Norwegian Preposition «på»: Semantic Categories and Tactics of Translation into English

Abstract

The article presents a research of Norwegian preposition på semantics and the ways of rendering it into English. The objective of our research is the semantic classification of meanings of på in the original Norwegian text and the analysis of corresponding translations in the parallel corpus. The corpus for the research is the novel “Snømannen” (“Snowman”, 2007) by Jo Nesbø and its official English translation. The results show that Norwegian preposition på encompasses at least 14 semantic categories (spatial, temporal, attributive, part-whole related etc.) and are never rendered by the same equivalent. General conclusions prove that Norwegian preposition på possesses a vast spectrum of meanings, which demands the flexibility of translation tactics. Our research suggests a consistent classification of meanings of på and gives practical recommendations to translators regarding the choice of English equivalents.