ENGLISH COPULAR VERBS

Transkript

1 ENGLISH COPULAR VERBS A contrastive corpus-supported view Markéta Malá filozofická fakulta univerzity karlovy, 2014

2 KATALOGIZACE V KNIZE NÁRODNÍ KNIHOVNA ČR Malá, Markéta English copular verbs: a contrastive corpus-supported view / Markéta Malá. Vyd. 1. Praha: Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, (Trivium; sv. 5) ISBN * * * * angličtina sponová slovesa překlady do češtiny kontrastivní lingvistika korpusová lingvistika monografie English language copula translations into Czech contrastive linguistics corpus linguistics monographs Angličtina [11] 420 English and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) [11] Acknowledgement This book was written within the Programme for the Development of the Fields of Study at Charles University, No. 10 Linguistics; sub-programme English in the Light of Synchronic and Diachronic Corpora. Recenzovaly prof. PhDr. Libuše Dušková, DrSc. doc. PhDr. Renata Povolná, Ph.D. Markéta Malá, 2014 Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta, 2014 Všechna práva vyhrazena ISBN

3 Table of contents List of figures 8 List of tables 10 Abbreviations Introduction Contrastive research and parallel corpora Contrastive research and corpus linguistics Multilingual corpora Corpora used in this study InterCorp Recognizing (and overcoming) the limitations of a translation corpus The English-Czech section of InterCorp and the subcorpora used in this study Copular verbs The delimitation of copular verbs The individual copular verbs Conclusion Translation correspondence Equivalence and correspondence in translation corpora Formal correspondence Divergent vs congruent counterparts Translation paradigms The translation paradigm of copular verbs Types of correspondence Synthetic counterparts Analytic counterparts Zero counterparts An overall view of the translation paradigm 107

4 17. The method Czech counterparts as markers of meaning A bidirectional corpus-supported approach Resulting copular verbs: become, come, fall, get, go, grow, and turn Step 1: Formal characteristics of resulting copular verbs Step 2: The counterparts of resulting copular verbs Step 3: The counterparts as a starting point: the means of expressing inchoative mutation in English Conclusion Epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs: appear, seem, feel, look, smell, sound, and taste Step 1: Formal characteristics of epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs Step 2: The counterparts of epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs Step 3: The counterparts as a starting point: the means of expressing epistemic evaluation in English Beyond Step Conclusion Copular verbs prove and turn out Step 1: Formal characteristics of the copular verbs prove and turn out Step 2: The counterparts of prove and turn out Step 3: The counterparts of prove and turn out as a starting point: the limitations of the method Conclusion Durative copular verbs: keep, remain and stay Step 1: Formal characteristics of the copular verbs keep, remain and stay Step 2: The counterparts of keep, remain and stay Step 3: The counterparts of keep, remain and stay as a starting point: further limitations of the method Conclusion 226

5 12. Conclusions 234 Sources and references 242 Index 251 Resumé 253

6 List of Figures 3.1 The composition of the core of the English-Czech section of InterCorp 3.2 The sub-corpora of InterCorp and the supplementary corpora used in the present study 4.1 The copula lexical verb gradient 4.2 The distribution of seem in the British National Corpus 4.3 The most frequent forms of the predicative complement of seem in fiction and academic prose 4.4 Frequency (pmw) of the construction appear + adjective/to-infinitive in the BNC 4.5 The most frequent forms of the predicative complement of appear in fiction and academic prose 4.6 Frequency (pmw) of the constructions prove + adjective/to-infinitive, and turn out + adjective/to-infinitive in the BNC 4.7 Relative frequency (pmw) of the constructions sensory copula + adjective in the BNC 4.8 Relative frequency (pmw) of the constructions keep/remain/stay + adjective in the BNC 4.9 Relative frequency (pmw) of the constructions become/get + adjective in the BNC 4.10 Relative frequency (pmw) of the constructions resulting copula come/ fall/go/grow/turn + adjective in the BNC 5.1 Types of translation correspondence 7.1 The methodology: a bidirectional corpus-supported approach 8.1 The types of translation counterparts of resulting copular verbs 8.2 Phase verbs as counterparts of resulting copulas 8.3 Czech translation counterparts of resulting copulas as markers of inchoative change 9.1 The types of translation counterparts of epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs 9.2 Czech translation counterparts of epistemic/sensory-perception copulas as markers of epistemic modification 10.1 The types of translation counterparts of prove and turn out 8 list of figures

