AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION PROCEDURES FROM ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE FOR COVID 19 RELATED NEOLOGISMS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

AN ANALYSIS ON THE TRANSLATION
PROCEDURES FROM ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE
FOR COVID-19-RELATED NEOLOGISMS

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang (M.A)
Student: Do Thi Thu Hoan
Year of Enrollment: QH2017.F1.E22

Hanoi – 2021


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHỐ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

PHÂN TÍCH CÁC KỸ THUẬT DỊCH ĐƯỢC ÁP
DỤNG TRONG VIỆC DỊCH CÁC THUẬT NGỮ MỚI
NỔI TRONG ĐẠI DỊCH COVID-19 TỪ TIẾNG ANH
SANG TIẾNG VIỆT

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Thị Thùy Trang
Sinh viên: Đỗ Thị Thu Hồn
Khố: QH2017.F1

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2021


Signature of Approval:

Hanoi, May 2021


ACCEPTANCE
As an applicant for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, I hereby declare that I: Do Thi Thu
Hoan from QH2017.F1.E22 accept the requirements pertaining to the retention and
use of Bachelor's Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library
should be accessible for educational purposes only, in compliance with the librarian's
customary terms and conditions for the paper's storage, borrowing, or reproduction.
Signature

Do Thi Thu Hoan
Date: May, 2021


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

On the completion of this graduation paper, I wish to express my deep gratitude
to many of my lecturers, my family, and friends from whom I have received a great deal
of assistance, guidance, and encouragement.

First of all, I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to my
supervisor - Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, M.A. for her constant support, clear and

organized orientation right from the beginning, comprehensive instruction, and valuable
comments on draft chapters, which is instrumental in accomplishing this study.

Moreover, I would like to convey my heartiest appreciation for the lectures and
translation-majored seniors from Fast-track Program in FELTE, ULIS, VNU for their
cooperation and active participation in the current research.

Last but not least, my indebtedness is presented to my family and all of my
friends for their encouragement, inspiration during the process of completing this paper.

Hanoi, May 2021
Do Thi Thu Hoan

i


ABSTRACT
The current study aims at investigating the perceptions of the two focus groups
(translators and readers) of the effectiveness in the application of translation procedures
in translating COVID-19-inspired neologisms. The data was collected by using
document analysis method by synthesizing neologisms sharing the same characterists
and appearing in official documents and on the Internet. Questionnaire and interview
were adopted simultaneously to shed light on the issues in question, especially the
second question. The relevant data was analyzed by applying theme-based content
analysis on the basis of translation procedures theory proposed by Newmark (1988). The
result of the analysis reveals that there are twelve translation procedures applied in
rendering newly developed expressions of the global epidemic with the prevalence of
couplets, transference, literal translation and TL recognized translation. Furthermore,
the two groups of participants are of the same opinion when evaluating the
comprehensibility and rationality of the given translated versions. It has been disclosed

that there is a lack of consistency in the adoption of translation procedures within each
typology of neologisms, which seems to differ from Newmark’s framework for
neologism translation. It is apparent that there is no such standard guideline for
translating Coronavirus-inspired new words due to the cultural variation, the unique
nature of the newly developed lexicon, and the unfamiliarity of the novice translators in
addressing those terms. Lastly, regarding the approachability and effectiveness of the
translation procedures adopted, each translated version would be differently perceived
by the specific readership due to the dissimilarities in the educational background, age,
and expertise in this field.

