English 1: [All Parties should strive]1 [to formulate]2 [and communicate long-term]3 [low greenhouse gas emission]4 [development strategies,]2,3 [mindful of Article 2]5 [taking into account their common but differentiated responsibil-ities and respective capabilities,]6 [in the light of different national circumstan-ces.]7
1 2 3 {4} 5 6 7
English 2: [All Parties should strive]1 [to formulate]2 [and communicate long-term]3 [low greenhouse gas emission]4 [development]5 [strategies,]2,3 [mindful of Article 2]6 [taking into account their common but differentiated responsibil-ities and respective capabilities,]7 [in the light of different national circumstan-ces.]8
1 2 3 {4} {5} 6 7 8
Russian 1: [Всем Сторонам следует стремиться]1 [формулировать]2 [и со-общать долгосрочные стратегии раз-вития]3 [с низким уровнем выбросов парниковых газов]4 [с учетом статьи 2,]5 [принимая во внимание свою об-щую, но дифференцированную ответ-ственность и соответствующие воз-можности,]6 [в свете различных нацио-нальных условий.]7
1 2 3 {4} 5 6 7
Russian 2: [Всем Сторонам следует стремиться]1 [формулировать]2 [и со-общать долгосрочные стратегии]3 [раз-вития]5 [с низким уровнем выбросов парниковых газов]4 [с учетом статьи 2,]6 [принимая во внимание свою об-щую, но дифференцированную ответ-ственность и соответствующие воз-можности,]7 [в свете различных нацио-нальных условий.]8
1 2 3 {5} {4} 6 7 8
Mode | Text / Speech | Sentence # | Subordinations | |||
| English 1 | English 2 | |||||
| Legal translation | Paris Agreement | 50 | ⑥ | ⑦ | ||
Target language | Reordering Σi=1 Σj=i+1 I(xj<xi) | ± Nestings { } {{ }} {{{ }}} | Semantic changes Δ |
|||
| Russian 1 | ⓪ | ① | — | — | — | |
| Russian 2 | ① | ② | — | — | — | |
Difference in analysis: In “English 1” and “Russian 1,” [4] is seen as modifying “strategies” (or its Russian equivalent) in the isolated (non-predicate) part of [2] and [3]. And “development” (or its Russian equivalent), which also modifies “strategies,” isn’t seen as having any arguments or modifiers of its own, so it’s not treated as the predicate of a separate proposition. In “English 2” and “Russian 2,” [4] is seen as an adjunct to the verb underlying “development,” which is therefore treated as the predicate of a new proposition [5].
Reason: In both English and Russian, the role of a phrase like “low greenhouse gas emissions” in “low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies” (or its Russian equivalent) can be ambiguous. The phrase can be seen as modifying “strategies” (“development strategies based on low greenhouse gas emissions”) or as an adjunct to the verb underlying “development” (“the process of developing with low greenhouse gas emissions”). A modifier is only treated as the predicate of a separate proposition when it has at least one argument or adjunct of its own.
Consequences:
1. The new analysis would lead to a complexity count of 7 rather than 6 subordinate propositions in the original English version of the sentence.
2. The new analysis would lead to a reordering count of 1 rather than 0, and a count of 2 rather than 1 for changes in single nestings in the Russian translation.