7 List of Tables 3.1 Size of InterCorp according to languages and text types available online in April 2013 (release 6) 3.2 The size and composition of the six-novel sub-corpus of the English- -Czech section of InterCorp used as a source of the largest part of the excerption 3.3 The total numbers of English-Czech translation pairs of copular clauses analysed in the present study 3.4 The size and composition of the three-novel sub-corpus of the Czech- -English section of InterCorp 4.1 Frequency across registers of four common copular verbs (in news, all four of these copular verb + adjective combinations are moderately common) (Biber et al., 1999: 437) 4.2 Top ten R1-2 adjectival collocates of seem ranked by frequency 4.3 The most frequent R1-2 adjectival collocates of appear ranked by frequency 4.4 The most frequent adjectival (R1-2) collocates of turn out and prove in the BNC 4.5 Adjectival complements of sensory copular verbs in the BNC 4.6 The subject of sensory copular verbs 4.7 Ten most frequent adjectival complements of the copular verbs remain, stay and keep 4.8 Adjectival complements of resulting copular verbs in the BNC 6.1 The types of translation correspondence (given as percentages of the total number of occurrences of the copular verb in the sample) 6.2 Synthetic counterparts of copular verbs 6.3 Analytic counterparts of copular verbs 6.4 Zero counterparts of the copular verbs as a percentage of the correspondences of each verb, and in absolute numbers 6.5 Translation equivalents of English copular verbs (expressed as percentages of the total number of each copular verb) 8.1 Resulting copulas: the form of the Verb 8.2 Resulting copulas: the form of the Cs 8.3 The lexical and semantic predictability of the subject complement of resulting copular verbs 9

8 8.4 The complements of turn referring to colour 8.5 The personal and impersonal subjects in turn- and go-copular clauses describing a change in colour 8.6 The dominant predicative complements of the copula come 8.7 The presence of degree modification or a comparative form in the adjectival complements of resulting copulas 8.8 The basic and comparative forms of the adjective bad in the predicative complement of resulting copular verbs 8.9 The become-group: the types of correspondence and classes of counterparts of the copular verbs 8.10 Stát se ( become ) as the translation counterpart of resulting copular verbs 8.11 The realization forms of the Cs of become in relation to stát se as the translation counterpart of become 8.12 The representation of adverbials of time and degree among the counterparts of resulting copular verbs 8.13 The overall representation of adverbials of time and degree among the counterparts of resulting copular verbs 8.14 The representation of zero and být counterparts among the counterparts of resulting copular verbs 9.1 Epistemic/sensory-perception verbs: the form of the Verb, as a percentage of the total number of instances of each copula 9.2 Epistemic/sensory-perception verbs: the form of the Cs, as a percentage of the total number of instances of each copula 9.3 Simple and complex adjective phrases as complements of epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs 9.4 Comparative constructions (clauses and prepositional phrases) as complements of epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs 9.5 Content clauses and infinitival clauses as complements of epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs 9.6 The forms of the infinitival complement of appear, look and seem 9.7 The subject of the epistemic/sensory-perception copular clauses 9.8 Copular patterns with anticipatory it, grammatical it, and there subjects 9.9 The representation of personal and impersonal referential subject of epistemic and sensory-perception copular predications 9.10 The overt expression of the experiencer by a PrepP in the copular clause 9.11 The expression of experiencer by the dative in Czech 10 list of tables

9 9.12 The expression of the experiencer in the Czech counterparts of feel-clauses 9.13 The translation equivalents of the epistemic/sensory-perception group of copular verbs 9.14 Quality verbs which occurred as counterparts of more than one English copula in the one-to-one type of correspondence 9.15 Categorial light verbs as counterparts of epistemic/perception copular verbs (in analytic counterparts the complement of the verb functions syntactically as the subject, object or adverbial) 9.16 Být as a counterpart of epistemic/sensory-perception copular verbs 9.17 Adverbials as counterparts of copular verbs of the epistemic/sensory- -perception group 9.18 Epistemic adverbials as counterparts of the copular verbs of the epistemic/sensory-perception type 9.19 The representation of zero correspondence among the translation counterparts of the epistemic/sensory-perception type of copular verbs 9.20 The representation of copular verbs and adverbials as means of epistemic modification in English original texts and in English translations from Czech, based on a small bi-directional parallel corpus 10.1 The form of the predicate of prove/turn out copular clauses 10.2 The representation (in per cent) of the types of subject in the individual classes of copular verbs. The epistemic/sensory-perception has been divided into the epistemic verbs proper appear and seem and the other copulas, related primarily to sensory perception 10.3 The realization form of the subject complement in prove/turn out copular clauses 10.4 The form of the infinitival subject complement of prove/turn out 10.5 The ratio of subject complements of prove, turn out, appear, and seem realized by content clauses and infinitives 10.6 The translation counterparts of prove/turn out 10.7 Být and zero counterparts of copular verbs (as a percentage of the total number of each copula in the sample) 11.1 The form of the predicate of remain-group of copular clauses 11.2 The subject of the remain/keep/stay-copular clauses 11.3 The form of the subject complement in the remain/keep/stay-copular clauses 11

