186 Jarle Ebeling, Signe Oksefjell Ebeling and Hilde Hasselgård
In the case of at all we have excluded instances where all simply means ‘all of them’,
as in at all times/hours or at ‘all the goings on’, i.e. where all is clearly modifying
the following noun (phrase). Such instances only account for six out of the 104
occurrences found in the English original texts and eight in the translations. We
have also excluded an instance of at all found in the translations where it fol-
lows not in a response and where this unit carries a special meaning, something
along the lines of ‘you’re welcome’.^14 Table 5 summarises the findings, listing the
most salient correspondences of at all. The table is followed by examples from the
material.Table 5. Norwegian correspondences (translations and sources) of at all (English fiction)^15
Norwegian correspondence^15 English original (98), where
Norwegian is translationEnglish translation (80),
where Norwegian is source
i det hele tatt 29 (30%) 11 (14%)
slett ikke/ ikkje/ ingen/ ingenting 21 (21%) 12 (15%)
noe/ noko/ ingen/ intet/ hva/
hvilken som helst 4 (4%) 18 (23%)
overhodet 17 (17%) 4 (4%)
other, incl. Ø 27 (28%) 35 (44%)(10) “Did you hear anything at all that night?” (MW1)
“Hørte dere i det hele tatt noe den kvelden?” (MW1T)
(11) “Do n’t worry, you did n’t put me off at all.” (ABR1)
“Ikke vær redd, du virker slett ikke frastøtende på meg.” (ABR1T)
(12) “Was Mrs Gillespie depressed at all?” (MW1)
“Var mrs. Gillespie overhodet nedtrykt?” (MW1T)
Based on the quantitative data presented, we may summarise our findings in the
following way.
When going from Norwegian to English- i det minste corresponds to at least
- i det hele tatt corresponds to at all and Ø
- The example from the corpus is Thanks, boy, I said. Not at all, he replied.
- Literal translations: slett ikke ‘straight not’, (ikke) noe/ intet som helst ‘(not) some/ nothing
as ratherest’, overhodet ‘overhead’ (cf. German überhaupt, orig. not counting each individual
animal in a herd).