Challenges and procedures in transferring fully metaphorical terms in the EU’s multilingual institutional setting
Kätlin Järve
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BelgiumKätlin Järve is working as a translator and terminologist for the European Parliament, while also pursuing her doctoral studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research is centered on metaphorical terms, secondary term formation, the connotative value of metaphorical terms, and the role of terminology in achieving the objective of clear language. Acting as a link between the academic sphere and the daily practice of the world’s most multilingual parliament, she has presented her research at several international conferences, within the European institutions, and to her home audience in Estonia.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6673-0722
Koen Kerremans
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BelgiumDr. Koen Kerremans is Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where he teaches in the Applied Linguistics bachelor’s programme, the master’s programme of Translation and the specialisation profile of Multilingual Mediation and Communication within the Master’s of Linguistics & Literary Studies. His research interests encompass terminology, translation technology, and communication within professional institutional contexts. He has a track record of publications on these topics as well as presentations at various conferences.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9966-6141
Abstract
The use of figurative language in European political jargon can pose a significant translation challenge, particularly given the European Union’s 24 official languages. This study examines fully metaphorical terms such as whistleblower, gatekeeper, and greenwashing, aiming to identify issues of interlingual transfer from English into Italian and Estonian – a rare language combination in multilingual terminology research. Following a descriptive, cognitive approach, the research combines qualitative and quantitative observations of terminological data taken from IATE, the terminology database of the European institutions. The objective is to propose a concrete set of procedures that can be put into practical use by language professionals in the processes of term creation and translation. As a result of analysing the way fully metaphorical English terms are rendered, our study identifies five main interlingual transfer procedures. The findings reveal that direct metaphor transfer, the most common method, is not applied when the transferred metaphor would have culture-specific connotations incompatible with the source language’s unit of understanding. In such cases, the metaphor may be lost, adapted, changed, or the English term borrowed. The study highlights the importance of well-considered terminological choices in multilingual institutional settings where political decisions have a significant social impact.
Keywords:
metaphorical terms, interlingual transfer, IATE, procedures of metaphor transfer, secondary term formation, EU terminology, clear communicationReferences
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Kätlin Järve is working as a translator and terminologist for the European Parliament, while also pursuing her doctoral studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research is centered on metaphorical terms, secondary term formation, the connotative value of metaphorical terms, and the role of terminology in achieving the objective of clear language. Acting as a link between the academic sphere and the daily practice of the world’s most multilingual parliament, she has presented her research at several international conferences, within the European institutions, and to her home audience in Estonia.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6673-0722Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Dr. Koen Kerremans is Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where he teaches in the Applied Linguistics bachelor’s programme, the master’s programme of Translation and the specialisation profile of Multilingual Mediation and Communication within the Master’s of Linguistics & Literary Studies. His research interests encompass terminology, translation technology, and communication within professional institutional contexts. He has a track record of publications on these topics as well as presentations at various conferences.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9966-6141
