| Preface | ix |
| The Would be Translator's Basic Terminology | xi |
| Preliminary Remarks: Linguistics and Metalinguistics | xv |
Chapter 1 | Translation Units | |
| What are T.U.s and what is their use? | 1 |
| Lexical T.U.s | 2 |
| Grammatical T.U.s | 4 |
| Extended T.U.s | 5 |
| Delineation of T.U.s | 6 |
| Exercises | 8 |
Chapter 2 | Words in Context | |
| Polysemy: Words and their semantic range | 15 |
| Literal vs. figurative meaning | 16 |
| Language levels | |
| Gender problems | 17 |
| Dictionaries and thesauri | 18 |
| Exercises | 19 |
Chapter 3 | Deceptive Cognates | |
| Faux amis | 25 |
| Cognates and deceptive cognates | |
| Partial faux amis | 26 |
| Unrelated similar looking words | |
| List of common deceptive cognates | 28 |
| Exercises | 33 |
Chapter 4 | Translation Devices | |
| What strategies do translators have at their disposal? | 37 |
| Sample chart | 38 |
Chapter 5 | Borrowings | |
| What is a borrowing and what is its purpose? | 41 |
| French and English: a history of mutual borrowing | 42 |
| Lexical fields of borrowing | 44 |
| Creative borrowing | 45 |
| Unnecessary borrowing | 47 |
| Use of borrowings | |
| Exercises | 49 |
Chapter 6 | Calques | |
| What is a calque? | 53 |
| Semantic and structural calques | |
| Calques and neologisms | 54 |
| Calques and acronyms | 55 |
| Calque vs. borrowing | |
| Exercises | 56 |
Chapter 7 | Literal Translation and Structural Obstacles to Literal translation | |
| What is a literal translation? | 59 |
| Structural obstacles to literal translation | 61 |
| Differences in word order | |
| Ellipses | 63 |
| Gallicisms and Anglicisms | 65 |
| Special problems with verb tenses | 66 |
| Problems with French pronominal verbs | 68 |
| Exercises | 71 |
Chapter 8 | Transposition | |
| What is transposition? | 77 |
| Some examples of necessary transpositions | 78 |
| Examples of optional transpositions | 79 |
| Noun-verb transpositions | |
| Transpositions with postpositional adverbs | 80 |
| Cross transposition | 81 |
| Exercises | 82 |
Chapter 9 | Modulation | |
| What is modulation? | 89 |
| Word modulations | 90 |
| Preposition modulations | 95 |
| Message modulations | 96 |
| Necessary and optional modulations | 97 |
| Modulation and transposition | 98 |
| Exercises | 99 |
Chapter 10 | Equivalence | |
| What is equivalence? | 105 |
| Exclamations and reflex formulas | 106 |
| Prop words | |
| Greetings and letter closings | 107 |
| Cliches and idioms | |
| Slang and slang expressions | 109 |
| Proverbs and axioms | |
| Official signs and warnings | |
| References to a common socio-cultural heritage | 110 |
| Exercises | 111 |
Chapter 11 | Adaptation | |
| What is adaptation? | 119 |
| Linguistic deficiency and compensation | 120 |
| Adaptation in traditions, usages and institutions | |
| Exercises | 128 |
Chapter 12 | Applying Translators' Devices to Literary Texts | |
| Transposition | 131 |
| Modulation | 135 |
| Equivalence | 138 |
| Adaptation | 142 |
| General Exercises | 146 |
Chapter 13 | Translating Titles | |
| General advice | 151 |
| Translation devices applied to the translation of titles | 152 |
| Exercises | 157 |
Chapter 14 | Guidelines for the Translation of Literary Prose | |
| Sticking to the text vs. demonstrating originality | 161 |
| What are the basic guidelines to follow for a successful translation? | |
| Working method | 163 |
| Text samples, guiding notes and suggested translations | 166 |
Chapter 15 | Guidelines for the Translation of Dialogues and Plays | |
| Problems specific to the translation of dialogues and plays | 187 |
| Equivalence as the preferred translating device for dialogues | 188 |
| Use of a specific vocabulary | 189 |
| Text samples, guiding notes and suggested translations | 191 |
Chapter 16 | Guidelines for the Translation of Poetry | |
| Poetry translation: a difficult but creative enterprise | 211 |
| Is poetry translation the reserved domain of poets? | |
| The different levels of poetry translation | 212 |
| How to proceed with the translation of a poem | 213 |
| Basic rules of French prosody | 215 |
| Poem samples and suggested translations | 217 |
Chapter 17 | Guidelines for the Translation of Non-Literary Texts | |
| Content vs. style | 223 |
| Non-literary and specialty languages | 224 |
| Taking liberties with sentence structure | 225 |
| Improving on the original | 226 |
| Conventions in newspapers and magazines | 227 |
| Cultural references in newspapers and magazines | 229 |
| Sample of newspaper and magazine articles, guiding notes and suggested translations | 232 |
Chapter 18 | Guidelines for the Translation of Ads | |
| Ads and cultural references | 251 |
| Advice for the translation of ads | 253 |
| A sampler of ad translations | 255 |
Appendix | The Translator's Tools | |
| Dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, books on translation studies | 261 |
| Index | 273 |