Lexicographic treatment of zero equivalence in Isizulu dictionaries

Abstract

One of the main tasks of compilers of bilingual dictionaries is to find suitable transla-tion equivalents for source language lemmas in the target language. It could be expected that to a large degree one should find full equivalence, or at least partial equivalents in the target language and that there might not be many instances where such translation equivalents are not available. Typically common words such as table, chair, man, woman come to mind and they are most likely to have equivalents in the target language. This article focuses on lexical and referential gaps between English and isiZulu, and their treatment in English and isiZulu paper dictionaries. The aim is to determine to what extent suitable translation equivalents are available for English and isiZulu lemmas and what the nature, extent and treatment strategies are in cases where such equivalents are not available. It will be shown that the extent of zero equivalence is much higher for this lan-guage pair than expected in general literature on zero equivalents. In some cases a specific concept is known in the target language but the target language has no word for it but in many instances the concept itself is unknown in the target language which implies that the language will also not have a word for such a concept.

Een van die hooftake van samestellers van tweetalige woordeboeke is om geskikte vertaalekwivalente vir brontaal-lemmas in die doeltaal te vind. Daar kan verwag word dat 'n mens in 'n groot mate volle ekwivalensie of ten minste gedeeltelike ekwivalente in die doeltaal sal vind, en dat daar moontlik nie baie gevalle sal wees waar sulke vertaalekwivalente nie beskik-baar is nie. Gewoonlik word eerste gedink aan gewone woorde soos tafel, stoel, man, vrou en is dit waarskynlik dat hulle ekwivalente in die doeltaal sal hê. Hierdie artikel fokus op leksikale en ver-wysingsgapings tussen Engels en isiZulu en hulle bewerking in papierwoordeboeke vir Engels en isiZulu. Die doel is om vas te stel tot watter mate geskikte vertaalekwivalente beskikbaar is vir Engelse en isiZulu lemmas en wat die aard, omvang en behandelingstrategieë is in gevalle waar sulke ekwivalente nie beskikbaar is nie. Daar sal aangetoon word dat die omvang van zero-ekwiva-lensie vir hierdie taalpaar veel groter is as wat in die algemene literatuur verwag word oor zero-ekwivalente vir beide leksikale en verwysingsgapings. In sommige gevalle is 'n spesifieke begrip in die doeltaal bekend, maar die doeltaal het geen woord daarvoor nie, maar in baie gevalle is die begrip self onbekend in die doeltaal, wat impliseer dat die taal ook nie 'n woord vir so 'n begrip sal hê nie.