Category
Unit of operation
Constraint
56 entries
Direct transfer
Procedures that keep the source form, in whole or in part, and move it across with minimal structural change.
Borrowing
Carry the source item into the target text unchanged.
Calque
Translate the parts of a source expression and build the target term from them.
Established equivalent
Render a fixed expression by the fixed expression the target language already has.
Literal translation
Transfer the source structure directly, and depart from it only for cause.
Naturalization
Reshape a borrowed word to target pronunciation, then to target morphology.
Recognized translation
Use the official rendering of an institutional term, whether or not you like it.
Translation label
A provisional rendering, flagged as provisional, for a term with no settled equivalent.
Transliteration
Convert a name from one script to another under a stated convention.
Grammatical shift
Changes of word class, rank, structure or system, where the content is held constant and the grammar is rebuilt.
Chassé-croisé
Two elements swap both position and word class, typically manner and direction.
Clause structure change
Rearrange the constituents of a clause while its content stays put.
Cohesion change
Alter the surface links that hold the parts of a text together.
Intra-system shift
Both languages have the system; the target selects a non-corresponding term.
Level shift
What one language marks in its grammar the other has to say in words.
Phrase structure change
Change the internal makeup of a phrase without disturbing its role in the clause.
Sentence structure change
Repackage the sentence: split it, join it, or re-rank its clauses.
Structure shift
The ordered configuration of clause elements differs between source and target.
Transposition
Render a source word class by a different target word class, message unchanged.
Unit shift
The target equivalent sits at a different rank from the source unit.
Voice change
Turn an active clause passive, or a passive clause active.
Semantic shift
Changes to the angle, the level of specificity or the figurative content of what is said.
Abstraction change
Move the expression to a more abstract or a more concrete level.
Cause and effect
Name one link in a causal chain where the source names another.
Componential analysis
Render a term by its nearest target equivalent plus the components that distinguish it.
Converses
State the same relation from the other participant's end.
Distribution change
Spread the same meaning over more target items, or pack it into fewer.
Emphasis change
Add, reduce or relocate the prominence given to part of a message.
Generalization
Replace a source term with a superordinate that covers it.
Modulation
The same situation, described from a different angle.
Negation of the opposite
Name the contrary and negate it, or drop the negation and name the contrary.
Part and whole
Name a part where the source names the whole, or the reverse.
Particularization
Replace a source term with a hyponym that names the referent more precisely.
Scheme change
Keep, swap, drop or add a formal pattern such as parallelism or repetition.
Synonymy
Use a near-equivalent where no exact one exists, or to avoid a repetition.
Trope change
Keep, replace or drop a figure of speech when the target cannot carry it.
Pragmatic and cultural
Operations on the information offer itself: what the reader is told, how much is spelled out, and how far the text is brought home.
Adaptation
Replace a source-culture situation with one the target culture actually knows.
Amplification
Introduce detail the source did not formulate, so the reader gains content.
Compensation
Restore elsewhere an effect that could not be rendered where it occurred.
Cultural filtering
The text-level policy on how far the source culture is carried across.
Description
Replace a term with an account of what it looks like or what it does.
Discursive creation
Establish a temporary equivalence that only its own context can justify.
Explicitation
State overtly what the source left recoverable from grammar or context.
Functional equivalent
Render a cultural word by a culture-free term that states what it does.
Implicitation
Leave to grammar or context what the source states on the surface.
Linguistic amplification
Add wording without adding information.
Linguistic compression
Condense the wording and keep the information.
Notes and glosses
Supply what the running text cannot carry, inside it or outside it.
Paraphrase
Render the sense of the larger unit when its parts have no counterparts.
Reduction
Suppress a source information item, wholly or in part.
Discourse and text level
Interventions above the sentence, where the translator's remit and the commission start to determine what is permitted.
Coherence change
Reorganize how the information in a text is arranged and sequenced.
Illocutionary change
Render the source as a different speech act from the one it performs.
Information change
Add content the source did not carry, or drop content judged irrelevant.
Interpersonal change
Shift the formality, distance or technicality between author and reader.
Partial translation
Leave defined parts of the source untranslated, by design and on the record.
Substitution
Exchange words for gestures and intonation, or gestures for words.
Transediting
Re-edit a poorly written source while translating it, by prior agreement.
Variation
Change the dialect, sociolect, tone or style that marks who is speaking.
Visibility change
Alter how perceptible the author or the translator is in the text.