Problems of non-equivalence

1.      Common problems of non-equivalence

a.       Culture- specific concepts

The source-language word may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture

b.      The source-language concept is not lexicalized in the target language

The source-language word may express a concept which is known in target-language word to express it.

c.       The source-language word is semantically complex

Words do not have to be morphologically complex to be semantically complex.

d.      The source and target languages make different distinctions in meaning

The target language may make more or fewer distinctions in meaning than source language. What one language regards as an important distinction in meaning another language may not perceive as relevant.

e.       The target language lacks a superordinate

The target language may have specific words but no general word to head the semantic field.

f.       The target language lacks a specific term (hyponym)

More commonly, language tend to have general words (superordinates) but lack specific ones (hyponyms), since each language makes only those distinctions in meaning which seem relevant to its particular environment.

g.      Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Physical perspective may be of more importance in one language than it is in another.

h.      Differences in expressive meaning

The difference may be considerable or it may be subtle but important enough to pose a translation problem in a given context.

i.        Differences in form

Certain suffixes and prefixes which convey propositional and other types of meaning in English has many couplets such as employer/employee, trainer/ traince, and payer/payee.

j.        Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms

Even when a particular form does have a ready equivalent in the target language, there may be a difference in the frequency with it is used or the purpose for which it is used.

k.      The use of loan words in the source text

The use of loan words in the source text poses a special problem in translation quite apart from their respective propositional meaning, loan words such as au fait, chic, alfresco in English are often used for their prestige value, because they can add an air of sophistication to the text or its subject matter.