Kontrastiivselt inglise vabast ing-tarindist ja selle funktsionaalsetest eesti vastetest ilukirjandustõlkes
Contrastive functional analysis of the English adjunctive ing-clause and its Estonian equivalents in fiction translation

Summary/Abstract: This article compares the English adjunctive ing-clause with its Estonian equivalents by examining their semantic and syntactic functions. The adjunctive ing-clause is one among several syntactic uses for the -ing verb form, and, as an adjunct, it can serve various semantic functions. English and Estonian grammar concepts of clauses, complements and adjuncts, and semantic functions of subordinate clauses are compared to establish their similarities and to find the functional basis for equivalence. Contrastive functional analysis is conducted on parallel corpora based on an English fiction text, George Orwell’s “1984”, and its Estonian translation. The analysis reveals connections between semantic functions of the adjunctive ing-clause and the form of its equivalents, as well as the scope of the syntactic overlap. It is shown that the main equivalents are the converb clause, coordinate clause and adverbial clause, while the less common absolute clause, relative clause and nominalisation appear in more specific circumstances.The Estonian converb clause is a syntactic match to the adjunctive ing-clause serving any semantic function, but it doesn’t appear with an explicit subject and it can’t appear with adpositions. The coordinate clause has limited overlap in syntactic functions and it mostly appears if the adjunctive ing-clause comes at the end of the main clause. The adverbial clause covers most of the semantic functions and is thus a versatile equivalent. Nominalisation is mostly used when the converb clause cannot be used because the semantic function requires an explicit marker. The absolute clause appears if the meaning of holding or wearing verbs is expressed through a place phrase or when the subject is a part of the main clause subject.

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