How to Say Things with Words: Ways of Saying in English and Spanish

Abstract

RÉSUMÉSlobin a remarqué les différences entre les verbes de mouvement en espagnol et en anglais, en ce qui concerne l'expression d'éléments comme le « trajet du mouvement », ou sa « modalité ». En général, les verbes anglais incorporent la « modalité » dans le noyau de leur sens alors que les verbes espagnols ont tendance à incorporer le « trajet » et à exprimer la « modalité » avec un complément additionnel. En comparant les évènements de mouvement en anglais et leurs traductions en espagnol dans différents romans, Slobin a observé que seulement 51% des verbes exprimant la modalité étaient traduits à l'espagnol par des verbes de manière, les autres demeurant neutralisés ou omis. Nous avons l'intention d'appliquer l'analyse de Slobin aux verbes de langue, en anglais et en espagnol. Notre travail étudiera les systèmes d'agglutination des verbes en anglais et en espagnol ainsi que la méthode de traduction de ces verbes adoptée par les traducteurs espagnols.ABSTRACT Slobin (1997Slobin ( , 1998 has pointed out the differences between Spanish and English verbs of motion with regard to the expression of elements such as "Path of motion" or "Manner of motion." Generally speaking, English verbs incorporate manner to their core meaning while Spanish verbs tend to incorporate Path, expressing Manner with an additional complement. Comparing English motion events and their translation into Spanish in several novels, Slobin found out that only 51% of English manner verbs were translated into Spanish manner verbs (Slobin 1996), the rest being neutralized or omitted. We intend to apply Slobin's analysis to verbs of saying in English and Spanish. Our work aims to analyze the conflation patterns of verbs of saying in English and Spanish and the way Spanish translators deal with them. MOTS-CLÉS/KEY WORDSframe semantics, manner of motion, manner verbs, novels, path of motion

Verbs in speech framing expressions: Comparing English and Spanish

“…What is not covered by Talmy's work are detailed and systematic analyses of the lexical resources and their meanings, their distribution and their contextual habitats in order to see if the claims about the typological differences really hold good. This is what we aim for in this study and this is also what Rojo & Valenzuela (2001) did in their study of how verbs of saying are used in four novels originally written in English and in their Spanish translations. Their study shows that not only did Spanish translators use more verbs than the English authors (56 Spanish verb types versus the 46 English original ones), but those verbs were more varied than the ones found in the original works.…”

“…In other words, the differences between English and Spanish do not involve what can be expressed. Like Rojo & Valenzuela (2001), she found (i) a greater variety of verbs of saying, and (ii) more meanings related to cognition and reasoning in the Spanish texts. For instance, the English verb say is translated into Spanish as apuntar 'note', articular 'articulate, develop', brindar 'toast', comentar 'comment on, discuss', exponer 'show', explain', expresar 'express', indicar 'show', manifestar 'declare, express', observar 'point out, notice', ofrecer 'present, offer', opinar 'think', proferir 'utter' and razonar 'reason'.…”

“…As noted in the introduction, there are very few studies that have been carried out comparing English and Spanish speech verbs in SFEs (Rojo & Valenzuela 2001, Martínez Vázquez 2005, Caballero 2015. These studies are concerned with the ways in which speech events are lexicalised and how meaning structures are evoked through those expressions.…”

“…Her study is based on data from a corpus of twelve fictional narratives in English and their Spanish translations. Unlike Rojo & Valenzuela (2001), Caballero includes all verbs that serve as SFEs, e.g. grin 'sonreír', scowl 'fruncir el ceño' or shrug 'encogerse de hombros', not only verbs of saying proper as Rojo & Valenzuela (2001) did.…”

“…Unlike Rojo & Valenzuela (2001), Caballero includes all verbs that serve as SFEs, e.g. grin 'sonreír', scowl 'fruncir el ceño' or shrug 'encogerse de hombros', not only verbs of saying proper as Rojo & Valenzuela (2001) did. Her study demonstrates that Spanish has the same lexical resources as English to describe speech events, but they are not used in the same way.…”