CULTURAL

TRANSPOSITION
CALQUE-TRANSPLANTATION-BORROWING
Index
 Introduction
 Definitions
 Examples
Introduction
 Calque:

1. A calque is an expression that consists of TL words and

respects TL syntax, but is unidiomatic in the TL.
2. It is based on the structure of an SL expression.
 Examples:

‫اللي فات مات‬ What is past has died

‫يوم لك ويوم عليك‬ A day for you, a day against you
‫زاد الطين بلة‬ It increased the clay moistness
To make it clear that this is actually a proverb, the
translator should add an explanatory addition such as
‘You know the saying’: “A day for you, a day against
you”.
 Standardized calques:

Arabic into English:

Mother of battles :‫المعارك‬ ‫أم‬

English into Arabic:

Play a role: ‫لعب دورا‬

High quality: ‫عالي الجودة‬
Recycling: ‫إعادة تدوير‬
Non-violence: ‫العنف‬
 Cultural Transplantation:
The whole text is rewritten in target culture. The TL word is
not a literal equivalent but has similar cultural connotations
to some extent. It is another type of extreme but toward
target culture and the whole concept is transplanted in TL.
https://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1507.php

‘’cultural transplantation, whose extreme forms

are hardly translations at all, but more like
adaptations…’’
 Examples:

‘The Seven Samurai’ 1954

‘The Magnificent Seven’ 1960

Translating ‘’‫ ’’قيس وليلى‬as “Romeo and Juliet’’

Avoid exoticism and
cultural transplantation
in a normal translation
practice!
 Cultural Borrowing:

1. According to Sundqvist, S. (2011, p.8), borrowing refers

to “using the same word in the target text as in the source
text”.
2. In translation, cultural borrowing means to borrow words
from the source language that culturally do not exist in the
target language (Ivir's, 1987).
3. Borrowing refers to the case where a word or an
expression is taken from the SL and used in the TL, but in
a ‘naturalized’ form.
 Examples:
Cultural terms:
‘‫ ’فوطة‬can be borrowed from the ST and transliterated in
the TT as ‘futa’
A cultural borrowing of this kind might well be signaled by
the use of italics.
ex: futa was traditionally worn by women in Iraq.
 Cultural borrowing plus additional explanatory
material

‫واعترضت قلة منهم بحجة ان الهالل والنجمة في أمريكا‬

]...[ ‫«بدعة» تخالف االسالم‬
A few of them objected, on the grounds that
the American use of the Crescent and Star is
bid’a (‘innovation’, which Islam opposes) [...]
Standardized words

‘Imam’ ‘Allah’ ‘Sheikh’ ‘Intifada’

‫راديو‬ ‫سينما‬ ‫كمبيوتر‬