The aim of this essay is to identify and discuss possible solutions to problems regarding the translation of certain cultural references in blog columns by the American author Jeff Klima. More specifically, these cultural references are general cultural aspects, swear words and references to people. General cultural aspects include references to historical events, religious festivities, publications, cultural stereotypes and culturally based idioms. I use Vinay and Darbelnet’s strategies of direct and oblique translation, as well as Nida’s concepts of formal and dynamic equivalence. I also use Newmark’s strategies of semantic versus communicative translation, and Ingo’s adaption strategy. I find that there is no universal solution applicable to all types of culturally related issues in translation, but that every case is unique and requires a unique solution. What can be said, however, is that semantic translations and word-for-word translations are rarely applicable when it comes to cultural issues. True for all issues, however, is that the translator needs to be perfectly clear on what the author is saying and who the receiver, or target reader, is in order to begin to explore which strategy is best to use.

“Idiomatic” expressions, usually called “idioms”, such as a dime a dozen, a busman’s holiday, or to have bats in your belfry are a curious part of any language: they usually have a fixed lexical (why a busman?) and structural composition (only dime and dozen in direct conjunction mean ‘common, ordinary’), can be semantically obscure (why bats?), yet are widely recognized in the speech community, in spite of being so rare that only large corpora can provide us with access to sufficient empirical data on their use. In this compilation thesis, four published studies focusing on idioms in corpora are presented. Study 1 details the creation of and data in the author’s medium-sized corpus from 1999, the 3.7 million word Coll corpus of online university student newspapers, with comparisons to data from standard corpora of the time. Study 2 examines the extent to which recognized idioms are to be found in the Coll corpus and how they can be varied. Study 3 draws upon the British National Corpus and a series of British and American newspaper corpora to see how idioms may be “anchored” in their contexts, primarily by the device of premodification via an adjective appropriate to the context, not to the idiom. Study 4 examines idiom-usage patterns in the Time Magazine corpus, focusing on possible aspects of diachronic change over the near-century Time represents. The introductory compilation chapter places and discusses these studies in their contexts of contemporary idiom and corpus research; building on these studies, it provides two specific examples of potential ways forward in idiom research: an examination of the idioms used in a specific subgenre of newspapers (editorials), and a detailed suggestion for teachers about how to examine multiple facets of a specific modern idiom (the glass ceiling) in the classroom. Finally, a summing-up includes suggestions for further research, particularly at the level of the patterning of individual idioms, rather than treating them as a homogeneous phenomenon.

Abstract Language is a repertoire of culture and a powerful and versatile medium in communication. Idioms mirror human wisdom in the process of conceptualization of the world. Idioms have interlocked and grown into records of a community’s past culture. Idioms therefore constitute a rich, but at the same time elusive, area of cross-cultural exchanges. Idioms reflect the colour and variety of human social activities, and so play an important role in the linguistic ontologization of emotions. The vocabulary of emotions has been the object of intensive investigations in many languages, but bibliographical exploration reveals that idioms as a component of the lexicon are not yet part of the main field of theoretical interest. In particular, while there have been studies of idioms of emotion in English, there have been few on emotion idioms in Vietnamese, and very few systematic investigations of emotion idioms (EIs) across English and Vietnamese. Hence, our linguistic study of the conceptualization of emotions in English and Vietnamese will significantly contribute to the development of this research domain with data from a language other than English. The study undertakes a contrastive investigation of idioms that express the seven basic emotional concepts of HAPPINESS, SADNESS, ANGER, DISGUST, LOVE, FEAR, and DESIRE in English and Vietnamese. There are three foci: (1) similarities and differences in formal structure between the EIs in English and Vietnamese; (2) similarities and differences in semantics between such idioms; and (3) an investigation of the patterning and regularities of the established similarities and differences between the EIs in the two languages. To the end, we have conducted a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages, which