Grzegorz Surmacz

ZFA-2, Angielski w Biznesie

Passive sentence:

E:  The situation was brought to a head last year when a woman was knocked over by a bus in Prebend Row.

P: W zeszłym roku sytuacja doszła do punktu wrzenia, kiedy kobieta została potrącona przez autobus na Prebend Row.

The English sentence consists of 21 words whereas the Polish one only from 17 words. This results from the fact that articles in English do not have equivalents in Polish.

1. Structural contrasts:

   1. ‘last year’/’w zeszłym roku’ : in Polish the noun phrase uses a preposition which is redundant in English

   2. ‘a head’/’punkt wrzenia’ : in English there is no modifier and after the translation of this part of the idiom to Polish the NP consists of a head(punkt) and a modifier(wrzenia) which follows it.

   3. ‘was knocked over’/’została potrącona’ : verb phrase in English takes a phrasal verb which uses a verb(knock) and a preposition(over) whereas in Polish the same verb phrase uses just a verb(potrącić)

2. Functional contrasts:

   1. ‘was brought to a head’/’doszła do punktu wrzenia’ : the predicate in English(was) is different than the predicate in Polish(doszła), moreover the direct translation of the Polish predicate is no more than a past participle in English

3. Categorial contrast:

   1. ‘knocked over’/’potrącona’ : in the English sentence ‘knocked over’ is a verb and in the Polish one, ‘potrącona’ is a passive adjectival participle

4. Morphosyntactic contrasts:

   1. ‘a head’/’punktu wrzenia’ : in English a noun without a case marked, the Polish equivalent is constructed of 2 nouns in the possessive case(genitive)

   2. ‘a bus’/’autobus’ : although this is not visible on the first sight, similarly to the previous example, the English version of the noun does not have a case marked whereas the Polish one is a noun in the accusative case

5. Lexical contrast:

   1. ‘brought to a head’/’doszła do punktu wrzenia’ – the literal meaning of the English phrase is ‘przynieść/wnieść do głowy’ and does not make sense. Naturally this is an idiomatic expression which means ‘a situation that has come to a point where something has to be done about it’

Source:

http://bnc.bl.uk/saraWeb.php?qy=woman+was+knocked+&mysubmit=Go

Grzegorz Surmacz

ZFA-2, Angielski w Biznesie

Sentence containing object-to-subject raising:

T

EXTRAPOSITION

o work with mustard gas was disagreeable and hazardous.

I

RAISING

t was disagreeable and hazardous to work with mustard gas.

E: Mustard gas was disagreeable and hazardous to work with.

P: Praca z iperytem była nieprzyjemna i niebezpieczna.

1. Structural contrast:

   • ‘mustard gas’/’iperytem’ : whereas in Polish the NP uses only a head, in English it is constructed of the modifier(mustard) and a following head(gas)

2. Functional contrast:

   • ‘to work with’/’praca’ : in the Polish sentence ‘praca’ is the subject and in the English equivalent, ‘to work with’ is an object complement/verb phrase.

3. Categorial contrast:

   • ‘to work with’/’praca’ : in Polish it is a noun, in English on the other hand it is a indirect object(this is also a lexical contrast: praca-work/to work with – w pracy z; the translation had to be adjusted in order to be correct)

4. Morphosyntactic contrast:

   • ‘mustard gas’/’iperytem’ : in Polish the expression is marked with the instrumental case and in English it is a non case marked NP

Source:

http://bnc.bl.uk/saraWeb.php?qy=disagreeable&mysubmit=Go