A model to achieve communicative equivalence in translation dictionaries

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Bilingual dictionaries often do not satisfy the requirements of the dictionary users becausethey contain a relatively small percentage of articles displaying absolute equivalence betweenthe source and the target language. This impedes the users from retrieving the requiredinformation. Communicative equivalence is a relation holding between source and targetlanguage entries in translation dictionaries. A translation equivalent should not be seen as astatement about the meaning of the lemma, but it should be regarded as an item thatrepresents the target language and can be used to translate a specific occurrence of thesource language item. If semantic and communicative equivalence do not hold between thesource and the target language dictionary users will not be able to use the target languagesuccessfully. Instead of achieving communicative equivalence, the dictionary user is confusedand ends up using language in an unacceptable way. Relying on translation dictionaries toimprove their language skills and to learn more about the target language, dictionary usersoften come across haphazardly arranged articles in dictionaries that do not lead tocommunicative equivalence. In this case, the dictionary users are confused and end up usinglanguage in an unacceptable way.This thesis explores and investigates different ways to achieve communicative equivalence intranslation dictionaries. The research formulates some of the needed guidelines for thelexicographers of translation dictionaries. It intends to assist lexicographers to compile userorientedtranslation dictionaries that can foster multilingualism amongst the dictionary users.As a result of this research, lexicographers will be able to compile translation dictionaries thatwill assist dictionary users to achieve communicative success. These dictionaries willestablish semantic and communicative resemblance between the source and the targetlanguage forms. As a lexicographic problem, communicative equivalence is being addressedin the thesis and the researcher aims to make lexicographers aware of the mistakes intranslation dictionaries. The objective of the thesis is to help lexicographers with thecompilation of dictionaries where the users can achieve an optimal retrieval of information.The research focuses on metalexicographic issues in order to enhance the quality of practicallexicography. By doing so both the practical and theoretical lexicography can benefit from thisresearch.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University