In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, a calque () or loan translation is a
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...
or
phrase
In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
borrowed from another language by
literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components, so as to create a new
lexeme
A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken ...
in the target language. For instance, the English word "skyscraper" was calqued in dozens of other languages. Another notable example is the Latin weekday names, which came to be associated by ancient Germanic speakers with their own gods following a practice known as ''
interpretatio germanica
Interpretatio germanica is the practice by the Germanic peoples of identifying Roman gods with the names of Germanic deities. According to Rudolf Simek, this occurred around the 1st century AD, when both cultures came into closer contact.
Names o ...
'': the Latin "Day of
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
", ''Mercurii dies'' (later "mercredi" in modern
French), was borrowed into
Late Proto-Germanic as the "Day of
Wōđanaz" (*''Wodanesdag''), which became ''Wōdnesdæg'' in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, then "Wednesday" in Modern English.
The term ''calque'' itself is a
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
from the French
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
("tracing, imitation, close copy"), while the word ''loanword'' is a calque of the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
noun ''Lehnwort''. Calquing is distinct from
phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with Phonetics, phonetically and semantically similar words or ...
: while calquing includes
semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
, it does not consist of
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
matching—i.e., of retaining the approximate
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
of the borrowed word by matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existing word or
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
in the target language.
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.
* ''Phraseological calques'':
idiomatic phrase
An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language ...
s are translated word for word. For example, "
it goes without saying
''It Goes Without Saying'' is the only studio album by the British band the Dum Dums, released in the United Kingdom on 18 September 2000.
Reception
Track listing
# "The Kind Of Day I've Had"
# "Everything"
# "Caught Me in a Trap"
# "Until M ...
" calques the French .
* ''Syntactic calques'':
syntactic function
In linguistics, grammatical relations (also called grammatical functions, grammatical roles, or syntactic functions) are functional relationships between constituents in a clause. The standard examples of grammatical functions from traditional gra ...
s or constructions of the source language are imitated in the target language, in violation of their meaning.
* ''Loan-translations'': words are translated
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
by morpheme, or component by component, into another language.
* ''Semantic calques'' (also known as ''
semantic loan
A semantic loan is a process of borrowing semantic meaning (rather than lexical items) from another language, very similar to the formation of calques. In this case, however, the complete word in the borrowing language already exists; the change i ...
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
A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth c ...
" 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
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
of a word is transferred. Some authors call this a ''morpheme-by-morpheme translation''.
[Gilliot, Claude. "The Authorship of the Qur'ān." In ''The Qur'an in its Historical Context'', edited by G. S. Reynolds. p. 97.]
Some linguists refer to a ''phonological calque'', in which the pronunciation of a word is imitated in the other language.
[Yihua, Zhang, and Guo Qiping. 2010. "An Ideal Specialised Lexicography for Learners in China based on English-Chinese Specialised Dictionaries." Pp. 171–92 in ]
Specialised Dictionaries for Learners
', edited by P. A. F. Olivera. Berlin: de Gruyter
p. 187
For example, the English word "radar" becomes the similar-sounding Chinese word (),
which literally means "to arrive (as fast) as thunder".
Partial
Partial calques, or loan blends, translate some parts of a compound but not others. For example, the name of the Irish digital television service "
Saorview
Saorview ( ) is the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) service in Ireland. It is owned by RTÉ and operated by 2RN.
The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with a full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation i ...
" is a partial calque of that of the UK service "
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
", translating the first half of the word from English to Irish but leaving the second half unchanged. Other examples include "
liverwurst
Liverwurst, leberwurst, or liver sausage is a kind of sausage made from liver. It is eaten in many parts of Europe, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Polan ...
" (< German ) and "
apple strudel
Apple strudel (german: Apfelstrudel; cz, štrúdl; Yiddish: שטרודל) is a traditional Viennese strudel, a popular pastry in Austria, Bavaria, the Czech Republic, Northern Italy, Slovenia, and other countries in Europe that once belonged to ...
" (< German ).
Semantic
The "
computer mouse
A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth c ...
" was named in English for its resemblance to the
animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...
. Many other languages use their word for "mouse" for the "computer mouse", sometimes using a
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
or, in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
, adding the word "
cursor
Cursor may refer to:
* Cursor (user interface), an indicator used to show the current position for user interaction on a computer monitor or other display device
* Cursor (databases), a control structure that enables traversal over the records in ...
" (标), making ''shǔbiāo'' "mouse cursor" ().. At least 35 languages have their own versions of the English term.
Examples
The common English phrase "
flea market
A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...
" is a loan translation of the French ("market of fleas").
At least 22 other languages calque the French expression directly or indirectly through another language.
Another example of a common morpheme-by-morpheme loan-translation, is of the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
word "
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
", which may be calqued using the word for "sky" or "cloud" and the word, variously, for "scraping", "scratching", "piercing", "sweeping", "kissing", etc. At least 54 languages have their own versions of the English word.
Some
Germanic and
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
derived their words for "translation" from words meaning "carrying across" or "bringing across", calquing from the Latin or .
History
Since at least 1894, according to
TLFi, the
French term ''calque'' has been used in its
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
sense, namely in a publication by Louis Duvau, quote:
: ''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.''
: 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
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, quote:
:
..Such imitative forms are called ''calques'' (or ''décalques'') by French
philologists
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
, and this is a frequent method in coining abstract terminology, whether nouns or verbs.
See also
*
Anglicism
An anglicism is a word or construction borrowed from English by another language.
With the rise in Anglophone media and the global spread of British and US cultures in the 20th and 21st centuries, many English terms have become widespread in o ...
*
Chinese Pidgin English
Chinese Pidgin English (also called Chinese Coastal English or Pigeon English; ) is a pidgin language lexically based on English, but influenced by a Chinese substratum. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also Chinese Pidgin Englis ...
*
Cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
*
Gallicism
A Gallicism can be:
* a mode of speech peculiar to the French;
* a French idiom;
* in general, a French mode or custom.
* a loanword, word or phrase borrowed from French.
See also
* Francization
* Franglais
* Gallic (disambiguation)
* Gallican ...
*
Germanism
*
Inkhorn term
An inkhorn term is a loanword, or a word coined from existing roots, which is deemed to be unnecessary or overly pretentious.
Etymology
An inkhorn is an inkwell made of horn. It was an important item for many scholars, which soon became symb ...
*
Loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
*
Metatypy
*
Semantic loan
A semantic loan is a process of borrowing semantic meaning (rather than lexical items) from another language, very similar to the formation of calques. In this case, however, the complete word in the borrowing language already exists; the change i ...
*
Translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
*
Wasei-eigo
are Japanese-language expressions based on English words, or parts of word combinations, that do not exist in standard English or whose meanings differ from the words from which they were derived. Linguistics classifies them as pseudo-loanwords ...
*
Engrish
''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of Japanese, as well as Chinese and other Asian languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to s ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
Kasparek, Christopher. 1983. "The Translator's Endless Toil." ''
The Polish Review
''The Polish Review'' is an English-language academic journal published quarterly in New York City by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. ''The Polish Review'' was established in 1956.
Editors-in-chief
The following persons hav ...
'' 28(2):83–87.
Robb: German English Words germanenglishwords.com*
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad. 2003.
Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew'. Palgrave Macmillan.
* —— 2009
"Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns."''Journal of Language Contact'' (2):40–67.
External links
EtymOnlineMerriam Webster Online
{{Authority control
Etymology
sv:Lånord#Översättninglån