Editing Calque

{{Short description|Loaned translation of an expression}}
{{Distinguish|Literal translation|Claque}}
In [[linguistics]], a '''calque''' ({{IPAc-en|k|æ|l|k}}) or '''loan translation''' is a [[word]] or [[phrase]] borrowed from another [[language]] by [[literal translation|literal]] word-for-word or root-for-root [[translation]]. When used as a [[verb]], "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components, so as to create a new word or phrase ([[lexeme]]) in the target language. For instance, the English word ''skyscraper'' has been calqued in dozens of other languages,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gachelin |first=Jean-Marc |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWh_Vizvm-oC&pg=PA97 |title=Lexique-grammaire, domaine anglais |publisher=Université de Saint-Etienne |year=1986 |isbn=978-2-901559-14-6 |pages=97}}</ref> combining words for "sky" and "scrape" in each language, as for example {{lang|de|Wolkenkratzer}} in German, {{Lang|pt|arranha-céu}} in Portuguese, {{lang|nl|wolkenkrabber}} in Dutch, {{Lang|es|rascacielo}} in Spanish, {{lang|it|grattacielo}} in Italian, {{lang|tr|gökdelen}} in Turkish, and ''matenrō'' {{lang|ja|(摩天楼)}} in Japanese.

Calques, like direct borrowings, often function as linguistic gap-fillers, emerging when a language lacks existing vocabulary to express new ideas, technologies, or objects. This phenomenon is widespread and is often attributed to the shared conceptual frameworks across human languages. Speakers of different languages tend to perceive the world through common categories such as time, space, and quantity, making the translation of concepts across languages both possible and natural.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meriläinen |first=Lea |last2=Riionheimo |first2=Helka |last3=Kuusi |first3=Päivi |last4=Lantto |first4=Hanna |date=2016 |title=Loan translations as a language contact phenomenon: Crossing the boundaries between contact linguistics, second language acquisition research and translation studies |url=http://publications.tlu.ee/index.php/philologia/article/view/417 |journal=Philologia Estonica Tallinnensis |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=104–124 |doi=10.22601/PET.2016.01.07|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Calquing is distinct from [[phono-semantic matching]]: while calquing includes [[semantic]] translation, it does not consist of [[phonetic]] matching—i.e., of retaining the approximate [[sound]] of the borrowed word by matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existing word or [[morpheme]] in the target language.<ref name="palgrave.com">{{cite book|last=Zuckermann|first=Ghil'ad|url=http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781403917232|title=Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2003|isbn=1-4039-1723-X|author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann}}</ref>

Proving that a word is a calque sometimes requires more documentation than does an untranslated loanword because, in some cases, a similar phrase might have arisen in both languages independently. This is less likely to be the case when the grammar of the proposed calque is quite different from that of the borrowing language, or when the calque contains less obvious imagery.

== Types ==
One system classifies calques into five groups. This terminology is not universal:<ref>Smith, May. ''The Influence of French on Eighteenth-century Literary Russian''. pp.&nbsp;29–30.</ref>
* ''Phraseological calques'': [[idiomatic phrase]]s are translated word for word. For example, "[[:wiktionary:go without saying|it goes without saying]]" calques the French {{lang|fr|ça va sans dire}}.<ref>[[Henry Watson Fowler|Fowler, H. W.]] [1908] 1999. "[http://www.bartleby.com/116/105.html Vocabulary § Foreign Words]." chap. 1 in ''The King's English'' (2nd ed.). New York: [[Bartleby.com|Bartelby.com]].</ref>
* ''Syntactic calques'': [[syntactic function]]s or constructions of the source language are imitated in the target language, in violation of their meaning. For example, the use of "by" instead of "with" in the phrase "fine by me" is thought to have come from Yiddish {{transliteration|yi|bei}}, namely from the 1930s Yiddish Broadway musical song title [[Bei Mir Bistu Shein]], {{literal translation|To Me You're Beautiful}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://languagelore.net/2013/01/25/its-ok-by-me-as-a-syntactic-calque/|date=25 January 2013|title="It's OK by Me" as a Syntactic Calque|first=Michael|last=Shapiro|website=Language Lore |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928033349/https://languagelore.net/2013/01/25/its-ok-by-me-as-a-syntactic-calque/ |archive-date= Sep 28, 2022 }}</ref>
* ''Loan-translations'': words are translated [[morpheme]] by morpheme, or component by component, into another language. 
* ''Semantic calques'' (also known as ''[[semantic loan]]s''): additional meanings of the source word are transferred to the word with the same primary meaning in the target language. As described below, the "computer mouse" was named in English for its resemblance to the animal; many other languages have extended their own native word for "mouse" to include the computer mouse.
* ''Morphological calques'': the [[inflection]] of a word is transferred. Some authors call this a ''morpheme-by-morpheme translation''.<ref name="gilliot">Gilliot, Claude. "The Authorship of the Qur'ān." In ''The Qur'an in its Historical Context'', edited by [[Gabriel Said Reynolds|G. S. Reynolds]]. p. 97.</ref>