10 11.4 The Czech counterparts of the copulas remain, keep, and stay (given as percentages of the total number the occurrences of each copula in my data) 11.5 The choice of the pattern of correspondence in relation to the participial vs other forms of the predicative subject complement in English 12 list of tables

11 Abbreviations A adverbial acc accusative case (Czech) AdjP adjective phrase AdvP adverb phrase BNC British National Corpus The BNC examples include the text identifier (a three-letter code) and sentence number, e.g. (BNC, AE0: 570). For a description of the BNC texts, see BNC User Reference Guide. Available at: < Co object complement Cs subject (predicative) complement IMPERF imperfective aspect (Czech) Lit. literal (word-for-word) translation Ln-m left collocates of the node at span position n-m, e.g. L1-2 LL log likelihood loc locative case (Czech) MM Markéta Malá dat dative case (Czech) nom nominative case (Czech) NP noun phrase O object Oprep prepositional object PERF perfective aspect (Czech) pmw (frequency) per million words (frequency) PrepP prepositional phrase Rn-m right collocates of the node at span position n-m, e.g. R1-2 S subject V verb VP verb phrase 13

12 1. Introduction Copular clauses, i.e. clauses with a verbo-nominal predicate comprising a copular verb and its complement, such as Our effort seemed useless Naše úsilí bylo zřejmě zbytečné, are used both in English and in Czech as a means of ascribing a quality, property or value to the subject. However, the repertoires of copular verbs available in the two languages are significantly different. In Czech, it is only the copula být ( be ) that is generally considered a linking verb, with some grammars also accepting its resulting counterpart stát se ( become ) as a member of the class. In English, a range of copular verbs covers the ascription of a current quality (verbs of remaining, sensory perception, or epistemic modification) as well as the expression of the resultant state. The question then arises of what means are employed in Czech to express such modified attribution and, on the other hand, what the Czech correspondences of English copular clauses can suggest about the meaning of the respective English copular clauses. This study sets out to explore the above questions and, at the same time, it tests some of the possibilities parallel translation corpora offer for the examination of translation paradigms, i.e. the com - parable patterns of usage in different languages. The examination of the patterns of correspondences of cop ular verbs relies on electronic corpora, the primary data being drawn from the English-Czech section of the parallel corpus InterCorp. The functional approach towards language comparison adopted in the present study develops that outlined by Vilém Mathesius and his followers, Libuše Dušková in particular. Using the insights from scholars dealing with contrastive cross-linguistic studies, a description and classification of the English copular verbs was proposed on the basis of their colligations and collocations as well as of their translation correspondences. The analysis starts from the copular verbs in the English source texts, and proceeds to their correspondences in the Czech translations. The patterns of translation correspondences complement the monolingual view, indicating features shared by cop- 15

