There and it in a cross-linguistic perspective A parallel corpus study of English dummy subjects and their translation equivalents in Norwegian and German by Bohumila Chocholoušová A Thesis Presented to the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages The University of Oslo In Partianl Fulfilment of the Requirements for the MA degree Spring Term 2008 i Acknowledgements One of the greatest rewards of completing the thesis is to be able to express my gratitude to people who have accompanied me through the process. I am very grateful for having the opportunity of being an exchange student at the University of Oslo. I would like to thank the research project ‘SPRIK’ for awarding me a student scholarship for this project, as well as for providing me with the necessary motivation, and sparking of my interest in corpus linguistics. Without my supervisor prof. Stig Johansson this thesis would never have come to happen. Thanks to his wise guidance and top-notch knowledge of the matter he has always set me to the right track, and I will always be greatly indebted to him for his erudite counsel, valuable comments, immense support and great inspiration. ii Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Previous research .............................................................................................. 2 1.2.1 Dummy subjects from a diachronic perspective ......................................... 2 1.2.2 Dummy subjects from a synchronic perspective ........................................ 3 1.2.2.1 Dummy subjects in major reference grammars............................ 3 1.2.2.1.1 English dummy subject constructions ................................... 3 1.2.2.1.2 Norwegian dummy subject constructions ............................. 5 1.2.2.1.3 German dummy subject constructions .................................. 6 1.2.2.2 Monolingual studies ..................................................................... 8 1.2.2.3 Contrastive studies ..................................................................... 11 1.2.2.3.1 Theoretically based contrastive studies ............................... 11 1.2.2.3.2 Corpus-based contrastive studies ........................................ 12 1.3 Aim and scope of the study ............................................................................. 14 1.4 Justification of the study ................................................................................. 15 1.5 Outline of the study ......................................................................................... 15 2. Theory and method ............................................................................................... 17 2.1 Material ........................................................................................................... 17 2.1.1 Description of the corpora ........................................................................ 17 2.1.2 Types of comparison ................................................................................. 18 2.1.3 Defining the corpus search ........................................................................ 19 2.2 Method ............................................................................................................ 20 2.2.1 Corpus-based inquiry ................................................................................ 20 2.2.2 Contrastive Analysis ................................................................................. 21 2.2.3 Functional approach and three-level analysis ........................................... 21 iii 2.3 Theoretical considerations .............................................................................. 23 2.3.1 Grammatical possibilities in the three languages...................................... 23 2.3.2 Determining factors in the choice of sentence subject and sentence form 23 2.3.3 Formulating the research hypothesis ........................................................ 26 3. Data Analysis ........................................................................................................ 28 3.1 Quantitative analysis ....................................................................................... 28 3.1.1 The frequency of dummy subjects ............................................................ 28 3.1.2 The frequency of dummy subject constructions ....................................... 32 3.1.3 There and it as dummy subjects ................................................................ 36 3.2 Qualitative analysis ......................................................................................... 37 3.2.1 Presentative constructions ......................................................................... 38 3.2.2 Extrapositions ........................................................................................... 43 3.2.3 Clefts ......................................................................................................... 47 3.2.4 Prop dummy subjects ................................................................................ 50 3.2.5 Declaratory expressions ............................................................................ 53 3.2.6 Phrasal expressions ................................................................................... 55 3.2.7 Vague reference ........................................................................................ 59 3.2.8 Specifying constructions ........................................................................... 61 3.2.9 Agentless processes .................................................................................. 64 3.2.10 Advance expressions ................................................................................. 67 3.2.11 Impersonal passives .................................................................................. 69 3.2.12 Impersonal actives .................................................................................... 72 3.2.13 Commencing expressions ......................................................................... 75 3.2.14 Environmental expressions ....................................................................... 77 iv 4. Discussion of the findings ..................................................................................... 80 4.1 Typology of subject changes .......................................................................... 80 4.2 Subject options in the three languages ............................................................ 81 4.2.1 Full subjects inserted in the translations ................................................... 81 4.2.2 Full subjects found in the English originals .............................................. 83 4.2.3 Comparison of subject choices in the three languages ............................. 86 4.3 Function and consistency of dummy subjects ................................................ 88 4.4 Consistency of dummy subject constructions ................................................. 90 4.5 Comparison of the findings ............................................................................. 91 5. Summary and Conclusion ..................................................................................... 94 v List of Tables Table 2.1 The size of the English-Norwegian-German and Norwegian-English-German sub-corpora of the OMC ................................................................................................. 18 Table 3.1: The total and relative frequency of dummy subjects in the English originals and their Norwegian and German translations ............................................................... 29 Table 3.2: The proportion of subject consistency in the translated material ................................... 30 Table 3.3: The ranking and frequency of the individual dummy subject construction types found in the corpora ........................................................................................................ 33 Table 3.4: The level of subject consistency in the case of presentative constructions as found in the translated material ...................................................................................... 39 Table 3.5: The types of full subjects inserted into the translation of English presentative constructions ................................................................................................................... 40 Table 3.6: The level of subject consistency in the case of extrapositions as found in the translated material ........................................................................................................... 44 Table 3.7: The types of full subjects inserted into the translation of English extraposition ............ 45 Table 3.8: The level of subject consistency in the case of clefts as found in the translated material ........................................................................................................................... 48 Table 3.9: The types of full subjects inserted into the translation of English clefts ........................ 49 Table 3.10: The level of subject consistency in the case of prop dummy subjects as found in the translated material ................................................................................................. 51 Table 3.11: The