MA in Translation speech of the thesis: "Translation of Collocations and Idioms from English to French" delivered at the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities at Manouba University on August 12, 2016

1. TRANSLATION OF COLLOCATIONS AND
IDIOMS FROM ENGLISH TO FRENCH
Student: Salah Mhamdi
Supervisor: Dr. Monia Hammami
Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities
University of Manouba
12 August 2016

2. Aims
• Explore the types of collocations especially
longer ones
• Devise the rules for the translation of
collocations from English to French
• State the strategies of translating collocations
and idioms
• Analyze the problems of translating
collocations and idioms
2

3. What is a Collocation
• J. R. Firth came up with the term “collocation”
• Other names:
• W. Porzig “inherent semantic relation”
• E. Coseriu “lexical solidarities”
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4. • The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics:
“a relation within a syntactic unit between
individual lexical elements”
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5. Examples of Collocations
• Porzig “blond” and “hair”
“blond hair”
 “a blond door” or “blond dress”
• Halliday (1966: 150) “strong” and “tea”
“strong tea”
 “powerful tea”
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6. Structures of Collocations
• Collocations grammatical
lexical
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7. What is a Grammatical Collocation
• Benson, M. (1986): “a dominant word (verb,
noun, adjective) followed by a grammatical
word, typically a preposition”
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8. Types of Grammatical Collocations
• Verb + Preposition Collocations (Prepositional
Verbs)
• Noun + Preposition Collocations
• Adjective + Preposition Collocations
• Verb + Participle Collocations (Phrasal Verbs)
• Preposition + Noun Collocations
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9. Verb + Preposition collocations
• Verb + Preposition Verb
Verb + Preposition
“listen to” “écouter”
“look after” “s'occuper de”
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10. Noun + Preposition Collocations
• Noun + Preposition Noun + Preposition
“access to” “accès à”
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11. Structures of Lexical Collocations
• Adjective + Noun Collocations
• Verb + Noun Collocations
• Noun + Noun Collocations
• Noun + Noun Collocations (the of genitive
collocations)
• Noun + And + Noun Collocations
• Adjective + Adjective Collocations
• Adverb + Adjective Collocations
• Adverb + Adverb Collocations
• Adverb + Verb Collocations
• Other Structures 11

12. Adjective + Noun Collocations
• Adjective + Noun Noun + Adjective
“strong recovery” “redressement fort”
• In English, adjectives are usually placed before
nouns but in French adjectives are usually
placed after nouns
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13. Verb + Noun Collocations
• Verb + Noun Verb + Noun
“score a victory” “mener une victoire”
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14. Noun + Noun Collocations
• Noun + Noun Noun + of + Noun
“brainstorming session” "séance de
brainstorming"
“remue-méninges“ is an equivalent for
“brainstorming
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15. Noun + And + Noun Collocations
• Noun + And + Noun Noun + And + Noun
“good and evil” “le bien et le mal”
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16. Adjective + Adjective + Noun
Collocations
Adjective + Adjective + Noun Noun + Adjective + Adjective
Adjective + Noun + Adjective
“major scientific publication” “publication scientifique majeure”
“grande publication scientifique”
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17. Characteristics of the Translation of
Collocations from English to French
• Heavy Borrowing
French Collocations
Borrowed From
English
Original English
Collocations
Equivalent
Collocations in
French
faire le buzz make a buzz créer un
événement
médiatique
voyager low cost travel low-cost voyager à bas
coût 17

