" EQUIVALENCE AT WORD LEVEL "
A.
The
Word In Different Languages
1. What
is a word
The smallest unit which we would expect to possess
individual meaning is the word. Defined loosely, the word is ‘the smallest unit
of language that can be used by itself’ (Bolinger and Sears, 1968 :43).’ On
another hand, Most of us think of the word as the basic meaningful element in a
language. This is not strictly accurate.So, This will be discussed in more
detail in the following chapters.
2. Is there a one-to-one relationship between
word and meaning?
If you are consider a
word such as rebuild, you will note that there are two distinct elements of
meaning in it : re and build, i.e . ‘to build again ‘. Elements
of meaning which are represented by one orthographic words in one language. For
example, tennis player is written as
one word in Turkish ; tenisci; if it is
cheap as one word in Japanese : yasukattara
; but the verb type is rendered
by three words in Spanish : pasar a
maquina. This suggests that there is no one-to-one correspondence between
orthographic words and elements of meaning within or cross languages.
