Cacophony avoidance, interference, and priming: -mente adverbs vs. prepositional phrases of manner in original and translated texts
Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5111-5129
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Language variation and change; Bilingualism and multilingualism
Location
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Start Date
17-10-2024 12:30 PM
End Date
17-10-2024 1:00 PM
Abstract
Spanish -mente adverbs (e.g., simplemente ‘simply’) are a controversial morphological class. Prescriptive grammarians have regarded them as a stylistic hazard due to their tendency to give rise to “cacophony” when used too close to each other (see Robles Dégano 1905: 83), and this warning has been echoed by translation scholars due to similarities with forms from other languages, such as English -ly adverbs – a similarity that has been found to lead to cross-linguistic priming and interference (see Rodríguez 2022). However, no one has investigated whether cacophony avoidance is present in the use of -mente adverbs by Spanish speakers/writers, or whether it exists only, or mainly, as a concept in the minds of prescriptivists. Moreover, research on the interferential use of these forms in translation has paid little attention to intra-textual conditioning factors. In the present study, we investigate the role of cacophony avoidance and translation-induced cross-linguistic priming in Spanish adverb formation by looking at the alternation between -mente adverbs and prepositional phrases of manner (e.g., de manera simple ‘in a simple way’) in original and translated (< English) scientific articles. With the help of generalized additive mixed modeling (see Wood 2017), we analyzed 1,614 tokens coded for expression type as the outcome variable as well as three predictors – namely, previous adverbial expression type, distance from said expression, and expression source – in addition to two random variables – namely, text and lexical base. The analysis reveals that not only is there no evidence of cacophony avoidance, but the use of -mente adverbs appears to be subject to (positive) priming, as measured by the interaction of previous expression type with the distance from it. As for translations, although no significant difference is observed when it comes to within-language priming, cross-linguistic priming, as measured by the effect of -ly adverbs as the source expression, appears to take over. Thus this research provides further evidence of priming in the morphological domain and showcases a novel type of interaction between within- and cross-linguistic priming.
Cacophony avoidance, interference, and priming: -mente adverbs vs. prepositional phrases of manner in original and translated texts
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Spanish -mente adverbs (e.g., simplemente ‘simply’) are a controversial morphological class. Prescriptive grammarians have regarded them as a stylistic hazard due to their tendency to give rise to “cacophony” when used too close to each other (see Robles Dégano 1905: 83), and this warning has been echoed by translation scholars due to similarities with forms from other languages, such as English -ly adverbs – a similarity that has been found to lead to cross-linguistic priming and interference (see Rodríguez 2022). However, no one has investigated whether cacophony avoidance is present in the use of -mente adverbs by Spanish speakers/writers, or whether it exists only, or mainly, as a concept in the minds of prescriptivists. Moreover, research on the interferential use of these forms in translation has paid little attention to intra-textual conditioning factors. In the present study, we investigate the role of cacophony avoidance and translation-induced cross-linguistic priming in Spanish adverb formation by looking at the alternation between -mente adverbs and prepositional phrases of manner (e.g., de manera simple ‘in a simple way’) in original and translated (< English) scientific articles. With the help of generalized additive mixed modeling (see Wood 2017), we analyzed 1,614 tokens coded for expression type as the outcome variable as well as three predictors – namely, previous adverbial expression type, distance from said expression, and expression source – in addition to two random variables – namely, text and lexical base. The analysis reveals that not only is there no evidence of cacophony avoidance, but the use of -mente adverbs appears to be subject to (positive) priming, as measured by the interaction of previous expression type with the distance from it. As for translations, although no significant difference is observed when it comes to within-language priming, cross-linguistic priming, as measured by the effect of -ly adverbs as the source expression, appears to take over. Thus this research provides further evidence of priming in the morphological domain and showcases a novel type of interaction between within- and cross-linguistic priming.