The Comparison of Verbs of Saying in English and Their Lithuanian Equivalents free essay sample

Quantitative and qualitative methods have been applied as the study is aimed at the frequency count as well as the cross linguistic analysis. The data to achieve this goal have been obtained from the English book The Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, and the Lithuanian translation „Tustybes muge†. The results revealed 73 different Lithuanian variants of the English verb to say, and 28 variant translations of the original verb to tell. These findings suggest that the Lithuanian language is very rich, and is capable of displaying a wide range of various translations for the same verb. INTRODUCTION Semantics is the branch of linguistics which deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between sentences or words and their meanings. There are several subfields in the linguistic semantics, which contribute to the language use considerably. One of them is called lexical semantics, which ? is the study of how and what the words of a language denote’ (Pustejovsky, 1995). To be more precise, lexical semantics is a linguistic theory which investigates word meaning and understands the meaning of a word as fully reflected by its context (Cruse, 1986). Recently, foreign linguists have drawn significant attention to the issues that are related to the analysis of a semantic language system. One of the possible ways of analysing this system is by distinguishing and giving a comprehensive description of separate lexical semantic word groups. However, this topic has not yet been well researched by Lithuanian linguists. The aim of the present paper is therefore to explore one of the lexical semantic groups briefly, especially its expression in the Lithuanian in English languages. As it is known, in language words do not exist in isolation, but they are connected through various interrelationships in this way constituting a certain system. Words can be grouped according to the general grammatical meanings (words from one part of speech), according to the commonness of the morphemic structure (words that have the same root or suffix), and eventually according to any lexical meaning-based associations. It might be interesting that a famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who is considered one of the fathers of the 20th-century linguistics, stated that linguistic elements are linked to the dual nature of relationships: paradigmatic (associative) and syntagmatic. Paradigmatic relations combine words into lexical semantic groups. A detailed analysis of these groups (their volume, internal relations and interrelationships) helps to understand the lexical structure of a language better and proves that a lexical level of the language is systematic. Currently, quite many different lexical semantic groups have been analysed in linguistics. Significant attention has been paid to the analysis of lexical semantic groups of verbs because the verb is the most complicated and widest grammatical category. On the basis of various studies, it is useful to distinguish seven semantic categories: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of occurrence, verbs of existence or relationship, and verbs of aspect (Biber, 2002). In general, the verb is derived from the Latin verbum, whose  meaning  is word. There are several classifications of the English verb because different linguists group verbs somewhat differently. According to Biber (2002), there are two types of English verbs such as main and auxiliary. Following this division or the ability to function as verbs from the latter two groups, further three classes can be distinguished: lexical verbs (to eat, to run, to think), which function only as main verbs; primary verbs (to be, to do, to have), which function both as main and auxiliary; and finally, modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would), which serve only as auxiliaries. In addition, Tekoriene in her grammar book â€Å"Anglu kalbos gramatika vidurinems mokyklomsâ€Å" (1996) talks about three verbs classes. She named them as auxiliary verbs (to be, to do, to have, shall, should, will, would), notional verbs (to live, to work) and also modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would). To conclude, we may say that a verb is a  word  or a part of speech that in syntax conveys an action, a state of being or modality. In the usual description of English, the basic form is the  infinitive, with or without the  particle  to. In many languages, verbs are inflected (modified in form) to encode  tense, aspect,  mood  and  voice. A verb may also agree with the  person,  gender, and/or  number  of some of its arguments, such as its  subject, or  object. One of the most basic lexical semantic groups is verbs of speaking. These are verbs that show the performance of a speech act. While constructing a spoken text, specific importance and the necessity to use those verbs is revealed. Moreover, verbs of speaking reflect the process of speech and play a very important role in people’s everyday life because we constantly communicate with each other by telling something, repeating, reporting, etc. , which makes us a part of a community. As the basic definitions related with a