Reordering

Coming to the strategy of Reordering, we enter into the field of comparative syntax: at its simplest, it requires
the translator to operate basic inversion procedures with, for example, adjective-noun sequences: white horse /
cavallo bianco, and verb-object positioning: (io) ti amo / I love you. It is, however, equally important for the
translator to know when not to activate these mechanisms, whether for linguistic or rhetoric reasons. Pressione
alta is the correct translation for medical high (blood) pressure , but not in the meteorological sense where
banks of high pressure have to be rendered by alta pressione . The desperate lover, in trying to wrest
(estorcere, strappare) the vital words Ti amo from his loved one, may lay emphasis to his own feelings withma
io amo te! Set collocations of two or more items exist in both languages:

1. vita e morte / life and death 2. sano e salvo / fit and well 3. bianco e nero / black and white 4. il diavolo e
l’acqua santa / (between) the devil and the deep blue sea

which respectively indicate how such pairings can: 1. match perfectly 2. match partly but belong very definitely
in the same semantic field 3. match perfectly but in inverted form 4. maintain half the pairing

The third type provides another obvious example of the need to activate Reordering strategy. Italian will
typically front a verb phrase, for example, when an intransitive verb is used to introduce a new phenomenon
into the discussion, e.g. è successa una disgrazia . The English version of such clauses is usually the typical
subject-verb structure : something terrible has happened. Falinski provides other examples: Non è ancora
giunto il tempo The time has not yet come / It is not yet time

Passavano i plotoni The platoons passed by / Past came the platoons

Spuntò una donna alla svolta A woman appeared from round the bend / There appeared a woman from round
the bend

The very frequent use of the passive voice in English creates another need for Reordering in translation. Italian
responds with: - its own identical passive forms: è amato da tutti / He is loved by everyone - an impersonal si
construction: i risultati si possonno vedere / results can be seen - an active form using verbs with impersonal
agents whose nominal or pronominal identity never appears: mi hanno detto che / I have been told that The
more infrequent use of the passive in Italian is also due to the fact that it is impossible to use continuous verb
forms in the passive voice: he is being interrogated = lo si interroga lo stanno interrogando viene interrogato
With all these observations in mind, it would seem clear that a thorough knowledge of the lexicogrammar of the
two languages is indispensable for a translator.