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MONA BAKER In Other Words CHAPTER II: Equivalence at word level The word is the smallest unit of language that can be used itself. There is no correspondence between orthographic words and elements of meaning within or across languages. Morpheme the minimal formal element of meaning in language, as ...

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MONA BAKER – In Other Words CHAPTER II: Equivalence at word level The word is the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself. There is no one-to-one correspondence between orthographic words and elements of meaning within or across languages. Morpheme = the minimal formal element of meaning in language, as distinct from word, which may or may not contain several elements of meaning. There are two types of morphemes which are: 1. Free Morpheme The free morpheme is just a simple word that has a single morpheme; thus, it is free and can occur independently. For instance, eat, cat, woman are free morphemes. 2. Bound Morpheme By contrast to a free morpheme, a bound morpheme is used with a free morpheme to construct a complete word, as it cannot stand independently. For example, farm-er, actr-ess, girl-s Then we have root morphemes that can be both free or bound morphemes: the root is a part of a complex word which is the heart of the word’s construction and its meaning. (roots are used to identify families of words). Bound morphemes are of two types which include: 1. Inflectional Morphemes: This type of morphemes uses only suffixes which are used to show some aspects of the grammatical function of a word. We use inflectional morphemes to indicate if a word is singular or plural, whether it is past tense or not, and whether it is a comparative or superlative form. For example, adding -s as a suffix to the base of the noun, such as in “boy,” which becomes “boys.” Now it contains two morphemes “boy” and “-s.” Here, “-s” is an inflectional morpheme, as it has changed the noun “boy” into “boys”. 2. Derivational Morphemes:

This type of morpheme uses both prefix as well as suffix, and has the ability to change function as well as meaning of words. For instance, adding the suffix “-less” to the noun “meaning” makes the meaning of this word entirely different. The most common affixes are: 1. Prefixes: appear at the beginning of the word, before the other morphemes 2. Suffixes: appear at the end of the word, after the other morphemes Allomorphs: are a variant form of a morpheme, that is, when a unit of meaning varies in sound without changing the meaning.

The Lexical Meaning The Lexical meaning of a word or lexical unit may be thought of as the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system. According to Cruse there are 4 main types of lexical meaning: 1. Propositional meaning: arises from the relationship between the word and what it refers to or describes. It is what makes an utterance true or false. (in an inaccurate translation it is usually this meaning that lacks. 2. Expressive meaning: is the connotative meaning, it cannot be judged as true or false, because it relates to the speaker's feelings or attitude toward what he says. Two words can have the same propositional meaning but have different expressive meanings. 3. Presupposed meaning: arises from co-occurrence restrictions (restrictions on what other words or expressions we expect to see before or after a particular lexical unit). a. Selectional restrictions: for instance, we expect a human subject for "studious" and an inanimate one for "geometrical". b. Collocational restrictions: semantically arbitrary restrictions which don't follow logically from the propositional meaning of a word. For instance, in English teeth are brushed, in Italian they are polished. 4. Evoked meaning: arises from dialect and register variation. Dialect: is a variety of language which has currency within a specific community or group of speakers. It may be classified on one of the following bases: a. Geographical: American / British English b. Temporal: people with different ages c. Social: people of different social classes Register: variety of language that a language considers appropriate to a specific situation, from the following variations: a. Field of discourse: what is going on  different linguistic choices whether the two people are making or discussing a game/love/politics b. Tenor of discourse: relationship between the people  difficult to translate when a certain attitude is strange in the target culture. In the American culture, it is possible that teens direct to their parents by calling them with their names, or in a disrespectful way. In certain cultures, it can't be done, so translation can intervene. c. Mode of discourse: role that the language is playing (speech, essay, lecture, and the medium of its transmission (spoken or written). The problem of non-equivalence: The choice of a suitable equivalent can depend on a bunch of factors, that may be linguistic or extralinguistic. Semantic Fields: In linguistics, a semantic field is a set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject. The words inside a lexical field are called lexical sets. The more detailed a semantic field is in a given language, the more different it is likely to be from related semantic fields in other languages. Two areas where understanding semantic fields can be useful to a translator: a) Appreciating the value that a word has in a given system  if you know what other items are available in a lexical set and how they contrast with the item chosen, you can appreciate the significance of the writer's choice. b) Developing strategies for dealing with non-equivalence  superordinate and hyponyms: one can be used to define the other, by widening the meaning or narrowing it. Semantic fields may not always be applicable, but their notion can provide the translator with useful strategies for dealing with non-equivalence in some contexts.

