Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

2745.3.1.1. Differences in the number of actantsAbout 8% of the total number of equivalent pairs (i.e. 13 out of the 165 pairs ofequivalents) and about 27% of the total number of partial equivalents were given the partialequivalence status because the comparison of the actantial structures of the verbs revealedthat some verbs do not have the same number of actants. For instance, remit 1 and transitar 2evoke the same conceptual scenario in which a court transfers a case or a matter to anothercourt for further consideration or decision (Table 37). However, the court from which acase or a matter is transferred (COURT1) is never instantiated in the Portuguese corpus,although it is conceptually mandatory because a case or a matter cannot be transferred to adifferent court (COURT2) if it wasn‘t already in a previous one (COURT1).As the entity responsible for the action of transfer is never expressed, thePortuguese verb is intransitive whereas the English verb is transitive. As a result, thetranslation of these verbs may raise translation difficulties. For instance, when translatingtransitar 2 into English, the translator will necessarily have to use a term that denotesCOURT1 because COURT1 is one of the actants of the equivalent remit 1 . However, asCOURT1 is never expressed in the Portuguese contexts, the translator will not know whichterm they should use. They will have to examine the text and guess which entity performsthe action or simply choose an English term so as to fill in the mandatory slot of theEnglish verb:transitar 2Transitam para o juízo de família e menores de Estarreja, à data da instalação domesmo, os processos que, nesta área, se encontrem pendentes nos tribunais dascomarcas de Estarreja e Ovar.Translation:? The court remitted the cases pending in the municpal tribunals of Estarreja eOvar to the Family Court of Estarreja.