by Max Wheeler
As with passive and impersonal constructions generally, the effect may be to distance the speaker or to disclaim responsibility for the event concerned:
si no se m’hagués trencat la corda
if the rope hadn’t gone and broken
La cosa se’ns ha anat embullant, i ara no sabem com sortir-nos-en.
The matter has got more and more involved and now we can’t find a way out.
23.5 PRONOMINALIZATION: VARIANT PATTERNS IN TRANSLATION
Seeking word-for-word or structural equivalences between English and Catalan is an insecure basis for working with the Catalan system of pronominalization described thus far. Certain patterns are discernible, however, in the divergences between the two languages, if we focus our analysis on questions of transitivity and intransitivity. The following broad lines of contrast can be established:
(i) Catalan transitive verbs with pronominal forms correspond to a single verb in English (used both transitively and intransitively):
Arreglaré els documents ara mateix. I’ll get the documents ready right away.
M’arreglaré ara mateix. I’ll get ready right away.
Això no em preocupa gens. This doesn’t worry me at all.
No us preocupeu: tot anirà bé. Don’t worry: everything will be fine.
Similarly: amoïnar(-se) ‘bother’, aturar(-se)/parar(-se) ‘stop’, moure(‘s) ‘move’, concentrar(-se) ‘concentrate’, despertar(-se) ‘awaken’/’wake (up)’, doblegar(-se) ‘bend’, asseure(‘s) ‘sit’, afaitar(-se) ‘shave’, entrenar (-se) ‘train’, buidar(-se) ‘empty’, ofegar(-se) ‘drown’, ennuegar(-se) ‘choke’, traslladar(-se) ‘move’, mudar(-se) ‘change’, entortolligar(-se) ‘twist’, escalfar(-se) ‘warm up’, etc. From the Catalan point of view many of these examples may be truly reflexive (e.g. afaitar-se), although English does not always use a reflexive verb (though even English may do so, with ‘shave (oneself)’, ‘worry (oneself)’, ‘train (oneself)’, ‘move (oneself)’, ‘bother (oneself)’, and so on).
(ii) Verbs which exist only in the pronominal form. This set can be divided into:
(a) Intransitive:
esblaimar-se turn pale
afarrossar-se gorge (oneself)
enrojolar-se blush
enrogallar-se become hoarse
(b) Transitive:
descuidar-se forget (something)
empassar-se swallow
empatollar-se go on (about something)
emportar-se take away
endur-se take away
quedar-se keep
(c) Verbs taking a prepositional complement, most commonly with a or de but also other prepositions:
assemblar-se a resemble
atrevir-se a dare to
abstenir-se de abstain/refrain from
adonar-se de realize
descuidar-se de forget to
desempallegar-se de escape from
penedir-se de repent of
queixar-se de complain about
rebel·lar-se contra rebel against
esforçar-se en try hard to/at
(iii) There is a clear relationship between the transitive and the intransitive (pronominal) sense, though a different verb or construction may be required in English:
aclarir clarify, clear aclarir-se become brighter (weather)
admirar admire admirar-se (de) be surprised, marvel (at)
alegrar cheer (up), gladden alegrar-se be glad/happy, rejoice
divertir amuse divertir-se have fun, enjoy oneself
esgarriar mislead esgarriar-se straggle, go wrong
interessar interest interessar-se en/per have/take an interest in
preocupar worry preocupar-se de/per worry about
obsessionar obsess obsessionar-se per be obsessed with
fixar etc.