13 ular verbs of a particular class, and suggesting where dividing lines could be drawn. The meanings conveyed by the copulas thus become more clearly visible through the translations. The study argues that the most salient counterparts can also serve as markers of meaning, making it possible to group the copular clauses together with other English constructions expressing the same meaning. The book is organized as follows: the initial chapters anchor the study within the fields of contrastive and corpus-supported research (Chapters 2 and 3, respectively). The next chapter delimits the object of the study, relying both on secondary sources and primary data drawn from the British National Corpus (Chapter 4). Starting from Chapter 5, the focus shifts to the contrastive approach: translation paradigms are outlined in general (Chapter 5) and specified for copular verbs and their translation correspondences (Chapter 6). The bidirectional corpus-supported approach adopted in the study is described in Chapter 7. The following chapters eight to eleven deal each with one class of copular verbs. The analysis of the copulas presented in each of these chapters follows a three-step pattern: the first step involves a description of the collocations and colligations of the English copular verbs; then their translation correspondences are subjected to examination and the most salient counterparts are selected as indicators of the meaning associated with the particular class of copular verbs. Step three then places the copular clauses alongside other English constructions which convey the same meaning. In the concluding chapter, an attempt is made to summarize the results of the analysis and evaluate the methods used in the study. Inspired, among others, by Johansson (2007), in this book the emphasis is on seeing through corpora, i.e. on trying to find ways of gaining new insight into language through the use of multilingual corpora (Ibid.: 39). More specifically, and perhaps realistically, the focus is on gaining some insight into the questions raised by the differences between copular verbs in English and in Czech and into the methods that can be used to explore them. Producing this book would not have been possible without the help and support of my colleagues, family and friends. I would 16 introduction

14 like to give special thanks to my three most important professors: professor Libuše Dušková, who both inspired me to write the book and reassured me that I could do it, and whose detailed notes on the manuscript not only proffered invaluable advice but were also a delight to read; professor Aleš Klégr, who persuaded me that I really should do it; and my professor husband, who has always supported me, whatever the task at hand. 17

15 Resumé Práce se zabývá anglickými sponovými slovesy vymezenými na základě významových a formálních kritérií. Lexikální význam sponových sloves je omezený: kromě toho, že jsou nositeli predikačních slovesných kategorií, podmětu pouze připisují nějakou vlastnost nebo příznak, ale neovlivňují přímo významové jádro sponové predikace. To je tvořeno obligatorní jmennou částí přísudku, typicky vyjádřenou adjektivní frází, např. Our effort seemed useless (Naše úsilí bylo zřejmě zbytečné), i když jednotlivá sponová slovesa připouštějí také další formy komplementu. Připsání vlastnosti nebo příznaku podmětu může být různým způsobem modifikováno. Jelikož je repertoár sponových sloves v češtině užší než v angličtině, využívá čeština k vyjádření těchto modifikací různých jiných prostředků. Jejich rozmanitost se projevuje v překladových protějšcích anglických sponových predikací. Na druhé straně mohou české překladové korespondence odhalit specifické vlastnosti anglických sponových sloves. Podle toho, jak se modifikace připsání vlastnosti projeví v českém překladu, můžeme mluvit o a) sponových slovesech vyjadřujících změnu stavu, b) sponách, které jsou prostředkem připsání příznaku na základě smyslového vjemu a/nebo relativizují platnost připsané vlastnosti a slouží tak jako prostředky jistotní modality, c) durativních sponách a d) malé skupině spon, které vyjadřují změnu postoje mluvčího k hodnocení určitého jevu. Metoda, které je v práci použito, pracuje dále s českými překladovými protějšky anglických sponových sloves jako s ukazateli významu. Překladové protějšky spojené s určitou sémantickou skupinou sponových sloves se vyskytují také jako překlady jiných anglických konstrukcí, které nesou stejný význam. V překladových korespondencích se pak objevuje celý repertoár těchto anglických prostředků. Zvolený postup můžeme demonstrovat např. na slovese grow. Mezi jeho českými překladovými protějšky převažují slovesa s inchoativními předponami, což ho řadí do skupiny rezultativních sponových sloves. Jeho specifičnost v rámci této třídy spočívá v po- 253

16 měrně vysokém zastoupení průběhových tvarů a komplementaci stupňovatelnými adjektivy, obvykle v komparativu nebo ve spojení s intenzifikátory. Mezi překladovými protějšky též nacházíme příslovečná určení míry a fázová slovesa. To vše ukazuje na pozvolný vývoj změny, který označuje spona grow. S pomocí českých protějšků můžeme pak ukázat, že k vyjádření inchoativního významu se v angličtině používá vedle rezultativních spon také jiných verbo-nominálních (např. burst open, take courage) nebo verbálních konstrukcí (např. freeze up, drink oneself silly, darken, begin to bloom). Díky paralelnímu překladovému korpusu tak můžeme v návaznosti na tradici analytického funkčního srovnávání jazyků, začínající u Viléma Mathesia, postupovat při synchronním srovnávání od významu k jeho realizačním formám ve zkoumaných jazycích. 254 resumé