68 Rosa Rabadán and Marlén Izquierdo
(12) The bland features of Hans Blix became an unlikely fixture on our television
(ELM1E.s149)
Las suaves facciones de Hans Blix se convirtieron en una imagen habitual de
nuestras pantallas de televisión (ELM1S.s150)
Habitual means ‘frequent’, a positive meaning indicating ‘iteration’, a feature which
is not conveyed by unlikely.4.2.5 Clausal negation
Clausal negation, with a frequency of 5.3%, ranks fifth as a translation solution
for un-, in-, dis- and non- negative prefixes. It occupies second position when the
source examples contain –less. This solution involves the use of a negative operator,
normally the negative adverb no preceding the main verb:
(13) [...] scholastics considered God the Father to be incapable of forgiving Judas
(ESG1E.s533)
[...] escolásticos consideraban que Dios Padre no podía perdonar a Judas
(ESG1S.s529)
Examples where the main verb is modified by adverbs such as tampoco or jamás
(neither and never) are also considered instances of clausal negation, as well as
those where the actor is expressed by nadie (nobody, none):
(14) [...] by the unplayed, untuned harpsichord and the unused rosewood music
stands (FMEI1E.s24)
[...] el clavicémbalo desafinado que nadie tocaba y los insólitos atriles de
palisandro (FMEI1S.s24)
The Spanish example requires a full negative and a personal subject (nadie/nobody)
to encode the absence of the action implicit in unplayed.4.2.6 No + (positive) lexical item
The corpus brings to light a less common translation practice (4.6%) in which
the English affixal negation is rendered by means of Spanish no placed directly in
front of a noun or an adjective or, at times, in front of an infinitive. This transla-
tion is very frequent when the source item contains the prefix non- and is perhaps
favoured by the formal resemblance (see Example 15). It has a 3.4% frequency rate
as a translation of un-based negative items, but is rare as a translation of in- and
–less, and non-existent as a rendering of dis-.
(15) Yet at the non-threatening margins of civility (ETC1E.s328)
No obstante, en los márgenes no amenazadores de la urbanidad (ETC1S.s327)