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Cleft Sentences: Form, Function, and Translation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2009

Klaus Fischer
Klaus Fischer*
Affiliation:
London Metropolitan University
*
London Metropolitan University, Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Languages, and Education, Tower Building, 166-220 Holloway Road, London, N7 8DB, UK, [[email protected]]
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Abstract

Although cleft sentences are possible constructions in both English and German, they are far more frequent in English texts. Durrell (2002: 479) observes in his Hammer's German Grammar and Usage that “with the exception of the type Er war es, der mich davon abhielt […], cleft sentence constructions sound unnatural in German and should be avoided.” The article discusses the form and function of cleft sentences in the context of other focusing devices. It shows that, although German and English cleft sentences have the same information structure, their stylistic value is very different. Using a short translation, Durrell's observation is confirmed: in translating cleft sentences into German, semantic equivalence is often sacrificed for stylistic appropriateness. Although structural features of both languages are the ultimate cause of the contrast, they cannot explain choices in each individual case. The article argues that structural typology should be complemented with a typology of parole: the respective frequencies of cleft sentences in both languages reflect neatly into the more verbal style, more hierarchical sentence construction and, in certain respects, greater semantic transparency of English texts (by comparison with their German counterparts).*

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 21 , Issue 2: Special Issue in Honour of Martin Durrell , June 2009 , pp. 167 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2009

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