fix fixar-se en notice
Under this heading is an important group of change-of-state verbs whose pronominal form corresponds to an English expression with ‘become’, ‘grow’, ‘turn’ or to an English passive with ‘be’, ‘get’. Included here are verbs expressing change of colour: engroguir ‘make yellow’, engroguir-se ‘turn yellow’; enrogir ‘redden’/‘make red’, enrogir-se ‘turn red’; ennegrir ‘blacken’, ennegrir-se, ‘turn black’; emblanquir ‘whiten’, emblanquir-se ‘turn white’; enverdir ‘colour green’, enverdir-se ‘turn green’. Then:
avorrir bore avorrir-se get bored
aprimar make thin(ner) aprimar-se get thinner, slim
divorciar divorce divorciar-se get divorced
espantar frighten espantar-se be(come) frightened
(also near-synonyms esfereir and esverar: esfereir-se/esverar-se)
endurir harden endurir-se grow hard
empantanegar bog down empantanegar-se get bogged down
embolicar entangle embolicar-se get entangled
enfadar/enutjar annoy enfadar-se/enutjar-se get angry
engreixar fatten engreixar-se get fat
ensopir bore ensopir-se be(come)/get bored
ensordir deafen ensordir-se grow/become deaf
entristir sadden entristir-se grow sad
emprenyar irritate intensely emprenyar-se be pissed off
estranyar puzzle estranyar-se be puzzled
fastiguejar annoy fastiguejar-se get annoyed
molestar etc.
bother molestar-se be bothered
The pronominal form of the majority of such verbs which can take a complement will introduce it with de or amb, whereas English deploys a wider range of prepositions:
M’alegro molt d’aquesta notícia.
I’m delighted by/with/at this bit of news.
S’ha divorciat del segon marit.
She has (got) divorced (from) her second husband.
Ja ens n’hem avorrit.
We’ve got bored with it.
Some verbs like avorrir-se ‘get bored (with)’, ensopir-se ‘get sent to sleep (by)’, divertir-se ‘have fun (with)’, embolicar-se ‘get involved (with/in)’, take en or amb depending on context:
Es van divertir molt amb tantes facècies.
They were greatly amused by/with/at such jesting.
M’he embolicat en una qüestió molt espinosa.
I have got mixed up in a very thorny business.
Ton germà s’ha embolicat amb uns personatges poc recomanables.
Your brother has got involved with some undesirable characters.
The above group can be contrasted with non-pronominal intransitive verbs that denote changes of state:
agonitzar be dying
augmentar increase
clarejar become light(er)/brighter (esp. day, weather)
créixer grow
disminuir diminish
emmudir become silent, lose one’s voice
empal·lidir néixer become pale/ pallid be born, come into being
ressuscitar come back to life
Millorar ‘improve’ and empitjorar ‘get worse’ both exist side by side with millorar-se and empitjorar-se. Envellir can mean ‘live a long time’ as well as ‘grow old’, but envellir-se is more usual in the latter sense, analogous with rejovenir-se ‘become younger’.
(iv) Two quite different English verbs translate the non-pronominal and pronominal forms of a single Catalan verb. The most obvious cases are dir ‘say’, ‘tell’ and dir-se ‘be called’; portar ‘carry’, ‘wear’ and portar-se ‘behave’. Similarly:
acomiadar dismiss, see off acomiadar-se say good-bye
acostar bring near(er) acostar-se approach
afanyar press, bother afanyar-se toil, strive hard, hurry
aixecar raise, lift up aixecar-se rise, get/stand up
alçar raise alçar-se rise (up)
aprimar make thin(ner) aprimar-se slim
avorrir hate avorrir-se be bored, get bored
enamorar captivate enamorar-se fall in love
engrossir fatten engrossir-se put on weight
entrebancar obstruct, hamper entrebancar-se stumble
&nb
sp; llevar lift off/up llevar-se get up
23.6 PRONOMINAL VERBS OF MOTION
The idiomatic usage of some pronominal verbs of motion requires special attention.
23.6.1 ANAR-SE’N ‘LEAVE’, ‘GO AWAY’
The simple verb ‘go’ is rendered in Catalan by anar. When used in the simple non-pronominal form it frequently requires the pronominal clitic complement hi ‘there’ (see 12.7), not always translated in English:
Si vas a l’espectacle, digues-m’ho, que també hi penso anar. Oi que podríem anar-hi plegats?
If you’re going to the show, tell me as I plan to go as well. We could go together, couldn’t we?
