English affixal negation translated into Spanish 67
4.2.4 Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is not one of the most common solutions (5.7%), despite the fact
that it is quite frequent as a translation of English –less and non- affixes. In the case
of –less the use of a paraphrase is no doubt due to the lack of negative suffixes in
Spanish, which prompts the use of other formally dissimilar equivalents. Similarly,
in the case of non-, which is not a prefix or a word in Spanish, the translators resort
to a paraphrase solution:
(9) How did those little creatures transform into not only the hippo and the mole
rat but also today ‘s vast panorama of mammals with fur, hooves, and fangs,
as well as others that swim hairless through deep oceans – or ride, like me, in
a Land Rover across this grassland? (RGR1E.s44)
¿Cómo se transformaron aquellos animalillos en la vasta relación actual de
mamíferos con pelo, pezuñas y colmillos, o en nadadores de piel desnuda
que surcan los océanos, o en los que, como yo, viajan en Land Rover por esta
pradera? (RGR1S.s40)
Irrespective of the English affix, the choice of paraphrase depends on the overall
interpretation of the co-text:
(10) Jesse crossed and uncrossed his legs (FKO1E.s1234)
Jesse no paraba de cruzar las piernas (FKO1S.s1215)
Spanish no parar de (Eng not stop doing sth) indicates the repetition of an action,
with a hint of irritation on the part of the speaker.
A particular type of paraphrase that is only found among the translations
of the negative affix un- is illustrated in Example (11). It accounts for 4.6% of all
the un-derived paraphrases and consists of using a Spanish positive item that is a
semantic opposite of the English baseword.
(11) But now the door was unlocked (FBT1E.s282)
Pero ahora la puerta estaba abierta (FBT1S.s286)
While this solution might not appear to achieve correspondence, when compar-
ing the expressions of negation in English and Spanish, in fact all the translations
found maintain the original semantics. Usually, some item in the surrounding
co-text captures the inherent meaning of the original prefix. Positive polarity
might be attained through the semantic convergence of the content expressed
by the prefix with that of the base, as in the equivalent pattern unlocked/abierta
(in Example 11). Other examples include not unusual/habitual and unchained/
liberados.
Only in two cases does this solution override the original negative meaning: