Peculiarities of translation of comparative constructions in English-language popular science discourse

Abstract

The paper examines the grammatical phenomenon of comparative constructions in English on the examples of popular science discourse. The linguistic phenomenon of comparative constructions is analyzed in terms of correlation with the word order and sentence combination features and in a comparative way in the context of English/French. The chosen methodology made the following scientific hypotheses: comparative constructions are endowed with correlations with causal word order; the main types highlighted are: locative construction with subtypes, admission construction, and conjunction construction; such constructions are widely repeated in different languages belonging to different groups. This study goes beyond classical theoretical grammar robotics in a number of important aspects. A more detailed classification is presented: we distinguish between two types of constructions a primary comparative construction and a secondary one, where the comparison parameter is conveyed by both the expressed predicate and the locative type. The study reveals a number of new universals: no language lacks a degree marker and a standard comparison marker, and almost no language lacks a standard marker, even if an asymmetric comparison degree marker is present. It is also found that there is a whole variety of comparative constructions than is represented in typological theoretical grammar and that quite a few languages do not fit into any of the types described.