Translation Types & Lexical Correspondences
“He fought like a true Robin Hood” → “U xuddi mahalliy botir kabi... jang qildi.” The foreign hero is replaced with a local one, and the target text reads as if it had been written in Uzbek from the start (House).
Covert translation
“I never heard of it!” → “Buni birinchi marta eshityapman!” The situation is described from the opposite angle (a negative sentence becomes an affirmative one).
Antonymic translation
From Greek neos “new” + logos “word”: “newly coined lexical units or existing lexical units that acquire a new sense” (Newmark, 1988).
Neologism
Elevator (US) vs. lift (UK); apartment (US) vs. flat (UK). Two different words for the same notion.
Lexical Americanism
Avoiding language that may offend or hurt people’s feelings; protecting and respecting the interests of national, religious, social and other minorities.
Political correctness
“It’s raining cats and dogs” → “Mushuklar va itlar yog‘moqda.” A word-for-word rendering that keeps the form, grammar and word order of the source text (Nida, 1964).
Formal equivalence
“Will you do the room?” → “Xonani yig‘ishtirasanmi?” A word with a wider meaning is replaced by one with a narrower meaning.
Specification (concretization)
Creation (proposed by a limited audience) → trial (diffusion, not yet widely accepted) → establishment (stabilized, widespread approval).
The three stages of a neologism
“They just left” instead of “They have just left.”
Grammatical Americanism: Past Simple instead of Present Perfect
Ms instead of Miss/Mrs; chairperson, spokesperson, firefighter instead of chairman, spokesman, fireman.
Gender-neutral language
An independent translator turns the translated text back into its original language so it can be compared with the source text as a quality check.
Back translation
“You are quite a stranger.” → “Sizni ko‘rmaganimizga ancha bo‘ldi.” A logical development of the notion expressed by the word.
Modulation
An old word acquires a new sense: footprint (a foot’s mark → our impact on the planet), spam, 404 (a clueless person).
Semantic neologism
The rule that keeps tenses consistent in reported speech: He said that he was tired. American English often relaxes it: “He said he is feeling bad.”
Sequence of tenses
Sanitation man (garbage collector), glass maintenance engineer (window cleaner), custodial officer (prison guard). A softening word that replaces a harsh or low-prestige one.
Euphemism
One English word has several possible equivalents and the translator picks one by context: solid fuel – qattiq yoqilg‘i, solid silver – sof kumush, solid arguments – asosli dalillar.
Variant correspondence
“Wet paint.” → “Ehtiyot bo‘ling, bo‘yalgan!” / “Help yourself.” → “Marhamat, oling!” A set phrase is replaced by a clichéd target-language phrase with the same speech function.
Integral transformation
Advertorial (advertisement + editorial), familymoon (family + honeymoon), farmageddon (farm + Armageddon).
Blending
Color, center, program: Americans “save” letters or use them in a way they consider more rational.
American spelling
Business class → biznes-klass. A PC term is rendered into Uzbek according to its sound.
Transcription
No dictionary match fits, so the translator creates one from context: “the blue-veined Swedish capital” → “kanallarning ko‘k tasmalari bilan bezatilgan Shvetsiya poytaxti.”
Contextual substitution
“Downing Street reported a drop in unemployment.” → “Buyuk Britaniya hukumati...” A transfer of meaning based on contiguity (from Greek meta “change” + onoma “name”).
Metonymical translation
Each character of the source language is assigned a unique character of the target language, so that exact reversal is possible.
Transliteration
In British English “It went like a bomb” means a huge success, but in American English “It bombed” means a total failure.
Idiomatic Americanism
Disabled / physically challenged people → imkoniyati cheklangan insonlar; economically disadvantaged people → kam ta'minlangan insonlar. Not a constant dictionary equivalent.
Partial equivalent