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PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement

i

Abstract

ii

List of figures, tables, and abbreviations

iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Statement of research problem and rationale for the study

1

1.2. Research objectives and research questions

4

1.3. Significance of the study

4

1.4. Scope of the study

5

1.5. Research methodolody

6

1.5. Structure of the study

6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
8

2.1. Definition of key terms
2.1.1. Neologism

8

2.1.2. Translation

9
10

2.2. Conceptual framework

11

2.2.1. Neologism typology
2.2.1.1. Newmark’s taxonomy

11

2.2.1.2. Silvia’s taxonomy

13

2.2.1.3. Krishnamurthy’s taxonomy

14

2.2.1.4. Shahlee and Ahmad’s taxonomy

15
17

2.2.2. Translation procedures
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research design

23

3.2. Subject selection

23

3.3. Data collection instruments

24

3.3.1. Document analysis

24

3.3.2. Questionnaire

25

3.3.3. Interview

26

3.4. Data collection procedures

28
28

3.4.1. Content analysis

iii


3.4.2. Questionnaire

28

3.4.3. Interview

29

3.3. Data analysis instruments

29

3.3.1. Document analysis

29

3.3.2. Data from questionnaires: statistical analysis

29

3.3.3. Data from interview: theme-based content analysis

30
30

3.5. Data analysis procedures
3.5.1. Document analysis

30

3.5.2. Statistical analysis

31

3.5.3. Theme-based content analysis

31

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. The first research question: The most and least frequently used

32

translation procedures in rendering COVID-19-related neologisms
4.1.1. The distribution of COVID-19-related neologism
typology
4.1.1.1. Findings

32

4.1.1.2. Discussion

34

4.1.2. The frequency of translation procedures used in rendering

35

COVID-19-related neologism
4.1.2.1. Findings

35

4.1.2.2. Discussion

41

4.2. The second research question: The most effective translation

43

procedure for target readers and translators, the difficulties facing
novice translators in handling these terms.
4.2.1. Data from questionnaire

43

4.2.2. Data from interview

53
53

4.2.2.1. Target readers
4.2.2.1.1. The totally satisfied group

53

4.2.2.1.2. The partially dissatisfied group

54
55

4.2.2.2. Translators
4.2.2.2.1. Student translators

55

4.2.2.2.2. Experienced translators (Lecturers)

59

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61

4.2.3. Findings
4.2.3.1. The similar evaluation of the two focused groups

61

towards the translation versions
4.2.3.2.The variability in the selection of translation

64

procedures within each neologism category

4.2.3.3. The accessibility of the translations vary

66

depending on the specific readership
4.2.4.

66

Discussion

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1. Summary of the study

68

5.2. Implication of the findings

68

5.3. Limitations of the study

69

5.4. Suggestions for further study

70

REFERENCE

70

APPENDICES

80

Appendix A. The list of collected neologisms
Appendix B. The translation procedures of the collected neologisms
Appendix C. The results of the questionnaire
Appendix D. Questionnaire: for target readers and translators
Appendix E. Interview questions
Appendix F. Interview transcript

v


1. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ST

Source Text

TT

Target text

SL

Source Language

TL

Target Language

FELTE

Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ULIS

University of Languages and International Studies

VNU

Vietnam National University, Hanoi

WHO

The World Health Organization

N

Noun

V

Verb

IDM

Idiom

PHR

Phrase

Abbr

Abbreviation

G1

Group 1: Target readers

G2

Group 2: Translators

R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 Reader 1,Reader 2, Reader 3, Reader 4, Reader 5
T1, T2, T3, T4, T5

Translator 1, Translator 2, Translator 3, Translator 4,
Translator 5


2. LIST OF FIGURES

Figures

Page

Figure 4.1 The comparison of the frequency of COVID-19- 32
related neologism typology
Figure 4.2 The allocation of translation procedures used in 37
rendering COVID-19-related semantic neologisms
Figure 4.3 The allocation of translation procedures used in 40
rendering COVID-19-related neologisms of new forms

3. LIST OF TABLES

Table

Page

Table 4.1. The distribution of COVID-19-related neologism 31
typology
Table 4.2. The comparison of the frequency of COVID-19- 31
related neologism typology
Table 4.3. The allocation of translation procedures used in 34
rendering COVID-19-related neologisms
Table 4.4. The frequency of translation procedures used in 35
rendering COVID-19-related semantic neologisms
Table 4.5. The frequency of translation procedures used in 38
rendering COVID-19-related neologisms of new forms
Table 4.6. The evaluation of the two focused groups on the 47

