Complex Predicate Constructions in Croatian and English from a Contrastive-linguistic Perspective

Kežić, Marin. (2018). Complex Predicate Constructions in Croatian and English from a Contrastive-linguistic Perspective. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature. [mentor Pavlović, Nataša and Stanojević, Mateusz-Milan].

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Abstract

The present research is a translatological and contrastive-linguistic study aimed at establishing correspondences between Croatian and English with regards to their use of simple predicates and complex predicate constructions (Goldberg 1995). While simple predicates involve monolexemic verbs such as walk, bite or look, complex predicate constructions involve instances in which a so-called light verb (e.g. have, take, give) is usually used in conjunction with a countable noun derived from a formally identical verb to form a multi-word unit such as have a walk, take a bite, give a look. Following the assumption that the preference for simple predicates or complex predicate constructions is the product of language typology (see Gradečak-Erdeljić & Brdar 2012), the current study investigates the extent to which so-called unique items (Tirkkonen-Condit 2004, Chesterman 2007), i.e. items that are formally specific to the target language, are represented in Croatian-to-English translations produced by respondents in a translation task.

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