Beyond words: Collocations
If you don’t have one, get one. It’s not the reference book I use most, but it’s definitely my favorite. It’s the BBI Dictionary of Word Combinations, by Morton Benson, Evelyn Benson and Robert Ilson.
According to Wikipedia’s entry on the topic, a collocation refers to “the restrictions on how words can be used together, for example which prepositions are used with particular verbs, or which verbs and nouns are used together.”
A company is under new management. Competitition is stiff. A plane overshoots a runway. The building blocks of language are not only nouns, verbs and prepositions but these fixed pairings that are particular to each language. And using these collocations correctly is the sign of a true native so they’re especially important for translators when polishing their final draft because, as we know — and this is true for native speakers, too — turns of phrase from the source language tend to creep into the translation.
There are a few other collocation dictionaries out there beside the BBI, which I haven’t had a chance to review. And I’ve looked for years for an equivalent dictionary in other languages, particularly French, but haven’t found one. Anyone?
5 responses so far ↓
1 Bertrand // Apr 30, 2008 at 7:13 am
For French, there are a number of online ressources, in particular the excellent “dictionnaire des collocations” by Toni Gonzalez (http://www.tonitraduction.net/) and “Mediadico” (http://www.tonitraduction.net/)
2 Bertrand // Apr 30, 2008 at 7:15 am
sorry, for mediadico, I meant: dictionnaire.mediadico.com/traduction/dictionnaire.asp/expression/dictionnaire/2007
3 Glenn // Apr 30, 2008 at 7:43 am
Bertrand,
These are terrific. I especially like the easy layout of the tonitraduction. Thanks a lot.
4 Mona Albrechtsen // Jan 10, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Trying to find a site (?) that would help me translate Serbian on Facebook. Any recommendations?
5 Glenn // Jan 11, 2009 at 10:41 am
Mona,
Thanks for the question. I wish we could point you in the right direction, but we don’t do much in this language pair. There’s bound to be people in the facebook and/or serbian translation community that can help you.
Regards,
Glenn
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