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Calque

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In linguistics, a calque (pronounced /kælk/) or loan translation is a phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word translation. For example, in some dialects of French, the English term "weekend" becomes la fin de semaine ("the end of week"), a calque, but in some it is left untranslated as le week-end, a loanword. "Loan translation" is itself a calque of German Lehnübersetzung.

The word is also used as a verb: to calque means to loan translate from another language to create a new lexeme in the target language. Calque itself is a loanword (French noun) and comes from the verb calquer (copier), "to copy."

[edit] English

[edit] Calques from Chinese

[edit] Calques from French

[edit] Calques from German

[edit] Calques from Italian

  • English side-sword calques Italian spada da lato, referring to a versatile one-handed sword of 16th and 17th century Europe.

[edit] Calques from Latin

  • English commonplace calques Latin locus commūnis (referring to a generally applicable literary passage), which itself is a calque of Greek koinos topos[12]
  • English devil's advocate calques Latin advocātus diabolī, referring to an official appointed to present arguments against a proposed canonization or beatification in the Catholic Church[13]
  • English wisdom tooth calques Latin dēns sapientiae[14]
  • English Milky Way calques Latin via lactea[15]
  • English in a nutshell calques Latin in nuce
  • English foot in the sense of a unit of metrical verse (e.g. in the fourth foot of the verse...) calques Latin pes which is used in both senses; the transferred use in Latin is itself a calque on Greek pous.
  • English Adam's apple calques Latin pomum Adami
  • English forgive, Dutch vergeven and German vergeben partially calques Latin perdonare.

[edit] Calques from Greek

  • English gospel calques Greek evangelion (good news)[16]

[edit] Calques from Spanish

  • English blue-blood calques Spanish sangre azul[17]
  • English moment of truth calques Spanish el momento de la verdad. This originally referred to the time of the final sword-thrust in a bullfight.[18]

[edit] Calques from Gaelic

[edit] Latin

  • Latin compassio calques Greek sympathy (lat: suffering with, gre: suffering together)
  • Latin insectus calques Greek entomos

[edit] Romance Languages

Examples of Romance language expressions calqued from foreign languages include:

  • French lune de miel, Catalan lluna de mel, Spanish luna de miel, Portuguese lua-de-mel and Italian luna di miele calque English honeymoon
  • French gratte-ciel, Catalan gratacels, Spanish rascacielos, Portuguese arranha-céus and Italian grattacielo calque English skyscraper
  • French sabot de Denver calques English Denver boot
  • French jardin d'enfants, Spanish jardín de infancia and Portuguese Jardim de infância calque German Kindergarten

[edit] French

  • French courriel (contraction of courrier électronique) calques English email (electronic mail)
  • French disque dur calques English hard disk
  • French en ligne calques English online
  • French haute résolution calques English high resolution
  • French disque compact calques English compact disc
  • French haute fidélité calques English hi-fi (high fidelity)
  • French large bande calques English broadband
  • French modulation de fréquence calques English frequency modulation (FM)
  • French média de masse calques English mass media
  • French carnet de route calques English roadbook (unless it is the opposite)
  • French surhomme calques German Übermensch (Nietzsche's concept)
  • French OVNI (Objet Volant Non Identifié) calques English UFO (Unidentified Flying Object)

[edit] Spanish

Many calques found in Spanish, especially in Southwestern Spanish or Spanish of the United States, come from English:

  • Spanish escuela alta calques English high school (colegio or escuela secundaria in Standard Spanish)
  • Spanish grado (de escuela) calques English grade (school) (nivel in Standard Spanish)
  • Spanish colegio calques English college (universidad in Standard Spanish)
  • Spanish librería calques English library (biblioteca in Standard Spanish; librería in Standard Spanish means bookshop)

See also: Spanglish.

