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How to translate neologisms?

January 19 , 2022

How to translate neologisms?

by Target Language Translation Services

- January 19 2022

translation of the neologisms


Neologisms, i.e. newly coined expression, term, word, phrase, or new meanings of existing words of a language, pose one of the greatest translation challenges. Given the fact that a certain period of time must pass for the newly created words to be accepted into mainstream language, the translators will obviously not be able to find them in a dictionary, at least not for a while.


About neologisms

Neologisms probably emerge most frequently in literature, comedy TV shows and movies, where they are, above all, a product of author’s creativity. The Serbian language very much enables this kind of linguistic expression, for example, in the works of Laza Kostić, various one-time neologisms can be found, such as neodvaj (lit. inseparateness, “hug that a person does not want to be over”) or sevotina (lit. Fulguration, “flash of lightning”). The English language is also full of such neologisms which sometimes leave the TV screen and enter everyday language; for example, omnishambles (“a situation, especially a political one, that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations”) which originated from a satirical British TV show The Thick of It, and which was elected the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2012.


Different types of neologisms and their translation

Old Words With New Sense

Sometimes existing words are used with new sense. Old words with new senses tend to be non-cultural and nontechnical.

New Coinages

It is the creation of totally new words. Nowadays, the main new coinages are brand or trade names.

Derived Words

They designate scientific and technological terms.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations have always been a common type of pseudo-neologism, probably more common in French than in English, i.e. www=World Wide Web. Abbreviations and company/institution acronyms are transferred, with a descriptive explanation or note until they become widely known.

Collocations

New collocations (noun compounds or adjective plus noun) are particularly common in the social sciences and in computer language, i.e. lead time and cold-calling.

Eponyms

Eponyms are any word derived from a proper name, i.e. Hallidayan, Kinnairdians .

Phrasal Words

New “phrasal words” are restricted to English’s facility in converting verbs to Trade-off, check-out (dans, supermarkets).

Transferred Words

Newly transferred words keep only one sense of their foreign nationality; they are the words whose meanings are least dependent on their contexts. They are likely to be “media” or “product” rather than technological neologisms, i.e. Newly imported foodstuffs, clothes.

Acronyms

1.Acronyms are an increasingly common feature of all non-literary texts, for reasons of brevity. In science the letters are occasionally joined up and become internationalisms, i.e URL (pronounced “earl”) uniform resource locator.

Pseudo-Neologisms

The translator has to beware of pseudo-neologisms where, for instance, a generic word stands in for a specific word.

Some other types of neologisms

Scientific

Words or phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries such as prion.

Political

Words or phrases created to make some kind of political or rhetorical point, sometimes perhaps with an eye to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis such as pro-life. Some political neologisms, however, are intended to convey a negative point of view such as brutalitarian.

Pop-culture

Words or phrases evolved from mass media content or used to describe popular culture phenomena (these may be considered a subsection of slang) such as carb.

Imported

Words or phrases originating in another language. Typically they are used to express ideas that have no equivalent term in the native language such as tycoon.

Trademarks

Trademarks are often neologisms to ensure they are distinguished from other brands. If legal trademark protection is lost, the neologism may enter the language as a generalized trademark such as Kodak.

Nonce words

Words coined and used only for a particular occasion, usually for a special literary effect.

Inverted

Words that are derived from spelling (and pronouncing) a standard word backwards are called inverted such as redrum.

Paleologism

A word that is alleged to be a neologism but turns out to be a long-used (if obscure) word is called paleologism. It is used ironically.

Types of Neologism (By stability)

Unstable

Extremely new, being proposed, or being used only by a very small subculture.

Diffused

Having reached a significant audience, but not yet having gained acceptance.

Stable

Having gained recognizable and probably lasting acceptance.


Duty of a Translator

Neologisms usually goes hand in hand with the development of science, so the implementation of new neologisms should also go hand in hand with these developments.

However, this might be complicated for translators, because science and technology is advancing at such a fast rate that, by the time the information is gathered to create terminology databases or glossaries, their content could be obsolete.

Sometimes, because of this lack of appropriate translations for new terminology, language professionals will create their own vocabulary in order to excel in their specific field of expertise.

Meanwhile, translators will check if the word has already been translated, as well as if the new word will be useful to the target audience, i.e. if they will find it interesting, if it could become integrated in the language, if translating it would jeopardize the author’s style, etc.

Generally, translators will either leave a given term in the original language (which is usually English) or resort to using foreign words solely because they’re unable to find a better solution. They’re assuming, and hoping, that the professional who reads the translation will be familiar with English words.

Certainly, language professionals do have the option of explaining the term through a definition or explanation, but this is often not appropriate because, in many cases, this would make the translation too wordy, particularly in documents where specific technical terms are repeated over and over.

At the moment there’s no organization to standardize or regulate neologisms, and should the translator try to consult with a scientific or technical translation professional in search of an equivalent in the target language, they will usually be advised to keep the term in the original language. Translator usually has no real or reliable source for resolving these issues.

This is not really an ideal situation for translators because it does seem to undermine the richness of the language; however, it does seem that until some sort of consensus is reached on this issue, these terms should be left in the source language, which is generally English, or some sort of direct translation should be used.



This article is reprinted from BohatALA, BLEND and PROVERBUM DOO.

If there is a copyright, please inform us in time, we will delete it right the first time.

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