Sõnajärjeuuendus inglise-eesti ilukirjandustõlgete vabades klausides (1911–1929)
Word order reform in adjunct clauses of English-Estonian fiction translation (1911–1929)

Summary/Abstract: At the start of the 20th century, after a campaign to degermanize Estonian word order, the constituent order of subordinate clauses in written Estonian saw a significant shift, with a mostly verb-final order replaced by a mostly verb-second order typical of main clauses. This study focuses on the reform period, starting from around the time of the first proposals (1911) to when their effects were being noticed and discussed (1929).In the study, two samples were examined, each from 28 English-Estonian fiction translations from 1911–1929, totalling around 1000 words per text. All non-complement (= adjunct) finite and non-finite adverbial clauses with a verb were extracted. Clauses with post-verb dependents were assessed as traditional or reformed, followed by a qualitative analysis.The data show that during the period, a few texts with reformed word order were produced in 1914 and 1923, while a greater trend towards the reform happened in the late 1920s, expecially in 1928 and 1929. However, the degree of adoption varied from translator to translator, with some adopting a more moderate free order and others a strict policy against verb-final order (unless no dependents were present). Adoption was different in adverbial finite clauses and converb clauses: verb-first converb clauses were adopted independently from their finite counterparts, and saw a sharper rise towards dominance. A brief comparison with source texts suggests that overlap of English and Estonian clauses is incidental and not necessarily a result of copying from source texts.

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