verb have already been mentioned, it is likewise essential to refer to translation as it is closely related to this research paper. In general, translation is communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The major aim of translation is to contribute to understanding between people and to transmit knowledge in plain, appropriate and accessible language. Before the research, the basic hypotheses of this paper have been raised: †¢ the main translations of the verbs to say and to tell will be: sakyti, asakyti, atsakyti, pa(pa)sakoti, pranesti, tarti. †¢ there will be more variants of the verb to say than of the verb to tell; †¢ the selected verbs will indicate speaking processes. The analysis and comparison of the verbs of speaking (to say and to tell) taken from the book in the English language The Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and the Lithuanian translation â₠¬Å¾Tustybes muge I† will be provided in the research paper. This particular book has been chosen with a purpose that it contains a sufficient number of dialogues from ‘real-life’ situations, therefore, the chosen verbs are used frequently. The structure of this paper will include three main parts: introduction, body, which in turn will consist of the methods, results and discussion sections, and conclusion. The methods part will briefly overlook how our topic was investigated, what methods were used. The result and discussion sections will, firstly, deal with the verb to say, where all these verbs will be found in the English version of the book, and then matched to their equivalents in the Lithuanian translation. Secondly, the same analysis of the verb to tell will be provided. The conclusion of our annual paper will include approval or denial of the basic hypothesis, which have been raised before the analysis. To decide what topic to choose for our paper took a long consideration. A lot of translations of books into foreign languages have often been found as inaccurate, so it was the main reason of our research to see the differences in languages and richness of the vocabulary of the Lithuanian and English languages. DATA AND METHODS In order to write this research paper, two books were examined. The data was collected from the English book The Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and the Lithuanian translation of the book „Tustybiu muge I† (the first part). The samples were taken considering the words (in particular the reporting verbs) in the sentences. These sentences were analysed carefully, paying particular attention to each selected verb of saying. All of them were collected and divided into two groups: those, which belong to the verb of saying to say – formed one group, and those, which belong to the verb of saying to tell – formed another. After that, the Lithuanian equivalents were found in the Lithuanian book, and the whole sentences in which these words appeared, were written down. As a result, 850 samples of the usage of the verb to say with 73 Lithuanian variants, and 139 samples of the verb to tell with 28 translations were found. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, these definitions were given: To say – verb  (says  /s? z/; past and past participle  said  /s? d/). †¢ [intransitive, transitive] to speak or tell somebody something, using words †¢ [transitive] to repeat words, phrases; [intransitive, transitive] to express an opinion on something; †¢ [transitive,? no passive] to suggest or give something as an example or a possibility; †¢ [transitive] to make thoughts, feelings, etc. clear to somebody by using words, looks, movements, etc. †¢ [transitive,? no passive] (of something that is written or can be seen ) to give particular information or instru ctions. To tell – verb (past simple, past participle told /t ld/) †¢ [transitive] (of a person) to give information to somebody by speaking or writing; †¢ [transitive] (of some writing, an instrument, a sign, etc. to give information about something; †¢ [transitive] to express something in words; †¢ [intransitive] ( informal ) to let somebody know a secret;    †¢ [transitive] to order or advise somebody to do something; †¢ [intransitive, transitive] (not used in the progressive tenses) to know, see or judge something correctly. The present paper deals with the quantitative and qualitative research, and this research includes lexical and semantic analysis, in order to investigate how many equivalents the English verbs to say and to tell have in the Lithuanian language. RESULTS The attached prefixes do not give any additional meaning and convey nearly the same message. The example 1d is an excerpt from a piece of an event description. The examples of the second group (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d) reveal the translator’s choice to employ prefixation during the formation of the Lithuanian variant of the verb to tell. The person opts for a more interesting word by leaving the same stem „pasakotiâ€Å" and affixes different prefixes such as „paâ€Å", „isâ€Å" and also „paâ€Å" + reflexive particle „siâ€Å". All the mentioned prefixes do not give any new meaning to the Lithuanian verb „pasakotiâ€Å", therefore, the words „pasakotiâ€Å", „papasakotiâ€Å", „pasipasakotiâ€Å" and „ispasakotiâ€Å" can change each