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most rational translations

Table 4.7. The translation procedure used in rendering the 47
most rational translations of semantic neologisms
Table 4.8. The translation procedure used in rendering the 48
most rational translations of new forms
Table 4.9. A comparison with Newmark’s proposal on the 49
translation procedures of semantic neologisms
Table 4.10. A comparison with Newmark’s proposal on the 50
translation procedures of new forms

iii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
The study's core problems and primary objectives are presented in this
section. This chapter also includes a concise presentation of the research questions,
significance, scope, and structure of the study.
1.1. Statement of research problem & rationale for the study
Language has always been associated with major social changes and is
deemed as the representative of a society. As the society experiences constant
changes, the speed at which language evolves and progresses must be swift and
simultaneous enough to keep it updated and contemporary. For the last few months,
the SARS Coronavirus 2 (also known as COVID-19 for short) pandemic has been a
matter of great concern to the general public, triggering a large number of
controversial issues and presenting drastic changes to the world community.
Undeniably, this incident does not only place an undue strain on our healthcare and
welfare system, but it also highlights linguistic changes and the emergence of
recently developed words and expressions across the globe. Emphasizing the
interrelation between language and malady, Richard (1977) supposed that “the
extensive use of spatial metaphors to express abstract concepts may encourage a

more rigid categorization of disease and inhibit the ability to conceive of multiple
factors in disease causation” (p.6). In lieu of employing verbs to elucidate the
concept of illness, the use of nouns could contribute to a more static view of ailment
and tends to distinguish diseases as disparate entities rather than regarding them as
aspects of bodily functioning. These linguistic features in return can promote the
overuse of surgery and present challenges in the observation and perception of
social and psychological factors in disease while leading to a conception of disease
as a rigidly specified, unchanging, unicausal thing. Language exerts certain
influences on the formation and development of the concept of diseases and
conversely, diseases do have some impacts on linguistic evolution. Therefore,


likewise, it can be said that detrimental as COVID-19 might be, this pandemic does
have some cultural and linguistic implications for the development and adaptation
of the language in particular and the society in general.
Initially emerging in Wuhan, China and then quickly spreading throughout
every single corner of the world, the novel Coronavirus pandemic with its
constantly changing variants is believed to have afflicted more than 148 million
people globally, depriving 3.13 million victims of their lives up to April 2021,
affecting the economy and politics worldwide, causing widespread insecurity and
anxiety among the public. Over the last few months, it has constantly made several
comebacks with the advent of new virus variants, hitting every nation’s economy,
threatening the well-being of millions of Earth inhabitants all over the world. That
having been said, during this global crisis, the executive editor of the Oxford
English Dictionary, Bernadette Paton, shared in a blog in the Oxford forum that “It
is a rare experience for lexicographers to observe an exponential rise in usage of a
single word in a very short period of time, and for that word to come
overwhelmingly to dominate the global discourse, even to the exclusion of most
other topics” (Bernadette, 2020). Although the spread of the disease has exerted
numerous devastating impacts on the lives of billions of people, a new system of

vocabulary has been correspondingly coined and updated, including specialist terms
for the epidemiological and healthcare field, new acronyms as well as words and
phrases to reflect the necessity of imposed isolation, distancing, and quarantine.
From the very first days after the outbreak of the disease, in the documents and
reports of the disease issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), “a
pneumonia of unknown etiology” had been used to label the pandemic. For
instance, disease outbreak news published on 5th January 2020 by the WHO states:
“On 31 December 2019, the WHO China Country Office was informed of cases of
pneumonia of unknown etiology (also understood as unknown cause) detected in
Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China”. Five days later, on January 10, the WHO
released its first guidebook on the disease, assuming its connection with other
precedented coronaviruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and

