Abstract
Pleonasms are sometimes considered as faulty and erroneous or at least odd and absurd; yet, translators are often influenced by the structure of a pleonastic combination in the source language and translate them word for word which frequently results in a similar pleonasm in the target language. Rarely is the phrase translated in a different way which happens when the literal translation is unnatural in the target language. Therefore, an assumption is made that not all pleonasms coincide in the two languages. Besides, a number of semantic pleonasms have become clichés which again is the stimulus for translators to follow the structural pattern of the original. Thus, the aim of the present paper is to analyse semantic pleonasms in English and their translations in Lithuanian. The major method employed in the study is contrastive analysis based on the items selected from the parallel corpus. The results reveal the tendency of translators to think first of the syntactic structure of an expression rather than of the semantic content which is often regarded as redundant. The paper also touches upon the degree of redundancy of information in the pleonastic phrases and may call for a different kind of approach — the prototype theory — towards pleonasms in future.http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.19.942
Highlights
A number of linguists have been considering the phenomenon of pleonasms as faulty and unnecessary
The results reveal the tendency of translators to think first of the syntactic structure of an expression rather than of the semantic content which is often regarded as redundant
Pleonasms are commonly used in both languages; as there are no or very few suggestions as to whether they should be avoided, translators seem to be influenced by the structure of the phrase and most often follow the English pattern, i.e. they translate word for word
Summary
A number of linguists have been considering the phenomenon of pleonasms as faulty and unnecessary. There are numerous cases when they are only stiff expressions used in speech or writing as clichés, e.g. earlier in time, green in colour, grow in size, ask a question, never before, new invention, past memories, etc. Such instances prompt a few questions like whether they have to be understood as faulty, whether they have to be avoided in speech and writing, and especially how they should be treated in translation. 129 examples of the English semantic pleonasms and their translations into Lithuanian were selected from the parallel corpus of contemporary Lithuanian and analysed. The fixed expression pleonastic phrase was used interchangeably with the term pleonasm in the paper
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