other and can be used interchangeably. The third unit of the reviewed samples is associated with explaining and clarifying certain things. All the examples are declarative sentences (3a 3b 3c, 3d, 3e), in which the translator’s choice is to provide and emphasize a possible report of an event (3a), explanation of something (3c). Refusal of guidance (3d) or a wish to teach someone a lesson (3e) is also presented. The following set contains two examples of how the Lithuanian verbs „prisneketiâ€Å" and „itikinetiâ€Å" are used. A way of saying bad things, gossiping about the others (4a) or persuading people (4b) is demonstrate d. The translator tries to provide more interesting and original variants of the the same verb ‘to tell’ and adapt them into Lithuanian translation. The fifth group of communication verb to tell refers to the verbs which have connotations of orders and commands. The examples (5a, 5b, 5c, 5d) indicate cases where these words appear. The basic meaning of these three words is related with orders and commands. They are found to be very similar to each other so that even if we replace one verb with another – the meaning would still remain (e. g. Who told me to love her? // Kas gi man liepe ja myleti? // Kas gi man isake ja myleti? ). This sixth group of verbs „perduotiâ€Å" (6a) and „pranestiâ€Å" (6b) was formed according to the sense of transferring some new or additional information to someone. The examples of Lithuanian translations of the verb to tell (7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h) cannot be grouped by any defined criteria. Given examples in the seventh group state different situations and meanings: it can be rude response (7a), repetition (7b) or reminding of the information (7c), act of hearing (7d), access to the information (7e), presentation of laughter (7f), revealing of something (7g) and finding out the new information (7h). All these verbs usually denote various situations, so the translator chooses which of them are the most appropriate to the particular situation. The eighth group includes an example which was found without Lithuanian translation of the English verb to tell. The xample highlights that the speaker is clear with the context so any further explanation is needed or the different expression, which is more appropriate in the Lithuanian language is used (8a). CONCLUSIONS This study of the chosen verbs of speaking has tried to investigate the verbs to say and to tell from the English book and its translated version in the Lithuanian language, using quantitative and qualitative method s. The examples from the English book were taken either from the direct speech and indirect speech. There were three hypotheses made before this research and all of them were completely or partly confirmed. The most common translations of to say were tarti, sakyti, pasakyti, while the verb to tell was frequently found translated as papasakoti. In addition, there has been more variants of to say found than to tell, however, the selected verbs indicated not only the speaking processes as it was thought to be in the beginning, but also the actions of thinking, laughing and even some cases where to say and to tell were not translated, were found. This research has shown the width and the richness of the Lithuanian language vocabulary which presented various meanings and variants of the translated verbs to say and to tell. The translator can be considered as the main bridge between the author and the reader, who determines the most appropriate translation and demonstrates his linguistic insight. SUMMARY IN LITHUANIAN Lingvistine semantika – tai lingvistikos, arba kitaip moderniosios kalbotyros saka, tirianti kalbiniu zenklu reiksmes ir prasmes. Si saka artimai susijusi su musu darbu, kurio pagrindinis tikslas yra panagrineti pasirinktu kalbejimo veiksmazodziu pritaikyma tiesiogineje kalboje bei kontekste reiskinius, atsirandancius verciant teksta is anglu kalbos i lietuviu kalba, palyginti juos tarpusavyje bei asmeniskai ivertinti vertejo rofesionaluma. Analizuoti pavyzdziai buvo surinkti is knygu „Vanity Fairâ€Å", parasytos angliakalbio autoriaus William Makepeace Thackeray bei jos vertimo i lietuviu kalba „Tustybiu mugeâ€Å" (verte ? ). Tyrimas parode kaip skirtingai gali buti verciami ir pristatomi zodziai bei frazes ir koks svarbus yra vertejo vaidmuo, kurio pagrindinis uzda vinys yra ivertinti konteksta, tinkamai perteikti informacija skaitytojui bei islaikyti isverstos frazes santyki su originalia taip, kad ji butu aiski bei priimtina skaitytojui nepazeidziant lietuviu kalbos normu. Appendixes Table 1 TO SAY | |Number | Cruse. D. 1986. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 6. Faure. R. Verbs of Speaking and Verbs of Thinking. Universite Paris IV-Sorbonne. Available at: http://hal. inria. fr/docs/00/46/98/13/PDF/Verbs_of_speaking_and_verbs_of_thinking. pdf 7. Lyons, J. 1995. Linguistic Semantics: an Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 8. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. 8th Editon. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 9. Pustejovsky. J. 1995. The Generative Lexicon. MIT Press, Cambridge. 10. Tekoriene D. (1996). Anglu kalbos gramatika vidurinems mokykloms. Vilnius: Leidybos Centras. Available at: