Abstract
In this article I focus on the verbs used to introduce Direct Speech in a corpus of fictional narratives in English and their Spanish translations in order to compare the way these two languages reconstruct speech events in texts by means of verbs of communication (e.g., say/decir, counter/argumentar, declare/manifestar) and other non-speech patterns (e.g., grin/sonreir, scowl/fruncir el ceño). Drawing upon typological research on motion (Talmy 1985, 1988, 1991; Slobin 1996a, 1996b, 2004, 2005, 2006), I address the following questions: (a) How do English and Spanish recreate a speech event by means of the verbs used to introduce Direct Speech?, (b) What does this say about these languages typologically-wise? and (c) Is it congruent with descriptions of Spanish and English as typological opposites in the literature? The hypothesis is that the differences between these two languages do not rest upon lexical availability, but on the weight placed in different speech elements in agreement with two different agendas regarding speech events. While congruent with typological studies, this piece of research attempts to broaden their scope and explore a topic still underexplored.
Funding statement: Funding: The present research is funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía and Competitividad MINECO (reference: FFI2013-45553-C3-2-P). A preliminary study was partly funded by a grant received from NetWordS- 09-RNP-089 (European Science Foundation).
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Appendix
Romance
My dearest enemy. Author: Connie Brockway. Del odio al amor. Translator: María Aránzazu Sumalla de Benito.
Bet me. Author: Jennifer Crusie. Una apuesta peligrosa. Translator: Enrique Alda Delgado.
Outlander. Author: Diana Gabaldon. Forastera. Translator: Carmen Bordeu.
On the edge. Author: Ilona Andrews (Ilona Andrews stands for the couple of authors Gordon and Ilona Andrews writing as a team). El límite. Translator: Daniel Aldea Rossell)
The magicians’ guild. Author: Trudi Canavan. El gremio de los magos. Translator: Manuel Viciano Delibano.
The name of the wind. Author: Patrick Rothfuss. El nombre del viento. Translator: Gemma Rovira.
The bone collector. Author: Jeffery Deaver. El coleccionista de huesos. Translator: Daniel Font).
Mourn not your dead. Author: Deborah Crombie. Nadie llora al muerto. Translator: Rebeca Bouvier.
The library of the dead. Author: Glenn Cooper. La biblioteca de los muertos. Translator: Sergio Lledó.
Soulless. Author: Gail Carriger. Sin alma. Translator: Sheila Espinosa Arribas.
Clockwork angel. Author: Cassandra Clare. Ángel mecánico. Translator: Patricia Nunes.
Leviathan. Author: Scott Westerfeld. Leviathan. Translator: Raquel Solà.
©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
