engleski

Can a Tigress Change her Stripes? On the Comprehension of Metaphor-based Phraseological Calques

In the Croatian language there is currently a tendency to import English words and phrases, either as loanwords or calques, usually through translation of English texts in the media, advertising and literature. This study investigates whether speakers of Croatian with different levels of proficiency in English understand the source language meaning of literally translated figurative expressions (so-called phraseological calques) from English, specifically metaphor-based expressions such as majka tigrica ‘tiger mother’, ljubavni štakor ‘love rat’, stakleni strop ‘glass ceiling’, etc. Four variables which might influence comprehension were analyzed: usage frequency of target items, their recentness in the target language, context in which they appeared and English language proficiency of Croatian speakers. The results show that both higher English language proficiency and context are related to comprehension, unlike usage frequency and recentness. However, the high level of language proficiency and a rich context were insufficient for the participants to comprehend some expressions correctly, i.e. some calques were construed differently in the target language. This seems to point to a conclusion that in order to fully comprehend certain phraseological calques one has to know the conventional meaning of the template in the source language. Literal translation of figurative language may lead to incomprehension or a different conceptualization in the target language.

metaphor, translation, culture, discourse, comprehension

nije evidentirano