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Article published In: Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 24:1 (2026) ► pp.208–237

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Between source language constructions and target language expectations

An analysis of passive constructions in translated and non-translated Spanish

ORCiD logo with link | Universitat Jaume I
ORCiD logo with link | Universitat de València-IULMA
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Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Jaume I University.

Abstract
This paper is situated within Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS). It follows Halverson’s Gravitational Pull Hypothesis (Halverson, S. (2003). The cognitive basis of translation universals. Target, 15(2), 197–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2010). Cognitive translation studies: Developments in theory and method. In G. Shreve & E. Angelone (Eds.), Translation and cognition (pp. 349–369). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2017). Developing a cognitive semantic model: Magnetism, Gravitational pull, and questions of data and method. In G. De Sutter, M. A. Lefer & I. Delaere (Eds.), Empirical translation studies. New methods and theoretical traditions (pp. 9–45). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2024). The gravitational pull hypothesis: status and prospects. In J. Marco & I. Tello (Eds.), Towards an empirical verification of the gravitational pull hypothesis. Evidence from the COVALT Corpus (pp. 21–52). Berlin: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), a framework that explains the translation process and its outcome by invoking the cognitive mechanisms of the bilingual mind. The paper adopts the cognitive, multi-method approach of the GPH to describe and compare the use of Spanish passive constructions in a multilingual comparable corpus of translated and non-translated texts. In doing so, it pushes the boundaries of the model by: (a) following an onomasiological rather than a semasiological approach; (b) focusing on constructions rather than lexical items; and (c) explicitly incorporating the aspect of translator socialisation into the hypothesis formulation, thereby taking into account the situatedness of translation. The results provide evidence in support of the GPH, as salience of a construction in the source or target language leads to its overrepresentation in the translated texts, and non-salience leads to its underrepresentation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Passive constructions in translation
    • 2.2Cognitive factors affecting translation
    • 2.3Semasiological vs onomasiological salience
  • 3.Operationalisation: Adapting the GPH to analyse a category of constructions
    • 3.1Magnetism: Onomasiological salience of the TL construction
    • 3.2Gravitational pull: Salience of matching SL constructions
    • 3.3Connectivity
  • 4.Materials and methods
    • 4.1Object of study: Passive construal and passive constructions
    • 4.2Data
      • 4.2.1Corpus data
      • 4.2.2Experimental data
    • 4.3Procedure
      • 4.3.1Research Phase I. The establishment of the translational salience of Spanish passive constructions
      • 4.3.2Research Phase II: Quantitative corpus study
  • 5.Translational salience of passive constructions
    • 5.1Onomasiological salience of TL passive constructions
    • 5.2Salience of formally equivalent SL constructions
      • 5.2.1Structure of the passive category in English
      • 5.2.2Structure of the passive category in German
      • 5.2.3Comparative frequencies
    • 5.3Connectivity
  • 6.Quantitative corpus study: Passive constructions in translated and non-translated Spanish
    • 6.1Hypotheses
      • Hypothesis A. The construction ser+PP will be overrepresented
      • Hypothesis B. Se-constructions will be overrepresented
      • Hypothesis C. The impersonal active (3rd p. pl.) will be underrepresented
    • 6.2Results and discussion
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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