From en.wikipedia.org:
[Loaned translation of an expression] [Literal translation] In linguistics, a
CALQUE ([k]) or LOAN TRANSLATION is a word or phrase borrowed from another
language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as
a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language
while translating its components, so as to create a new word or phrase
(lexeme) in the target language. For instance, the English word _skyscraper_
has been calqued in dozens of other languages,[1] combining words for "sky"
and "scrape" in each language, as for example [sv] in Swedish, [de] in German,
[pt] in Portuguese, [nl] in Dutch, [es] in Spanish, [it] in Italian, [tr] in
Turkish, [ru] in Russian, and _matenrō_ [ja] in Japanese.
Calques, like direct borrowings, often function as linguistic gap-fillers,
emerging when a language lacks existing vocabulary to express new ideas,
technologies, or objects. This phenomenon is widespread and is often
attributed to the shared conceptual frameworks across human languages.
Speakers of different languages tend to perceive the world through common
categories such as time, space, and quantity, making the translation of
concepts across languages both possible and natural.[2]
Calquing is distinct from phono-semantic matching: while calquing includes
semantic translation, it does not consist of phonetic matching—i.e., of
retaining the approximate sound of the borrowed word by matching it with a
similar-sounding pre-existing word or morpheme in the target language.[3]
Proving that a word is a calque sometimes requires more documentation than
does an untranslated loanword because, in some cases, a similar phrase might
have arisen in both languages independently. This is less likely to be the
case when the grammar of the proposed calque is quite different from that of
the borrowing language, or when the calque contains less obvious imagery.
** Types
One system classifies calques into five groups. This terminology is not
universal:[4]
- _Phraseological calques_ : idiomatic phrase s are translated word for word. For example, " it goes without saying " calques the French [fr] . [5]
- _Syntactic calques_ : syntactic function s or constructions of the source language are imitated in the target language, in violation of their meaning. For example, the use of "by" instead of "with" in the phrase "fine by me" is thought to have come from Yiddish [yi] , namely from the 1930s Yiddish Broadway musical song title Bei Mir Bistu Shein , [To Me You're Beautiful] . [6]
- _Loan-translations_ : words are translated morpheme by morpheme, or component by component, into another language.
- _Semantic calques_ (also known as _semantic loan s_ ): additional meanings of the source word are transferred to the word with the same primary meaning in the target language. As described below, the "computer mouse" was named in English for its resemblance to the animal; many other languages have extended their own native word for "mouse" to include the computer mouse.
- _Morphological calques_ : the inflection of a word is transferred. Some authors call this a _morpheme-by-morpheme translation_ . [7]
Some linguists refer to a _phonological calque_, in which the pronunciation of
a word is imitated in the other language.[8] For example, the English word
"radar" becomes the similar-sounding Chinese word [zh] ([c=]),<ref name=":0"
/> which literally means "to arrive (as fast) as thunder".
*** Partial
[Partial calques] [Loan blend] [Loanblend] Partial calques, or loan blends,
translate some parts of a compound but not others.[9] For example, the name of
the Irish digital television service [ga] is a partial calque of that of the
UK service "Freeview", translating the first half of the word from English to
Irish but leaving the second half unchanged. Other examples include
"liverwurst" (< German [de])[10] and "apple strudel" (< German [de]).[11]
*** Semantic
The "computer mouse" was named in English for its resemblance to the animal.
Many other languages use their word for "mouse" for the "computer mouse",
sometimes using a diminutive or, in Chinese, adding the word "cursor"
([zh-Hani]), making [cmn-latn] "mouse cursor" ([t=鼠標 ]).[date=October 2020]
Another example is the Spanish word _ratón_ that means both the animal and the
computer mouse.[12]
** Examples
{{Main list|List of calques }}
The common English phrase "flea market" is a loan translation of the French
[fr] ("market with fleas").[13] At least 22 other languages calque the French
expression directly or indirectly through another language.
The word _loanword_ is a calque of the German noun [de]. In contrast, the
term _calque_ is a loanword, from the French noun [fr] ("tracing, imitation,
close copy").[14]
Another example of a common morpheme-by-morpheme loan-translation is of the
English word "skyscraper", a kenning-like term which may be calqued using the
word for "sky" or "cloud" and the word, variously, for "scrape", "scratch",
"pierce", "sweep", "kiss", etc. At least 54 languages have their own versions
of the English word..
Some Germanic and Slavic languages derived their words for "translation" from
words meaning "carrying across" or "bringing across", calquing from the Latin
[la] or [la].[15]
The Latin weekday names came to be associated by ancient Germanic speakers
with their own gods following a practice known as [la]: the Latin "Day of
Mercury", [la] (later [fr] in modern French), was borrowed into Late
Proto-Germanic as the "Day of Wōđanaz" (_Wodanesdag_), which became [ang] in
Old English, then "Wednesday" in Modern English.[16]
** History
Since at least 1894, according to the [fr], the French term _calque_ has been
used in its linguistic sense, namely in a publication by Louis Duvau:[17]
{{Verse translation |lang=fra |Un autre phénomène d'hybridation est la
création dans une langue d'un mot nouveau, dérivé ou composé à l'aide
d'éléments existant déja dans cette langue, et ne se distinguant en rien par
l'aspect extérieur des mots plus anciens, mais qui, en fait, n'est que le
CALQUE d'un mot existant dans la langue maternelle de celui qui s'essaye à un
parler nouveau. [...] nous voulons rappeler seulement deux ou trois exemples
de ces CALQUES d'expressions, parmi les plus certains et les plus frappants.
|<!-- feel free to improve this translation --> Another phenomenon of
hybridization is the creation in a language of a new word, derived or composed
with the help of elements already existing in that language, and which is not
distinguished in any way by the external aspect of the older words, but which,
in fact, is only the COPY (_calque_) of a word existing in the mother tongue
of the one who tries out a new language. [...] we want to recall only two or
three examples of these COPIES (_calques_) of expressions, among the most
certain and the most striking.}}
Since at least 1926, the term _calque_ has been attested in English through a
publication by the linguist [Otakar Vočadlo]:[18]
[... ] such imitative forms are called [fr] (or [fr] ) by French philologists , and this is a frequent method in coining abstract terminology, whether nouns or verbs.
** See also
[colwidth=22em]
- Anglicism
- Chinese Pidgin English
- Cognate
- Gallicism
- Germanism
- Inkhorn term
- Loanword
- Metatypy
- Wasei-eigo
- Engrish [div col end]
** References
NOTES [Reflist]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Kasparek, Christopher. 1983. "The Translator's Endless Toil." _The Polish Review_ 28(2):83–87.
- Robb: German English Words (see http://germanenglishwords.com/)
- Zuckermann, Ghil'ad . 2003. _Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (see https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781403938695) _ . Palgrave Macmillan. [1-4039-1723-X]
- 2009. "Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns." (see http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf) _Journal of Language Contact_ (2):40–67.
** External links
[Wiktionary] [category=English calques]
- EtymOnline (see http://www.etymonline.com)
- Merriam Webster Online (see http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
[Clear] [Appropriation in the arts] [Authority control]
Category:Etymology
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