2


Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). From then, the denomination was
converted into ‘Novel Coronavirus’ or “nCov” for short. Two days later, the WHO
developed a different terminological variant, ‘2019-nCoV’. Eventually, on February
11, 2020, the WHO ultimately introduced the official name for the pandemic,
“COVID-19”, an acronym that stands for ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’. Since then, a
variety of newly-coined lexical items has been inaugurated and complemented on a
daily basis. Hardly a day passes without us coming across some medical terms or
phrases relating to the epidemic. Due to the urgency of acquiring accurate and
reliable information, Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lexicographers and many
others are relentlessly working from home and contributing to the development of
the language of the pandemic. The COVID-19 disease has become a dominating
global discourse (Asif et al., 2020). Knowledge and notion about it have been
discussed, exchanged, and constantly revised since the first days of its outbreak.
As a result, translating multilingual medical documents has been regarded as

an integral task and crucial measure in pandemic prevention and impact alleviation
campaign. Indeed, a multilingual system of COVID-19 lexicon suggested by the
WHO has been updated daily, aiming to standardize those terminologies all over the
world. Those efforts have been recognized and appreciated by the world as a whole.
However, owing to the rapid emergence of a wealth of pandemic-related
neologisms, updating the equivalents of those concepts in bilingual dictionaries has
yet to be carried out, which poses countless obstacles and difficulties in translating
epidemiological documents from English into Vietnamese, generating the
inconsistency of those terms in translated documents. Moreover, since this is a
novel and unprecedented issue, little has been known about the translation
procedures employed in transferring English neologisms of the pandemic into
Vietnamese. The biggest problem here lies in the fact that there is often a shortage
of ready equivalents for these neologisms in the TL and that these neologisms are
mostly culturally loaded or have not been included in the TL dictionaries yet. Due
to the cultural and linguistic differences between the Western and Vietnamese
culture as well as the limiting exposure to words of this kind, in many cases, young

3


translators face certain difficulties when experiencing translating these neologisms.
As a result, this issue must be thoroughly examined, and thereby a solid conclusion
on the current approach to COVID-19 neologisms applied by translators in the
current context be reached.
Therefore, this study is central to elaborating translation procedures of
neologisms translation during the outbreak of COVID-19 and their effectiveness
and consistency when put in this particular circumstance, thereby suggesting the
most feasible and appropriate approach to have those medical terminologies
translated.
1.2. Research objectives and research questions

The research aims at investigating the consistency and effectiveness of
utilizing translation procedures used in converting medical terms of the pandemic
and spoken language emerging amid the pandemic from English into Vietnamese,
the accessibility and functionality of translated texts, and the practice of translating
COVID-19 neologisms. To realize the research objectives and gain insight into the
formation of those lexical items, an analysis of the classification and typical
characteristics of the neologisms studied would be summarized. Subsequently, the
types of COVID-19-related neologisms were statistically synthesized and
meticulously inspected. Thereupon, analysis and discussion of translation
procedures would be conducted to draw out several implications in translating
COVID-19-inspired neologisms. The allocation of translation procedures employed,
together with the perception towards the effectiveness of the translation procedure,
was also attached based on the results gathered from the questionnaire and the
interview, which was followsed by the comparison with the suggested translation
strategies for a variety of English neologisms by Newmark (1988) and analysis on
the consistency in the employment of translation procedures within each typology.

4


With a view to elucidating the translation procedures used as well as
proposing the most appropriate set of equivalents for those neologisms, this paper
concentrates on addressing two research questions as follows:
Research question 1: What are the most and least frequently used translation
procedures in rendering COVID-19-related neologisms?
Research question 2: For target readers and translators, which translation procedure
is considered the most effective in rendering each type of COVID-19-related
neologisms? What are the potential difficulties facing novice translators in handling
these terms?
1.3. Significance of the study