has enabled the establishing of a corpus of 1065 entries (603 for English and 462 for Vietnamese). As regards the formal structure, the study sets up the lexicogrammatical frames for the canonical forms and variation patterns of the idioms, and interrelates quantitatively and quantitatively the relationship of the idioms’ variant form vis-à-vis the canonical form. In light of the findings, the study has shown that a high level of canonicity is observed in the idioms in both English and Vietnamese. In general, they conform to a restricted number of construction types: verbal, nominal, adjectival, prepositional, and sentential. Nevertheless, many other idioms permit variable flexibility in their composition: the substitutability of their component parts, insertion of lexical items, and some variation in syntactic patterning. For the idioms which are logged as canonical and variant, we have suggested rules to cover the patterns. As regards the semantic features of the idioms, the study is substantially reliant on the theory of conceptual metaphor (CMT) and metonymy, as first developed by Lakoff & Johnson (1980), to analyze the data. The data analysis leads to the discovery of conceptual mappings/correspondences from the various source domains on to the target domains of emotions, which are very productive of idioms. An in-depth analysis of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural aspects in the idioms is provided to determine similarities and differences in terms of conceptualization of the emotions between the two languages. The contrastive analysis of idioms reported in the traditional literature is usually the comparison of idioms with body-part terms: e.g., mát mặt (‘cool face’) ‘HAPPINESS’ in Vietnamese; lose one’s head in English, animals: e.g., gầm như hổ đói (‘roar like tiger hungry’); go ape ‘ANGER’, and colours: e.g., đỏ mặt tía tai (‘red face purple ear’); blue in the face ‘ANGER’. The present analysis seeks greater explanatory depth and theoretical grounding in the framework of cognitive linguistics. We present the semantic patterning of the idioms, and the patterning in turn reveals how English and Vietnamese people talk about and structure the abstract conceptual domains (i.e., emotions) (Gibbs & Wilson, 2002). In light of the findings, this research has revealed both commonalities and differences in the conceptualization of the emotions in English and Vietnamese. The affinities are grounded in common bodily experiences. On the other hand, cross-cultural variations are also obvious. The most important conclusion that can be drawn for the study is that metaphors and metonymies involved in emotion-expressing idioms are not only heavily subject to physiological basis (Solomon, 1984), but also to cultural influences on the basis of the cultural image schemas (Dobrovol'skij & Piirainen, 2006; Emanatian, 1995; Geeraerts & Grondelaers, 1995; Ungerer, 1993). The thesis also presents implications concerning the linguistic ontologization of emotions, and their application to second language learning and the translation of idioms.

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Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-01-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:40:26Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 riva_hc_dr_sjrp.pdf: 3489006 bytes, checksum: 128b9da7315540e9470166cd3cb7457c (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Dans cette recherche, essentiellement lexicographique, nous privilegions le langage cotidien pour proposer un modèle de dictionnaire d’expressions idiomatiques de la langue portugaise du Brésil, sous une perspective onomasiologique. Il est très important d’indiquer les relations analogiques ou synonymiques existantes entre de différentes expressions idiomatiques qui concernent un seul concept. Nous remarquons que malgré la similarité conceptuelle entre plusieurs expressions, celles-ci ont des nuances différenciatrices régies par l’usage. / Neste trabalho, de cunho essencialmente lexicográfico, privilegia-se a linguagem do dia-a-dia para propor um modelo de dicionário de expressões idiomáticas do português do Brasil, sob uma perspectiva onomasiológica. É extremamente importante indicar as relações analógicas ou sinonímicas existentes entre os diferentes idiomatismos que se referem a um mesmo conceito. Observa-se que, embora muitas expressões relacionadas a um mesmo conceito sejam basicamente sinônimas, os idiomatismos possuem nuanças diferenciadoras que regem seu uso. / In this work, with an essentially lexicographic feature, focused on the current language in order to present a model for a Brazilian Portuguese idiom dictionary from an onomasiologic view. It is extremely important to display the analogous or synonymy relations between the idioms which belong to the same fields. We were able to verify that, although many idioms subsumed under the same concept are basically synonyms, their use is governed by the nuances that distinguish them.

