2025.2.4

 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2025 (35) 2

English binominal noun phrases as seen through their Czech counterparts

Gabriela Brůhová — Kateřina Vašků (Charles University, Prague)

 

 FULL TEXT   

 ABSTRACT (en)

This paper provides an analysis of 100 English binominal noun phrases (BNPs) and their Czech translation counterparts, using data from a parallel English-Czech corpus. BNPs, characterized by the N1-of-N2 structure, have distinct syntactic and semantic properties, where N2 typically functions as the semantic head and N1 conveys an attributive quality. The study aims to identify Czech structures performing similar functions and to specify the roles of BNPs through their Czech translations. The methodology involves manual extraction of BNPs from the corpus, classification of Czech translations into eight categories, and analysis of their evaluative, descriptive, or intensifying functions. Findings highlight the prevalence of adjectival premodification in Czech translations, the nuanced roles of BNPs, and the cultural and linguistic adaptations involved in translation. The research underscores the complexity of translating expressive constructions and offers insights into linguistic typology and translation strategies.

KEYWORDS (en)

binominal noun phrases, contrastive linguistics, expressivity, evaluative function, semantic head

 DOI

https://doi.org/10.14712/18059635.2025.2.4

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