The study is expected to provide some insights into the effectiveness of
translation procedures applied in transferring English medical new words into
Vietnamese. Using different instruments to tackle the research questions, the
research is expected to provide an overview as to how to construct neologisms of
the pandemic as well as how to translate those newly coined words and expressions
in the context of the novel pandemic. As a result, readers would grasp a basic
understanding about the process of coining a COVID-19-related neologism and
translating selected neologisms in the medical field. Through investigating the
practice of translating neologisms in general and neologisms of the pandemic in
particular, problems facing translators in the current context will be disclosed.
Moreover, it is also supposed to offer a consistent system of Vietnamese
terminology of the pandemic by assessing equivalents available at the time, which is
considered essential for not only contemporary situations but future references as
well. It is anticipated that the discussion and implications made from the research
findings make valuable and practical contributions to the field of translating
COVID-19 neologisms and the battle against the pandemic.
1.4. Scope of the study

5


The study focuses on probing 132 COVID-19-inspired neologisms coinage
and translation procedures applied in rendering those new lexical items into
Vietnamese based on Newmark’s model and some criteria specified in Chapter 3.
This is considered a reasonable scope for a thesis with regard to temporal and
spatial permission.
1.5. Research methodology
The researcher utilizes both qualitative and quantitative approach to fulfill
the research objectives, focusing on Newmark's theoretical paradigm for translation
procedures (1988). The sequential order below demonstrates the way in which the

study was conducted.
Phase 1: To recognize translation procedures, the collected ST was examined
and analyzed basing on Newmark's structure (1988). At this stage, the list of
neologisms typology was made as well
Phase 2: To elicit the tendency and distribution of COVID-19-inspired
neologisms translation, comprehensive tables of translation procedure in alignment
with each neologism type were developed.
Phase 3: To explore the implications of the findings, discussion on the
effectiveness and accessibility of the studied translation procedures was made.
1.6. The structure of the study
The present study is divided into three different parts:
Part A: Introduction
Chapter 1 is also the background introduction, including the statement of the
problem, rationale, aims and objectives, significance, scope, method, and the
organization of the research. Three research questions have been mentioned as well.
Part B: Development

6


This part consists of three chapters.
Chapter 2 is the central part of the study. The definition of the key terms and
the theoretical framework of the study are presented. The literature review was
clearly documented with the reference to previous existing studies of the same
fields. Literature related to neologism and its formation as well as translation
procedures were added accordingly.
Chapter 3 gives information about the methodology and the instruments used
in collecting as well as analyzing the data. Research design and subject selection is
also included.
Chapter 4: Results and discussion: presents, analyzes, and discusses the

findings that were obtained from the selected documents and interviews. In
addition, implications are also made based on the findings.
Part C: Conclusion
Chapter 5: This part summarizes the main points discussed in this study. It
also mentions the limitations of the study and includes recommendations and
suggestions for further studies.

7


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
The aim of this chapter is to lay the foundation of conceptual background for
the entire study. This section, therefore, contains a thorough, systematic, and
critical review on the relevant concepts such as translation, translation procedures,
neologism, neologism formation.
2.1. Definition of key terms
2.1.1. Neologism
A body of existing literature has successfully investigated and proposed
some notions concerning the concept of neologism. In fact, the term neologism is a
Greek word: “neos” means “new” and “logos” means “word” so that a neologism
signifies a new word. Newmark (1988) associated neologisms with “newly coined
lexical units or existing lexical units that acquire a new sense” (p. 140).
Additionally, as Oxford English Dictionary (2003) specified, a neologism is
described as “a newly generated word or lexical item that may be in the process of
switching in common life”. Nevertheless, in formal circumstances, it will not be
universally accepted. For example, the acronym WFH which stands for “working
from home” or “work from home” has been put into practical use regularly since the
outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic. “WFH” is widely applied in everyday
conversation but when it comes to situations in which formality and politeness are

highly appreciated, that word is hardly employed. In fact, this acronym was coined
a long time ago, but only in recent context when working at home is encouraged so
as to diminish the risk of the cross infection of the novel coronavirus within the
community has it been widely utilized and accepted.
With respect to the universal acceptance of neologism, Usevics (2013)
stipulated that for a word to be perceived as a neologism, it should not be lasting for
more than twenty-five years. Exceeding that limitation, the word is more likely to
be left out and forgotten by people since it is no longer in compliance with the

