98
of the complement (she looks sad) together with the meaning paraphrasable by be or become + another semantic feature: ‘perceived by sight she is sad’. These instances ob viously appeared only in the English-Czech direction and are noted as a special group within the correspondence English CS > Czech adverbial, see Table 4. Another specific problem in the case of the subject complement was the classifi cation of its counterparts into identical and different where the counterpart consti tuted a component of the subject-complement structure as a modifier of a different head. Such instances are frequent in the Czech-English direction (28 occurrences) and from the formal point of view should be classed as different. However, most instances represent structures illustrated by (28): the Czech predicative adjective is reflected in the modification of an added head realized either by an anaphoric pronoun coreferen tial with the subject or a categorial pronoun or noun. (28) a. náš odjezd byl velmi kvapný (JIC, 66) [our departure was very hurried] our departure had been a hurried one (JIE, 68) b. Věda je vznešená a krásná. (JIC, 37) [science is sublime and beautiful] Science ... was a sublime and beautiful thing (JIE, 39) c. bylo to hrozné (JIC, 26) [was it awful] It was something awful (JIE, 27) d. jsem na tom velmi špatně (HAC, 87) [am on it very badly] I’m in a very bad way (HAE, 51) This type of qualification, illustrated by Mrs. Smith was a clever woman, is described by Mathesius (1975: 114) as qualification by non-genuine classification and character ized as more idiomatic than qualification by an adjective alone. The relatively high representation of this structure, attested in both sources, supports his view. A contrib utive, if not the primary, factor is moreover found in restrictions on the predicative use of many adjectives, whether semantic (as in most visitors are occasional ones) and/ or formal, cf. here in (28) a. Since in the registered instances the added head of the CS hardly ever introduces an additional semantic feature into the semantic structure of the sentence, these instances were classed as identical counterparts. In the opposite direction this type is rare (6 diverse instances). As shown in Table 3, the most frequent counterparts of the Czech subject comple ment are found in the incorporationof the Czech CS into the semantic structure of the English verb (29%), object (19%) and subject (16%). The only other divergent counter part with more than 10 occurrences, object complement (13%), is drawn almost exclu sively from one source (JIC). Incorporation into the semantic structure of the verb (29%) is illustrated by the following examples.
Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS210234
i. syntactic constancy
99
(29) a. Jak spíš?—To je různé. (HAC, 37) [That is different.] How do you sleep?—It varies. (HAE, 15) b. Nebudu už jiný. (HAC, 49) [I-won’t-be already different] I won’t change. (HAE, 24) c. Jsem rád, že jsme zajedno. (HAC, 27) [ ... that we-are at-one] I’m glad we agree. (HAE, 7) d. ... někomu, kdo toho není hoden (JIC, 38) [ ... someone who of-it is-not worthy] ... upon anyone who didn’t deserve them (JIE, 39) As regards the FSP structure, this type of divergence does not basically affect it: the Czech rhematic subject complement is reflected in the English final rhematic verb, the only difference consisting in the dissociation of the two FSP functions, transition and rheme, into the copula and CS in Czech, whereas in English both FSP functions are carried by the final verb. FSP as a motivating factor of this divergence type was detected only in two rare instances containing a thematic CS in the initial position. By means of the passive with an expressed by-agent, the English counterpart achieves final place ment of the element corresponding to the Czech final rhematic subject, cf. (30). (30) ale tím větší byla jeho radost ze získaných zkušeností (JIC, 35) However, this was outweighed by the pleasure of gaining experience. (JIE, 37) This divergence type is of interest from the contrastive point of view insofar as nominal forms of expression are in general characteristic of English rather than of Czech. Here, on the contrary, it is Czech that appears to be more nominal than English. It is to be noted, however, that not all English instances of this kind have an equally acceptable alternative form copula + adjective, mostly for lack of a suitable adjective. The second most frequent divergent counterpart of the Czech subject complement, the object (19 instances) is a concomitant feature of the use of a transitive verb, albeit mostly a light one, viz. a verb like have, be, make: (31) a. Tvrdí o něm, že je neobvykle nadaný. (JIC, 33) [ ... that he-is unusually gifted] She claims that he has an unusual talent. (JIE, 34) b. že mladá žena bude špatnou matkou (JI, 76) [that young woman will-be bad mother] that a young woman will make a bad mother (JIE, 77) Most instances of this kind have a synonymous alternative form of expression cor responding to the Czech copular predication, cf. have a talent / be gifted, make a good
Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS210234
100
mother / be a good mother; they are thus to be ascribed to the translator’s choice. Where English has a lexical verb, as in (32), it again displays a more verbal form of expression than Czech. (32) No tak to by byla delší debata (HAC, 27) [Well so that would-be longer debate] Well, that would require some discussion. (HAE, 7) As shown by the adduced examples, here the syntactic divergence has no impact on the FSP structure, the rheme remaining at the end in both languages. The next divergent counterpart, the correspondence Czech CS > English subject (16 instances) was found in two structures: in the existential construction, cf. (33) (8 instances), and with a verb of appearance or existence on the scene and a rhematic subject in the initial position, cf. (34) (2 instances, to which can be added one example reflecting the Czech CS as a modifier of the English CS, cf. (34) b. (33) a. je slyšet zvuk tekoucí vody (HAC, 75) [is to-hear sound of-running water] There is the sound of running water (HAE, 42) b. Je to nejkrásnější kousek světa, jaký jsem kdy viděl. (JIC, 64) [Is it most-beautiful piece of-world which I-have ever seen] ... there is no more beautiful place in the world (JIE, 66) (34) a. bylo nesnesitelné dusno (JIC, 65) [was unbearably oppressive] an unbearable closeness set in (JIE, 66) b. Je to zlé (JIC, 46) [Is it bad] A terrible thing has taken place (JIE, 48) These instances, though innumerous, deserve mention on the ground of demon strating the primacy of the grammatical word order principle in English, which here overrides the principle of end focus. While the FSP structure of the Czech and the En glish sentence remains the same, the two versions differ in respect of the distribution of communicative dynamism: the Czech sentence displays a gradual increase in CD with the rheme at the end, viz. the basic distribution, whereas in English the linear arrangement is reversed, the rheme coming first. Among the syntactically divergent counterparts this is rare because instances involving divergence in pre- and postver bal elements are precisely those that patently show the operation of the FSP principle, cf. (1), (13), (19) (20), (30). In the case of the correspondence Czech CS > English subject, the role of the FSP factor is obvious in 2 instances containing a thematic subject complement in the pre verbal position, cf. (35) a. and b.
Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS210234