English affixal negation translated into Spanish 69
An interesting feature of this solution is that the adverb functions locally in these
examples, restricting its negative scope to the following item rather than the clause
as a whole, as observed in 4.2.5. As a consequence, the pattern no + positive lexical
item is a closer equivalent than clausal negation.
4.2.7 Omission
On occasion (3.6%), translators do not provide a translation into Spanish. There
can be a number of reasons for this. Two main trends have been observed: (a) the
example where affixal negation occurs is left untranslated and (b) only the negative
item is ignored. Often, this turns out to be functionally irrelevant, as the omission
does not affect the overall meaning of the text:
(16) Poppy noticed my uneaten cake (FHC1E.s105)
Poppy reparó en mi pastel Ø (FHC1S.s108)
4.2.8 Quantifier/degree
Certain translations convey either quantification or degree. The former is attained
by means of the quantifiers poco (and variants) and nada. The negative connota-
tion is kept as these words imply paucal or no quantity. Usually, these quantifiers
are followed by the referential equivalent of the word to which the English affix
has been attached (see Examples 17 and 18). Quantification can also be expressed
lexically (Example 19):
(17) I gave a non-committal smile (FWM1E.s84)
Puse una sonrisa poco comprometedora (FWM1S.s85)
(18) [...] the wise course for the British presidency is to behave in quite un-Blair-
like fashion (PATG32E.s49)
[...] lo más prudente que puede hacer la presidencia británica es no ser nada
blairista (PATG32S.s48)
(19) She carried out endless tests and fought an ongoing war with the giants of the
pesticide industry (EGJBM1E.s460)
Llevó a cabo múltiples pruebas y libró una guerra contra los gigantes de la
industria de los pesticidas (EGJBM1S.s422)
In addition, some Spanish translations express degree by means of (i) intensifiers,
e.g. muy (Eng very); (ii) degree adverbs, e.g. inmensamente (Eng immensely) (see
Example 20); (iii) lexical items that express a higher degree of a quality. On the
other hand, there are also downtoners, such as al menos (Eng at least), poco (Eng
little) or other modifiers that convey a lesser degree, e.g.escasa (Eng scant) (see
Example 21).