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Article published In:
Comparing Crosslinguistic Complexity
Edited by Jenny Ström Herold and Magnus Levin
[Languages in Contrast 24:1] 2024
► pp. 5–32

English complex premodifiers and their German and Swedish correspondences

The case of hyphenated premodifiers in a non‑fiction corpus

| Linnaeus University , Sweden
| Linnaeus University , Sweden

This study concerns English hyphenated premodifiers (science-based targets; lower-back pain) contrasted with their German and Swedish correspondences. The data stem from the Linnaeus University English-German-Swedish corpus (LEGS), which contains non-fiction texts, but comparisons are also made to fiction texts from the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus (ESPC). The study shows that these condensed and complex premodifiers are more frequent in English originals than in English translations, and more typical of the non-fiction genre than that of fiction. Information density and terminological precision thus seem to be more important factors for the use of hyphenated premodifiers than creativity and expressiveness. In original English, two-thirds of the right-hand elements are either nouns or ed-participles. In translated English, numerals as left-hand elements (three-page document) are less frequent than in original English. Regarding German and Swedish correspondences, around half are premodifiers. Postmodifiers in the form of prepositional phrases and relative clauses are more frequent in Swedish than in German, which instead “overuses” premodifying extended attributes. Compound adjectives/participles and compound nouns are the most frequent correspondences in both German and Swedish. In almost half the instances, German and Swedish translators choose the same correspondents, indicating a high degree of similarity in the structural preferences in the two target languages.

Keywords: hyphenated premodifiers, postmodification, noun phrases, the Linnaeus University English-German-Swedish corpus, English/German/Swedish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies on hyphenated premodifiers and German and Swedish counterparts
  • 3.Material and method
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1The frequencies of hyphenated premodifiers
    • 4.2Hyphenated premodifiers in German and Swedish translations
      • Primary type
        • I.Premodifier
        • II.NP head
        • III.Postmodifier
        • IV.Restructured
    • 4.3Hyphenated premodifiers in original English and translated English
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 16 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.00033.lev
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