"The dream-thoughts and the dream-content present themselves as two descriptions of the same content in two different languages"¹.

In the previous unit I examined a translation problem concerning the sense not of single words, but that of a given combination, of a collocation of words as a whole. And I showed how the consultation of corpora can be useful in such cases. But when translation problems are of a different kind, is the corpora still the most valid tool of choice?

In this unit, I try to face two translation problems that really occurred in the same text I referred to in the two previous units. Here are the sentences:

I know I bang on about the English being strange, but clearly a little part of me isn't quite convinced, since I've sort of married two of them .

Bang on cue, Frank appears, wearing my rose-patterned Cath Kidston apron.

In both cases there is a re-occurrence, as you may notice through my color emphasis, the combination "bang on", whose meaning is unknown to me. The first hypothesis I do is about phrasal verbs, one of those verbs that get on a particular meaning if you use them in combination with a given preposition, and that are particularly preferred by British (U.S. speakers use them much more moderately, often preferring the word of similar meaning and Latin origin).

I start from the Webster's New World Dictionary, Macmillan, 1997, that produces the result that "bang on" doesn't exist. I gather that it probably is a British expression. I move on to the Collins dictionary of British language, but in a similar way I don't find anything.

Finally searching on the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary I find (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=5831&dict=CALD):

bang on phrasal verb INFORMAL DISAPPROVING to talk about something for a long time, especially in a way that is boring to other people: My parents are always banging on about how much better life was 20 years ago.

In this way I apparently solve the first of my two problems, since the example contains "bang on" followed exactly by the subject case introduced by "about" as in the case of my problem. Hence, a translation of that first occurrence can be:

I know I talk in a boring way about the English being strange, but clearly a little part of me isn't quite convinced, since I've sort of married two of them.

I verify on the British National Corpus, inserting "bang on": Here is the result I get:

Here is a random selection of 50 solutions from the 93 found...

A0M 1365 As well as being painful, a further bang on a broken nose can greatly increase disfigurement.

A35 46 So, we bang on about the play and the staging and the big themes, and, if there's any space left, then, as the chairman of Critics' Forum wearily intones, `;I suppose we ought to say something about the performances.';

A74 3114 I bang on the glass with my fist.

ABS 142 First-Rate Bang On

B0U 1039 `;I'll bang on the wall.';

BM5 1896 `;Rover-engined and JPE versions of the Seven show, again, the Caterham's honing of the concept is bang on target';

BMW 2089 There was a loud bang on the door and Grace's angry voice called: `;And you can stop that quarrelling, the pair of you.

BP7 972 `;Just don't go about saying you had a bang on the head.

CA0 2199 He said the English were fine ones to bang on about cruelty when they sent little boys off to boarding school when they were eight.

CAB 3218 But if he becomes a nuisance, William,'; he added, `;you bang on the floor and I'll pick him up.';

CBC 1459 Crackers bang on target

CBE 680 He went so far as to bang on the door of Evert's home in an effort to see Steffi.

CEP 4324 England's 34-;32 half-time lead left them bang on target for the four-point margin required to overturn last year's narrow 77-;74 reverse in Moscow.

CJ4 193 Breasting the summit with ease and bang on time, the train was `;chased'; by a host of car bound photographers and enthusiasts, with even the pre-occupied massive throng in the on-train real ale bar pausing to admire the feat!

CM0 453 The impact of Big Bang on GKR was especially profitable for the firm because it was well prepared.

CMC 775 If you roll a HIT then you have hit, and the Goblin lands bang on target.

E9U 364 THREE East Anglian players are bang on course for reaching the matchplay stage of the English Ladies Championship at St Enodoc Golf Club on the north coast of Cornwall (writes Lee Dinmore ).

ECX 731 A loud and unnerving bang on climb-out came as a reminder that the time was looming for the statutory annual check of wing and attached machinery.

FET 1111 A gramophone began with a bang on" Away in a Manger".

FPH 1784 A bang on the door.

FU6 232 ROS: That's it --; pale sky before dawn, a man standing on his saddle to bang on the shutters --; shouts --; What's all the row about?!

FU6 261 An awakening, a man standing on his saddle to bang on the shutters, our names shouted in a certain dawn, a message, a summons.

FU6 1591 In a minute someone's going to bang on the lid and tell me to come out.

G02 292 It has leaped the last few leagues in one bound (great stuff), and lands smack BANG on the Cathedral roof (or thereabouts).

G1S 446 In the end, though, it would all be bang on and tickety boo (or was that the wrong war?) because Rupert, the sexiest of the pilots, managed to win through.

G2B 296 Brisk afternoon wind arrived bang on time for an exciting sail.

G2E 2163 Pamella got the bang on her door on Saturday 11 March.

G33 2549 After just a few hours sleep, I half awoke to a bang on the window.

H4C 568 Er and you'd er they'd er just bang on the door and, and call you and you had to be downstairs in five minutes.

H8J 1027 A bang on the door galvanised her into action; she gathered the matching gown round her and opened the door.

H9U 1772 Your arm was broken, and you had had a terrible bang on the head.

H9U 1784 I told the doctor; but he said that the whole adventure was just a dream, the result of cold, tiredness and a violent bang on the head.

HAE 40 IAN RUSH is bang on target for another historic hat-trick --; of records!

HAE 706 BANG ON!

HEE 43 But er it wasn't long after that there was another big bang on the platform and they all sort of turned tail and went away for their own safety.

HGD 2918 `;Hide under the table, mademoiselle , and when I am in my room I will bang on the floor and the coast will be clear.';

HJ3 4007 The 16 goal striker, who starts a two match ban on Monday, was bang on the spot to head Crusaders second from a beautifully served cross by Sid Burrows.

