Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

62Zero equivalenceZero equivalence can occur in three different situations. Firstly, there may not be acorresponding notion and designation in the target language. This is, for instance, thecase of the Brazilian caipirinha. A caipirinha is a cocktail made of cachaça (sugar canerum), sugar (preferably powdered) and lime. Although it is Brazil‘s national cocktail, itis almost unknown outside it.Secondly, the notion exists but there may not be a designation in the targetlanguage. This is, for instance, the case of the ombudsman. Ombudsman is an originallyDanish, Norwegian, and Swedish term that refers to a representative appointed by thegovernment or by an organization who is charged with representing the interests of thepublic by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens.Countries other than Denmark, Norway and Sweden may know the notion but borrowthe foreign term. Thirdly, the vast majority of semantic features or conceptual featuresof the source lexical unit or term is not included in the target one.Figure 10. Example of zero equivalence betweensaudade and yearning