66 Rosa Rabadán and Marlén Izquierdo
(3) You are an insolent, ungrateful little... (FRJK4E.s493)
Eres un niño insolente, desagradecido y... (FRJK4S.s508)
(4) Unofficially it ‘s stronger (FCJ1E.s236)
Extraoficialmente la posición es más dura (FCJ1S.s230)4.2.2 Lexical negation
Expressing negation lexically is the second most frequent solution (10.8%). Rather
than affixal negation, the translators usually resort to an affix-free word that carries
negative connotations. This is the case of esterilidad/Eng infertility:
(5) [...] the family would suffer illness, infertility, poverty (RLKE1E.s32)
[...] la familia padecería enfermedades, esterilidad, pobreza (RLKE1S.s28)
For the translators, most cases of lexical negation imply the use of an opposite of
the base to which the prefix or suffix has been attached in English. This solution
is particularly frequent when the source item is formed by dis-. Such a negative
prefix does exist in Spanish, but according to our data it is infrequent, as it is rarely
used in the corpus. Similarly, the CREA frequency word lists reveal a low position
for dis- items.4.2.3 Prepositional Phrase
Another frequently used translation solution (7.8%) is the PrepP. The great major-
ity of those analysed in this study are introduced by the preposition sin (Eng
without), which carries negative meaning. This pattern is very frequent in the
translation of negation expressed by –less and un-:
(6) Deconstructionists and postmodernists are faithless Augustinians
(ESG1E.s102)
Los deconstruccionistas y los posmodernos son agustinianos sin fe
(ESG1S.s99)
(7) [...] answered Cosey, unaffected, it seemed, by the old man-young girl com-
ment (FMT1E.s47)
[...] respondió Cosey, sin que, al parecer, le hubiera afectado el comentario
(FMT1S.s49)
In a number of these PrepPs another phrase such as a diferencia de or al contrario
que (Eng unlike) carries the negative connotation:
(8) [...] unlike Atlantis, which was really embarrassing (EMM1E.s25)
[...] a diferencia de la Atlántida, que fue verdaderamente vergonzoso
(EMM1S.s24)