CHAPTER 3

Equivalence above word level

Part 1
Dr. Darin

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Equivalence above word level

• No book was ever turned from one language into another, without
imparting something of its native idiom; … single words may enter by
thousands, and the fabrick of the tongue continue the same, but new
phraseology changes much at once; it alters not the single stones of the
building, but the order of the columns.
(Samuel Johnson, Preface to the Dictionary, 1755:xii)
• much of what we say and write in our own language is both routine and
predictable because of what we and others have already said and
written. Routine is not a bad thing, however. It is what allows the
creative use of language to be identified as such.
(Kenny 1998:515)
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COLLOCATION
• Why do builders not produce a building or authors not invent a novel,
since they do invent stories and plots? No reason as far as dictionary
definitions of words are concerned. We don’t say it because we don’t
say it.
(Bolinger and Sears 1968:55)
• There are virtually no impossible collocations, but some are much
more likely than others.
(Sinclair 1966:411)

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COLLOCATION
• collocation under presupposed meaning and defined it tentatively as
‘semantically arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the
propositional meaning of a word’.
• Another way of looking at collocation would be to think of it in terms of the
tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly in a given language.
• cheque is more likely to occur with bank, pay, money and write than with
moon, butter, playground or repair.
• When butter or eggs go bad they are described in English as rancid and
addled, respectively.
• achieving aims, aims having been achieved, achievable aims and the
achievement of an aim are all equally acceptable and typical in English
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COLLOCATION

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Collocational range and collocational
markedness
• Every word in a language can be said to have a range of items with
which it is compatible, to a greater or lesser degree. Range here refers
to the set of collocates, that is other words, which are typically
associated with the word in question. Some words have a much
broader collocational range than others.
• shrug, for instance, has a rather limited collocational range. It typically
occurs with shoulders
• Run, by contrast, has a vast collocational range, some of its typical
collocates being company, business, show, car, stockings, tights, nose,
wild, debt, bill, river, course, water and colour, among others

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Collocational range and collocational
markedness
• Only people can be interred, but you can bury people, a treasure, your head,
face, feelings and memories.
• For example, in its sense of ‘manage’, the verb run collocates
with words like company, institution and business. In its sense of ‘operate or
provide’, it collocates with words like service and course.
• The difference between compulsive gambler and heavy gambler is that the
first is a common collocation in English, whereas the second represents an
attempt to extend the range of heavy to include heavy gambler, by analogy
with heavy smoker and heavy drinker.
• A marked collocation being an unusual combination of words, one that
challenges our expectations as hearers or readers
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Collocation and register
• Some collocations may seem untypical in everyday language but are
common in specific registers.
• In order to translate computer literature, a translator must, among
other things, be aware that in English computer texts, data may be
handled, extracted, processed, manipulated and retrieved, but not
typically shifted, treated, arranged or tackled.
• A translator of computer literature must also be familiar with the way
in which the equivalent of data is used in his or her corresponding
target texts, that is, with the set of collocates which are compatible
with the equivalent of data.

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 • Asked to explain what dry means, we are likely to think of
collocations such as dry clothes, dry river and dry weather,
which would prompt the definition ‘free from water’.

Collocation
al meaning

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Collocational meaning
• When the translation of a word or a stretch of language is criticized as
being inaccurate or inappropriate in a given context, the criticism may
refer to the translator’s inability to recognize a collocational pattern
with a unique meaning different from or exceeding the sum of the
meanings of its individual elements
• dry voice (emotion)
• run a car

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Some collocation-related pitfalls and problems in
translation
• 1 The engrossing effect of source text patterning
• Translators sometimes get quite engrossed in the source text and may
produce the oddest collocations in the target language for no
justifiable reason.
• Confusing source and target patterns is a pitfall that can easily be
avoided once the translator is alerted to the potential influence that
the collocational patterning of the source text can have on him or her.

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Some collocation-related pitfalls and problems in
translation
• 2 Misinterpreting the meaning of a source-language collocation
This happens when a source-language collocation appears to be
familiar because it corresponds in form to a common collocation in
the target language.
• 3 The tension between accuracy and naturalness
• In rendering unmarked source-language collocations into his or her
target language, a translator normally aims to produce a collocation
which is typical in the target language while preserving the meaning
associated with the source collocation

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Some collocation-related pitfalls and problems in
translation
• Translation often involves a tension – a difficult choice between what is
typical and what is accurate.
• On the other hand, it may be significant; for example, a good/bad law in
English is typically a ‘just/unjust law’ in Arabic.
• The significance of this difference in meaning depends on whether the
issue of ‘justice’ is in focus in a given text or whether the context favours
avoiding explicit reference to justice. Similarly, the nearest acceptable
collocation which can replace hard drink in Arabic is ‘alcoholic drink’
• But hard drink refers only to spirits in English, for example whisky, gin and
brandy

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Some collocation-related pitfalls and problems in
translation

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Some collocation-related pitfalls and problems in
translation

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Some collocation-related pitfalls and problems in
translation

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Some collocation-related pitfalls and problems in
translation

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 • 4 Culture-specific collocations
• Some collocations reflect the cultural setting in which they occur.
• The above extract is taken from an instruction leaflet

Some which accompanies a hair conditioner. Common

collocates of hair in English include dry, oily, damaged,
collocation- permed, fine, flyaway and brittle, among others. These
collocations reflect cultural reality in the English-
related speaking world. A large number of English speakers have
fine, flyaway hair, which also tends to be brittle.
pitfalls and Common collocates of ‘hair’ in Arabic are mainly ‘split-
ends’, ‘dry’, ‘oily’, ‘coarse’ and ‘smooth’.
problems in
translation

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 • Unusual combinations of words are sometimes used in the
source text in order to create new images
• Canada has chosen to ‘insert’ – the word is
alas in fashion! – its double cultural heritage in
its institutions and official translation is, as a
Marked consequence, solidly rooted there. (French
collocations
Translation)

in the
source text

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