Copular clauses in English and in Czech

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Copular clauses in English and in Czech

• Markéta Malá
• Charles University in Prague

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Copular clauses a comparative corpus-based
approach

• Copular clauses
• clauses with a verbo-nominal predicate comprising
  a copular verb and a subject complement
• used to ascribe a quality, property or value to
  the subject
• Verbs
• both Czech and English copular verbs be - být
  and become - stát se
• English a broader repertoire of copular verbs,
  various types of attribution (e.g., verbs of
  seeming, attribution based on perception, verbs
  of remaining etc.)
• What means are employed in Czech to express such
  modified attribution?
• What can the constructions used in Czech suggest
  of the meaning of the respective copular verbs in
  English?
• In what ways can multilingual translation corpora
  be employed in contrastive research?

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Material and methodology

• a parallel translation corpus of aligned Czech
  and English fiction texts
• a part of the InterCorp project a multilingual
  corpus of 21 languages (49.3 mil. tokens) with
  Czech (44 mil. tokens) in the centre as a pivot
  language
• http//ucnk.ff.cuni.cz/intercorp/
• http//www.korpus.cz/intercorp/
• Czech English 4 mil. 4.7 mil. tokens (34
  texts Project Syndicate), part-of-speech tagged
• Michael Barlow ParaConc (alignment checked
  manually)
• Web-based interface
• Pilot parallel sub-corpus used for the present
  study (cca 800 000 tokens)

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Pilot parallel sub-corpus used for the present
study
cca 800 000 tokens bidirectional, balanced (cf.
Johansson 2007, Dušková 2004, 2005)
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The scope of the study

• The copular verb proper be / být , which does
  not add any semantic content to the predicate
  phrase it is contained in (Pustet 2005 2003,
  5) excluded
• Semi-copulas (or quasi-copulas, or
  complex-intransitives) add meaning to the
  predicate phrases in which they are contained.
  This semantic function, while not directly
  affecting the inner core of the predicate phrase,
  that is, its lexical nucleus, by altering the
  intrinsic semantic content of the latter, consist
  in importing ... meaning components into the
  predicate phrase. (Pustet 2005 2003, 5 - 6)
• 2 groups of semi-copulas
• verbs with depictive predicative complements
  (current copulas) feel, continue, appear, look,
  keep, seem, smell, remain, sound, stay, prove,
  taste,
• verbs with resultative predicative complements
  (resulting copulas) become, grow, come, turn,
  fall, get, go.

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Copular verbs in English originals and in
English translations
Word-count (tokens) Copular verbs (abs) Copular verbs per 1000 tokens
English originals 228 011 1 054 4.6
English translations 212 200 760 3.6 (78 of E.orig.)
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The correspondences between become and stát
seEnglish sources gt Czech translations

• 1. The mountains around the school became icy
  gray .... - Hory kolem školy byly ted ledove
  šedé ....
• The mountains around the school were now
  icy gray ....
• 2. You that demon for pleasure who became so
  wise. Ty, která sis tak potrpela na zábavu a
  která jsi tolik zmoudrela. prefix z- change
• 3. We do, after all, wish him to become someone
  we can be proud of, don't we? Chceme prece, aby
  vyrostl v cloveka, na nejž budeme moci být hrdí,
  ne? grow up to be
• 4. A small bolt from a cockpit became jewellery.
  Matice z pilotní kabiny se stala šperkem.
• 5. In jail he became serene and devious. Ve
  vezení zacal být vážný a nevyzpytatelný. started
  to be

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Translation counterparts of English copular
clauses

• Zero (overall semantic correspondence maintained
  but no identifiable explicit counterpart of
  copular predicate identifiable)
• Overt
• Verbal
• lexical verb (semantic class)
• copular verb (být, stát se)
• catenative construction (zacít start / prestat
  cease inf.)
• Verbal prefix
• Verbo-nominal (mít pocit)
• Adverbial (epistemic, time)
• Clausal (comment clause)

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Translation counterparts of English copular
clauses exx I

• Zero
• Bullstrode, Millicent then became a Slytherin.
• Bullstrodeovou, Millicent (object) zaradil
  klobouk (subject) do Zmijozelu
• ? B.M. was placed in Slytherin by the hat.
• Overt Verbal
• lexical verb (semantic class)
• it seemed a place rather than a time
• vnímá to spíš jako místo než cas ? she perceives
  it
• copular verb (být, stát se)
• it seems unfair to ask a young woman to make
  judgements so crucial to her future happiness
• je nespravedlivé chtít po mladé žene, aby se
  rozhodovala o svém budoucím štestí ? it is
• catenative construction (zacít / prestat inf.)
• As they entered November, the weather turned very
  cold.
• Jak nastal listopad, zacalo být velice chladno. ?
  started to be

