The Language-specific Spatial Marker 'fram' in Swedish and the Expression of Frontal Orientation in English and Swedish

Abstract

This study presents a description of the language-specific spatial marker fram, which has a frontal orientation, and how it is translated into English based on data from the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus. Frontal orientation is systematically encoded in English in descriptions of stative location in expressions such as in front of the house. However, English lacks any clear correspondence to the dynamic spatial marker fram in Swedish both at the structural and at the semantic level. Structurally fram is used both as a free word and in many compounds and derived words to an extent that has no parallel in the use of English spatial particles. At the semantic level, English translations of expressions containing fram usually lack any element with a frontal orientation. The meaning potential of fram is described in three steps: basic spatial meaning > extended spatial meanings > metaphorical meanings.