‘Go away’ can be translated by marxar (never pronominalized): Què, que ja marxeu? ‘What, are you leaving already?’ The commonest way of saying ‘go away’, ‘leave’, however, is with anar-se’n (cf. French allerls’en aller), which appears also in other idioms.
Me’n vaig./Me n’he d’anar.
I’m leaving./I must leave.
Vés-te’n.
Go away.
Te n’has anat massa d’hora.
You left too early.
No podeu anar-vos-en sense acomiadar-vos.
You can’t leave without saying goodbye.
In English equivalents ‘away’ does not always appear, as anar-se’n means ‘go (somewhere else)’ from where the subject is now:
Demà se’n va a Tortosa.
She’s off to/going to/leaving for Tortosa tomorrow.
Ja no puc més; me’n vaig.
I can’t stand any more; I’m going.
Other idioms with anar-se’n:
(i) Meaning ‘leak’, of something held in a recipient:
L’aigua del càntir se n’anava per una esquerda.
The water in the pitcher was leaking (out) through a crack.
(ii) In a physical movement or operation, referring to a part of the body, anar-se’n means ‘slip’:
Se li’n va anar la mà i em va vessar la salsa al damunt.
His hand slipped and he spilt the sauce all over me.
Se me n’ha anat el peu i he caigut de morros a terra.
My foot slipped and I fell flat on my face.
(iii) Anar-se’n is also used figuratively of an event or effort that comes to nothing, or of an item that is falling to pieces:
Els volia apallissar, però tot se’n va anar en crits i amenaces.
He wanted to thrash them, but it just ended up in a lot of shouting and threatening.
Aquest projecte se’ns n’ha anat en orris.
This plan has gone awry.
Duia un vestit que se n’anava a trossos.
He was wearing a tattered suit.
23.6.2 OTHER PRONOMINAL VERBS OF MOTION
(i) venir-se’n
Formed by analogy with anar-se’n, this pronominal form emphasizes subjective awareness of movement towards where the speaker is situated:
Topant de cap en una i altra soca//se’n ve la vaca tota sola; és cega.
(J. Maragall)
Knocking her head against a trunk here and a trunk there/the cow comes onwards all alone; she is blind.
Venir-se’n (a baix) is used of a roof or ceiling collapsing, synonymous with enfonsar-se:
Si no reparem aquesta esquerda, se’ns en vindrà a baix tot el sostre.
If we don’t repair that crack, the whole ceiling will come down.
(ii) tornar-se’n
This verb is an emphatic form of tornar ‘return’, ‘go back’:
Van arribar a les set, i a les vuit ja se’n tornaven.
They arrived at seven o’clock and by eight they were already on their way back.
In popular speech tornar is sometimes reinforced as entornar without dropping the clitic en:
Se n’han entornat sense dir-nos res.
They’ve gone back without saying anything to us.
A similar phenomenon is also observed with enretirar-se ‘return’, ‘back off’, which can acquire a redundant en:
No t’enretiris/No te n’enretiris; acosta-t’hi més.
Don’t back away; move closer.
(iii) Similar analogies with anar-se’n produce colloquial forms like pujar-se’n ‘go up’, baixar-se’n ‘go/come down’, llevar-se’n ‘get up’.
23.7 PRONOMINAL VERBS OF REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
‘Remember’ (something in the past) is translated by recordar and ‘forget’ by oblidar:
Recordes aquella cançó? Do you remember that song?
Sabia la data però l’he oblidada. I used to know the date, but I’ve forgotten it.
The basic function of remembering is frequently expressed by recordar-se de with a noun complement and recordar-se que/com introducing a clause (matched in ‘forgetting’ by oblidar-se de or oblidar-se que):
Us recordeu de les seves paraules?
Do you remember their words?
Li ho hem dit, però es veu que no se n’ha recordat.
We told him, but he obviously hasn’t remembered.
No t’oblidis que ens ho havies promès.
Don’t forget you had promised us.
