The present study is based on the semantic and grammatical analysis of collective nouns. This stands for the theoretical approach in conjunction with some practical aspects regarding the appropriate translation of collective entities. The main question is whether the terms or phrases under discussion are rendered as in the source language. Unlike Romanian, English reveals a wide range of collectives. One of the strangest incongruities of English is that there are numerous different collective nouns that all mean a ‘group’, but are specific to particular things such as: a crowd of protesters, a troop of monkeys, a rope of onions etc. An important aspect related to collectives is their interpretation as a ‘collection of objects’ or ‘individual entities’. Most of them (family, jury, group, herd, crowd etc.) are clearly understood as making up a collection and treated accordingly; others are still subject to heated debate due to difficulties in their classification. Translation of collective entities is a matter of whole meaning. As long as the translator does not put much emphasis on the separate units, but care more about the relevant features of a word in a certain context, he stands every chance of finding the proper equivalent in the target language. Establishing the necessary accuracy in translating collective entities should become the translator’s main goal.
The citations/references list is based on indexed publications only, and may therefore be incomplete. For any and all inquiries related to the database, please contact us at [Please enable javascript to view.].
Preview:
Journal “Diacronia” ISSN: 2393-1140 Frequency: 2 issues / year