The Czech transgressive as converb: A corpus-based analysis of Czech translated and non-translated texts
Abstract
The monograph aims to investigate whether there is a normalization of the frequency of the Czech transgressive (converb) in contemporary Czech translation texts, especially literary ones, or whether they exhibit the interference effect under the influence of source languages that use similar verbal forms (converbs, Haspelmath 1995) more than Czech. The analysis was conducted on extensive data from language corpora (comparable, parallel, and reference), with a focus on translations from French and Polish in case of potential interference effect, where converbs are abundantly attested (4,000 instances per million words in contemporary Polish fiction, 1,700 instances per million words in French, compared to 150 instances per million words in Czech).
The second research aim of this work is more qualitatively focused, namely on the analysis of (i) linguistic, stylistic, and translation norms that determine the usage of converbs in texts, and (ii) attitudes of translators and language editors towards these norms. This research was partly based on corpus data, with the main source of information being translators' and language editors' verbal comments in a questionnaire survey.
The normalization hypothesis assumes that due to the stylistic feature of the converb, the frequency of this form will be lower in translated texts than in non-translated texts. Quantitative analysis confirmed this hypothesis and also revealed a stronger effect for the past converb, due to its more pronounced stylistic feature.
Translated texts also show a higher proportion of texts with zero or extremely low frequency of converbs compared to non-translated texts. Based on the analysis of expressions of translators and language editors in questionnaires, it can be inferred that this difference may be due to self-censorship (among translators) and interventions by language editors, who often assume interference effects in translations.
However, quantitative analysis of translations of literary texts from French and Polish did not demonstrate interference effects, except for some older translations (e.g., by Bohumil Mathesius), which relate to different stylistic and translation norms, and only one newer translation, specifically the collection of fantasy stories "Sword of Destiny" by Andrzej Sapkowski (1993). In the latter case, interference is due to the fact that these are not works of professional translators, but enthusiasts of fantasy literature, raised on Polish translations of world fantasy smuggled into socialist Czechoslovakia in the 1980s.
The work presents a new perspective on the Czech converb, based on quantitative analysis and qualitative examination of local stylistic contexts of its occurrence, and also opens up new possibilities for its research, such as contrastive analysis or based on reader's expectation norms.