The pronominal form recordar-se is favoured when ‘remember’ implies not forgetting something or to do something:
Ens vas assegurar que ho faries; te’n recordes?
You assured us you would do it; do you remember?
Us heu de recordar de demanar taula.
You must remember/not forget to book a table.
In this sort of context the antonym of recordar-se is descuidar-se ‘forget’, ‘neglect’ (two verbs which become interchangeable through use of the negative: descuidar-se = no recordar-se and vice versa). Descuidar-se likewise introduces an infinitive with de and a clause with que:
No ens descuidem de trucar al lampista.
We’d better not forget to phone the plumber.
M’havia descuidat que demà és el seu aniversari.
I’d forgotten that tomorrow is his birthday.
However, this verb, unlike recordar-se, behaves transitively when introducing a noun phrase complement (without the preposition de):
M’havia descuidat el paraigua en el cotxe.
I’d left my umbrella in the car./I’d forgotten to bring my umbrella from the car.
Constructions with both recordar-se and descuidar-se frequently entail the use of en standing for the complement. There is a tendency for this to be automatic, even when redundant, and in everyday speech sentences like the following are common:
Recorda-te’n que demà has d’anar al dentista.
Remember you have to go to the dentist’s tomorrow.
Te n’has descuidat que havies de comprar-li un regal?
Have you forgotten you had to buy him a present?
(See 12.8 and 36.4–5 for discussion of redundant pronouns in general.)
23.8 PRONOMINAL VERBS OF CONSUMPTION
Some transitive verbs in this semantic range can be pronominalized to emphasize decisiveness or completeness of the event. This can be illustrated by contrasting non-pronominal and pronominal uses of the same verb in specific contexts:
Sempre bevem vi. We always drink wine.
S’ha begut mitja ampolla de vi. She has drunk half a bottle of wine.
Prenc somnífers per dormir. I’m taking sleeping pills to sleep.
Vinga, pren-te una d’aquestes pastilles. Come on, take one of these tablets.
23.9 PRONOMINAL VERBS OF KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION
Pronominalization occurs frequently with verbs in this category. The issue is best addressed in terms of practice and usage with individual verbs rather than through attempting to generalize about nuances of meaning.
(i) creure(‘s) ‘believe’
This verb also translates ‘think’ in most contexts where pensar-se (see below, ii) could also to be used. The pronominal form creure’s is common, virtually interchangeable with both creure and pensar(-se) introducing a clause:
(Et) creus que m’equivoco, doncs? D
o you think I’m wrong, then?
(Em) creia que arribarien més d’hora. I thought they would be arriving earlier.
(ii) pensar-se ‘think’
Non-pronominal pensar rarely introduces a clause with que, except when the literal meaning of ‘think’/‘be thinking’ is prominent. Otherwise
pronominal pensar-se is preferred, synonymous with creure(’s) in the sense of ‘think’/‘believe’:
Qui et penses que ets? Who do you think you are?
Em penso que són bojos. I think they’re mad.
No et pensis occurs frequently as an interjection meaning something like ‘bet your life’, ‘to be sure’, reinforcing an affirmation:
Ho faran perquè són tossuts, no et pensis.
They’ll do it, because they’re stubborn, you’ll see.
(iii) imaginar-se ‘imagine’
The pronominal form of transitive imaginar is used in the sense of ‘suppose’, ‘think’ (a meaning not available in standard Catalan to the simple imaginar):
M’imaginava que resultaria més fàcil.
*Imaginava que resultaria més fàcil.
I thought it would prove to be easier.
(iv) adonar-se ‘realize’ (Bal. témer-se)
This verb takes a prepositional object with de:
No s’adona gens de la importància d’això.
She doesn’t realize at all how important this is.
És la fi d’una era: que no te n’adones?
It’s the end of an era: don’t you realize?
Or it can introduce a clause with que:
Ara m’adono que tenies raó tu. I realize now that you were right.
No ens adonàvem que fos tan tard. We didn’t realize it was so late.