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Translation counterparts of English copular
clauses exx II

• Verbal prefix
• Neville went bright red
• Neville zrudl jako krocan
• Verbo-nominal
• He felt very strange.
• Mel velice podivný pocit. ? had a very strange
  feeling
• Adverbial (epistemic)
• Ichiro seemed to consider this for a moment.
• Iciró o tom zjevne chvíli uvažoval. ? apparently
• Clausal
• Noriko, however, seems very proud of her
  apartment
• Noriko je však, jak se mi zdá, na svuj byt velice
  hrdá ? it seems
  to me

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• One of the most fascinating aspects of
  multi-lingual corpora is that they can make
  meanings visible through translation patterns.
  (Johansson 2007)

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total zero verbal verbal verbal verbal verbal verbal verbal vb- nom. adverbial adverbial clau-sal
total zero lexical verb lexical verb lexical verb copular verb copular verb cate-nat. prefix res. vb- nom. epist tmp / man clau-sal
total zero re-sult. per-cept. oth. stát se být cate-nat. prefix res. vb- nom. epist tmp / man clau-sal
become 156 4 30 3 10 23 23 18 36 1 0 8 0
turn 16 0 2 0 0 1 2 2 9 0 0 0 0
go 35 0 8 0 0 0 2 0 25 0 0 0 0
fall 30 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 23 0 0 2 0
grow 31 0 10 0 3 0 3 3 12 0 0 0 0
get 48 2 12 3 1 0 9 6 12 2 0 1 0
come 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
prove 8 0 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
appear 38 7 0 17 5 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 1
look 169 4 6 141 1 0 7 0 2 0 7 1 0
seem 317 43 0 135 5 0 5 0 1 7 108 3 10
sound 26 1 0 14 5 0 2 0 0 0 1 3 0
feel 79 0 0 37 8 0 15 0 1 16 2 0 0
taste 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
remain 39 6 4 1 22 1 1 0 0 1 0 3 0
continue 49 17 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 30 0
stay 7 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
keep 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
total 1054 84 82 354 67 26 70 29 123 29 126 53 11
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total zero verbal verbal verbal verbal verbal verbal verbal vb- nom. adverbial adverbial clau-sal
total zero lexical verb lexical verb lexical verb copular verb copular verb cate-nat. prefix res. vb- nom. epist tmp / man clau-sal
total zero re-sult. per-cept. oth. stát se být cate-nat. prefix res. vb- nom. epist tmp / man clau-sal
become 156 4 30 3 10 23 23 18 36 1 0 8 0
turn 16 0 2 0 0 1 2 2 9 0 0 0 0
go 35 0 8 0 0 0 2 0 25 0 0 0 0
fall 30 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 23 0 0 2 0
grow 31 0 10 0 3 0 3 3 12 0 0 0 0
get 48 2 12 3 1 0 9 6 12 2 0 1 0
come 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
prove 8 0 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
appear 38 7 0 17 5 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 1
look 169 4 6 141 1 0 7 0 2 0 7 1 0
seem 317 43 0 135 5 0 5 0 1 7 108 3 10
sound 26 1 0 14 5 0 2 0 0 0 1 3 0
feel 79 0 0 37 8 0 15 0 1 16 2 0 0
taste 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
remain 39 6 4 1 22 1 1 0 0 1 0 3 0
continue 49 17 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 30 0
stay 7 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
keep 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
total 1054 84 82 354 67 26 70 29 123 29 126 53 11
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become, turn, go, fall, get, grow, come, prove

• 1. Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?
• Tatínek se zbláznil, vid?
• 2. Father must be going blind
• Tatínkovi zrejme slábne zrak.
• 3.a. Harry thought the blood seemed to be
  getting thicker.
• Harry si ríkal, že i krvavé skvrny jsou vetší.
  
• 3.b. I'm getting so frightened, Ichiro, I can
  hardly eat, .
• Já už jsem tak vydešená, že ani jíst nemužu,
  .
• 4. She grew harsh with herself and the patients.
• Zacala být k sobe i pacientum drsnejší.
• 5. Their like will never fall victim to the sort
  of grand catastrophe that
• Takoví se nikdy nestanou obetí katastrofy, jaká
  .

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Remain, continue, stay, keep

• 1. As I remember, supper continued to proceed in
  a most satisfactory manner.
• Pokud se pamatuji, probíhala vecere klidne a
  príjemne.
• 2. Mori-san remained absorbed by his pictures.
• Mori-san si dál zkoumave prohlížel obrázky.
• 3. He stays awake in any case this night, to see
  if the figure moves towards him.
• Zustává tu noc v každém prípade vzhuru, aby
  videl, zda se postava pohne smerem k nemu.