According to the standard definition phraseology deals with multi-word lexical units, i.e. word combinations. Voices claiming that even complex words composed of two or more meaningful units may qualify for the status of (lexical) phrasemes/idioms, especially when their meaning is non- compositional, are still very isolated, in spite of the fact that linguistic literature is teeming with references to idiomatic compounds and derivatives (Chap. 3). In fact, the only systematic treatment of lexical idioms seems to be that offered by Čermák (2007), who focuses primarily on lexical idioms in Czech. The aim of the thesis is therefore to explore the situation in English and attempt to develop a useful definition of, and especially criteria for, distinguishing lexical idioms from other complex lexemes and provide an outline of the main types of lexical idioms obtaining in English. After an introduction (Chap. 1) and the presentation of state-of-the-art approaches to phraseology and the relevant information about phraseological units and their features (Chap. 2), the thesis reviews Čermák's theory of lexical idioms which inspired their quantitative study in Czech (Chap. 4). The core part is the analysis of two samples. The first one, gathered from the BNC, includes a random selection of 1000 single-word...

The aim of this thesis is to approach and to outline the development of proverbs, idioms, and sayings in our territory, since their appearance in the translation of the Bible up to the present day, when they have been updated and modified. In the theoretical part we try to define the terminology on the basis of literature we have perused. The thesis also mentions the most important collectors of Czech proverbs (M. Červenka, J. Blahoslav, J. Dobrovský, F. L. Čelakovský, V. Flajšhans) and their paremiological works. The practical part presents the practical use of paremies. We have been working here with collected language material of journalistic and artistic functional texts. The thesis is supplemented by the results of the questionnaire investigation focused on the knowledge/ignorance, the understanding, and the use of these phrases in the present. In the end of this thesis there are additional attachments to some chapters (including synoptic tables with results of the survey, a demonstration of homework with phraseologisms, and the graphic representation of phraseologisms).

FundaÃÃo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Cearà / Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo geral investigar tÃticas e estratÃgias de compreensÃo de expressÃes idiomÃticas utilizadas por 20 estudantes universitÃrios africanos lusÃfonos, oriundos de Cabo Verde e GuinÃ-Bissau, falantes nÃo nativos do PortuguÃs Brasileiro (PB). Para a construÃÃo das hipÃteses da pesquisa, recorreu-se a teorias PsicolinguÃsticas do processamento fraseolÃgico, nomeadamente Bobrow e Bell (1973), Irujo(1986), Cacciari e Tabossi (1993), Flores dâArcais (1993), Cooper (1999), Crespo e Caceres (2006) e Detry (2010) e, no campo fraseolÃgico, Casares ([1950] 1969), Gross ( 1996); Corpas-Pastor (1996), IÃesta Mena e Pamies PertrÃn (2002), Mellado Blanco (2004), Montoro Del Arco (2006); GarcÃa-Page SÃnchez (2008); Olza Moreno (2011); Alvarado Ortega (2010) e Luque Nadal (2012). A partir de modelos de experimentos desenvolvidos por psicolinguistas foi elaborado e aplicado aos sujeitos da pesquisa um Protocolo Verbal think aloud atravÃs do qual foram realizados trÃs experimentos que contemplaram 18 expressÃes idiomÃticas de uso frequente no Brasil, divididas em trÃs categorias fraseolÃgicas: (1) zoomorfismos; (2) somatismos; e (3) Especiais (botanismos; indumentismos; gastronomismos). Os resultados da pesquisa confirmaram hipÃteses de que expressÃes que designam nomes de animais (zoomorfismos) e partes do corpo (somatismos) favorecem a idiomaticidade fraca (transparÃncia) por sua analisabilidade ou composicionalidade semÃntica, com exceÃÃo da expressÃo fazer boca de siri cuja palavra siri nÃo à encontrada no vocabulÃrio das lÃnguas crioulas (cabo-verdiana e guineense). Entre as expressÃes especiais, rasgar seda foi considerada opaca por os informantes desconheceram o sentido dado pelos brasileiros à expressÃo. Foi confirmada a hipÃtese de que estratÃgias relacionadas ao uso de contexto sÃo as mais utilizadas pelos nÃo nativos do PB, para chegar ao sentido das expressÃes. Os resultados apontam tambÃm que o processamento fraseolÃgico nÃo segue