HPC 8 It has been completed bang on time and within budget thanks to a special task force which was set up to lead the complex engineering job.

J1F 1648 No matter how it started over the summer, there has been no shortage of things to bang on about.

JJS 151 He's had a terrific bang on the back of his head and

JXY 2770 `;Even so, you've had a severe shock and you've had a bang on your head.';

JY5 3731 Bang on cue, she strode out on to the stage, feeling none of the terror that had crippled her last performance, the excited cheers of the children bringing a beaming smile to her face.

K3A 757 Rob Andrew went off with a bang on the nose which needed an X-ray, although it was later revealed that there was no fracture, while his replacement Stuart Barnes had 12 stitches in a head wound caused by a stray boot.

K3X 60 Newton waters expected to be bang on form with loads of small fish, good tench on pole and caster.

K4V 1858 Mr Murphy, of Grange Road, Middlesbrough, said his son had a bang on the head which needed an X-ray.

K9C 358 SMART work by Thatcher Tubes, racing against the clock, helped a special toothpaste promotion hit stores in the United States bang on time.

KBP 3633 It's the one right bang on the main road?

KD3 2329 No, I don't know what it, he didn't bang on the doors, I was hoovering at the time Is that nice?

KE1 3639 bash it five minutes down the road, bang bang on Sunday, Sunday morning I was up

KE3 7062 Come and bang on our door for six weeks.

As you see, most occurrences contain the verb "bang" meaning "hit", "beat", followed by the preposition "on" with its normal value, for example in "bang on our door" the meaning is simply "a hit on our door". If I "filter" the result from these occurrences non relevant from my point of view, I get:

A35 46 So, we bang on about the play and the staging and the big themes, and, if there's any space left, then, as the chairman of Critics' Forum wearily intones, `;I suppose we ought to say something about the performances.';

CA0 2199 He said the English were fine ones to bang on about cruelty when they sent little boys off to boarding school when they were eight.

J1F 1648 No matter how it started over the summer, there has been no shortage of things to bang on about.

BM5 1896 `;Rover-engined and JPE versions of the Seven show, again, the Caterham's honing of the concept is bang on target';

CBC 1459 Crackers bang on target

CEP 4324 England's 34-;32 half-time lead left them bang on target for the four-point margin required to overturn last year's narrow 77-;74 reverse in Moscow.

CJ4 193 Breasting the summit with ease and bang on time, the train was `;chased'; by a host of car bound photographers and enthusiasts, with even the pre-occupied massive throng in the on-train real ale bar pausing to admire the feat!

CMC 775 If you roll a HIT then you have hit, and the Goblin lands bang on target.

E9U 364 THREE East Anglian players are bang on course for reaching the matchplay stage of the English Ladies Championship at St Enodoc Golf Club on the north coast of Cornwall (writes Lee Dinmore).

G2B 296 Brisk afternoon wind arrived bang on time for an exciting sail.

HAE 40 IAN RUSH is bang on target for another historic hat-trick --; of records!

HJ3 4007 The 16 goal striker, who starts a two match ban on Monday, was bang on the spot to head Crusaders second from a beautifully served cross by Sid Burrows.

HPC 8 It has been completed bang on time and within budget thanks to a special task force which was set up to lead the complex engineering job.

JY5 3731 Bang oncue, she strode out on to the stage, feeling none of the terror that had crippled her last performance, the excited cheers of the children bringing a beaming smile to her face.

K3X 60 Newton waters expected to be bang on form with loads of small fish, good tench on pole and caster

I have colored in light green the tokens that I think useful for my first case. But in my second problem such a solution is applicable? I don't think so. I then colored violet the tokens I thought similar to the case of my second problem. I realize that in only one case (penultimate token) there is the exact sequence "bang on cue", in this case, too, at the beginning of the sentence, not easy to decipher at first sight. In five cases out of twelve I find "bang on target", which makes some bells ring: maybe "bang on cue" is a variant, an intertextual reference to "bang on target"?

Moreover, I notice that there are tokens of "bang on time" that have a transparent meaning, very expressive, that is nearly "very punctual". Actually, "bang on time" can be intuitively thought as deriving from the bells; punctuality is such that is associated to the beating of time in a bell tower.

I try inserting the strings in a search engine. I get 3440 tokens for "bang on target", that can be therefore considered as a standard collocation, and only 166 for "bang on cue". I realize,, examining the various tokens, that the meaning of "bang on target", probably originated from the military jargon, is more or less "target hit", therefore, in a wider sense, the expression means "extremely on purpose", "right on time", "in the most opportune way". "Bang on cue" is probably a variant with a slightly different meaning, because the space metaphor of the "target" is substituted for the metaphor of evidence, of semantic cue.

The translation of my second sentence, therefore, has nothing to do with the phrasal verb of the first one (which I realized thanks not to the dictionary, but corpora), and can be rendered more or less in this way:

Confirming my suspicions, Frank appears, wearing my rose-patterned Cath Kidston apron.

I think that it is now clear that the consultation of corpora can also be useful in solving problems of sense different from those pertaining standard collocations.

 

Bibliographical references

FREUD SIGMUND, L'interpretazione dei sogni, in Opere, vol. 3, Torino, Boringhieri, a cura di C. L. Musatti, 1966.

FREUD SIGMUND, The Interpretation Of Dreams, translated by A. A. Brill, London, G. Allen & company, 1913.

GURALNIK, ed., Webster's New World Dictionary, Macmillan-Accent, 1997.

HANKS PATRICK, ed., Collins Dictionary of the English Language, Collins, London-Glasgow 1979.

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¹ Freud 1900: 254.