Recurrent word-combinations in contrast 185
are i hvert fall (also written ihvertfall), lit. ‘in every case’, i alle fall (also written
iallfall and (incorrectly) iallefall), lit. ‘in all cases’, and i det minste. The three
Norwegian correspondences have very similar meanings. In the case of at least,
we have excluded instances where at least premodifies a quantifying expression,
as in at least once a week. Nearly all such instances were translated by minst, ‘least’.
These instances accounted for 18 of the 95 occurrences in the original English
material and 24 of the 122 instances in the English translations. We are then left
with 77 and 98 instances of at least for original texts and translations respectively.
Table 4 summarises the main correspondences.
Table 4. Norwegian correspondences (translations and sources) of at least^12
Norwegian correspondence^12 English original (77), where
Norwegian is translation
English translation (98),
where Norwegian is source
i alle fall/ iallfall 23 (30%) 37 (38%)
i det minste 20 (26%) 16 (16%)
i hvert fall/ ihvertfall 22 (29%) 21 (21%)
other, incl. Ø 12 (16%) 24 (24%)
Apart from Ø, which occurred five times in the Norwegian translations of the
original English texts and ten times as (non-)source of the English translations,
no correspondence in the ‘other’ category occurred more than twice. The numbers
point to a strong mutual correspondence between at least and the three Norwegian
main correspondences listed in Table 4.^13 The next step in the analysis might be
to look at translations of i alle fall and i hvert fall, to see if the correspondences are
stronger or weaker than the one between at least and i det minste. However, this
lies outside the scope of the present study.
(7) At least he was alive, I thought numbly. (DF1)
Da levde han i alle fall, tenkte jeg nummen. (DF1T)
(8) “Yes, but at least we spread it out over ten years,” he said. (DL1)
“Ja, men vi fordelte dem i hvert fall over ti år,” sa han. (DL1T)
(9) “Before I die I want to know I’ve at least done something worth while.”
(ABR1)
“Før jeg dør vil jeg vite at jeg i det minste har gjort noe skikkelig.” (ABR1T)
- Literal translations: i alle fall ‘in all cases’, i hvert fall ‘in each case’.
- Altenberg (1999: 265) establishes similar correspondences between English anyway and at
least and Swedish i alla fall and i varje fall.