Interaction of semantic and pragmatic choices in the translation of verb forms: English and Portuguese

Despite the superficial similarity of verb tense forms in English and Portuguese, semantic aspect often plays a critical role in the translation of one to the other; hence, the translator may be required to specify information or make explicit certain elements of meaning which are only implicitly present in the original Portuguese. Moreover, numerous verbs require an English-speaking translator to interpret multivariate forms in Portuguese in order to render the text into English. In the text analyzed, over 70% of the inflected verb forms required careful interpretation of the context and situation to choose an appropriate translation, and 67% of these "problematic" verbs have more than one possible option, depending on the aspect(s) to be emphasized. These results emphasize the link between semantic competence (aspect) and pragmatic competence (the ability to match form and function within context) in the composition of a general translation competence.