Considering the most relevant information about neologisms

1. THE TRANSLATION OF
NEOLOGISMS
BY: Diana Priscila Montesdeoca Benitez

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 known in the
TL.

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 than 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’
Pseudoneologisms
•Translators have to be aware of pseudoneologisms 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