18. • Variability
Two or more possible collocations in French for
the translation of one collocation in English
“sluggish economy” “économie atone”
“économie ralentissante”
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19. Difficulties of Translating Collocations
• Collocative Clash
• False Friends
• Culture-Specific Collocations
• Translation of Style
• Translation of Clichés
• Collocations and Interference
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20. Collocative Clash
• “when the TL offers an expression closely
resembling the ST one”
“Il est un joli garçon”  “he’s a pretty boy”
“he’s a good-looking boy”
“pretty” gender-specific connotation
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21. False Friends
• False friend = faux ami
• “a word in one language which sounds like
one in another and may be taken by mistake
as having the same meaning.”
“demander des clarifications”  “demand clarifications”
 “ask for clarifications”
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22. Culture-Specific Collocations
• Some collocations are not related to the
culture of the target language
“Hall of Fame” “Temple de la renommée”
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23. Translation of Style
• The style of the source text should be kept in
the target text
“redressement faible”  “weak recovery”
 “recover in a weak manner”
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24. Translation of Clichés
• Some collocations have become clichés due to
their excessive use
• “extremely good” and “extremely bad” are clichés
• The translator should translate those clichés and
not look for better collocations
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25. Interference
• Lexical similarities between English and
French interference
• Lexical similarities but with different meanings
passer les vacances  pass the holidays
 spend the holidays
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26. Translation of Idioms
What is an Idiom
• Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics: "a set
expression in which two or more words are
syntactically related, but with a meaning like
that of a single lexical unit”
Example
• “Spill the beans” “reveal secrets”
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27. Origins of English Idioms
• Folklore the stories of the Grim Reaper
“grim reaper” “death”
• Bible “patience of Job”
• Literature Shakespeare “night owl”
• Historical events crossing of the army of Julius
Caesar of the Rubicon river “cross the Rubicon”
• Names of historical figures Plato “Platonic
love”
• Calque “rite of passage” “rite de passage”
• Popular culture film title “a rebel without a
cause”
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28. Syntactical Types of Idioms
• Noun “brick”
• Noun + Noun “hobby horse”
• Adjective + Noun “black sheep”
• Prepositional phrase “in a nutshell”
• Verb phrase “blow off”
• Genitive construction “ball of fire”
• Sentence “kick the can down the road”
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29. Types of Idioms and Their Translations
• Direct idioms
• Indirect idioms
• Pure idioms
• Figurative idioms
• Restricted collocations
• Open collocations
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30. Direct Idioms
• Can be understood from the meanings of its
words
• “build castles in the air” “to daydream”
“bâtir des châteaux en Espagne”
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31. Indirect Idioms
• Cannot be understood from the direct
meaning of words
• “walk on water” “to do very difficult things”
“marcher sur l'eau”
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32. Pure Idioms
• Invariable: we cannot change their constituent
parts by other words
• “smell a rat” “begin to suspect trickery or
deception” “j'ai une doute de quelque
chose”
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33. Figurative Idioms
• Figurative in most of the cases
• “change one's tune” “change one’s opinion
or decision to the opposite” “changer du
ton”
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34. Restricted Collocations
• They have one figurative element and one
literal element
• The use of words from outside the idiom has
some restrictions.
• “early bird” “a person who gets up,
arrives, or acts before the usual or expected
time” “lève-tôt”
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35. Open Collocations
• The elements of the collocations are used in
their literal meaning and combine freely
• “take a ride” can be understood from the
literal meaning of its elements and combines
with car, bus, theme park, etc. "faire un
tour"
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36. Strategies of Translating Idioms
• Using a Parallel Idiom in the Target Language
• Using Similar Meaning but Dissimilar Form
• Paraphrasing the Idiom
• Using a Functional Equivalent
• Omission
• Addition
• Borrowing
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37. Using a Parallel Idiom in the Target
Language
• Word-for-word translation
• “against the clock” “in a time-restricted
manner” “contre la montre”
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38. Using Similar Meaning but Dissimilar
Form
• Some English idioms have French equivalents
but in a dissimilar form
• “the early bird gets the worm” “l’avenir
appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt”
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39. Paraphrasing the Idiom
• Paraphrasing the idiom of the source language
because it does not have an equivalent in the
target language
• “kick the can down the road” “remettre à
plus tard”
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40. Using a Functional Equivalent
• Using a non-idiomatic equivalent in French to
translate an English idiom
• “make up one's mind” "to make a decision“
“se décider” “prendre une décision”
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41. Omission
• Used when dealing with specific readership:
children with limited vocabulary who don't
know many idioms, and text types
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42. Addition
• Used especially when the idiom's figurative
and literal meaning overlap
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43. Borrowing
• Used mostly with culture-specific idioms
“storm in a teacup”
Latin: “fluctus in simpulo”
“tempête dans un verre d'eau”
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44. Translation of Similes
• A simile an explicit comparison between
two different things, actions, or feelings, using
the words ‘as’ or ‘like’
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45. Strategies of Translation of Similes
• Using Similar Form and Meaning
• Using Similar Meaning but Dissimilar Form
• Omission
• Literal Translation
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46. Difficulties of Translating Idioms
• Absence of an Equivalent Idiom in the Target
Language
• A Similar Idiom with Different Usage
• Use of an Idiom in both its Literal and
Figurative Meanings
• Culture-Specific Idioms
• Job-Specific Idioms
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47. Absence of an Equivalent Idiom in the
Target Language
“yours faithfully” “yours sincerely”
(Receiver’s name is not stated) (Receiver’s name is stated)
Veuillez agréer mes salutations distinguées
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48. A Similar Idiom with Different Usage
• Similar idioms in English and French but their
usage may differ
• The two idioms may not share the same
meaning or they may share the same meaning
but used in different contexts
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49. Use of an Idiom in both its Literal and
Figurative Meanings
• Used mainly in literary texts and in
advertisements create a certain effect
• “poke your nose into” “take an intrusive
interest in” “mettre ton nez dans”
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50. Culture-Specific Idioms
• “carry coals to Newcastle” “something
brought or sent to a place where it is already
plentiful” “porter de l'eau à la rivière”
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51. Job-Specific Idioms
• They can only be understood by a certain
group of professionals
• “drain the radiator” truck drivers
“to urinate; use the toilet”
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52. Thank You
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