8


current situation and obviously, it will be deemed as either an old or widely-used
word. Crystal (2001) links the neologism creation with new lexical items foundation
which is only accepted within a community at a particular time, discussing that “the
creation of a new lexical item is a response to changed circumstances in the external
world, which achieves some currency within a speech community”. Stenetorp
(2010) also agreed with that statement, explaining that "a neologism is a lexeme that
is not described in dictionaries". Interestingly, according to Peprnik (2010),
neologism is not only counted as a part of the language but it also represents other
parts of life. He presented his idea that is "a neologism is a new word or sense of a
word" (Peprnik, 76). Overall, it can be said that a neologism is a newly generated
lexical item playing a significant role in the drastic development of not only
linguistic patterns but also of the whole society.
Moreover, when it comes to the linguistic and societal effects, neologism
makes it easier for the public to approach the process of coining new words. Qaisar
(2015) suggested that neologism is greatly contributing to generating the form of
words and coinage of new words. Apart from experts and specialists, it is the
language users all around the world that play an enormous role in creating new
words and expressions to satisfy their interest and need. Besides non-verbal cues

and body language, those terminologies play a central role in getting ideas
exchanged and emotions successfully reflected. However, neologism is not
necessarily a new word; instead, it can be an already established word with a newly
discovered meaning. With more people getting involved in creating new words, the
number of neologisms, especially the ones relating to the COVID-19 has been
rapidly increasing over the last few months. As mentioned earlier, language
represents the society; therefore, a probe into the way linguistic pattern in general
and neologism in particular is converted in different speaking languages is
imperative and advantageous to the discovery of societal and linguistic patterns.

2.1.2. Translation

9


As this study is central to investigating the use of translation procedures in
rendering COVID-19-inspired neologisms, clearly defining the notion of translation
is of great importance. The concept of translation has been studied and approached
by several linguists and scholars around the world, including Newmark, Nida, and
others. Each definition is distinct and contributes significantly to the implication of
the term. Here are some ideas extracted from the work of a variety of theorists
aforementioned:
Newmark (1988) defined translation as “rendering the meaning of a text into
another language in the same way that the author intended the text”. Nida (1969)
specified the nature of translation, stating that translating involves reproducing the
closest equivalent in the target language to guarantee the intended messages and
ideas in the source language, particularly the semantic and stylistic effects. Bell
(1991) also agrees on that statement, saying that translation is the expression in
another language of what has been in source language, preserving semantic and
stylistic equivalences. By this, the two most critical criteria for translation are

clearly identified: the completeness of the conveyed message and the style of the
source text.
Overall, despites the striking differences in rendering the notion of
translation among those academics, it is widely accepted that translation is the
process of reproducing the message involved in the source language into the target
one by identifying the equivalent of the words, phrases, and sentences or the whole
text in the two languages.

2.2. Conceptual framework
2.2.1. Neologism typology
There are many existing studies featuring the formation of neologisms.
Among them, there are four most prevailing ones: one study proposed by Newmark
in 1988, Silvia’s in 2001, another suggested by Krishnamurthy in 2010, and the last
one carried out by Shahlee and Ahmad nine years later in 2019. Each of the studies
has contributed to the illumination of matters surrounding translation theory to a

10


great extent, which is instrumental in discerning the nature of translation in general
and neologism in particular.

2.2.1.1. Newmark’s taxonomy
Peter Newmark (1988) categorized neologisms into two following types:
2.2.1.1. Semantic neologisms (existing lexical items with new senses)
a. Old words with new senses
A new approach to understand an existing word or phrase in accordance with
the current context has been flexibly developed. According to Newmark (1988),
lexical items are often “non-cultural and non-technical”. As these words hardly
refer to new objects or processes, they are rarely technological. In some cases, in

order to convey the exact messages in the source text, the translator tends to
purposefully employ an existing word to express a new meaning in the target
language or briefly describes its appearance or function, which diversifies the
nuance of the meanings of the lexical items.
b. Existing collocation with new senses
Newmark (1988) speculated that existing collocations with new senses can
be “technical or non – technical”. Saying that existing collocations with new senses
are actually “a translator’s trap”, he believed those phrases are usually “normal
descriptive terms which suddenly become technical terms” and therefore “their
meaning sometimes hides innocently behind a more general figurative meaning” (p.
142). Therefore, for their translation, based on Newmark (1988) if the concept
exists in the TL, the translator tends to prefer a recognized translation or through
translation. In case there is no equivalent in the TL, an economical descriptive
equivalent has to be provided.
2.2.1.2.