Some linguists refer to a ''phonological calque'', in which the pronunciation of a word is imitated in the other language.<ref name=":0">Yihua, Zhang, and Guo Qiping. 2010. "An Ideal Specialised Lexicography for Learners in China based on English-Chinese Specialised Dictionaries." Pp. 171–92 in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vP2jibCnejQC&pg=PA1 Specialised Dictionaries for Learners]'', edited by P. A. F. Olivera. Berlin: de Gruyter. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vP2jibCnejQC&pg=PA187 p. 187]. {{ISBN|9783110231328}}</ref> For example, the English word "radar" becomes the similar-sounding Chinese word {{wikt-lang|zh|雷达}} ({{Lang-zh|c=|s=|t=|p=léidá}}),<ref name=":0" /> which literally means "to arrive (as fast) as thunder".

===Partial===
{{anchor|Partial calques}}
{{anchor|Loan blend}}
{{anchor|Loanblend}}
Partial calques, or loan blends, translate some parts of a compound but not others.<ref>Durkin, Philip. ''The Oxford Guide to Etymology''. § 5.1.4</ref> For example, the name of the Irish digital television service {{lang|ga|[[Saorview]]|italic=no}} is a partial calque of that of the UK service "[[Freeview (UK)|Freeview]]", translating the first half of the word from English to Irish but leaving the second half unchanged. Other examples include "[[liverwurst]]" (< German {{wikt-lang|de|Leberwurst}})<ref>{{Cite OED|liverwurst}}</ref> and "[[apple strudel]]" (< German {{wikt-lang|de|Apfelstrudel}}).<ref>{{Cite OED|apple strudel}}</ref>

=== Semantic ===
The "[[computer mouse]]" was named in English for its resemblance to the [[mouse|animal]]. Many other languages use their word for "mouse" for the "computer mouse", sometimes using a [[diminutive]] or, in [[Chinese language|Chinese]], adding the word "[[Cursor (user interface)|cursor]]" ({{Lang|zh-Hani|标|italic=no}}), making {{Lang|cmn-latn|shǔbiāo}} "mouse cursor" ({{zh|t=鼠標 |s=鼠标 |p=shǔbiāo}}).{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}} Another example is the Spanish word ''ratón'' that means both the animal and the computer mouse.<ref name="DPD - ratón">{{cite web |title=ratón |url=https://www.rae.es/dpd/rat%C3%B3n |website=Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (DPD), 2.ª edición (versión provisional) |publisher=Real Academia Española y Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española |access-date=30 May 2024 |ref=DPD - raton |language=Spanish}}</ref>

== Examples ==
{{Main list|List of calques
}}

The common English phrase "[[flea market]]" is a loan translation of the French {{wikt-lang|fr|marché aux puces}} ("market with fleas").<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Cite web |title=flea market |url=https://www.bartleby.com/ |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311115056/http://www.bartleby.com/61/77/F0177700.html |archivedate=March 11, 2007 |website=Bartleby}}</ref> At least 22 other languages calque the French expression directly or indirectly through another language.

The word ''[[loanword]]'' is a calque of the [[German language|German]] noun {{Lang|de|Lehnwort}}. In contrast, the term ''calque'' is a loanword, from the French [[noun]] {{wikt-lang|fr|calque}} ("tracing, imitation, close copy").<ref>Knapp, Robbin D. 27 January 2011. "[http://germanenglishwords.com/ Robb: German English Words]." ''Robb: Human Languages''.</ref>

Another example of a common morpheme-by-morpheme loan-translation is of the [[English language|English]] word "[[wikt:skyscraper|skyscraper]]", a [[kenning]]-like term which may be calqued using the word for "sky" or "cloud" and the word, variously, for "scrape", "scratch", "pierce", "sweep", "kiss", etc. At least 54 languages have their own versions of the English word.

