Translation- unit 11a

Unit 11a
Collocations & Idioms
It Takes Two to Tango

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1) Translate the following sentences. Pay special attention
to the underlined expressions.

1. From time to time we have lunch at a fast food restaurant.

2. My next-door neighbour is a charming, middle-aged lady.
Now and then I have a cup of coffee with her. I always offer
to do the dishes but she won't let me.

3. They don't offer full board at a youth hostel, only bed and
breakfast, and if you want to take a shower, you have to wait in line.

4. A fire broke out while they were fast asleep. The cause of
the fire is unknown.

5. Youngsters are very prone to peer pressure and they often can't
make decisions on their own. The reason for this is not clear.

Some linguistic background 1 - collocations
"Michelle, ma belle
These are words that go together well."
(From 'Michelle' by the Beatles)

Collocations are fixed combinations of words which "go together well"
(e.g.'fast asleep'). A word collocates with (or does not collocate
with) another, e.g. 'dishes' collocates with 'do', not with 'make';
'reason' collocates with 'for', but not with 'of'.

Characteristics of a collocation:
a) No word can be inserted between the components of the collocation,
e.g. never 'peer and friends' pressure'.
b) The components can not be replaced by synonyms or by words of
similar meaning, e.g. 'make a decision', not 'do a decision'; 'a cup of
coffee', not 'a glass of coffee'.
c) The order of the parts is fixed, e.g. 'bed and breakfast' not
'breakfast and bed'.
d) There is a high degree of predictability, e.g. If you see 'now
and' you know 'then' will probably follow.

Collocation is vital to appropriacy. An unsuitable collocation
immediately jars the TL reader and renders the text 'translated'.

Note
Collocations need not have all the four characteristics
mentioned above. How collocations are formed and which of the four
characteristics apply is totally arbitrary.

2) Read the following passage.
a) Copy at least 10 collocations, and write the suitable Hebrew
collocation next to each.

ENGLISH COLLOCATION	HEBREW COLLOCATION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Addiction Many people are addicted to Westerns, and it's easy to see why. Westerns
are a kind of romanticised 'cops and robbers' with the sights and sounds
of the American Wild West - breathtaking scenery and authentic sound tracks.
Characters are drawn in black and white; as a matter of fact, it is crystal
clear from the very beginning who the good guys and who the bad guys are.
There is quite a lot of violence, and sometimes the bad guys are beaten black
and blue, but sooner or later they are caught, dead or alive, and there is
always a happy end.
Not a bad addiction.

b) Translate the passage. Pay special attention to the appropriacy
of the collocations in the TL.

of the collocations in the TL

3) Read the 5 texts below. Some of the underlined collocations are
metaphorical, while others are literal.

1. She's quite well off and always foots the bill when we eat out. Still,
I do think that at her age she should start saving for a rainy day.

2. She is a rising star on the tennis court. I only hope she doesn't
get cold feet just before the finals.

3. This birthday party at aunt Olga is a pain in the neck. Those old aunts
always rub me the wrong way. I'm so glad I have a doctor's appointment.

4. I would never have thought one could make a living in show business
but he seems to be doing very well. And with that girlfriend of his he's really
hit the jackpot.

5. He was deeply disappointed when he failed the test and didn't get his
driving license, but when he heard in the evening that six people had been
severely injured in a chain accident, he wasn't so sure that he was
ready to sit behind the wheel.

a) Copy 10 of the underlined items (2 from each text) in column 1 of the table.
If the collocation is also a metaphor, write a cross X in column II,
and then in column III (collocation + metaphor = idiom).

I COLLOCATION	II METAPHOR	III IDIOM
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

4) Translate the texts, trying to maintain the metaphorical aspect wherever possible.

1. She's quite well off and always foots the bill when we eat out. Still,
I do think that at her age she should start saving for a rainy day.

2. She is a rising star on the tennis court. I only hope she doesn't
get cold feet just before the finals.

3. This birthday party at aunt Olga is a pain in the neck. Those old aunts
always rub me the wrong way. I'm so glad I have a doctor's appointment.

4. I would never have thought one could make a living in show business
but he seems to be doing very well. And with that girlfriend of his he's really
hit the jackpot.

5. He was deeply disappointed when he failed the test and didn't get his
driving license, but when he heard in the evening that six people had been
severely injured in a chain accident, he wasn't so sure that he was
ready to sit behind the wheel.

Some linguistic background 2 - idiom
An idiom is a collocation which has at least 1 dead metaphor.
An idiom cannot be understood from the meaning of its separate words,
but must be treated as a whole, e.g. 'saving for a rainy day' (exercise 3,
sentence 1) is a metaphorical expression meaning 'keeping for hard
times'.
Characteristics of an idiom:
a) It is a collocation. (See the 4 characteristics above)
b) It is a metaphor.

Note
Like all metaphors, idioms can be translated in three ways:
1. by an equivalent idiom
2. by an idiom from a different semantic field
3. by a paraphrase.
(see Unit 9a, Some Linguistic Background 2)

To sum up
Appropriacy of a text depends primarily on collocating correctly. If
words are collocated incorrectly, the text reads like a translation
(רוקמה ומכ) and not like an original (רוקמ ומכ).
In most cases it is not difficult to find the suitable collocation in the
TL. When an expression is both a collocation and a metaphor, it
is an idiom and the translator should attempt to retain the metaphor
in order to convey the full flavour of the original text

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