti delle scuole sono coperti
Di pezzi di gomma da cancellare.
Prima o poi la terra avrà anche tutte
Le mie ceneri
Quindi non posso fare a meno di chiedermi
Se dopo che me ne sarò andato
Avrò ancora questi
300 km/h
che spezzano le dita
Che non danno risposte
Da schiena spezzata
Da cancro maligno
Da puntura d’ape
Da tazza vuota
Di uno sfogo torrenziale in blues

Una cosa è certa: in quella tomba
Avrò un paio di scarpe più splendenti che mai.

(Per i testi e le traduzioni complete vedi: WHITE STRIPES OFFICIAL WEBSITE oppure WHITE STRIPES ITALIA)

Word of the Day: Nice

2008-03-24T21:05:00.010+01:00

From the online Etimology Dictionary:

Nice: c.1290, "foolish, stupid, senseless," from the old French nice, meaning "silly, foolish", which comes at his turn from the Laitn nescius "ignorant" (lit. "not-knowing," composed of the prefix ne- "not" (see un-) + stem of scire, "to know").
"The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adjective" [Weekley].
Its meaning has changed greatly in time, ranging from "timid" (pre-1300) to "fussy, fastidious" (c.1380); to "dainty, delicate" (c.1405); to "precise, careful" (1500s, preserved in such terms as in a nice distinction and nice and early); to "agreeable, delightful" (1769); to "kind, thoughtful" (1830). In 1600-1700 it is often difficult to determine exactly what is meant when a writer uses this word. By 1926, it was pronounced "too great a favorite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness." [Fowler]

Nice: nell'inglese del 1290 circa l'aggettivo significava "sciocco, stupido, senza senso"; derivato dal francese antico nice, "sciocco", che a sua volta deriva dal latino nescius, "ignorante (composto del suffisso ne-, "non", + la radice di scire, "sapere").
"Lo sviluppo in senso è stato straordinario, anche per un aggettivo" [Weekley].
Il significato è infatti cambiato enormemente lungo i secoli, spaziando da "timido" (prima del 1300) a "irritabile, fastidioso " (1380 c.ca); a "raffinato, delicato" (1450 c.ca); a "preciso, attento" (1500, usato ancora con questa connotazione nelle espressioni nice distinction e nice and early); fino a "piacevole, delizioso" (1769) e "gentile, premuroso" (1830). Tra il 1600-1700 è spesso difficile determinare esattamente quale di questi significati uno scrittore avesse in mente nell'utilizzarlo. Infine nel 1926 fu dichiarato "un favoritissimo delle signore, che l'hanno spogliato della sua intrigante individualità e convertito ad un mero dispensatore di giovialità" [funzione svolta dall'aggettivo nell'inglese contemporaneo, N.d.T.]. [Fowler]

咱么的们界 | Our World

2008-03-24T11:00:00.008+01:00

Extract form a short story by Mu Shiying (穆时英)

先生，既然你这么关心咱们穷人，我就跟你说开了吧。咱们的事你不用管，咱们自己能管，咱们自有咱们自家儿的世界。

不说别的就拿我来讲吧。哈哈, 先生, 咱们谈了半天, 你还不知道我的姓名呢! 打开鼻子说亮话, 不瞒你, 我坐不改名行不隐姓, 就是有名的海盗李二爷。自幼儿我也念过几年书, 在学校里拿稳的头三名，谁不说我有出息，是个好孩子。可是念书只有富人才念得起, 木匠的儿子只合做木匠——先生, 你知道，穷人一辈子是穷人, 怎么也不能多钱的，钱都给富人拿去啦！我的祖父是打铁度日的, 父亲是木匠, 传到我, 也只是个穷人。念书也要钱, 你功课好吗, 学校里可管不了你这许多, 没钱就不能让你白念。那年我拿不出钱, 就叫学校给撵出来啦。祸不单行, 老天就爱折磨咱们穷人：就是那年，我还只十三岁，我的爸和妈全害急病死啦。啊！死得真冤枉！没钱, 请不起医生, 只得睁着眼瞧他老人家躺在床上，肚子痛的只打滚。不上两天，我的妈死了, 我的爸也活不成了。他跟我说, 好孩子, 别哭；男儿汉不能哭的。我以后就从没哭过，从没要别人可怜过——可怜, 我那么的男儿汉能要别人可怜吗？他又叫我记着, 我们一家都是害在钱的手里的, 我大了得替他老人家报仇。他话还没完, 人可不中用啦。喔, 先生, 你瞧, 我的妈和爸就是这么死的！医生就替有钱人看病, 喝, 咱们没钱的是牛马, 死了不算一回事, 多死一个也好少点儿麻烦! 先生，我从那时起就恨极了钱, 恨极了有钱人. [...]

Since you seem to care so much about us, miserable people, I’ll tell you, mister: you don’t need to bother about us. We can look after ourselves. We’ve got our own world.
Let’s leave the others, and talk about me…he he, we’ve talked for a long while, mister, and you still don’t remember my name! I want to be frank, don’t want to cheat you. I never hide my name: I’m the famous pirate Li San Ye. Actually, when I was a child I’ve been to school, as anyone else, I was even one of the best of the school. Everyone would have said I had a great future, I was a good boy… the problem is, only the well heeled can afford to study - the son of a carpenter will just be a carpenter himself. You know, mister, poor people will always be poor, there’s no way for us to get some money. Bread always goes to those who already have it! My grandfather was a blacksmith, my father a carpenter, and so am I, just another penniless. But if you want to study you need the money. Your homework are done great? Who cares! If you don’t pay them the fees, they certainly won’t let you study for free. That’s how one year, when I couldn’t get enough money, the school simply drove me out. But troubles never come alone...you know, the heavens like to torment those who already have trouble. And so that same year – I was only 13 – my mum and dad caught a violent disease and died. Ah, what an unfair death they got! You can’t afford to call the doctor if you don’t have the dough. You can only stand there, stare at you parents lying on a bed, rolling on the ground for the pain. They didn’t go through the second day. My mother died first, and right after my father. He told me my dear son, don’t cry, boys can’t cry. From that moment on, I’ve never cried, never asked for somebody else’s pity. Pity! Do you think a man of my kind wants the other’s pity? He also wanted me to remember that our whole family had always had trouble because of money: when you grow up, take revenge of it in my place. He couldn’t even finish what he was saying.

That’s it, mister. That’s how my mum and dad died. Doctors always go to see the yuppies, well, but we’re riff-raff, we’re just like animals. When one of us dies it isn’t such a big deal… one less means less trouble! From that moment on, mister, I deeply hate money; deeply hate those who have money. [...]

Benvenuti | Welcome | 欢迎大家

2008-03-21T20:17:00.009+01:00

Apro questo blog per coltivare due delle mie più grandi passioni: le lingue e la linguistica.
Non ho ancora deciso precisamente come impostarlo o svilupparlo, probabilmente mi diventerà chiaro man mano che vi scrivo. Per il momento, voglio dare il mio benvenuto a chiunque passi di qui a leggere, sperando che possiate apprezzare il mio sforzo.

I'm starting this blog to fuel two of my greatest passions: language and linguistics.
I haven't clear yet how I will develop this starting idea, it'll probably become clearer while I'm actually writing it. In the meanwhile, I'd like to welcome you here, hoping that you'll appreciate my effort.

我开始这个博克是为了发展我最强烈的爱好：语言和语言学。
我还没决定好怎么建立这个主意，很可能我会越来越清楚，可是现在我只想欢迎大家，希望能欣赏我的努力。