Non-equivalence at a word level means that the target language has no direct equivalent for a word which occurs in the source text. Common problems a) Culture-specific concepts can be totally unknown in the target culture: abstract or complete concepts, religious believes, social customs, types of food... b) Source-language concept is not lexicalized in the target language: for instance, "standard" expresses a concept easy to understand but it has no equivalent in Arabic, while "landslide" has no ready equivalent in many cultures, even if it only means "overwhelming majority". c) Source-language word is semantically complex (it can be also a single morpheme!) d) The source and target languages make different distinctions in meaning. What one language regards as an important distinction in meaning another language may not perceive it as relevant. Indonesians make differences between "going out in the rain and knowing that it's raining" and "going out in the rain without knowing that it's raining", but for many cultures this isn't a relevant linguistic difference. e) The target language lacks a superordinate, but it has the specific words/hyponyms. f) The target language lacks hyponyms but it has the superordinate. g) Difference in physical or interpersonal perspective: it can be more important in one language than it is in another. It has to do with where things or people are in relation to one another or to a place. h) Difference in expressive meaning in the target language, even if it may have the same propositional meaning as the source-language. It is usually easier to add expressive meaning than to subtract it. If the target language is neutral compared to the source-language item, the translator can add the evaluative element by means of a modifier or adverb if necessary or by building it in somewhere else in the text. Differences in expressive meaning are usually more difficult to handle when the target language equivalent is more emotionally loaded than the source-language item. i) Differences in form: -certain affixes which convey propositional and other types of meaning in English may have no direct equivalent in other languages. - affixes which contribute to expressive or evoked meaning are more difficult to translate by means of paraphrase. Examples of different uses of affixes can be seen in advertisement. j) Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms. Even with the ready equivalent in the target language, there may be a difference in the frequency or purpose with/for which it is used. For instance, English use the -ing form more frequently than German or Danish, so, reporting with "-ing" too much in those language can seem wrong. k) Use of loan words. They're often used for their prestige value because they can add sophistication. When a loan word for many language (like "dilettante" in English and others) is not in a particular language, for instance Arabic, then it has to be translated and its stylistic effect has to be sacrificed. Loan words also propose the problem of false friends, often associated with historically or culturally related languages such as English, French, Spanish, German, but there are false friends even between totally unrelated languages, such as English and Russian and Japanese. Once a word is a loan in a language, its meaning can develop! It is neither possible nor desirable to reproduce every aspect of meaning for every word in a source text, but by explaining every meaning we can distract the reader. Strategies used by professional translators: a) Translation by a superordinate (a more general word) to overcome a lack of specificity in the target language b) Translation by a more neutral or less expressive word

c) Translation by a cultural substitution, that involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a target language item which doesn’t have the same propositional meaning but is likely to have a similar impact on the target reader d) Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation e) Translation by a paraphrase using unrelated words when a concept is not lexicalized at all in the target language: this achieves a high level of precision in specifying propositional meaning. In certain types of environment, such as subtitling, there are often severe restrictions on space that preclude the use of any strategy that involves this type of expansion. f) Translation by omission g) Translation by illustration CHAPTER III: Equivalence above word level Words rarely occur on their own: they almost always occur combined to convey meaning. There are some restrictions for example in word order. Lexical patterning: collocations and idioms and fixed expressions.

Collocation: Tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly in a given language (depend on propositional meaning). When 2 words collocate, the relationship can hold between all or several of their various forms: sometimes words collocate with other words in some of their forms, but not in others. Patterns of collocation are arbitrary and independent of meaning. Collocational range: the set of collocates. It can be limited or vast. It depends from: - its level of specificity (the more general a word, the broader its collocational range) - the number of senses it has (the word attracts different sets of collocates for each sense) Statements about collocations are made in terms of what is typical or untypical, rather than what is admissible or inadmissible. There is no such thing as an impossible collocation, because collocational ranges are not fixed: words attract new collocates all the time. Collocations which have a history of recurrence become a standard in linguistic repertoire. Collocations which have little or no history catch our attention and strike us as unusual. A marked collocation is an unusual combination of words. It’s often used in fiction, poetry, humour… because it can create unusual images and catch the reader’s attention. So, we create new collocations all the time. Collocation and register:

Collocational patterns are not always typical/untypical in relation to the language system as a whole. Some may seem untypical in some registers but are common in others. (dull highlights  Photography) Register-specific collocations extend far beyond the list of terms that one normally finds in specialized dictionaries and glossaries. Being a native speaker doesn’t automatically mean that we can see the acceptability or typicality of a register-specific collocation. Collocational meaning:

It’s disputable whether a word on its own can mean anything. Sometimes its meaning is explainable through collocations. Most of them have unique meanings, so what a word means often depends on its association with certain collocates (dry wine, dry voice, dry humour…).

