The thesis presents a study of explicitation and implicitation in
translation. Explicitating and implicitating shifts were manually
identified in a corpus of English and German business texts and their
translations in both directions. Shifts were classified according to
formal and functional critieria. The study departed from the
observation that explicitations in one translation direction are often
not 'counterbalanced' by implicitations in the other direction (cf.
Klaudy's Asymmetry Hypothesis). The main aim of the study was to
specify the conditions under which this state of 'explicitational
asymmetry' can be observed. Unlike most other studies of explicitation
in translation, the present study did not depart from the assumption of
a 'translation-inherent', universal process of explicitation (cf.
Blum-Kulka's Explicitation Hypothesis). Rather, the prediction
underlying the study was that every instance of explicitation (and
implicitation) can be explained as a result of lexicogrammatical and/or
pragmatic factors. This prediction was essentially confirmed by the
study's findings. Thorough qualitative analysis has made it possible to
compile a list of factors that regularly lead translators to
explicitate or implicitate. The factors explain why implicitations are
often outnumbered by the corresponding explicitations.

Explicitation and implicitation in translation. A corpus-based study of English-German and German-English translations of business texts

This paper argues that a variety of constructions in a variety of languages suggest a deep connection between kinds, manners, and degrees. We articulate a way of thinking about degrees on which this connection is less surprising, rooted in the idea that degrees are kinds of Davidsonian states. This enables us to provide a cross-categorial compositional semantics for a class of expressions that can serve as anaphors to kinds, manners, and degrees, or introduce clauses that further characterize them. A consequence of this is that equatives emerge as a special case of a more general cross-categorial phenomenon. The analysis is undergirded by independently motivated assumptions about free relatives and type shifting. It provides evidence for a view of degrees on which they are significantly more ontologically complex than is typically thought.

Degrees as kinds

This dissertation investigates whether and how gradability is manifested in the nominal domain, as well as the implications this could have for theories of the representation of gradability. 
	It is shown that the various gradability diagnostics proposed in the literature not only yield different results, but that they do not actually work as could be expected. In case after case, other factors turn out to underlie the noted effects: epistemicity and evidentiality (cf. the epistemic verb seem and real-type adjectives), the expression of a value judgment (e.g. N of an N constructions), the delineation of salient sub-kinds identifiable by natural consequences (cf. internal such) and abstract size modification (e.g. when a size adjective like big modifies a noun denoting an instance of a property or a set of individuals defined in terms of such an abstract object). 
	Our investigation leads to the unexpected conclusion that,there are no grammatical contexts in the nominal domain that are exclusively reserved for a particular class of nouns that could properly be called gradable. As a result, there is no motivation for postulating a degree structure in the syntactic representation of nouns. In addition, there are no expressions performing the type of semantic operations familiar from degree modification in the adjectival domain that would indicate the existence of a grammatically accessible gradable structure in the semantics of nouns at the lexical level. The tale of this dissertation is therefore a cautionary one: arguments to reduce gradability in the nominal and in the adjectival domain to the same phenomenon are misguided. 
	This study shows the importance of a cross-categorial perspective for a better understanding of gradability. It is of interest to a general syntactic and semantic readership.

/pdf/gradability-in-the-nominal-domain-27h7c81at4.pdf

Gradability in the nominal domain

This book presents a study of explicitation and implicitation in translation. Explicitating and implicitating shifts were manually identified in a corpus of English and German business texts and their translations in both directions. Shifts were classified according to formal and functional critieria. The study departed from the observation that explicitations in one translation direction are often not ‘counterbalanced’ by implicitations in the other direction (cf. Klaudy’s Asymmetry Hypothesis). The main aim of the study was to specify the conditions under which this state of ‘explicitational asymmetry’ can be observed. Unlike most other studies of explicitation in translation, the present study did not depart from the assumption of a ‘translation-inherent’, universal process of explicitation (cf. Blum-Kulka’s Explicitation Hypothesis). Rather, the prediction underlying the study was that every instance of explicitation (and implicitation) can be explained as a result of lexicogrammatical and/or pragmatic factors. This prediction was essentially confirmed by the study’s findings. Thorough qualitative analysis has made it possible to compile a list of factors that regularly lead translators to explicitate or implicitate. The factors explain why implicitations are often outnumbered by the corresponding explicitations.

