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Home for ClientsFor ColleaguesPatent TranslationConstructions in the Form [There + Pronoun] in Patents Constructions in the Form [There + Pronoun] in Patents by William Lise (Created December 29, 2009) A preliminary investigation of 10 years of US patents (1,804,405 patents issued from 1999 to 2008, of which 359,802 were issued to inventors in Japan) reveals the following number of patents that include each of the 70 [there + pronoun] (and, more infrequently, [there + adverb]) constructions as shown in the table below. This investigation ignored the USPTO "stop" terms of this form (thereby, therefore, thereof, and thereto), which are ignored in searching the USPTO database. therein 595,243 thereon 333,956 thereafter 298,910 therefrom 247,773 therebetween 211,676 therewith 175,164 therethrough 147,981 therefor 79,060 thereupon 21,509 thereinto 17,213 thereover 13,274 therealong 10,803 thereat 11,071 therearound 10,370 therewithin 9,365 thereunder 8,824 thereabout 8,635 thereabove 5,625 therebelow 5,462 thereacross 4,197 thereagainst 3,938 therebeneath 2,044 thereonto 1,941 thereabouts 1,320 therepast 1,082 thereamong 1,060 therebehind 1,027 thereinside 912 therebeyond 563 thereshown 320 therebefore 315 thereatop 273 theretowards 256 thereadjacent 184 thereas 159 thereoff 133 theretogether 96 theretoward 68 thereoutside 58 therebeside 57 therethroughout 56 therevia 50 thereunderneath 41 thereinstead 39 thereaboard 32 thereattached 32 thereahead 27 thereamongst 24 thereopposite 17 thereapart 14 theredown 12 thereduring 9 theresurrounding 9 therealongside 7 therenear 7 therewithout 6 thereback 5 therefollowing 4 thereup 4 thereinunder 4 thereaft 4 thereaside 4 thereinfront 3 therefront 3 therealone 2 therebottom 2 theredefined 2 therelike 1 thereregarding 1 thereastride 1 I did a further investigation of the constructions with the top 10 occurrences from 1999 to 2008 year to see if there was any difference in frequency of occurrence between the 359,802 patents that were presumably translated from Japanese (based on the country of the inventor as noted in the issued patents) and the overall universe of 1,804,405 patents, the results being summarized below. Term No. of Patents of 1,804,405 Patents Including the Term FO % of All Patent Including the Term No. of Patents of 359,802 Patents Translated from Japanese Including the Term FJ % of Patents Translated from Japanese Including the Term FJ/FO Frequency of Occurrence in Japanese Patents Relative to Frequency of Occurrence in All Patents Including the Term therein 595,243 33.0% 141,960 39.5% 1.20 thereon 333,956 18.5% 97,924 27.2% 1.47 thereafter 298,910 16.6% 113,413 31.5% 1.90 therefrom 247,773 13.7% 53,407 14.8% 1.08 therebetween 211,676 11.7% 70,470 19.6% 1.68 therewith 175,164 11.7% 36,472 10.1% 0.86 therethrough 147,981 8.2% 26,987 7.5% 0.91 therefor 79,060 4.4% 30,006 8.3% 1.89 thereupon 21,509 1.2% 5,287 1.5% 1.25 thereinto 17,213 1.0% 10,475 2.9% 2.90 As can be seen from the above results, for many of the top 10 constructions, the frequency of occurrence is significantly higher in patents that have presumably been translated from Japanese. Translators with experience in handling the locutions that occur in Japanese patents might guess some reasons for this inordinately high occurrence in patents translated from Japanese. A more-substantial followup study will: cover a signficantly broader range of examples and expand the subject period back to 1976, and investigate the ways these constructions have been used, particularly in translating Japanese patents to English.

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