Some [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] and [[Slavic languages]] derived their words for "translation" from words meaning "carrying across" or "bringing across", calquing from the Latin {{lang|la|translātiō}} or {{lang|la|trādūcō}}.<ref>[[Christopher Kasparek]], "The Translator's Endless Toil", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XXVIII, no. 2, 1983, p. 83.</ref>

The Latin [[weekday names]] came to be associated by ancient Germanic speakers with their own gods following a practice known as {{Lang|la|[[interpretatio germanica]]}}: the Latin "Day of [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]]", {{Lang|la|Mercurii dies}} (later {{Lang|fr|mercredi}} in modern [[French language|French]]), was borrowed into [[Late Proto-Germanic]] as the "Day of [[Wōđanaz]]" (''Wodanesdag''), which became {{Lang|ang|Wōdnesdæg}} in [[Old English]], then "Wednesday" in Modern English.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Simek|first=Rudolf|title=Dictionary of northern mythology|publisher=D.S. Brewer|year=1993|isbn=0-85991-369-4|pages=371}}</ref>

== History ==

Since at least 1894, according to the {{Lang|fr|[[Trésor de la langue française informatisé]]|italic=no}}, the [[French (language)|French]] term ''calque'' has been used in its [[linguistic]] sense, namely in a publication by Louis Duvau:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Duvau |first1=Louis |title=Expressions hybrides |journal=Mémoires de la Société de linguistique de Paris |date=1894 |volume=8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/memoires7818soci/page/190/mode/2up?q=%22Un+autre+ph%C3%A9nom%C3%A8ne+d'hybridation%22 191] |location=Paris}}</ref>
{{Verse translation
|lang=fra
|Un autre phénomène d'hybridation est la création dans une langue d'un mot nouveau, dérivé ou composé à l'aide d'éléments existant déja dans cette langue, et ne se distinguant en rien par l'aspect extérieur des mots plus anciens, mais qui, en fait, n'est que le '''calque''' d'un mot existant dans la langue maternelle de celui qui s'essaye à un parler nouveau. [...] nous voulons rappeler seulement deux ou trois exemples de ces '''calques''' d'expressions, parmi les plus certains et les plus frappants.
|<!-- feel free to improve this translation -->
Another phenomenon of hybridization is the creation in a language of a new word, derived or composed with the help of elements already existing in that language, and which is not distinguished in any way by the external aspect of the older words, but which, in fact, is only the '''copy''' (''calque'') of a word existing in the mother tongue of the one who tries out a new language. [...] we want to recall only two or three examples of these '''copies''' (''calques'') of expressions, among the most certain and the most striking.}}

Since at least 1926, the term ''calque'' has been attested in English through a publication by the linguist {{interlanguage link|Otakar Vočadlo|cs}}:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vočadlo |first1=Otakar |title=Slav Linguistic Purity and the Use of Foreign Words |journal=The Slavonic Review |date=1926 |volume=5 |issue=14 |page=353 |jstor=4202081}}</ref>

: [...] such imitative forms are called {{Lang|fr|calques}} (or {{Lang|fr|décalques}}) by French [[philologists]], and this is a frequent method in coining abstract terminology, whether nouns or verbs.

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Anglicism]]
* [[Chinese Pidgin English]]
* [[Cognate]]
* [[Gallicism]]
* [[Germanism (linguistics)|Germanism]]
* [[Inkhorn term]]
* [[Loanword]]
* [[Metatypy]]
* [[Wasei-eigo]]
* [[Engrish]]{{div col end}}

== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* [[Kasparek, Christopher]]. 1983. "The Translator's Endless Toil." ''[[The Polish Review]]'' 28(2):83–87.
* [http://germanenglishwords.com/ Robb: German English Words]
* [[Ghil'ad Zuckermann|Zuckermann, Ghil'ad]]. 2003. ''[https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781403938695 Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew]''. Palgrave Macmillan. {{ISBN|1-4039-1723-X}}
*  2009. [http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf "Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns."] ''Journal of Language Contact'' (2):40–67.

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Wiktionary category|category=English calques}}
* [http://www.etymonline.com EtymOnline]
* [http://www.merriam-webster.com/ Merriam Webster Online]

{{Clear}}
{{Appropriation in the arts}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Etymology]]
[[Category:Calques| ]]

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