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In:Cross-linguistic Register Variation
Edited by Sylvi Rørvik and Marlén Izquierdo
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 125] 2026
► pp. 85–112

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Chapter 4
Aspectual catenatives in three English and Norwegian registers (fiction, non-fiction, and academic prose)

ORCiD logo with link | University of Oslo
Published online: 20 February 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.125.04has
Abstract
This paper investigates verb phrases with aspectual catenatives expressing the beginning, continuation, or end of an activity, for instance begin/continue/cease to V. The English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus and the KIAP corpus are used to compare three registers of English and Norwegian: fiction, non-fiction and academic prose. Results show that aspectual catenatives are generally more frequent in English than in Norwegian, especially those denoting continuation and end. The most frequently expressed aspect overall is beginning. In both languages aspectual catenatives are most widespread in fiction and least in academic prose. Register also influences lexical choice. In translation, non-congruent correspondences are most widespread with continuation and end, suggesting that the languages may prefer different expressions of these aspectual meanings.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
  • 3.Material and method
  • 4.Contrastive analysis
    • 4.1Frequency and dispersion
    • 4.2Aspectual meanings
    • 4.3Lexical choice
    • 4.4Summary: Findings of the contrastive study
  • 5.Translation study
    • 5.1Degree of congruence in translation
    • 5.2Lexical variation
    • 5.3Non-congruent and zero correspondences
    • 5.4Summary: Findings of the translation study
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • Corpora used
  • References
  • Appendix
References (33)
Corpora used
The English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus: [URL]
The KIAP corpus (Cultural Identify in Academic Prose): [URL]
Leksikografisk Bokmålskorpus (LBK): [URL]
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