Phrasal Verbs in Bilateral International Agreements

Abstrakt

The aim of this paper is to analyse the distribution of English phrasal verbs in bilateral international agreements. For the purpose of the analysis, agreements concluded between Poland and a selected English-speaking country were chosen. The paper includes a quantitative and qualitative analysis of phrasal verbs. The quantitative analysis was carried out to analyse and examine whether there are any patterns regarding the distribution of phrasal verbs in all agreements in question and with regard to four thematic categories. The results indicate a small percentage of phrasal verbs, amounting to about 0.6% overall, with an uneven distribution in the four categories. The qualitative analysis is an attempt to verify the translation choices, establish whether the offi cial translations of the agreements under consideration have fixed equivalents, and categorise the presented phrasal verbs into the functions they fulfi l in the texts. In order to achieve these objectives, the translations of the 15 most common phrasal verbs were examined. The results show that there are no fixed equivalents used in Polish translation of the phrasal verbs, which partially is a result of their polysemy. While it is possible to distinguish some functions which phrasal verbs perform in the text, there is neither a relationship between them and the thematic category of agreements nor a pattern. This article complements and broadens the subject matter of phrasal verbs in terms of their presence and translation in international agreements.