Volume 69, Issue 1

This article deals with the sociolinguistic phenomenon of parlache in Colombian Spanish, which has developed from an argot into a sociolect. It has found its way into the general language and has become an integral part of the vocabulary of Colombians. The Parlache was originated in the marginal and peripheral sectors of the city of Medellín (Antioquia region), where it spread mainly among marginalised and therefore criminal youth from the slums. In contrast to many other slangs, jargots or argots, the parlache has meanwhile evolved from a so-called “anti-language” to a widespread idiom, especially among young people. But it has also conquered the media and found its way into literature, theatre and music, and is used and propagated, for example, by the well-known Colombian singer Juanes. The article traces the emergence of parlache since the 1980 s, analyses its main word formation patterns and provides some lexical examples. Furthermore, it will shed light on the reasons for the popularisation of this sociolect, which include, among others, the enormous linguistic wit and creativity of the speakers. Despite its peculiarities, the phenomenon is hardly known outside Colombia, and there are only a few works on it in the German-speaking world. Therefore, in conclusion, the need for further research is also pointed out, since a further popularisation, especially by the German-speaking countries, is expected.

One of the ways that English loanwords can enter mainstream Spanish, perhaps the least common of them all, is via regional dialect. An Anglicism can be initially confined to dialect use and later make its way into the mainstream colloquial lexicon, thus technically becoming an internal loan. This may well be the case of the originally Andalusian word guachisnay , itself perhaps ultimately derived from English what’s your name? Drawing on a database of over one thousand citations taken from various sources, this article aims to examine the presumed etymon of the word and build up a full picture of the range of meanings it has in contemporary colloquial Spanish, both in Andalusia and elsewhere. It is concluded that the rich polysemy of the term is the result of its frequency of use and that, no matter what its true origin is, some of its spelling and pronunciation variants clearly show that speakers consider it to be an Anglicism.

Between 1992 and 2000, Hans Vermeer published some comprehensive monographs on the history of translation from the Antiquity to the Renaissance. In these publications, the historiography of translation theory and practice is based on functionalist translation theories, especially Vermeer’s skopos theory. In this paper, I will try to show how the theoretical framework of Vermeer’s analyses influences the evaluation of particular translations and translation theories. In three case studies from different periods, Vermeer’s approach will be compared to other approaches of translation analysis, especially philological and linguistic ones.

Le présent article a pour objet de caractériser la différence entre les mécanismes mis en œuvre dans la traduction automatique, qu’elle soit statistique ou neuronale, et les mécanismes cognitifs mis en œuvre dans la traduction humaine. Notre postulat consiste à dire que cette différence est radicale par sa nature, d’une part et d’autre part, qu’il est possible de la mettre en évidence dans le fonctionnement de trois principaux mécanismes cognitifs, à savoir de la compréhension, de l’attention et de la schématisation. En définitive, la différence de nature qui oppose ces deux types de traduction réside dans la dialectique entre la cognition désincarnée et incarnée et dans la dichotomie entre la décision et le calcul. En effet, si le traducteur humain prend toujours une décision et en endosse la responsabilité, la machine se limite à calculer. Le corpus d’exemples pratiques utilisés dans le cadre de la présente analyse pour étayer notre postulat est issu de la pratique traductologique dans la paire de langue français-allemand.

Resumen El objeto de este artículo es doble, por un lado examinar algunos de los recursos humorísticos empleados en el uso de siglas y acrónimos en español, sobre todo los que tienen como base la homonimia. Y en segundo lugar, se dedica atención preferente a la reinterpretación de las siglas, especialmente en relación con partidos políticos y entidades sociales varias, entre otros juegos verbales. Como material se ha utilizado principalmente la prensa periódica de las últimas décadas, sobre todo la de contenido crítico e intención satírica, así como algunas muestras de lenguaje oral de carácter coloquial.

On the different meanings and syntactic functions of da based on a German-Italian parallel corpus. This study investigates the use of the German word da and its equivalents in Italian. After assessing the academic literature regarding the various meanings of da in the German language, the research focuses on the analysis of da translations available in several examples taken from InterCorp. The findings are consistent with previous research, revealing that da can express causality, time, location, neutrality, contrast, and deixis. Additionally, it is observed that translators often use creative solutions. Also, some translations are not found in dictionaries, but align perfectly with the source text, indicating a need for more linguistic research on Italian-German translations, as well as the necessity to always adapt rendering to the specific context.

Within Western culture, gender is frequently interpreted in terms of binarism (male versus female), derived from biological sex at birth. Nevertheless, there is an accelerating percentage of non-binary and transgender people, who are not related to binary nomenclature, and they also need to resort to legal documentation and their renderings into other languages. This fact becomes a troublesome issue that must be nowadays solved, especially when translating into Spanish, a grammatical gender language, from English, a non-grammatical gender language. In this paper we will first select a corpus of eight British legal documents representing highly demanded translation briefs. We will then search for 15 problematic lexical items, searching for their lexicographic definitions and translations, and we will later resort to their most feasible translations into the Spanish language, considering both gendered translations and genderless ones. Our research shows how the Spanish language has its own translation techniques, especially paraphrasing, to be able to provide the English-Spanish target readership with binary legal terms, and especially with non-binary ones.

To facilitate idiomaticity, translation practice and translation didactics require that the linguistic phenomenon of personification be handled confidently when translating into German. At first glance, the term personification appears to be well defined. However, on closer inspection it becomes clear that the term is used in different ways by classical rhetoric on the one hand and by linguistics and translation studies on the other. This becomes clear when examining the phenomenon of secondary subjectification, which a) causes problems of idiomaticity and b) is often – wrongly – seen as synonymous with personification. The manuals of classical rhetoric, despite being generally consulted first by researchers, do not consider secondary subjectification and thus do not provide a complete view of the concept of personification. In order to describe the problem more precisely, the present paper will go beyond purely stylistic-idiomatic concerns by taking into account the functional side of figurative language. This involves emphasizing that not every personification is automatically a secondary subjectification. In German, however, secondary subjectifications can have the same effect as personifications, which can cause problems of idiomaticity. In order to provide some clarification, we suggest establishing a specific classification of personifications for translational purposes.