Walking out of the light verb jungle: Exploring the translation strategies of light verb constructions in Chinese–English consecutive interpreting

Abstract

Cross-linguistic features of light verb constructions (LVCs) profile a major facet of the typological difference between Chinese and English. By adopting a theory-driven, context-based interpreting task, this study explores the effectiveness and variability of translation strategies in dealing with 12 target LVCs extracted from a Chinese–English Consecutive Interpreting test to capture effective translation strategies fit for Chinese English-as-foreign-language (EFL) learners (N = 66). Appropriate rates and entropy values denoting variability of strategy selection are calculated by using 12 LVC segments and nine strategies, respectively. A correlation test is also carried out for vocabulary knowledge and the appropriate rates of LVCs to assess the efficacy of learners’ vocabulary knowledge in interpreting performance. Results show the general preferences for strategy selection among Chinese EFL learners as well as typical structural patterns in LVC translation. The degree of lightness of the light verbs exerts a reverse effect on the appropriate rates and consistency of strategy selection, and the positive correlation between vocabulary knowledge and LVCs’ appropriate rates suggests the need to incorporate the constructional teaching into the EFL learning curriculum. Thus felicitous conditions of applying the strategies have been proposed.

A corpus-based analysis of light verb constructions with MAKE and DO in British English

“…have a chat, give a hug, make an attempt) have received considerable interest among scholars due to their complex nature and widespread use. The most recent studies analyse LVCs in terms of cross-linguistic features and translation strategies (Wang et al 2023), morpho-syntactic features (Nugraha 2023), multiplicative meanings (Tron et al 2022), transfer from one language to another ( Barking et al 2022) as well as distinctive structural and discursive features (Martínez Caro & Arús-Hita 2020).…”