uma Ãnica direÃÃo ascendente (bottom-up) ou descendennte (top-down), mas que existe uma inter-relaÃÃo constante entre tÃticas e estratÃgias na compreensÃo das expressÃes idiomÃticas. / This research general objective was to investigate tactics and strategies of idiomatic comprehension used by 20 Lusophone African university students, from Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, non-native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP). For the construction of the research hypotheses, psycholinguistic theories of phraseological processing, such as the ones promoted by Bobrow and Bell (1973), Irujo (1986), Cacciari & Tabossi (1993), Flores d'Arcais (1993), Cooper (1999), Crespo and Caceres (2006) and Detry ( 2010) and, in the phraseological field, Casares (1950) 1969), Gross(1996); Corpas-Pastor (1996), IÃesta Mena and Pamies PertrÃn (2002), Mellado Blanco (2004), Montoro Del Arco (2006); GarcÃa-Page SÃnchez (2008); Olza Moreno (2011); Alvarado Ortega (2010) and Luque Nadal (2012). A verbal protocol think aloud through which were carried out three experiments that have contemplated 18 idiomatic expressions of frequent use in Brazil, divided into three phraseological categories was designed from models of experiments developed by psycholinguists was elaborated and applied to the subjects of the research: (1) zoomorphisms; (2) somatics: and (3) Special (botanics, clothins, gastronomic) results of the research have confirmed the hypotheses that expressions designate names of animals (zoomorphisms) and parts of the body (somatics) favored the weak idiomatic expression (transparency) by its semantical analysis or semantical compositionality, except for the mumâs the word (fazer boca de siri) which word siri is not found in the vocabulary of Creole languages (Cape Verdean and Guinean). Between the special expressions, fazer boca de siri was considered opaque since the informants have ignored the meaning given by Brazilians to the expression. It has confirmed a hypothesis that the strategies related to the use of context are the most commonly used by non-natives of PB, to reach at the meaning of the expressions. Among the special expressions, rasgar seda was considered opaque since the informants have ignored the meaning given by Brazilians to the expression. It has confirmed a hypothesis that the strategies related to the use of context are the most commonly used by non-natives of PB, to reach at the meaning of the expressions. The results also indicate that the phraseological processing does not follow a single upward direction (bottom-up) or downward (top-down), but that exist a constant inter-relationship between tactics and strategies in comprehension of idiomatic expressions.

Orientador: Claudia Thereza Guimarães de Lemos / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T08:59:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lodovici_FlaminiaManzanoMoreira_D.pdf: 632382 bytes, checksum: 219bf2f628c8e30507068fba919cc62f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este trabalho de investigação objetiva abordar a natureza da questão idiomática e a relação que, por meio dela, reclama reflexão: o jogo entre o universal do funcionamento lingüístico e as manifestações singulares de fala. A análise deixa ver que o idiomatismo é mesmo um fato de língua; resulta de um jogo combinatório no qual seu efeito de unidade se configura, e delimita-se no fluxo da fala "em ato". Não se pode propriamente prever seu sentido antes que ele se atualize numa determinada fala. A hipótese é a de que "expressões idiomáticas" se comportam como outras quaisquer no sistema: elas também estão sujeitas a operações de composição/ recomposição que renovam seu modo de fazer presença nos dizeres. Mesmo em se levando em consideração que sentidos relativos a enunciados idiomáticos podem se estabilizar no uso, o que importa é que estabilização não é sinônimo de fixidez. A investigação indica que essas "formas de significar" comportariam duplo sentido. A princípio, a tendência deste trabalho foi tomar essa característica como diferencial dos outros elementos da língua. Mas o que se impõe é reconhecer que esse é mesmo o destino de todo o dizer. Por fim, o idiomatismo exibe uma diferença, uma extravagância que parece vincular-se à sua natureza essencialmente metafórica que, por sua vez, responde pela produção de um, muitas vezes, inesperado efeito significativo / Abstract: The purpose of this study is to approach the