Calque

Lehnübersetzung denotes a compound term, which was formed after a foreign word by both or all components of foreign words were individually translated into another language. The term and the other Betz Lehnwortterminologie is mainly used in German, the German and Romance languages ​​and Slavic Studies.

If only a part of the output word literally translated, it is called Lehnübertragung.

Examples

The words grandmother and grandfather originated as a literal translation of French grand-mère and grand- père. Other loan translations are floodlit (English floodlight ) and data processing (english data processing ).

Another example is English skyscraper - literally translated in French as gratte -ciel ( calque ), literally translated in the German half as skyscrapers ( Lehnübertragung ).

Assessment

Conscious loan translations and Lehnübertragungen are ways to enrich a language without introducing recognizable as a foreign word or mostly on first hearing incomprehensible foreign words.

There are also loan translations unconscious as not really " not really " ( = engl. Not really ). This is often cited as an example of a bad translation, because in the German language " not really" mostly in terms of " almost never " or " restricted " will be used. Language critics like Wolf Schneider or Bastian Sick complain in their publications and specially this loan translation. Schneider calls this expression as an example of a "spread anglicism. "