Komarzysko, the big old mosquito?

A comparative corpus study of augmentatives in Polish and

English

Dorota Lockyer, PhD CandidateUniversity of British ColumbiaCAS conferenceJune 1, 2015

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Aims

▪ Identify and compare the ‘translation equivalents’ of Polish augmentatives and the addition of Polish augmentatives in translations from English

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Background: English & Polish augmentative formation

ENGLISH:Can be formed two ways:i. With augmentative prefix: e.g. super(-), hyper(-), mega(-), ultra(-)ii.With analytic marker: e.g. big, large, huge

POLISH:Can be formed three ways:iii.With augmentative prefix: e.g. super(-), hiper(-), mega(-), ultra(-)iv.With analytic marker: e.g. wielki, duży, ogromnyv. With augmentative suffix: e.g. -sko, -uch

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Previous research: English synthetic augmentatives

▪ Lieber (2010: 40): “the closest we can come to augmentative suffixes in English are prefixes like mega- (megastore, megabyte). …[They] sometimes have pejorative overtones.”

▪ Schneider (2003: 16): “English has no prototypical, i.e. synthetic, augmentatives”, though augmentatives can be formed analytically with adjectives that “belong to the word field large (e.g. large, big, huge)” (17). Also, super- and hyper- may be considered augmentative prefixes, along with maxi- and mega-.

▪ Dressler & Merlini Barbaresi (2001: 44): English does not have augmentatives; it has “only diminutives.”

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Previous research: Polish augmentative suffixes

Dziwirek & Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (2010: 30) list 20 suffixes, including:

▪-al: brzydal ‘an ugly person’ ▪ -ara: nudziara ‘boring woman’▪-as: brudas ‘dirty person, slob’ (? brudasek)▪-idło/-ydło: chamidło ‘boor’▪-isko/-ysko: dziadisko ‘unpleasant old man’ ▪-sko: babsko ‘unpleasant, rude woman’▪-uch: leniuch ‘lazy-bones’▪-ucha: starucha ‘unpleasant, old woman’▪-ula: brzydula ‘ugly woman’

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Research Questions

How are these synthetic Polish augmentatives translated into English?

How are Polish augmentatives added to translations from English?

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Approach: Corpus and data used

PELCRA Polish-English parallel corpus of literary works (http://pelcra.pl/new/literature)▪ split into two files: POL-ENGL and ENGL-POL

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Results from corpus

Common augmentatives were relics of older language (particularly in POL-ENGL), while others had evaluative content:

In POL-ENGL:żołnierzysko, dziewczysko, piwsko, cielsko, księżysko, chłopczysko, wilczysko, koniska,

wąsiska, cmentarzyskachIn ENGL-POL:

wilczysko, łapsko, wężysko, nosisko, futrzysko, tygrysisko, żmijsko, cielsko, niedźwiedzisko,

chłopczysko, chłopaczysko 8

Direct translation pairings

żołnierzysko fellow wolf wilczyskodziewczysko woman paw łapsko piwsko beer nose nosisko księżysko priest tiger tygrysisko wąsiska mustaches elephant słonisko chłopczysko boy (old) boy chłopczyskowilczysko wolf fellow chłopaczyskokoniska little horse (!) old bear niedźwiedzisko

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Immediate context

Must be considered in immediate context, as most augmentatives in the corpus were preceded by adjectives, such as ‘good-looking’, ‘terribly bad’, ‘horrid’, ‘honest’, ‘poor’, ‘soft gray’, ‘big’. Often the emotional connotations are conveyed through these preceding adjectives.

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‘Wilczysko’ ‘wolf’

1 instance of wilczysko in the POL-ENGL sub-corpus; 72 instances of wilk. (No diminutive wilczek.)

