Extraposition in English and Swedish 251
initial position than in English (Erman 1998; Johansson 1996 and Svensson
2000). In (39), for instance, the Swedish original has an initial locative adverbial,
I Drottningholm ‘In Drottningholm’, followed by extraposition. In the English
translation, however, the initial element is offices which has been made subject by
tough movement (i.e. were hard to find).
(39) Under Ralph Erskines mycket framgångsrika år i början på femtiotalet blev
det hus han hyrde som kontor och bostad allt trängre när antalet anställda
ökade. I Drottningholm var det svårt att finna ytterligare kontorsutrymmen och
lämpliga kontor i Stockholm var dyra. Sedan slutet av fyrtiotalet, hade Erskine
drömt om att köpa en gammal Themsen skuta och bygga om den till kontor.
(EGE1)
‘In Drottningholm was it difficult to find more office space ...’
During Erskine’s very successful years in the early 1950s, the house he had
rented to live and work in became more and more crowded as the number of
his employees grew. Offices were hard to find in Drottningholm and costly
in Stockholm. Since the late 1940s, he had dreamt of buying an old Thames
barge and converting it into an office. (EGE1T)
Furthermore, Swedish sometimes has an initial adverbial when English has a
subject. This is illustrated in (40) and (41) where the Swedish versions have an
adverbial, Med en flatbottnad skuta och storsegel utan bom and Vid en närmare
undersökning in sentence-initial position followed by extraposition. In the English
versions these adverbials correspond to the subjects of simple clauses, A flat bot-
tomed barge has ... and Closer examination reveals ...
(40) Med en flatbottnad skuta och storsegel utan bom är det inte möjligt att dreja
bi, det vill säga styra upp skutan mot vinden. (EGE1)
‘With a flat bottomed barge and mainsail without boom is it impossible to ...’
A flat bottomed barge has a loose footed mainsail and so cannot tack (or sail
against the wind) with so heavily reduced sail area, and Verona had to sail as
best she could without heeling over completely – and she nearly did. (EGE1T)
(41) Closer examination reveals that each face is slightly different, for the purpose
of the world is myth-making, and the raw-material of myth is an abundant
supply of images. (RF1)
Vid en närmare undersökning visar det sig att alla ansiktena företer små
olikheter, för meningen med världen är att skapa myter och mytens råmaterial
är ett överflöd av bilder. (RF1T)
‘By a closer examination emerge it that all the faces ...’