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- Volume 13, Issue, 2013
Languages in Contrast - Volume 13, Issue 1, 2013
Volume 13, Issue 1, 2013
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Changing conventions in German causal clause complexes: A diachronic corpus study of translated and non-translated business articles
Author(s): Mario Bisiadapp.: 1–27 (27)More LessThis paper contributes to the field of diachronic corpus studies of linguistic change through language contact in translation by replicating Becher’s (2011) study which found a trend from hypotaxis to parataxis in concessive clause complexes of German popular scientific articles, and examining whether a comparable trend can be found in causal clause complexes in another genre. The study draws on a one-million-word translation corpus of English business articles and their German translations, as well as on a comparable corpus of German non-translations. The corpora consist of texts published in two time periods, 1982–3 and 2008. German translations of English causal conjunctions are compared for both time periods to determine diachronic changes in causal clause complexes. The comparable corpus is then analysed to find out whether those changes also happened in non-translated language. While a trend from hypotaxis to parataxis in both corpora can be observed, hypotaxis remains more frequent than parataxis. The study also detects a shift in preference for the causal conjunctions weil, denn and da, which partly causes the decrease in hypotaxis.
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Variation in the translation patterns of English complex noun phrases into Spanish in a specific domain
Author(s): María Luisa Carrió Pastor and Miguel Ángel Candel Morapp.: 28–45 (18)More LessThis paper focuses on a functionalist analysis of the patterns followed when translating specific texts from English into Spanish. The original texts are written in English and, afterwards, translated to other languages. In this process, lexical variation may appear. The main objectives of this study are to determine whether English noun phrases have different lexical equivalents when translated into Spanish and whether this depends on the position of the head in the complex noun phrase. Other objectives of this paper are, on the one hand, to detect the role of the head and modifiers in English complex noun phrases when translated into the target language, and, on the other hand, to determine whether the specificity of nouns could be the cause of variation. The answer to these research questions will be useful for translators, communication specialists and scientists who use English and Spanish to communicate.
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Counterfactual conditionals in focus: A contrastive analysis of French and Norwegian
Author(s): Marianne Hobæk Haffpp.: 46–66 (21)More LessThis article is a comparative exploration of counterfactual conditionals introduced by the conjunction ‘if’ in French and Norwegian, a topic which has not been studied before. My analyses are based on examples from monolingual and multilingual corpora, complemented by two questionnaires, in French and Norwegian, respectively. Both languages have two main patterns corresponding to (A) [‘if’ + imperfect + conditional simple] and (B) [‘if’ + pluperfect + conditional perfect], but their use is somewhat different in the two languages. Regarding counterfactual present, both have two patterns at their disposal. In French, however, pattern (A) seems preferred whereas Norwegian displays a clear preference for pattern (B). When confronted with examples of counterfactual future, both groups of informants initially hesitated, but ultimately considered pattern (B) as an acceptable solution in many cases. Not only the tenses but also the type of verb, eventual temporal adjuncts and the context are important for the interpretations. Neither French nor Norwegian grammars present the issue satisfactorily and therefore need to be revised.
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The passive voice in spoken and written Danish, Norwegian and Swedish: A comparative corpus-based study
Author(s): Anu Laanemetspp.: 67–89 (23)More LessTaking a comparative corpus-based approach, the article examines the use of the passive voice in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish written as well as spoken language. More specifically, we measure the relative frequency of the passive voice in general and in its two forms — periphrastic and morphological — within two written and two oral genres. Although we find differences in the relative frequency of the passive voice, with Danish and Norwegian being more similar than Swedish, the basic pattern is identical across the three languages. Situational and stylistic factors — especially the degree of formality — appear more important for the choice of passive voice than the distinction between written and spoken media. More formal genres use more passive voice and have a preference for the morphological passive, whereas less formal genres tend to use less passive voice with the periphrastic passive playing a relatively more prominent role.
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Author manifestation and perceptions of self in Chinese academic discourse: Comparisons with English
Author(s): Tong King Leepp.: 90–112 (23)More LessThis paper examines the manifestation of authorial identity in research articles by contrasting the phenomenon across two languages (English and Chinese) and three fields (Literature, Education, Chemistry). The study seeks to find patterns governing the use of self-mention devices among native Chinese and English writers, and to explain such patterns in terms of the Chinese perception of self. Based on a corpus-based investigation of pronominal and depersonalized forms of self-mention involving 180 research articles, the paper suggests that Chinese authors have a stronger tendency to use depersonalized forms over pronominal forms than their English counterparts. It is also found that in using first-person pronouns, Chinese authors in single-authored papers have a salient preference for the plural form, in particular the inclusive plural pronoun as compared to English authors. The paper attempts to link the linguistic phenomenon to the concept of the interdependent self inherent in Chinese social psychology, and proposes possible applications to research in bilingual scholarly writing and academic translation.
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Modality, aspect and the progressive: The semantics of the present progressive in French in comparison with English
Author(s): Astrid De Wit and Adeline Patardpp.: 113–132 (20)More LessThis paper proffers a corpus-based study of the semantics of the French present progressive in comparison with its English equivalent. We describe the temporal and modal uses of ‘be + -ing’ and investigate to what extent they overlap with the uses of être + en train de. The observation that the use of the French present progressive is not obligatory and more restricted than that of the present progressive in English is taken as a sign of a less advanced stage of grammaticalization of the former. On the other hand, the two progressive constructions are alike in that they turn out to share the same basic, modal meaning, which we define as epistemic contingency in current reality. This meaning is, among other things, reflected in the (inter)subjective connotations that are often associated with the progressives.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 25 (2025)
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Volume 24 (2024)
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Volume 23 (2023)
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Volume 22 (2022)
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Volume 21 (2021)
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Volume 20 (2020)
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Volume 19 (2019)
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Volume 18 (2018)
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Volume 17 (2017)
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Volume 16 (2016)
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Volume 15 (2015)
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Volume 14 (2014)
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Volume 13 (2013)
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Volume 12 (2012)
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Volume 11 (2011)
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Volume 10 (2010)
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Volume 9 (2009)
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Volume 8 (2008)
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Volume 7 (2007)
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Volume 6 (2006)
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Volume 5 (2004)
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Volume 4 (2002)
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Volume 3 (2000)
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Volume 2 (1999)
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Volume 1 (1998)
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