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E
LIISA
P
ITKÄSALO
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fiction that has been translated into Hungarian is limited. The research mate-
rial is, however, sufficient to answer the questions on how the emphatic
phrases are used in Finnish fiction, how they are translated into Hungarian,
and how their meanings are changed in the translations.
In terms of syntax, the emphatic phrase is a parenthetical addition if it in-
terrupts its structural framework. Hence, in principle, parenthetical additions
cannot be positioned at the beginning or at the end of a sentence in a written
text. In written speech, however, pauses are indicated by punctuation which
means that a full stop and an exclamation mark can be used to punctuate the
speech without necessarily signaling the end of the sentence structure. The
emphatic phrase can, therefore, be a parenthetical addition at the beginning
or end of a sentence if it interrupts the narration. For example, the emphatic
phrases in the novel
Seitsemän veljestä
are often punctuated with exclama-
tion marks even though the sentence continues after the exclamation mark. In
the Hungarian translation, a new sentence always begins after an emphatic
phrase that ends in an exclamation mark, although in some instances these
phrases clearly interrupted the construction or turn.
Comparing the novel
Seitsemän veljestä
and its Hungarian translation, I
found no substantial differences in how the sphere of influence of the em-
phatic phrases changed. The source text contains only one instance in which
the emphatic phrase both punctuates and interrupts the narration in order to
emphasise meaning. In the Hungarian translation, however, this has been
achieved by positioning the emphatic phrase at the end of the sentence and
this emphasises the previous clause.
One noteworthy difference between the Finnish emphatic phrases and their
Hungarian translations is that although the jussive construction can be found in
both languages, it was not necessarily preferred for the translation into Finnish.
The primary reason for this may be the translator’s own language usage that
is influenced by, for example, geographical variation. Another point is that
the jussive construction
is common in the gender vocabulary of swearing
phrases in modern Hungarian spoken language. These types of swearing
phrases are often too crude to be used as the translations of the emphatic
phrases that are analysed in this study (cf. Vertanen 2007: 153). Moreover,
other jussive construction phrases
are in many cases too archaic in the Hun-
garian language. In the case of newer literature, it is likely that the translator,
trying to imitate authentic modern Hungarian, does not want the speech
to
sound outdated. The emphatic phrases in older fiction, on the other hand,
have to convey a more religious tone, which may be due to the archaic nature
of the Hungarian equivalents.