Tertia comparationis in multilingual corpora 17
(26) a. Mother Karen sat at the other end of the table, with Johan between her
and Dina. (HW2TE)
b. Mère Karen était à l’ autre bout de la table avec Johan entre elle et Dina.
(HW2TF)
(27) a. He ran between some dockside sheds and vanished. (JG3TE)
b. Il se faufila entre les hangars et disparut. (JG3TF)
The Relationship and Interaction senses may also be rendered in English and
French by between and entre, as in (28) and (29) respectively.
(28) a. Nor was it easy to fathom the relationship between the brothers, Balder
and Vemund. (BHH1TE)
b. Les rapports entre les deux frères, Vemund et Balder, étaient également
de ceux qui défient l’analyse. (BHH1TF)
(29) a. The first bout between himself and the corpse had been won. (NF1TE)
b. De ce premier combat entre lui et le corps mort il était sorti vainqueur.
(NF1TF)
Finally, both the temporal sense and various idioms may be coded by both between
and entre, as in (30) and (31).
(30) a. There was a breathing space between haying season and potato digging.
(HW2TE)
b. Il y eut un moment de répit entre les foins et la récolte des pommes de
terre. (HW2TF)
(31) a. You who have always gone your own way and fallen between two stools
any number of times. (BHH1TE)
b. Toi qui as toujours suivi ta route à toi et t’es toujours retrouvé entre deux
chaises. (BHH1TF)
Table 2 shows how often the various types of ‘betweenness’ are encoded by the two
prepositions in both languages.
Table 2. Tokens of mellom translated by between and/or entre
Type Total tokens between entre between + entre
Location 139 101 97 77 55%
Motion 89 50 60 40 45%
Interaction 51 44 36 32 63%
Relationship 47 43 35 33 70%
Comparison 36 33 23 21 58%
Time 17 13 11 11 65%
Idiom 14 8 8 7 50%
Total 393 292 270 221 56%