A corpus-based study of English approximate negators and their translations into Spanish

Abstract

This study, which examines the expression of approximate negation by means of scarcely, rarely, barely, hardly and seldom (Huddleston and Pullum 2002: 815) and their translations into Spanish, sets out to identify the patterns of usage of these items by analysing their behaviour in co-text and to observe how these items are translated into Spanish, with special attention being paid to renderings of negative connotations that are based on assumed grammatical equivalence. The study will empirically demonstrate the usefulness and usability of the ACTRES Parallel Corpus (P-ACTRES). The experimentation sequence replicates Krzeszowski's contrastive model (1990), namely, selection, description, juxtaposition and contrast. Qualitative and quantitative analyses cover the meaning-form interface, co-text and frequency of usage. The mapping of cross-linguistic correspondences reveals the actual Spanish equivalents used to express the (very) elusive meanings these items convey, as well as possible differences in polarity and the scope of negation.

The Degree of Negativity of Morphological, Syntactic and Lexical Negation in English as Seen by English Language and Literature Students

“…The former pair is typically treated as synonymous, but the latter is not, since hardly would rather go along with rarely and barely, while seldom would take on a higher value. If we consider some learner corpus studies, in which seldom was found to be infrequently (Rabadán, & Izquierdo, 2013) or never used (Bobkina, & Stefanova Radoulska, 2018) by L2 English learners, we may assume that this slight discrepancy in the participants' judgements (perceiving hardly and seldom as synonymous) may be the cause of assigning lower values to the latter adverb. In a similar vein, hierarchical cluster analysis performed in quantification force research revealed that there is one tier containing, among others, never, rarely and seldom, termed minority quantificational force, and another tier including, among others, many and often, termed majority quantificational force (Alstott, & Jasbi, 2020).…”