This study investigates the translation of present participial, past participial and adjectival free adjuncts and the translation of non-finite postmodifiers in a Swedish translation of an English-language non-fiction text.

Similarly to previous studies, coordination proves to be the most frequent translation strategy for the translation of present participial free adjuncts. The translation strategy proves useful for maintaining the ambiguity of the source text in the target text, but also for the early placement of main verbs in clauses. In contrast to present participial free adjuncts, the most frequent strategy for past participial and adjectival free adjuncts is translating the free adjuncts into main clauses. The use of the strategy is motivated by the fact that it allows the early placement of main verbs in clauses. The strategy is also used for following the Swedish principle of “one thought–one sentence” and the principle of iconicity.

There are significant differences in the translation of different non-finite postmodifiers. Translating postmodifying ing-clauses into relative postmodifying clauses is the most frequent strategy. The reason relates to the fact that postmodifying ing-clauses can often be paraphrased into relative clauses in English. The relative postmodifying clause strategy is also the most frequent strategy for the translation of postmodifying ed-clauses. However, postmodifying ed-clauses are also often turned into prepositional attributes, which is not the case for postmodifying ing-clauses. Many different strategies have been used for the translation of postmodifying infinitive clauses, although the most frequent strategy is to translate the postmodifying infinitive clause into an infinitive attribute.