Who and Which in Bulgarian and English

Paper Summary:

There are a number of problems that a translator might come upon when translating wh- words from Bulgarian into English. This paper looks at "who" and "which" in particular. Why is there a problem? In English, "who" and "which" do not take grammatical markers for gender and number, while in Bulgarian they do . In English and Bulgarian, gender is grammaticalized differently. This particularity is sometimes considered a problem for certain translations from Bulgarian, and more specifically, when gender seems of importance to the Bulgarian text. This paper deals with the notions of grammatical and semantic gender only because the former exists in Bulgarian and the latter is used in English. This paper begins with some preliminary remarks, exposing the differences between Bulgarian and English when it comes to number and gender markings. Some translation examples are discussed in more detail in the section entitled "Examples". It must be pointed out that the paper investigates only one side of the problem, where Bulgarian is the source language and English is the target language. Back translation is not discussed here. The main focus is on how gender itself is produced and translated. Following paragraphs clarify what gender is in both languages and what problems translators might encounter if they choose to transfer a gendered reference from Bulgarian into English.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Preliminary Remarks on Gender and Number in English and Bulgarian
Who and Which in English
Who and Which in Bulgarian
Examples
Conclusions
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"In the extra-linguistic world, gender is a physiological phenomenon connected with the structure of some living beings. There are objects with no sex (inanimate) and others with sex (animate). The category of sex has two exponents (male and female). These facts can be reflected in language since gender markings in a given language are, on the first place, categories established through our contact with the natural differences between the sexes and between what we have called "the animate" and "the inanimate". Thus, the linguistic exponent of sex has the following grammatical and/or lexical correspondences in English:
1 M / he male (animate) boy, father, John, etc.
2 F / she female (animate) girl, mother, Mary, etc.
3 N / it O gender (inanimate/undetermined) cat, stone, table, baby (if sex unknown)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Karoubi, Behrouz; von Flotow, Louise. Gender and Translation, www.translationdirectory.com, 2003 -2006, ed. Serhiy Onoshko
• Molhova, Jana. " The Category of Gender in Bulgarian and English ", The Noun. A Contrastive English - Bulgarian Study, Sofia: Kliment Ohridski University Press, 1992
• Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, Svartvik. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, London and New York: Longman, 1995
• www.slovo.bg
• www.yourdictionary.com

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