From language to language, from time to time
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Magnus Levin
Abstract
This study is situated within the broader field of phraseology and concerns repetitive, echoic binomials such as day by day (NPN) and on and on (‘ADV and ADV’). While the bulk of previous research has focused on their use in individual languages (Jackendoff 2008; Ziem 2008), this study takes a comparative approach, using data from two parallel corpora: the Linnaeus University English-German-Swedish corpus and the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus. The results indicate that binomials, in particular of the NPN type, are most frequent in Swedish originals. In English originals, they are rare and not very productive. In translations, frequencies closely mirror those in their originals, but other recurrent patterns (e.g., one X at a time) are also commonly used as correspondences.
Abstract
This study is situated within the broader field of phraseology and concerns repetitive, echoic binomials such as day by day (NPN) and on and on (‘ADV and ADV’). While the bulk of previous research has focused on their use in individual languages (Jackendoff 2008; Ziem 2008), this study takes a comparative approach, using data from two parallel corpora: the Linnaeus University English-German-Swedish corpus and the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus. The results indicate that binomials, in particular of the NPN type, are most frequent in Swedish originals. In English originals, they are rare and not very productive. In translations, frequencies closely mirror those in their originals, but other recurrent patterns (e.g., one X at a time) are also commonly used as correspondences.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Time in languages, languages in time 1
- Slavery and Britain in the 19th century 9
- Diachronic change in the ordering of kinship binomials 39
- Tracing processes in auxiliarization 67
- Translating verbal tenses between tensed and tenseless languages 95
- From language to language, from time to time 129
- Just a moment 155
- Then and now in English and French 181
- Time adverbials in English and Norwegian news discourse 201
- Minutes of action! A contrastive analysis of time expressions in English and Norwegian football match reports 229
- Cross-disciplinary and cross-linguistic uses of tensed verb phrases in the methods sections of master’s theses 255
- The expression of time in English and Czech children’s literature 283
- Index 305
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Time in languages, languages in time 1
- Slavery and Britain in the 19th century 9
- Diachronic change in the ordering of kinship binomials 39
- Tracing processes in auxiliarization 67
- Translating verbal tenses between tensed and tenseless languages 95
- From language to language, from time to time 129
- Just a moment 155
- Then and now in English and French 181
- Time adverbials in English and Norwegian news discourse 201
- Minutes of action! A contrastive analysis of time expressions in English and Norwegian football match reports 229
- Cross-disciplinary and cross-linguistic uses of tensed verb phrases in the methods sections of master’s theses 255
- The expression of time in English and Czech children’s literature 283
- Index 305
