EQUIVALENCE ABOVE WORD LEVEL

1.      Collocation

Why do builders not produce a building or authors not invent a novel, since they do invent stories and plots? No reason as far as dictionary definitions of words is concerned. We don’t say it because we don’t say it. (Bolinger and Sears,1968:55)

At one level,the tendency of certain words to co-occur has to do with their propositional meanings. For  example,cheque is more likely to occur  with bank,pay, mone and write than with moon,butter,playground or repair. However, meaning cannot always cannot account for collocation patterning. Words which we might think of as synonyms or near-synonyms will often have quite different sets of collocates. English speakers typically break rules but they do not break regulations; they typically talk of washing time but not of squandering time.

Indonesian speakers typically say lampu mati, and they do not say lampu meninggal, lampu wafat, or lampu tewas.

a.       Collacational range and collacational markedness.

Range here refers to of set collacates, that is other word, which are typically associated with the word in question some word have a much broader collocational range than the others. The English verb shrug, for instance, has a rather limited collocational range. It typically occurs with shoulders and does not have a particularly strong link with any other word in the language.

Marked collocations are often used in fiction, poetry, humour, and advertisements precisely for this reason. Because they can create unusual images, produce laughter and catch the reader’s attention.

b.      Collacational and register

Register- specific collocations are not simply the set of terms that go with discipline. They extend far beyond the list of terms  that one normally finds  in specialized dictionaries and glossaries. It is not enough, for instance, to know that data in computer language forms part of compound terms such as data processing and data bank and to become familiar with the dictionary equivalents of such terms in the target language.

c.       Collacational meaning

If we want to know what the dry meaning, we might to think of collocations such as dry clothes, dry river, and dry weather, which would prompt the definition ‘from free water’. As we move away from the most common collocations of dry, it becomes clear that the meaning of the dry depends largely  on its patters of collocations and is not something that the word possesses in isolation. This suggests that what a word means often depends on its association with certain collocates.

d.      Some collacational related pitfalls and problem in translation

·         The engrossing effect of source text patterning

·         Misinterpretting the meaning of a source-language colloction

·         The tension between accuracy and naturalness

·         Culture-specific collocations

·         Marked collocations in the source text

2.      Idioms And Fixed Expressions

Idioms and fixed expression are at the extreme  and of the scale from collacation in one  or both of these areas: flexibility of patterning and transparency of meaning. Such as dry cow, dry is free of water and cow is a mamalia. But the true meaning of dry cow is a cow which does not produce the milk.

The majority of translator working into a foreign language cannot to activ the same sentivity that native speakers seem to have for judgeing when and how an idiom can be manipulated. This lends support to the argument the translator should only work into their language of habitual use of mother tongue. The code of Professional Etnich of the Translator Guild of Great Britian state.

a)      The interpretation of idioms.

There are various type of idioms, some more easily recognizeble than others. Those which are easily recognizeble include expressions which violate truth conditions, such as ; it’s raining and dog, trhow caution to the winds, stroman a tea cup, jump down someones truth, and food for thougts. They also include expression wich seem ill-format because they do not follow the grammatical rules of the language for example : trip the light fantastic, blow someone to kingdom come, put pay to, the power that be, by and large and the world and his friend. Provided a translator has access to good references work and mono lingual dictionaries of idiom, or, better still, is able to consult native speaker of language.

·         The translation of idioms difficulties

Involved in translating an idiom are totally differences from those involved in interpreting it. The main difficulties involved translating idioms and fixed expressions may be summerized as follow;

a.       An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target language

b.      An idiom or fixed language may have a similar counterpart in the target language, but its context of use may be different; the two expressions may be pragmatically transferable

c.        An idioms may be used in the source text in both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time.

·         The translation idioms  : strategies

The way in which an idiom or a fixed expressions can be translated into another language depend on many factor. Others factors include for example the significanes of the speciic lexical item with constituate the idiom.

a.       Using an idiom of similar meaning and form

b.      Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form

c.       Translation by paraphrase

d.      Itranslation by omission

     Conclusion

collocation is semantically arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of word. Another of looking at collocation would be to think of it in terms of the tendency of certain words to co-occur regularly in a given language.

Idioms and fixed expressions are at the extreme end of the scale from collocations in one or both of these areas; flexibility of patterning and transparensy  of meaning.