In addition, technological terms calqued from English are used throughout the Spanish-speaking world:

  • Spanish tarjeta de crédito calques English credit card
  • Spanish alta tecnología calques English high tech (high technology)
  • Spanish disco compacto calques English CD (Compact Disk)
  • Spanish correo electrónico calques English email (electronic mail)
  • Spanish resolución alta calques English high resolution
  • Spanish enlace calques English link (internet)
  • Spanish sitio web calques English web site
  • Spanish página web calques English web page
  • Spanish ratón calques English mouse (computer)

[edit] Afrikaans and Dutch

  • Afrikaans aartappel and Dutch aardappel calque French pomme de terre
  • Afrikaans besigheid calques English business
  • Afrikaans e-pos calques English e-mail
  • Afrikaans hardeskyf and Dutch harde schijf calque English hard disk
  • Afrikaans klankbaan calques English sound track
  • Afrikaans kleurskuifie calques English colour slide
  • Afrikaans pynappel calques English pineapple calques French pomme de pin
  • Afrikaans sleutelbord calques English keyboard
  • Afrikaans tuisblad calques English homepage
  • Afrikaans wolkekrabber and Dutch wolkenkrabber calque English skyscraper

[edit] Finnish

  • Germanic passive agent marker — There is no passive voice in Finnish, but an impersonal, where the agent is never mentioned. Due to the influence of Germanic languages, the word toimesta "from the action" has been constructed in order to mention the agent, i.e. to function like the word "by". (It is impossible to translate the word "by" itself, because there is no direct equivalent.) For example, "Lentokonetta lennetään ohjaajan toimesta", approximately "The plane is being flown, from the action of the pilot." This is grammatically incorrect, but used abundantly in legal documents and sloppy translations.
  • Swedish future marker kommer att or German werden calqued as tulla + (verb in third infinitive illative) — There is no future tense in Finnish, and the calque is produced by translation from Swedish and German. Note that the verb tulla takes up the inflection, and is to be placed into the appropriate tense and person. The calque corresponds to English "is going". For example, tullaan muuttamaan "is going to be changed". This is considered incorrect grammar, but perfectly understandable and found in translations, political speech and even in legal documents.
  • English you-impersonal calqued; e.g. sä et elä jos sä et syö is word-for-word "you don't live if you don't eat", unlike the native Syömättä ei elä. Note that this phenomenon is not always traceable to English.

Since Finnish, a Finno-Ugric language, differs radically in pronunciation and orthography from Indo-European languages, most loans adopted in Finnish either are calques or soon become such. Examples include:

  • from Greek: sarvikuono (rhinoceros, from Greek "rinokeros"),
  • from Latin: viisaudenhammas (wisdom tooth, from Latin "dens sapientiae"),
  • from English: kovalevy (English "hard disk"),
  • from French: kirpputori (flea market, French "marché aux puces"),
  • from German: lastentarha (German "Kindergarten"),
  • from German: panssarivaunu (German "Panzerwagen"),
  • from Swedish: moottoritie (highway, from Swedish "motorväg"),
  • from Chinese: aivopesu (brainwash, from Chinese "xi nao"),
  • from Spanish: siniverinen (blue-blooded, from Spanish "de sangre azul")

[edit] Russian

  • from French: влияние (French "influence")
  • from French: впечатление (impression)
  • from Latin: насекомое (insect, from Latin "insectum")
  • from German: полуостров (peninsula, from German "Halbinsel")
  • from French: трогать (verb "touch" as semantic calque in meaning of "touching the emotions")
  • from Latin: современный (contemporary, from Latin "contemporarius")

[edit] Ukrainian

  • from Russian: велике спасибі "velyke spasybi" (a big thank you, Russian большое спасибо "bol'shoe spasibo")
  • from Russian: необхідний "neobxidnyj" (necessary, Russian необходимый "neobxodimyj")

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Novotnà, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No.35 (1967), pp.613-648. (In English: examples of loan words and calques in Chinese)
  • Novotnà, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No.36 (1968), pp.295-325. (In English: examples of loan words and calques in Chinese)
  • Novotnà, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No.37 (1969), pp.48-75. (In English: examples of loan words and calques in Chinese)

[edit] External links

es:Calco semántico eo:Paŭso fr:Calque (linguistique) ja:翻訳借用 nl:Leenvertaling pl:Kalka (językoznawstwo) ru:Калька (лексика)

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