Common problems of non-equivalence

Question 1

Culture-specific concepts

Answer 1

SL concept totally unknown to the TC
(Privacy / speaker)

Question 2

SL concept not lexicalized in the TL

Answer 2

SL concept is known in TL but there is no designated word for it in TL
(savoury / standard)

Question 3

SL word semantically complex

Answer 3

one word that contains a world (arruçao >Portuguese for clearing the ground under coffee trees of rubbish and piling it in the middle of the row in order to aid the recovery of beans dropped during harvest).

Question 4

SL and ST make different distinctions in meaning

Answer 4

distinctions in meaning in one language may be perceived as irrelevant in another (Indonesian kehujanan (without knowing that is raining) and hujanhujanan (knowing that it is raining)

Question 5

TL lacks a superordinate

Answer 5

TL has specific words (hyponims) but not general word (superordinate) (facilities)

Question 6

TL lacks a hyponym

Answer 6

(Article: feature, survey, report, critique, commentary, review)

Question 7

Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Answer 7

• physical: where things or people are in relation to one another or to a place (come/go; take/bring)
• interpersonal: relationship between participants in the discourse (tenor)

Question 8

Differences in expressive meaning

Answer 8

when the TT word with the same propositional meaning has a different expressive meaning (homosexuality > shithuth jinsi = sexual perversion)

Question 9

Differences in form

Answer 9

no equivalent in TL for a particular form in ST (employer/employee)

Question 10

Differences in frequency and purpose

Answer 10

different frequency and purpose of using specific forms (-ing forms)

Question 11

Use of loan words in ST

Answer 11

(au fait / chic / alfresco)