Lexical gap
Encyclopedia
A lexical gap or lacuna is an absence of a word in a particular language
. Types of lexical gaps include untranslatability
and missing inflection
s.
, a descriptive phrase, must be used instead, or possibly even multiple phrases used in varying situations. For example, Romanian
lacks the word "shallow". Therefore, "shallow waters" is mainly translated as "ape puţin adânci" ("not so deep waters") or "apă mică" ("small water") in TV subtitles.
In most languages, if the missing concept is important or must be cited often, borrowing
from one language and adding to another may occur.
This case should not be confused with translation into a different type of lexical unit. For example, a simple word may be translated as a compound
or a collocation
, as in the cases of the Russian word "bosoy", which is translated as the compound "barefoot" in English, and the English word "private
" (in the sense of a military rank), which is "soldato semplice" in Italian.
An abundant source of lexical gaps used to be a contact of primitive culture
s with more advanced civilization
s. For example, the Russian ethnographer Miklukho-Maklai, famous for his study of the aborigines of New Guinea
, recorded that Papuans, who have never seen an ox
, gave the animal a name back-translated as "a huge pig
with teeth on the forehead".
form. In the meaning "the bottom of a barrel" the plural is donya (дно->донья).
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
. Types of lexical gaps include untranslatability
Untranslatability
Untranslatability is a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language when translated....
and missing inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
s.
Untranslatability
Often a concept lexicalized in one language does not have a corresponding lexical unit in another language and thus presents a translation difficulty. CircumlocutionCircumlocution
Circumlocution is an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech...
, a descriptive phrase, must be used instead, or possibly even multiple phrases used in varying situations. For example, Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
lacks the word "shallow". Therefore, "shallow waters" is mainly translated as "ape puţin adânci" ("not so deep waters") or "apă mică" ("small water") in TV subtitles.
In most languages, if the missing concept is important or must be cited often, borrowing
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
from one language and adding to another may occur.
This case should not be confused with translation into a different type of lexical unit. For example, a simple word may be translated as a compound
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
or a collocation
Collocation
In corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, collocation is a sub-type of phraseme. An example of a phraseological collocation is the expression strong tea...
, as in the cases of the Russian word "bosoy", which is translated as the compound "barefoot" in English, and the English word "private
Private (rank)
A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
" (in the sense of a military rank), which is "soldato semplice" in Italian.
An abundant source of lexical gaps used to be a contact of primitive culture
Primitive culture
In older anthropology texts and discussions, the term "primitive culture" is used to refer to a society that is believed to lack cultural, technological, or economic sophistication/development...
s with more advanced civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
s. For example, the Russian ethnographer Miklukho-Maklai, famous for his study of the aborigines of New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, recorded that Papuans, who have never seen an ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
, gave the animal a name back-translated as "a huge pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
with teeth on the forehead".
Missing inflection
Sometimes a certain inflection of a word produces a word phonetically forbidden or awkward in a given language. For example the Russian word dno in the meaning of bottom (of a river) does not have a pluralPlural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
form. In the meaning "the bottom of a barrel" the plural is donya (дно->донья).
See also
- Lacuna modelLacuna modelThe lacuna model is a tool for unlocking culture differences or missing "gaps" in text . The lacuna model was established as a theory by Jurij Sorokin and Irina Markovina , further developed by Astrid Ertelt-Vieth and Hartmut Schröder and practical research tested in ethnopsycholinguistics ,...
- Defective verbDefective verbIn linguistics, a defective verb is a verb which is missing e.g. a past tense, or cannot be used in some other way that normal verbs come. Formally, it is a verb with an incomplete conjugation. Defective verbs cannot be conjugated in certain tenses, aspects, or moods.-Arabic:In Arabic, defective...
s, which lack some of the inflections of normal verbs. - Accidental gapAccidental gapIn linguistics an accidental gap, also known as a gap or a hole in the pattern, is a word or other form that does not exist in some language but which would be expected to exist given the grammatical rules of the language. For example, in English a noun may be formed by adding the suffix -al to a...