s - Wyższa Szkoła Filologiczna we Wrocławiu

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Alicja Witalisz
Taking into account the Germanic morphological pattern employed in these
Polish expressions, we are tempted to classify them as instances of loan translations;
however, most formations of this type exhibit a hybrid nature and are
either true loanblends (e.g., P. biznes wiadomości < E. “business news”), i.e.,
partial translations from English or hybrid creations (Haugen 1950: 221) without
English etymons (e.g., balkon party – E. lit. “balcony party”). Research
material provides only a few instances of loan translations of this type, as,
e.g., P. But sklep (E. “shoe shop”), used as a brand name of a Polish shoe shop.
2.4. Phraseological replicas
The substitution of foreign lexemes may extend to multi-word idiomatic
expressions, which are reproduced as native words in the receiving language.
The products of such translations may be termed as phraseological replicas
(Wesołowska 1978: 57) and include P. mieć ciasto i zjeść ciastko (< E. “to have
a cake and eat it”); P. mieć motylki w brzuchu (< E. “to have butterflies in the
stomach”), or P. nie ma co płakać nad rozlanym mlekiem (< E. “there is no use
crying over spilt milk”).
2.5. Other cases
Finally, whole syntactic phrases may be reproduced by native words of the
receiving language. A syntactic substitution may be illustrated by the Polish
translation of E. “How can I help you?” Its Polish version, Jak mogę (Pani/Panu)
pomóc?, is used quite strangely by Polish shop assistants instead of the more
traditional P. Proszę? English “No problem!” is translated into Polish as Nie ma
problemu!, which is heard frequently instead of the more natural Nie ma
sprawy. English figurative “at the end of the day” translates directly into Polish
as pod koniec dnia or na końcu dnia. The latter version is frequently used by
Poles who know their English idioms well. The existing Polish phrase pod
koniec dnia (E. lit. “at the end of the day” meaning ‘in the late afternoon’), differs
semantically and has no figurative sense.
In conclusion to this brief formal description of structural calques, to use
a broader term, it is worth pointing to more recent, cognitive approaches to borrowings,
which take into account the communicative acts and cognitive processes
that are involved when the speaker of a receiving language coins a new
expression and introduces it in his/her language. In other words, we ask about
the possible strategies we may use in a situation in which we are motivated to
coin a new, contact-induced innovation. One of the strategies, connected with
both loan translations and loan renditions, is treated as analogical innovations
by means of word-formation processes, where the receiving language user proposes
a semantic and morphological innovation that has its model in the donor