COMPARATIVE-CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF EXPRESSING FACTUALITY AND NON-FACTUALITY IN ROMANIAN AND ENGLISH

Abstract

: THIS ANALYSIS AIMS AT COMPARING AND CONTRASTIVELY INVESTIGATING THE LINGUISTIC PATTERNS USED IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN WHEN EXPRESSING FACTUAL, NON-FACTUAL, COUNTER-FACTUAL OR HYPOTHETICAL MEANING. MOOD IS OFTEN THE DIFFERENTIATING CATEGORY APPLIED IN ROMANIAN FOR SUCH SEMANTIC DISTINCTIONS. HOWEVER, IN ENGLISH, NON-FACTUALITY EXPRESSION PERTAINS TO THE AREA OF GRAMATICAL MARKERS, ASSOCIATED WITH A SEMANTICALLY FALSE FORM OF PAST TENSE. THE SUPERIMPOSITON OF THIS UNREAL PAST UPON NON-FACTUAL FUTURE, PRESENT AND PAST VERB PHRASES RESULTS IN SHIFTING EACH TENSE ON STEP FURTHER INTO THE PAST, AS MEANS OF EXPRESSING NON-FACTUALITY. THEREFORE, THIS SHIFT IS USED TO TRANSLATE CONDITIONS, IN SEVERAL TYPES OF CONDITIONALS, AS A TRANSLATION OPTION FOR THE ROMANIAN “CONDIȚ IONAL OPTATIV ” , BOTH PRESENT AND PERFECT FORMS. THE SAME LINGUSTIC PATTERN IS ALSO USED FOR TRANSLATING PAST SUBJUCNTIVE, NAMELY VARIOUS CONTEXTS, SEMANTICALLY CIRCUMSRIBED TO NON-FACTUALITY, AS THE TRANSLATION OPTION FOR THE ROMANIAN MOOD CONJUNCTIV PREZENT AND CONJUNCTIV PERFECT. THE PAST TENSE FORM IS MERELY FORMAL, USED AS LINGUISTIC MARKER FOR SEMANTIC NON-FACTUALITY, BEING THUS A UNREAL PAST IN SUCH CONTEXTS. TRANSLATION ERRORS OFTEN OCCUR IN RENDERING NON-FACTUAL MESSAGES FROM SOURCE INTO TARGET LANGUAGE WITHIN THIS PARTICULAR LANGUAGE PAIR, DUE TO THE EXISTING LACK OF CORRESPONDENCE IN MEANS OF EXPRESSION TYPICAL FOR THE INVESTIGATED SEMANTICAL ASPECT, THAT OF NON-FACTUAL, COUNTER-FACTUAL OR HYPOTHETICAL MEANING.