Theme incorporating Verb in Spanish, but not English
In El Mundo, there was a story on 14 Jan 2011 that began La Fundación BBVA ha premiado al economista británico Nicholas Stern por un informe de 2006 en el que afirma que no combatir el cambio climático es más caro que reducir la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero. We are interested here in the main verb, ha premiado, from premiar. The verb means, "to present an award", so the sentence means The BBVA Foundation has presented an award to British economist Nicholas Stern for a 2006 report which states that not combating climate change would be more expensive than reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
The same construction is in this Antena3 story of 22 Sept 2010: Cibeles ha premiado a Helbig por la colección que presentó el sábado que destacó por los abrigos de verano, los colores claros y el cuero. (Cibeles has presented an award to Heiberg for the collection presented Saturday that stood out for summer coats, light colors and leather.)
What we see here is that the basic structure of the report is [The BBVA Foundation] CAUSE [an award] GOTO [British ecomomist Nicholas Stern]...; but the Spanish verb premiar has incorporated the theme ("an award"), so that it does not appear explictly in the sentence, while in English we do not seem to have a verb "to award" which so incorporates the theme; we cannot say *The BBVA Foundation awarded British economist Nicholas Stern ....
In traditional English grammar, the presenter (the BVVA Foundation) is the subject, what is presented (an award) is the direct object, and the recipient (Nicholas Stern) is the indrect object; in the notation here the presentor it the AGENT, that which is presented is the THEME, and the recipient is the LOC.
In Spanish, the THEME is incorporated into the verb, bringing the LOC into the direct object position. This results in the case here, where a single verb (ha premiado) must be translated into a verb-noun phrase (has presented an award) in English, because the Spanish verb incorporates the noun, while the English verb sdoes not.
The same construction is in this Antena3 story of 22 Sept 2010: Cibeles ha premiado a Helbig por la colección que presentó el sábado que destacó por los abrigos de verano, los colores claros y el cuero. (Cibeles has presented an award to Heiberg for the collection presented Saturday that stood out for summer coats, light colors and leather.)
What we see here is that the basic structure of the report is [The BBVA Foundation] CAUSE [an award] GOTO [British ecomomist Nicholas Stern]...; but the Spanish verb premiar has incorporated the theme ("an award"), so that it does not appear explictly in the sentence, while in English we do not seem to have a verb "to award" which so incorporates the theme; we cannot say *The BBVA Foundation awarded British economist Nicholas Stern ....
In traditional English grammar, the presenter (the BVVA Foundation) is the subject, what is presented (an award) is the direct object, and the recipient (Nicholas Stern) is the indrect object; in the notation here the presentor it the AGENT, that which is presented is the THEME, and the recipient is the LOC.
In Spanish, the THEME is incorporated into the verb, bringing the LOC into the direct object position. This results in the case here, where a single verb (ha premiado) must be translated into a verb-noun phrase (has presented an award) in English, because the Spanish verb incorporates the noun, while the English verb sdoes not.
Labels: grammar
posted by decaf owl at 7:45 AM
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