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Appear, look, seem, sound, feel, taste

• 1. and it seemed to her a reversal of Kim
• a pripadalo jí to jako Kim naruby.
• 2. he seems capable in that category.
• je zrejme v tomhle smeru schopný.
• 3. Well, your mother for one doesn't seem to
  think so.
• No, napríklad tvoje maminka si to nemyslí.

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Epistemic modification

• As if
• A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming
  from up ahead.
• Zepredu jako by k nim doléhalo tiché šustení a
  cinkání.
• Adverbials zrejme, ocividne, zjevne, zdánlive,
  nejspíš, asi, možná, nepochybne
• they seemed to think he might get dangerous
  ideas.
• nejspíš si mysleli, že by ho to mohlo privést
  na nebezpecné nápady.

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Tracing the function
Czech prefix
English copular verbs
Czech lexical vb
English copula
Czech copula
English modal vb.
English modal adv.
Czech modal adverbial
English modal adj.
etc.
English comment clause
etc.
zero
etc.
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Epistemic adverbials zrejme, ocividne, zjevne,
zdánlive, nejspíš, asi, možná, nepochybne
English originals English originals English translations English translations
S () S ()
modal adv. 210 40.3 111 46.8
copular vbs 77 14.8 7 3.0
modal vbs 110 21.1 34 14.3
comment cl. 60 11.5 27 11.4
modal adj. 18 3.5 5 2.2
zero 46 8.2 53 22.4
521 100 237 100

• Adverbials obviously, apparently, clearly,
  seemingly, no doubt, of course, probably,
  patently
• Copular vbs seem, appear, look
• Different preferences in different languages
  (paradigms of choice vs patterns of choice)

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The experiencer

• the sense verbs and verbs of seeming license a
  to phrase where the oblique NP expresses the
  experiencer. (Huddleston Pullum, 263)
• seem somebody or something gives the
  experiencer the impression of being something or
  doing something. (Johansson, 118)
• English originals gt Czech translations
  expression of the experiencer by the dative,
  corresponding to the English to-PP, is about 4.6
  times more frequent than explicit reference to
  the experiencer in the original English texts.
• To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems
  incredible
• Nekomu tak mladému jako ty to jiste zní
  neuveritelne

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The experiencer

• More frequently overt in Czech
• Obligatory complement with some verbs of
  perception
• It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of
  plant. Pripadalo mu, že snad sedí na nejaké
  rostline.
• Optional with others different preferences
• After what seemed an age, she turned and left.
• Zdálo se jim, že to trvá celou vecnost, pak se
  však paní Norrisová otocila a vyšla ven.

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Czech English
become 1 0
turn 1 0
go 4 0
fall 0 0
get 0 0
grow 0 0
come 1 0
prove 0 0
appear 9 1
look 7 2
seem 43 17
sound 6 0
feel 25 1
taste 0 0
remain 0 0
continue 0 0
stay 1 0
keep 0 0
97 21

• The dative d. (in)commodi
• 1. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green.
• Rána mu ošklive zezelenala
• 2. Wood was now looking as though all his dreams
  had come true at once.
• Wood se ted tváril, jako by se mu naráz splnily
  všecky jeho sny.
• 3. that its details have stayed imprinted on my
  memory
• že se mi ve všech podrobnostech vryl do pameti

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Using bi-directional parallel corpora

• making meanings visible through translation
  patterns (Johansson)
• making it possible to proceed from function to
  its realization form
• different preferences in different languages
  paradigmatic choice vs patterns of choice
  (Neumann)
• the source text can leave its mark on the
  translation (overuse / underuse)
• surprises

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References

• Biber, D. et al. (1999) The Longman Grammar of
  Spoken and Written English. Harlow Longman.
• Dušková, L. (2004) Syntactic constancy of the
  subject complement, Part 1 A comparison between
  Czech and English. Linguistica Pragensia XIV/2,
  pp 57-71.
• Dušková, L. (2005) Syntactic constancy of the
  subject complement, Part 2 A comparison between
  English and Czech. Linguistica Pragensia XV/1,
  pp 1-17.
• Huddleston, R. G. Pullum (2002) The Cambridge
  Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge CUP.
• Johansson, S. (2007) Seeing through multilingual
  corpora. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• Pustet, R. (2003) Copulas. Universals in the
  Categorization of the Lexicon. Oxford OUP.
• Quirk, R. et al. (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar
  of the English Language. London Longman.