Surely There Must Exist a Polish Equivalent
On the Inadequacy of Dictionary Explications
Published online: 1 January 1990
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.2.2.05tab
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.2.2.05tab
Abstract
The paper is a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the requirements that dictionaries should meet in order to satisfy the needs of language learners and translators. The shortcomings of some standard dictionaries are discussed in reference to one particular item: the modal qualifier surely and its Polish equivalents. The latter were compared with actual choices made by a group of advanced Polish learners of English, asked to translate five explanatory sentences taken from English—English dictionaries. Discrepancies between dictionary equivalents and translation replacements clearly suggest that apart from "prototypical" examples of usage, dictionary entries should also contain potential discourse functions of sample sentences.
Résumé
Cet article est une contribution aux discussions en cours sur les exigences auxquelles doivent satisfaire les dictionnaires à l'usage des étudiants de langues et des traducteurs. Les insuffisances de plusieurs dictionnaires de base sont examinees en référence a un lexème particulier: le déterminant modal surely et ses equivalents en polonais. Ceux-ci sont compares avec les options d'un groupe polonais d'etudiants d'anglais d'un niveau avancé, invites a traduire cinq propositions enonciatives empruntées à des dictionnaires anglais—anglais. Les divergences entre les équivalents du dictionnaire et les transpositions traductives indiquent clairement qu'à côte d'exemples "prototypiques" de l'usage, les entrées des dictionnaires devraient egalement contenir les fonctions discursives possibles de propositions donnees en échantillon.
Article outline
- 0.Introduction
- 1.The Semantics of Surely
- 2.Polish Dictionary Equivalents
- 3.Analysis of the Data
- 3.1Chyba
- 3.2Finite Forms
- 3.3Polarized Expressions
- 3.4.Expressions of Increased Probability
- 3.5The Question Tag
- 3.6Przecież
- 3.7Answers
- 4.Conclusions
- Notes
- Dictionaries
References
References (14)
Antas, Jolanta and Elżbieta Fajfer. 1985. “O szczególnym funkcjonowaniu modulantów skladnikowych w przekazach telewizyjnych”. Rokoszawa and Twardzik 1985. 117–127.
Boers, Frank. 1987. Behind, Beyond, Under, Underneath, Beneath, Below: A Descriptive and Explanatory Study of Spatial and Non-spatial Senses. Antwerp: Universiteit Antwerpen. [Antwerp Papers in Linguistics, 53]
Grochowski, Marek. 1986. Polskie partykuly: Skladnia, semantyka, leksykografia. Wroclaw: Ossolineum.
Grzegorczykowa, Renata. 1985. “O funkcji impresywnej zdań Stwierdzających”. Rokoszowa and Twardzik 1985. 73–78.
Karttunen, Lauri. 1972. “Possible and Must”. John P. Kimball, ed. Syntax and Semantics, 11. New York: Seminar Press, 1972. 1–20.
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik. 1972. A Grammar of Contemporary English. London: Longman.
Rokoszowa, Jolanta and W. Twardzik, eds. 1985. Nowo-mowa. Materialy z sesji naukowej poświęconej problemom wspólczesnego języka polskiego odbytej na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim w dniach 16 i 17 stycznia 1981. London: Polonia.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Farghal, Mohammed & Mohammed O. Al-Shorafat
1996. The Translation of English Passives into Arabic. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 8:1 ► pp. 97 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.