Gdzieniegdzie trafialiśmy na potłuczoną trawę i większe ślady krwi; znać było, że ranne wilczysko od czasu do czasu wypoczywa.Here and there we came upon trampled grass and more traces of blood.«»The wounded wolf rested from time to time; that was evident

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‘Piwsko’

In POL-ENGL, 2 instances of piwo and 3 instances of piwsko. Qualitatively, much less negative emotion in the English translation:

Okrutnie tu liche piwsko w tej Końskowoli – zakończył pan Zagłoba mrugając na Wołodyjowskiego.Terribly bad beer in this Konskovoli!" concluded Zagloba, muttering at Volodyovski.

– Bardzo też liche piwsko w tej Końskowoli! – zauważył pan Zagłoba."The beer is very bad in this Konskovoli," remarked Zagloba. 12

‘Koniska’ ‘little horse’ (!)

Synthetic Polish augmentative translated as English analytic diminutive:

Jadę tedy, mój jegomość, jadę na Białę i Włodawę i we Włodawie – koniska już miałem srodze zmęczone– zatrzymuję się na popas.I go through Beloe to Vlodava, and in Vlodava I find my little horse terribly used up,--I halt for refreshment.

*koniska = pl. < konisko ‘big horse’ (PWN) 13

‘Big snake’ wężysko

One example of analytic English construction translated to a Polish synthetic construction, emphasizing the size of the snake:

That happened to be the least ruined of any, and the big snake was delayed awhile before he could find a way up the stones.Okazało się, że ta właśnie część muru była najmniej zniszczona, toteż wężysko zmitrężyło sporo czasu, zanim zdołało odnaleźć drogę pośród kamieni.

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‘Big, serious, old brown bear’

‘Old’ vs. ‘young’, and the stature, magnificence, and wisdom of ‘old’ creatures:The big, serious, old brown bear was delighted to have so quick a pupil, for the young wolves will only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe, and run away as soon as they can repeat the Hunting Verse –Wielkie, poważne, brunatne niedźwiedzisko nie posiadało się z radości, że ma tak pojętnego ucznia.«»Albowiem młode wilczki zwykły przyswajać sobie z Praw Dżungli tylko to, co znajduje zastosowanie w obrębie ich gromady i plemienia —

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‘Soft gray nose’

English to Polish translation of ‘soft gray nose’; (positive) connotations and of older age:

So Mowgli stretched himself in some long, clean grass at the edge of the field, but before he had closed his eyes a soft gray nose poked him under the chin.Tymczasem Mowgli doszedł na skraj pola i wyciągnął się w bujnej, nie stratowanej trawie.«»Ledwo jednak zmrużył oczy, gdy jakieś miękkie, szare nosisko szturchnęło go i poufale w podbródek.

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‘Grim old wolf’

Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver.Akela, posępne stare wilczysko, który nikogo w życiu nie prosił o zmiłowanie, rzucił błagalne spojrzenie na Mowgliego.«»Chłopak stał nagi w świetle gorejącej żagwi, rozrzucającej wokoło drżące i chybotliwe cienie, a grzywa czarnych włosów rozwiała mu się groźnie nad karkiem. 17

Summary

▪ In this corpus, with -sko suffixes:▪ Polish augmentatives were almost never translated into any type of English augmentative.

▪ English nouns were often translated into Polish synthetic augmentatives; sometimes from analytic English augmentatives

▪ Polish augmentatives typically conveyed negative connotations, but sometimes positive (particularly in ENGL-POL).

▪ Polish augmentatives seem to be closest to the meaning of ‘old X’ or ‘big X’ (similarly to Polish diminutives being close in meaning to ‘little/small X’), showing mainly evaluative meaning and/or size.

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Concluding remarks

Augmentatives do convey an evaluative meaning and should be able to be expressed to some extent in English, particularly through various adjectives, viz. ‘old’ and ‘big’.Newer sources or corpora could show more current translation methodologies to translate augmentatives.Other languages with augmentatives, e.g. Russian and Spanish -- how are these translated into English?

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