Translation Equivalents of Vague Language Items: A Study of General Extenders in a Parallel Corpus

Abstract

The present paper aims to show how a contrastive analysis of English and Lithuanian based on a parallel corpus can be used in studying translation equivalents. The paper examines the category of general extenders, which are often treated as a vague language category. General extenders include such lexical items as etc./ et cetera, and so on, or/ and something like that. The analysis is based primarily on the Parallel Corpus of the Lithuanian Language. Where relevant, the issue of equivalence between English and Lithuanian is discussed by comparing the data to the results obtained from monolingual English and Lithuanian corpora. The study shows that a parallel corpus is especially useful when searching for equivalents in the target language since it clearly displays the differences in the inventory of a particular category in two languages. The establishment of equivalent categories in English and Lithuanian is especially important in terms of lexicography and translation. The equivalents of vague language items are also interesting from the perspective of cross-cultural differences; the data have revealed the tendency to omit vague language categories in the target language, which might point to the possibility of some cross-cultural differences or the general tendency to underestimate vague language categories. Key words: