To raise / to pose a question to skirt questions

a question of great importance to call into question

a question of the agenda / of a day to beg the question

to bring / settle / consider / treat a question FAQ

Lexical collocations consist of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

More or less free lexical combinations:

warm (est) regards (you may also use kind (est), best, but not hot, hearty, good!)

healthy diet closely acquainted

salubrious climate sound asleep

place hunter

Fixed collocations (arbitrary and not predictable):

to bring in an acquittal to display bravery

to file an affidavit to inflict a wound

to put on airs to load a camera

to impose an embargo hidden agenda

In free combinations the second element does not repeatedly occur. Define the key word. The attributive word is more difficult to translate without finding the semantic correspondence.

Caesarian section rank ingratitude

drug pusher coup de grace

aptitude test to reach a verdict

When translating you should find collocations in special combinatory dictionaries. Knowledge of other languages is usually of no help.

e.g. E.: to administer an oath ® R.: привести к присяге

The best dictionaries:

1. Roget’s Thesaurus

2. The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English

1. The Word and Phrase Finder (J.I.Rodale)
2. The dictionaries of collocations, synonyms, antonyms, idioms.

The aptness of a word to appear in specific grammatical (or rather syntactical structures) is termed grammatical valency. A grammatical collocation is a phrase consisting of a dominant word and a preposition or grammatical structure such as Infinitive or clause.

a compulsion / impulse / need to do, by accident, fool’s errand, prisoner of war, to smb’s advantage, necessary to work out, struggle for survival, on the alert, important for him to learn, martial arts,

anxious for (news), difficult to manage, voice-over,

anxious about (his health)

We reached an agreement that she would represent us in the court.

We consider her (to be) a competent engineer.

In English the semantic relationships between the components of the word group are broader.

Attributive groups are often used to convey various adverbial ideas of location (Stambul train), purpose (economy drive), cause (war suffering).

In multi-storied structures: e.g. the poll tax states governors conference.

A whole sentence is used to qualify a noun as its attribute (phrasal epithet).

e.g. girl-shy; oil-rich; the low-income, tax-ridden, pollution-choked, grief-stricken whites; do-no-harm Hippocritus idea; “birds-of-a-feather” spirit; long-felt need; tip-of-the-iceberg novels; on a need-to-know basis.

Cliché. Words habitually collocated in speech tend to constitute a cliché, a trite, overworked, stereotyped, rubber-stamped phrase. For the nature, kinds, origins of clichés – see “A Dictionary of Cliches” by Eric Partridge.

“A cliché is an outworn commonplace; a phrase (or virtual phrase) that has become so hackneyed that scrupulous speakers and writers shrink from it because they feel that its use is an insult to their audience or readers. They range from fly-blown phrases (explore every avenue), through soubriquets that have lost all points and freshness (the iron duke), to quotations that have debased currency (cups that cheer but not inebriate), metaphors that are now pointless, and formulas that have become mere counters (far be it from me to)”. (E.Partridge).

Many people scorn clichés as unoriginal, hackneyed terms to be avoided, but in fact they have become clichés because they are so apt and fit the situation so well. Anything can become a cliché if it is overused. Here is a selection:

Crime doesn’t pay. Life is what you make it.

Time flies. Isn’t nature wonderful!

It’s funny old world. Her death was a merciful release.

Home sweet home. He is a pillar of the community.

A translator should remember that the hardest worked cliché is better than the phrase that fails. It is necessary to learn clichés both in SL and TL.

Further reading and exercises:

1. Koralova: pp. 89-91; ex-s 1-3 pp. 91-93.

2. Козакова: Part 3 Chapter 3, pp. 190-210.

3. Translate the following collocations into Russian:

until death do them part, much of a muchness, to all intents and purposes, bete noire, to leave the sinking ship, far and wide, cherchez la femme, for good and all, blissful ignorance, to lead a dog’s life, as steady as a rock, that is the question, armed to the teeth, last but not the least, mutatis mutandis, to make a difference, the executive decision.

4. Translate the strings of collocations, using dictionaries:

· повелительный голос, сильный роман, неотразимая улыбка, убедительный пример, серьезная / крупная тема (Use one attributive word for all of these collocations)

· азбучная истина, стая гусей / рыбок / собак / китов / львов, жить по правилам, присудить степень, быть начитанным, напугать до смерти, заниматься спортом, кризис самоопределения, эталонная группа, история болезни, бюро жалоб, секретная информация, фирменный магазин, стихийное бедствие, бывший в употреблении, горная болезнь (болезнь высоты), дом к сносу, налоговая декларация, надежный поставщик, осторожный ответ, фактическая дата.

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