Collocation-related problems in translation: It is possible that a collocation in the SL has a collocation in the TL as well. However, a translator might easily misinterpret a collocation in the ST due to the interference from the native language. A translator can decide to follow the accuracy or the naturalness, when translating a text, it is very difficult to achieve them both, because a right collocate in the TL can lose something in terms of meaning. Idioms and Fixed Expressions Collocations are usually very flexible, but idioms and fixed expressions are at the extreme end of the scale from collocations in one or both of flexibility of patterning and transparency of meaning. Unless the attempt is to make a joke, the speaker/writer cannot normally do any of the following With an idiom: 1) change the order of the words 2) delete a word 3) add a word 4) replace a word with another one 5) change the grammatical structure Fixed expressions and proverbs behave just like idioms, but they often have a transparent meaning, unlike idioms. A fixed expression evokes the typical context in which the expression is used. Main problems: the ability to recognize and interpret an idiom correctly and the difficulties involved in rendering the various aspects of meaning that an idiom or fixed expression conveys into the target language. First difficulty of a translator: being able to recognize an idiom. Generally speaking, the more difficult an expression is to understand and the less sense it makes in a given context, the more likely the translator will recognize it as an idiom. Two cases in which idioms can be easily misinterpreted: misleading idioms: they seem transparent because they offer a literal interpretation, but a large number of idioms in English have bot a literal and an idiomatic meaning. an idiom may have a very close counterpart in the target language which looks similar on the surface but has a totally or partially difference in meaning (English "the cat got your tongue" = exhortation to talk vs French "donner sa langue au chat" = give up) Difficulties in the translation: a. an idiom or f.e. may not have an equivalent in the target language they can be culturespecific, very difficult to translate; fixed formulae used in formal correspondence (Yours faithfully). b. an idiom or f.e. may have a similar counterpart but its context of use may be different. c. an idiom or f.e. may be used in the source text in both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time the play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the target text. d. the convention of using idioms in written discourse, the contexts and their frequency may be different in the target language. Strategies in the translation: a. using an idiom of similar meaning and form b. using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form c. borrowing the source language idiom d. translating by paraphrase (the most used) e. translating by omission of a play on idiom f. translating by omission of entire idiom

CHAPTER IV: Grammatical Equivalence Grammar is the set of rules which determines the way in which units of language can be combined and the kind of information that has to be made explicit in utterances. Grammar is organized in two main dimensions: Morphology: covers the structure of the words, the way in which the form of a word changes to indicate specific contrasts in the grammatical system. Syntax: covers the grammatical structure of sentences: the linear sequences of classes of words (noun, verb...) and functional elements (subject, object...). Grammatical structure differs from lexical structure for: - grammatical choices are obligatory, while lexical choices are optional - grammatical structure is also more resistant to change (it’s easier to introduce a new word than a new grammatical system) - grammatical rules are also more resistant to manipulation by speakers, a deviant grammatical structure may occasionally be accepted in very restricted contexts like poetry, to maintain the rhyme. Some languages have morphological resources for expressing a certain category such as number tense and gender, while others don’t. Differences in the grammatical structure of SL and TL often result in some change in information content of the message (adding or omitting something). a. Number: The idea of countability is probably universal, English expresses it morphologically (noun + s). A translator working from a language which has number distinctions into a language with no category of number can - omit the info related to number . - encode the information lexically. b. Gender: Is a grammatical distinction according to which a noun is classified either M or F (N). This distinction applies both to animate and to inanimate things. English doesn't have a grammatical category of gender: the gender distinction exists only in some semantic areas, like the third person singular, in the distinction of some feminine animals, in some works (actor-actress, In most languages the masculine form is considered dominant (in a "they", if there's even only one man, in French or Italian or other languages the masculine is used). If the sex is unknown also in this case prevails the masculine name.

c. Person: Notion of participants roles: The most common distinction is that between first, second and third person. 1st person: I, We  speaker or group of speakers 2nd person: You  person or persons addressed 3rd person: he, she, it they  person/s or thing/s other than the speaker and the addressed English doesn’t include a politeness dimension; some languages have a formality/politeness dimension where, in order to express deference or non-familiarity, the third person is used to address to a "you".

e. Tense and Aspect: Refer to rime relations and aspectual differences. Some languages may have fine distinctions in temporal location or distribution. Some languages have no formal category of tense and aspect: if necessary, time reference can be indicated by means of particles and adverbials. Tense and aspect distinction may also be additional and have a subtle meaning in the discourse: for example, in an academic paper I should use the present tense if I'm referring to what it's stated on the paper (indicative verbs), but I should use the past if I'm referring to what happened during the research on which the paper reports (informative verbs). e. Voice: The voice is a grammatical category which defines the relationship between verb and subject. Passive voice: influence on register, the subject is the affected entity, the agent may or may not be specified. Active voice: the subject is the agent responsible for the action Rendering an active structure into a passive structure and vice versa can affect the amount of information given. The passive structure is very common in English. Word order The meaning of sentences in English often depends entirely on the word order. Languages with an elaborate system of case inflection tend to have fewer restrictions on word order, that is largely a matter of stylistic variation. Word order is important in translation because it maintains a coherent point of view. Text = the verbal record of a communicative event. We must view the text as a whole. The phraseology and grammatical patterning may have to conform to target language norms, but the translation may sound clumsy or foreign or don't even make sense to the reader. A non-text is a random collection of sentences and paragraphs. These features of text organisation are culture specific. Translation: 1. Read the whole text 2. Understand the message 3. Produce an acceptable target version 4. Adapt phraseology, collocational and grammatical patterning of TL Aim Of a translator: achieve a measure of equivalence at text level rather than at word or phrase level. To achieve this the translator will need to adjust the source-text in line with preferred ways of o...