Explicitation and implicitation in translation

In this dissertation I investigate different types of indefinite noun phrases to deepen our understanding of the nature of the form–function mapping during the process of referring. More concretely, I explore the extent to which formal linguistic elements (i.e. different markers of indefiniteness) affect discourse participants’ predictions about the subsequent discourse. The centerpieces of this dissertation are indefinite noun phrases marked by indefinite this in English, indefinite so’n in German and pe in Romanian. I argue that these indefinite noun phrases share several common characteristics at the semantic and discourse-pragmatic level, which distinguish them from noun phrases headed by the simple indefinite article a(n). First, at the semantic level, the three types of indefinites show a strong and robust affinity for particular referential properties (i.e. fixed reference, wide scope, epistemic specificity). Second, I argue that any account of indefinite noun phrases that investigates only their sentence-level properties fails to capture their discourse- pragmatic contribution. I show that compared to their simple indefinite correlates, referents associated with these specially marked indefinites in English, German and Romanian are more prone to: (i) be frequently mentioned in the ensuing discourse and to (ii) shift the discourse topic. I propose that indefinite noun phrases function as discourse structuring devices. Their main function is to establish coherence at a more global level, by pre-activating particular referents. These results can be best accommodated in an expectancy-based or forward-looking model of language processing, which assumes that language is predictive as speakers use different signals to indicate to their hearers what to expect next. 
Eine der wichtigsten Fragen der Sprachtheorie beschaftigt sich mit Referenz-Tracking. Darunter versteht man die Art und Weise, wie Personen, Dinge, Ereignisse und Sachverhalte (allgemein Referenten genannt) in den Diskurs eingefuhrt werden und wieder aufgenommen werden. Die bisherige (psycho-) linguistische Forschung zeigt, dass unterschiedliche Faktoren die Haufigkeit der Wiederaufnahme eines Referenten, sowie die Art des dafur verwendeten referenziellen Ausdrucks beeinflussen. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht die semantischen und diskurs-pragmatischen Merkmale und Diskursfunktionen von Indefinita. Das Hauptanliegen dieser Dissertation ist, den Zusammenhang zwischen den folgenden zwei Faktoren zu untersuchen: (i) die referenzielle Form (markierte indefinite Nominalphrasen vs. unmarkierte indefinite Nominalphrasen), und (ii) den diskursstrukturierenden Potential indefiniter Nominalphrasen. Durch eine sprachvergleichende Analyse mit Schwerpunkt auf Englisch, Deutsch und Rumanisch, wird die Analyse der Funktionen unterschiedlicher indefiniten Nominalphrasen empirisch gestutzt und weiter entwickelt. Damit wird die Arbeit zu einem besseren Verstandnis von Textstruktur, den kognitiven Grundlagen von Textproduktion und Textverstandnis, sowie den allgemeinen Prinzipien der Kommunikation zwischen Gesprachsteilnehmern beitragen.

The discourse structuring potential of indefinite noun phrases : special markers in English, German and Romanian

German so is a demonstrative expression which picks up degrees or properties and combines as a modifier with gradable as well as non-gradable expressions. Like other demonstratives it can be used deictically and anaphorically, and in addition occur 'out of the blue', without a demonstration gesture or antecedent. If an 'out of the blue' use of so is combined with a gradable expression it yields an intensifying effect, similar to the degree modifier very. But if it is combined with a non-gradable expression it appears like hedging, the speaker being uncertain whether the term she chose is appropriate. This paper focuses on the uses of so and addresses the question of how they relate to the deictic and anaphoric uses. Provided it is the same lexical item: Why can a demonstrative expression function as an intensifying device and a hedging device, respectively?

Carla Umbach

Papers

German demonstrative so - intensifying and hedging effects *

Topicality and Simple vs. Complex Judgments and Simple vs. Complex Judgments