nature of the idiomatic issue and the relation that requires reflexion: the play between the universal aspect of linguistic functioning and the unique manifestations of speech. This analysis allows you to see that idioms are actually a speech fact; they result from a combinatory play in which their unity effect is configured and bound in the speech flow in actu [en acte/in act]. Their meaning cannot be foreseen before they are materialized in a specific speech. The hypothesis is that ¿idiomatic expressions¿ behave like any others in the system: they are also subject to composition / recomposition operations which renew the manner in which they are present in the utterances. Even if we consider that senses concerning idiomatic utterances can be stabilized in usage, what really matters is that stabilization is not synonymous with immutability. Research shows that such forms of meaning attribution allow for double meaning. At first, this study was inclined to consider this as a distinguishing feature with respect to the other features of speech. But what must be acknowledged is that all utterances have the same fate. Finally, idioms show a difference, an extravagancy that seems to be linked to their essentially metaphorical nature which, in turn, is responsible for the production of a, very often, unexpected signifying effect / Doutorado / Linguistica / Doutor em Linguística

O presente trabalho é um estudo acerca do processo de compreensão do sentido das Expressões Idiomáticas (EIs) do espanhol por parte de aprendizes brasileiros adolescentes de espanhol como língua estrangeira (E/LE) à luz do Pensamento Complexo (MORIN, 2011) ou Complexidade, com base no modelo interpretativo de aquisição/aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras de Bruno (2006). Nesta pesquisa, foram aplicados dois testes de caráter qualitativo e experimental a aprendizes de um Centro de Estudos de Línguas do Estado de São Paulo, situado na cidade de São Paulo, de níveis com menos tempo de exposição à língua estrangeira (aproximadamente 240h/a), neste caso, o espanhol, e a aprendizes com mais tempo de exposição (a partir de 320h/a). Pedimos aos alunos que reformulassem em espanhol e em português dois enunciados na língua alvo, com uma EI verbal e com uma EI adverbial, respectivamente em diferentes momentos do curso. Os resultados revelam que nos dois testes há elementos linguísticos relevantes da língua meta no processo de compreensão do sentido da EI em espanhol, tal como, a forma apresentada que ativa aspectos gramaticais, semânticos e pragmático-discursivos bem próximos do que um falante nativo compreenderia, independente da faixa etária do aprendiz. Os dados também revelam que os gêneros discursivos e, mais especificamente, a cena enunciativa, são importantes nesse processo. No entanto, ao compararmos os dados, nota-se uma maior desestabilização no processamento destes por parte dos aprendizes ao terem contato com a EI adverbial. / The present job is a study about the process of comprehension of sense Spanish idioms for teenagers Brazilian apprentices of Spanish Foreign Language at light of Complex Thinking (MORIN, 2011) or Complexity, based on interpretative model of acquisition/learning of foreign languages from Bruno (2006). In this research, we applied two tests of qualitative and experimental character for apprentices of a public Centro de Estudos de Línguas from São Paulo State, situated in the city of São Paulo, with levels with less time of contact to the target language (about 240h/classes), in this case, Spanish Language, and for apprentices with more time of contact to this language (about 320h/classes). We asked to students that reformulate in Spanish and in Portuguese two enunciations in the target language, with a verbal idiom and a adverbial idiom, respectively, in different moments of the course. The results reveals that in the both tests there are important linguistics elements of the target language on the process of comprehension of the Spanish idioms sense, like the form presented that actives grammatical, active grammatical , semantic and pragmatic-discursive aspects closer than a native speaker would understand regardless of the age of the apprentice. The data also reveal that the genres, and more specifically, the scene enunciation are important in this process. However, when comparing the data, there is a greater destabilization processing those of apprentices to have contact with the adverbial EI.