English affixal negation translated into Spanish 65
in Spanish. P-ACTRES also reveals a rather large number of examples where nega-
tion is conveyed by means of in- and its variants im, il- and ir-. The other affixes,
including –less, are considerably less frequent.
The corpus reveals a number of formally dissimilar Spanish resources that are
available for the translation of these negative contexts (see Table 7).
Table 7. English negative affixes and Spanish translations (P-ACTRES)
Spanish
translations
English affixes
Un- In- Dis- –less Non- Total
N % N % N % N % N % N %
AfNeg 1,151 51 918 79.8 356 72.5 226 49.3 4 2.4 2,655 58.7
LNeg 236 10.5 80 6.9 114 23.2 61 13.3 0 – 491 10.8
Prep P 265 11.7 9 0.7 0 – 73 15.9 7 4.2 354 7.8
Parap 174 7.7 26 2.2 2 0.4 52 11.3 8 4.8 262 5.7
Cl Neg 168 7.5 37 3.2 8 1.6 17 3.7 11 6.6 241 5.3
No+pos 73 3.2 8 0.6 0 – 2 0.4 127 76.9 210 4.6
Ø 88 3.9 52 4.5 11 2.2 14 3.0 1 0.6 166 3.6
Q/deg 101 4.5 19 1.6 0 – 12 2.6 3 1.8 135 2.9
Borrow 0 – 0 – 0 – 1 0.2 0 – 1 0.2
Non-T 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 4 2.4 4 0.8
Total 2,256 100 1,149 100 491 100 458 100 16 100 451 100
4.2.1 Affixal negation
Affixal negation is the prime translation choice in Spanish (58.7%). It ranks first
with an outstandingly high frequency in the translations of in- and dis-based nega-
tive items (around 75%). Similarly, just over half of all the un-examples have a
prefix-based negative equivalent in the target language. Spanish lacks negative
suffixes and prefixes convey the negative connotations implied by –less. Apart from
this formal difference, all the Spanish prefixes retain the negative meaning of the
original affix (see Examples 2 and 3). Minor divergences occur when the Spanish
prefixes sub- and extra- are used for translating English un- words. These prefixes
seem to add slightly different connotations which displace the negative meaning
(see Example 4).
(2) The building, a featureless block of concrete and glass, seems to give off a
gas, odourless, colourless, that finds its way into his blood and numbs him.
(FCJM1E.s551)
El edificio, un bloque de hormigón y cristal desnudos, parece desprender un
gas inodoro, incoloro, que se le cuela en la sangre y lo atonta. (FCJM1S.s543)