New forms

a. New Coinage
New coinage is a method usually applied to brand or trade names which are
normally transformed unless the product is brought out to the targeted culture under
another name. Based on Newmark’s model (1988), if the brand label is of no

11


cultural or identifying significance, “the proper name may be replaced by a
functional or generic term”. Thus, as long as they are original, they ought to be
transcribed and reiterated; likewise, in case of recently coined brands, those names
should be transcribed, or given their TL brand names.

b. Derived Words (including blends)
In most cases, neologisms are words derived by analogy from ancient Greek
and Latin morphemes with naturalized suffixes in the appropriate language.
c. Abbreviations
By this process, previously nonexistent words or initialisms have come into
use. These alphabetic abbreviations are characterized by the fact that each of their
letters is individually pronounced (as opposed to acronyms whose whole group is
pronounced all together). Newmark (1988) discussed that “unless they coincide
(“prof”) they are written out in the TL.” (p. 145).
d. New Collocations
From a linguist’s viewpoint, a collocation is “the habitual co-occurrence of
individual lexical items” while from a translator’s perspective, it “consists of lexical
items that enter mainly into high frequency grammatical structures” (p. 212). Out of
the collocation coinages, three most common types of collocation formation are
adjective plus noun, noun plus noun, and verb plus object.
e. Eponyms
Newmark (1988) viewed eponyms as “any word that is identical with or
derived from a proper name which gives it a related sense” (p. 198). He also divided
eponyms into three different categories: derived from persons, objects and animals.
When eponyms are considered direct referents to the person, they are translated at
ease but if they are used to mention the ideas or qualities of the referents, further
explanations must be supplemented accordingly. Being derived from objects,
eponyms are usually brand names, and can be transferred only when they are as
well known and accepted in the TL as in the SL. Eponyms deriving from
geographical names represent just a minor part of the new coinages.
f. Phrasal Words

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Newmark defined phrasal words as “new phrasal words are restricted to
English’s facility in converting verbs to nouns”. Most of the time, those words are
transferred by their semantic equivalents in the TL culture.
g. Transferred (new and old referents)
According to Newmark (1988), transferred neologisms are “newly
transferred words keeping only one sense of their foreign nationality”. They are the
lexical items whose meanings are least dependent on their contexts. Frequently used
in contemporary circumstances, those words change or develop additional senses,
and might no longer be translated back into their original languages in some cases.
h. Acronyms (new and old referents)
Based on Newmark’s perspectives, acronyms are “the initial letters of words
that form a group of words used for denoting an object, institution (p. 200).
Therefore, there is already either an established standard equivalent or descriptive
term to render its meaning in the TL. When it comes to acronyms for institutions
and companies’ names, they are usually transferred.
i. Pseudo-neologisms
A word is called a pseudo-neologism when “a generic word stands in for a
specific word”. (Newmark, 1988, p. 148)
j. Internationalism
It may be argued that Peter Newmark is one of the leading researchers that
have laid the foundation for the study of translation and related issues. Therefore,
his works and papers have unvaryingly been appreciated and regarded as the
literature for future studies into this field. Serving that purpose, this model has
provided reliable knowledge in terms of neologism and its creation methodology.
Not only is it meticulously researched but it is also logically hypothesized, which is
proved by the fact that albeit old, this model has still been put into application
significantly by a plethora of researchers of the contemporary generation.

2.2.1.2. Silvia’s taxonomy

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