In:
Across Languages and Cultures, Akademiai Kiado Zrt., Vol. 4, No. 1 ( 2003-05-1), p. 19-51
Abstract:
Translational evidence from popular-scientific texts shows that about every second sentence of the German translations does not begin in the same way as the English originals although the sentences are subject to the same discourse conditions and although in many cases analogous beginnings are not excluded for linguistic reasons. The differences concern word order and perspective, i.e., active, passive and passive-like structures, but also structural explicitness, i.e., the use of clauses, word groups, words or proforms at the beginning of sentences. To explain the findings, it will be assumed that complex information structures are subject to a strategy of balanced information distribution, which replaces the given-new strategy of simpler information structures, and that both strategies spell out differently if grammatical parameters are set differently. In particular, the different beginnings of German and English sentences suggest that there are stronger constraints in English on reordering due to processing disadvantages which follow from the tighter subject-verb-object link in English.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1585-1923
,
1588-2519
DOI:
10.1556/Acr.4.2003.1.2
Language:
Unknown
Publisher:
Akademiai Kiado Zrt.
Publication Date:
2003
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2110478-5
SSG:
7,11
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