These transparencies show a brief explanation of the translation of neologisms.

1. THE TRANSLATION OF NEOLOGISMS
BY: MARÍA FERNANDA MENA SALCEDO

2. OLD NEW WORDS
 Existing words with new senses don’t refer to new objects or processes, so they are
rarely technological.
 There is rarely a single translation of a SL neologism, because there are different
types of readership: (1) expert, (2) educated generalize, who may require extra
explanation, (3) ignorant, who need linguistic, technical, and cultural explanations.
 Old words with new senses tend to be non-cultural and non-technical, they are
usually translated either by a word that already exists in the TL, or by a brief
descriptive or functional term.
 Existing collocations with new senses are a trap for translators., they may be cultural
or non-cultural, if the word exists in the TL, there is a recognized translation, if it
doesn’t exist or if TL speakers aren’t aware of it yet, the translator has to give an
economical descriptive equivalent.

3. COGNATES
 The main new cognates are Brand or trade names, such as: ‘Bisto’, ‘Bacardi’,
and are usually transferred unless the product is marketed in the TL culture
under another name, or it can be replace by a generic or functional term, if it
doesn’t have cultural significance.
 All phonemes are phonesthetic and have some kind of meaning, but the
etymology of many words (especially dialect words) isn’t known and it’s
difficult to relate them to meaningful sounds.
 If there is a word difficult to translate, English neologism derived from accepted
morphemes should be created, or deform a rare Word.

4. DERIVED WORDS
 The majority of neologisms are words derived by analogy from ancient
Greek and Latin morphemes, usually with suffixes such as: -ismus, -ismo,
etc., and naturalized in the appropriate language.
 With all derived words, we have to distinguish between ecosysteme and
ecotone that have a solid referential basis, and fulfill the conditions of
internationalisms.

5. ABBREVIATIONS AND EPONYMS
Abbreviations
Have always been a
common type of
pseudo-neologism,
more common in
French tan in English
Examples: PC
(personal computer),
PA (personal assistant),
ASAP (as son as
possible)
Eponyms
Any word from a
proper name (include
toponyms), when the
refer to the person.
Translate without
difficulty, but if it
refers to the referent’s
ideas the translator
should add
explanations.If they are derived
from objects, they are
usually Brand names,
and can be transferred
only if they are equally

6. COLLOCATIONS
 The essence of a collocation is that at least one of the collocates moves from
its primary to a secondary sense, therefore, literal translations are usually not
possible.
 New collocations (noun compounds or adjective plus noun), are common in
the social sciences and in computer language.
 Computer terms are given their recognized translation, and if they don’t exist,
you should transfer them and add a functional descriptive term, you can’t
devise your own neologism.
 English collocations are difficult to translate succinctly. An acceptable term
emerges only when the referent becomes so important that a more or less
lengthy functional descriptive term won’t longer do.
 Non-British collocations are easier to translate as they are less arbitrarily.

7. PHRASAL WORDS AND TRANSFERRED WORDS
Phrasal words
- New ‘phrasal words’ are restricted to
English’s facility in converting verbs to
nouns, i.e. ‘work-out’, ‘check out’.
- Phrasal words are often more economical
tan their translation, and that they usually
occupy the peculiarly English register
between ‘informal’ and ‘colloquial’, so their
translations are more formal.
Transferred words
- They are words whose meanings are least
dependent on their context, new
transferred words keep only one sense of
their foreign nationality.
- They are likely to be ‘media’ or ‘product’
instead of technological neologisms.
-They may be common to several
languages due to the power of media,

8. ACRONYMS AND PSEUDO-NEOLOGISMS
Acronyms Are an increasingly common feature
of all non-literary texts, for reasons of
brevity or euphony.
In science, the letters are joined up
and become internationalisms,
requiring analysis only for less
educated TL readership.
In translation there is either a
standard equivalent for an acronym,
or a descriptive term, when they are
from institutions they’re often
transferred. i.e. ‘UNESCO’
Pseudo-
neologisms
Translators have to be aware of pseudo-
neologisms where, for example, a generic Word
stands in for a specific word.
The translators’ responsibility is to see that the mental and
the material world that is inhabited by people should be
accurately and economically reflected in language.

9. REFERENCE
 Peter Newmark, “A Textbook of Translation”, 1987