Possessed by possession
On 27 November, Eszter Tarsoly and BA finalist Victoria Ford gave a joint presentation on grammatical possession. Hungarian has no genitive and instead uses ‘head marking,’ where the possessed thing (e.g. János háza) is marked, rather than the possessor (John’s house).
Eszter and Victoria presented was a comparative analysis of possessive constructions in English and Hungarian, with reference to the first chapter of György Dragomán’s 2005 novel A fehér király, and its English translation by Paul Olchvary, The White King. The texts are available online on Dragomán’s website, in the original and in English translation. The method was (1) to identify in the English text occurrences and uses of have and of, (2) to translate them back to Hungarian (back translation), and then (3) to cross check with the original the words and phrases translated with have and of.
It goes without saying that categories of have and of usage are numerous. To name and illustrate a few, contrasting the English translation with (2) back translation and (3) the original:
Sequence of tenses:
(1) I took the clothes I had put on the back of my chair
(2) Elvettem a ruhákat, amit a szék hátára tettem
(3) Levettem a szék hátáról az este odakészített rukátat
Linking a quantifier to a quantified item (noun) or as part of prepositions:
(1) her usual sort of hug
(2) az ő szokásos ölelése
(3) megölelt, de nem úgy, ahogy máskor
Possession (habeo):
(1) Mother asked if they had a search warrant
(2) Anya megkérdezte, hogy volt-e házkutatási engedélyük
(3) Anya akkor azt kérdezte, hogy van erre parancsuk
This method of comparing back translation with the original highlighted the number and complexity of issues faced by students of Hungarian and translation when dealing with grammatical possession (habeo construction: van (+ possessor-dative) + possessed thing-possessive suffixes; or the possessive structure where there is no true ownership: van + possessor-adessive + possessed thing).
July 10th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Yes, English now has the genitive — but note that the origin of “John’s house” was of course “John his house”, which is much closer to the Hungarian than is apparent in the modern English form, if we take “his house” as a unit.