Université de Montréal - Thèse sous forme numérique

63For instance, in Figure 10 saudade and yearning are non-equivalents becausesaudade includes a large variety of semantic features among which are yearning. Asyearning corresponds to a very small portion of the meaning of saudade it will seldombe interchangeable with it.Quantitative typology of equivalenceAs mentioned in section 512.2.2, languages may exhibit differences that reflectdivergences in conceptual systems and that raise the question of the dictionary‘sdirectionality. We provided the example of the German Holz and the Portuguse lenhaand explained that lenha is not always the equivalent of Holz as madeira can also be theequivalent of Holz. In the Portuguese-German section of a bilingual dictionary therelation between lenha and Holz is one of 1:1 (one lexical unit in one languagecorresponds to another one only in another language). Conversely, in the German-Portuguese section of a bilingual dictionary the relation between Holz and itsequivalents is one of 1:2 (one lexical unit in one language corresponds to two lexicalunits in a different language).This kind of quantitive classification has been used in Hausmann (1977) whointroduced the terms Divergenz (when a source language lexical item corresponds totwo, three, etc. target language items) and Konvergenz (when two, three, etc., lexicalitems in the target language correspond to one source language item) to illustrate theproblem of directionality. In fact, the underlying basis of this classification is line withthe view taken by authors such as Piotrowski (1994) and Atkins and Rundell (2008)who underline the importance of syntagmatic contexts for equivalent differentiation. Itcan also be applied to equivalents in legal terminology. So, for instance, the Spanishterm culpable can have three different equivalents in Belgian law, i.e. fautif, coupableand culpeux depending on the syntagmatic use of these terms: