Translating Lexical Collocations. The case of the translation into Albanian of the Portrait of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

ISMAIL QEMALI UNIVERSITYCOLLEGE OF HUMAN SCIENCES

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENTMASTER OF SCIENCES IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

Master s Diploma Thesis

Translating lexical collocations. The case of the translation into Albanian of the Portrait of Dorian Gray,

by Oscar Wilde.

A work done by

Denada Shehaj

A thesis proposal submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of 

MASTER OF SCIENCES IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

Approved by Dr. Alketa Pema, thesis adviser

September, 2014

Declaration of AuthorshipI declare that I have worked on this thesis on my own and that every kind of

information that is used is clearly cited

Acknowledgements

At first I would like to thank my thesis supervisor,

Dr.Alketa Pema for her precious guidance, support,

substantial suggestions and encouragement. She is for me not

only a great

teacher but rather a wonderful person who accepted me without

any condition.

I am grateful to my family for their support and patience

during all my years of study.

Thank you my God for leading me, helping me and for having

been there every time I needded you.You gave me

strength,volition, nerves, energy,courage and pleasure.

I would also like to thank all of my friends that helped

me with material and every kind of help I needed.You have

been an encouragement to me

Table of Contents

Declaration of Authorship ------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgement ------------------------------------------------------------ Abstract -------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Introduction 1.1 Aims and roles of collocations ---------------------------------------------------------- 1.2 Recognition and importance of collocations--------------------------------------- 1.3 Characteristics of collocations………………………………………………. 1.4 Limitations to the study…………………………………………………..

2 Types of Collocations 2.1Definitions of Collocations-------------------------------------------------------------- 2.2 Difficulties and Problems in translating collocations--------------------------- 2.3Distinction between collocations and idioms------------------------------------------- 2.4 Lexical and Grammatical collocations-------------------------------------------------------

3 Collocations and Literary Text 3.1 Translation---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.2 Translation of collocations ---------------------------------------- 3.3 Translation of literary texts-------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.4 Translation of collocations in literary texts---------------------------------------------- 3.5 Strategies in translating collocations in literary text----------------------------------------

4 Methodology 4.1 Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.2 Materials 4.3 Methodology---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.4 Examples of lexical collocations /the sample---------------------------------------------- 4.5 Analysis of the results---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conclusions and recomendations---------------------------------------------------- Bibliography ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Appendix ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abstract

 Collocation is considered one of the major `trouble spots' for

translators. This may be assigned to the difficulty in

anticipating the constituent elements of a collocation, the

considerable variation in collocability across languages and the

lack of suitable resources on collocation. However, few empirical

studies have been made so far on the types of collocations that

are particularly problematic to the translator, the specific

sources of the problem and the procedures that translators refer

in handling such collocations. 

The present study aims at investigating the translation of English

lexical collocation into Albaninan and analyzing lexical

collocations in a given literary text, to show differences and

similarities in bringing together the two text the ST and TT. Also

it takes into account the frequency of occurrence and translation

strategies. I have chosen the distinguished literary work of Oscar

Wilde " The portrait of Dorian Gray" and two Albanian translations

of it. It is important to see how collocations of English are

translated by different translators in two different translated

versions. A set of collocations are selected to be translated and

analyzed basically the patterns adjective + noun" verb + noun;

adverb + adjective" and noun + noun, in a literary text which are

the basic combination in translation process. It is important to

pay attention to the phenomenon of collocations and to what

extent the frequency of lexical collocation is because they

constitute an important and vital aspect of productive

vocabulary. It's of great importance to stress the necessity that

all Second language learners as well as translators and

interpreters have in recognizing and properly translating this

language phenomenon known as collocation.

Keywords: collocation,lexical, translation, context, arbitrary, combinability,

transparency, cohesiveness.

.

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Aims of the study.

Collocations are a fascinating linguistic phenomenon in language

in general and in translation in particular. They are repeated

combinations of words whose co-occurrence is higher than chance.

They are usually used spontaneously in people’s speech as unmarked

collocations, whereas the marked ones carry out the creative

element, and thus are used a lot in literary texts. Collocation

is a lexical relation between words that are possible to combine

usually with certain other words to form a semantic unit. This

combination does not depend on rules but to certain constrains

that determine the way they can be combined to convey meaning.

The meaning gained from collocations is not simply a matter of

associating ideas but as Palmer says is "idiosycratic" and cannot

be predictable of the meaning of the other words. Many linguists

have acknowledged the significant role collocations play when

applied appropriately and functionally in the process of foreign

language learning and translation Abu Ssyadeh (2007).

According to Oxford Collocation Dictionary (2002:Vii), collocations run

through the whole of English language and no piece of natural

spoken or written English is totally free of collocations. For

English learners choosing the right collocation make their speech

and writing sound more natural. Hence collocations are essential

to the process of vocabulary development and are deeply embedded

within a language. Researchers believe that there is a great need

to give careful attention to collocations in specialized fields of

knowledge. Helena Halmari (2004, 202) says that "we use words

together with other words without imagining that we are making

unconscious choices of what combinations go well together and

since they are used as combinations, they are potential conveyer

of culture or of a certain ideology". As we have to deal with the

translation of collocations it is very important to have some

basic and good knowledge in the translation process itself.

Translators should have enough competence, which can be defined as

one's knowledge of language and ability to use it.

Translating collocations is an eternal struggle for English

Learners because it is very difficult to match the proper noun

with the proper verb or noun. As individual words, collocation

patterns carry meaning and can be culture specific, adding here

their arbitrary nature which leads to considerable problems in

translation. In a more particular way collocation is a famous

component of a native speaker knowledge of the language

(Howarth,1993). Many collocations are sometimes misrepresented to

the target audience due to a failure to recognize their

linguistic, stylistic, and cultural aspects. Therefore, in this

thesis is investigated the importance of the translation of

collocations in literary texts.

The aim of the research is to explain how lexical collocations

are translated when transferred into the target language, and

whether the target text (TT) has met the linguistic and the

stylistic characteristics of the collocations or not. It aims at

identifying, classifying and analysing lexical collocations. As a

result, three questions will be investigated:

What happens to collocations when they are translated?

How do translators deal with collocations?

What strategies do they adopt in translating collocations in

literary texts?

Which type of lexical collocations under the study is most

used (The frequency of lexical collocations).

This study is significant because answering these questions will

prove a repeated phenomenon within the translation process and

the translators’ methods in dealing with this aspect of language

in a particular genre.

Chapter One presents a short introduction about collocations

including the aims of the study, and the research questions. It

stresses the importance of collocations and how can they be

recognized in a text.What are some of the difficulties and

problems that collocations bear in translation and what are the

limitations for this research. At last some key words that are

embeded in the entire work are provided.

Chapter Two provides a background information of what collocations

are and how different scholars have defined the term.Which are two

most important types of collocations, their classification and

some basic characteristics of them.

Chapter Three reviews the translation as a process of rendering

one language into another,then it focuses in the translation of

the collocations. As we are dealing with a literary text it is

necessary to put some information about the translation of

literary text and then the translation of collocations in a

literary text.Finally we are going to see some strategies in the

translation of collocations.

Chapter Four deals with methodology. It presents an introduction

about the work in study and a lot of lexical examples that are

elected from the translated books under the study. The founded

samples are ilustrated in tables and further analysed.At the end

some conclusions are provided based on the reserch.

1.2 Recognizing collocations and their importance

Recognition

Sometimes we find it difficult to decide what a collocation is and

what is not, but Schutze offers two possible solutions.

One is to count of their frequency in a text. If two or more

words occur together in a great amount there is obvious that

they have a special function that is as consequence of their

combinations.

The other way is by translating the collocation in the TL. If

we cannot translate the combination word for word then we are

dealing with a collocation

It is well known that the translators as well as students that

master an English language pose difficulty in translating

collocations. According to the research done in this area this

was due to the unfamiliarity with English language and culture.

This inability to master English language puts them into

difficulty in translating a text correctly. So it should be

teachers duty to draw students attention to improve collocational

competence in order to be aware of the phenomenon and to be able

to overcome difficulties they came across with when translating

collocations.

A translator must be very familiar and should recognize

collocations in a given text even though they find difficulties

because of the varying types that can be found. Collocations can

be found in any type of text and everywhere, so first translators

should have great competence in foreign language in order to use

and produce appropriate collocations. We cannot say that the

combination of words is strict to the rules but it has some

restrictions on how they are combined to convey meaning. According

to Schutz (1999:142) the most important role of collocations is

the generation of natural language. So, collocations make

language more precise, rich and appealing. Hill (2000) regards

collocation as an "important key to fluency" (p.55) and states

that the density of unrecognized collocations not that of the new words

makes listening and reading in a foreign language difficult,

whereas collocation competence would allow students to read more

widely, understand more quickly and speak more fluently.

The inability of learners to recognize a collocation as a whole

combination is different from the meaning of its individual

elements. For example the meaning of dry depends on its collocate

which is different from the meaning of it in isolation as in: dry

cow, dry bread, dry voice, dry book, dry humor etc. One may fail to recognize

the meaning of dry in combination with voice and may mistranslate it

which is not moist, while it means cold in the sense of not

expressing emotion. Thus in translation is crucial to pay

attention to the collocational meaning rather than substituting

individual words from their dictionary elements (Baker1992:53).

The recognition of a collocation is important in the process of

translation because when a word collocates with another word it

may have secondary meaning which is different from its primary one

and cannot be translated in word for word into the TL. Take for an

example the expression of dry. When the word dry is said in isolation,

its primary meaning will be something that is not wet or moist.

But if it co-occurs with the expression of cow as in dry cow, and

the word voice as in dry voice, the meaning has nothing to do with not

wet or moist. The former means a cow which does not produce milk, and

the latter refers to a voice which is dull or cold and does not

express any emotion. The obstacle in recognizing them may be due

to the fact of considerable meanings displayed by the secondary

meaning of collocation. Because of its various meaning, it can

deceive the translator in transferring into the receptor language.

If the expression is heard often the words become sticked together

in our minds.[ladies and gentleman]. It appears in that order because it

is a collocation, it always stand in that order and to put them

the other way around seems wrong.

Importance of collocations in language

Collocations play an essential role in language. They are its

beautiful part as they play an important role in the coherence of

the structure of a language (Ghazala, 1995:130). Manning and

schutz (1999:142) maintain the important role of collocations in

the generation of natural language. Oxford collocations Dictionary

stresses: " Collocation is the way words combine in a language to

produce natural sounding speech and writing" (2002:7) it continues

with the definition that " Language that is collocationaly rich is

more precise, so collocations make language more precise, reach

and attractive and this precision is conditioned by the context,

by the words that surround and combine with the core word, and by

the collocation" (2002:9), this is one function of the

collocation, another function is the communicative aspect. If we

will be able to use the nouns with the proper verbs, the proper

adjectives with proper nouns it will improve linguistic competence

and people will be able to talk about any subject and communicate

effectively (Saricas,2006:36).

Ghazala shows that collocations have stylistic functions and have

to be taken into consideration when translating them, and that the

aesthetic function is the most important stylistic function of

collocations. The more knowledge we have of collocations the more

competent we are in the use of language. A grammatically correct

sentence will be distinguished as difficult if the collocation

preferences are broken. This makes collocation an interesting area

for language teaching. Hill (2000) regards collocations an

important key to fluency and the more unrecogized collocations are

the more difficult it makes reading and listening task.

Collocations can indicate one s competence in a language, they

allow students to read more widely, to understand more quickly and

speak more fluently. Fluency according to Lewis is based on the

acquisition of a large storage of items which are key element in

the foundation of any linguistic novelty or creativity. Bolinger

(1985:69) gives a warning to us saying that: " a speaker who does

not command this collection, does not know the language". A lot of

previous studies have discussed collocations and its significance.

The use and learning of collocations seems very important for any

second language learner who will be able to use English at an

academic setting. If you want to become fluent, the use of

collocations is crucial but not only.

Lewis,(1997:15) Porto,(1998) Wei,(1999), Oxford collocations

dictionary(2002:Vii), and Mc Carthy O Dell (2005:6) state that the

productivity of collocations insure the mental lexicon with a wide

range of English words combinations which lead to the growth of

accuracy and fluency. Another important role of collocations

stated by Hatim and Mason is that they are considered "crucial in

creating lexical cohesion" (1997, p.47) They stated that the more

frequent the collocational pattern the more cohesive will the text

be. Lewis indicates that language consists of chunks that produce

coherent text when they are combined. Nadja in his collocations learning

corpus(2005) stresses the major role that collocations play in

language processing and use. He notes also their role in

supporting comprehension and language learning because they help

in the development of creative language.

Newmark (1988) highlights the importance of collocations for

written text. He says "if grammar is the bones of a text,

collocations are the nerves, more sensitive, multiple and specific

in indicating the meaning". Furthermore he points that it is the

collocation that adds comprehension to words in a text. fex: The

noun affect the sense of its adjective as in (pretty sight). He claims

that the most powerful contextual influence on words is the

collocation (1991, p.91). This claim was reinforced and supported

by Baker who states that "what a word means often depends on its

association with certain collocates" (p.539).

According to Hill collocation is an important feature of all such

texts although each text has its own collocational

characteristics. A definite reason why collocations are important

is because the way words may combine in collocations is basic to

all language use (Lewis 53). The other argument is that

collocations occur in language so often that it is not possible

to ignore them. Linguists like Newmark (1988) and Abu- Ssyadeh

(2007), consider collocations as "nerves of the text and lexis is

the flash" (p. 213). Also a central role is played by collocations

in the process of foreign language learning and translation, Abu-

Ssyadeh (2007, p. 70). Language is one of the great powers. The

diversity of human language along with its complex special

features is actually the only property of human race ( Surat

ArRum,22). As the linguistic is the direct study of human language

and ought to discover the universals concerning by describing and

explaining it, the study of human errors in the domain of language

is a major component of a core linguistic. The importance of

collocations in language as well as in translation has been given

a priority. As They play a vital role in language they have

attracted the interest of linguists in their translation. The

production and use of the proper collocations indicates language

proficiency and so their association play a vital role organizing

the relations within a text, wherefore they are crucial to the

interpretations of a text.(Halliday & Hasan, 1976, p. 287).

1.3 Characteristics of collocations

Collocations as many other translations problems should be taken

into account by translators. They are challenging when it comes to

the translation process. They follow the pattern of two words that

can be formed by either a noun + noun , adjective + noun, adverb

+ adjective, verb + noun etc. Two words together each of one with

different meanings are combined in such a way to give one

meaning; as in Fast food, quick meal; heavy rain; catch a bus etc. You try to

find the meaning of each word separately but what you bring is a

mess, a confusion of meaning.

Another characteristic of collocations is that they are enough

flexible patterns of language which allow several variations in form.

For example deliver a baby, delivery of a letter, a letter has been delivered and

having delivered a letter are all acceptable collocations.

Sinclair (1991, p.109) sees collocations as occurrence of two or

more words within a short space of each other in a text. He

distinguishes the "node" and the "collocate" the node is the main

word in the collocation pattern and the words that come either to

the right or to the left of the node are called collocates. In

relation to these collocates, Sinclair suggests that each

collocation has its span; this is the distance between the

collocation’s constituents. (the number of lexical items on each

side) Although the span can be measured by the number of

collocates, Sinclair suggests that the siginficant collocates are

found within a span of 4:4 they can be found in a span of four

words on each side of the node (before and after the word) as a

standard measurement of a span. Collocational range commonly

depends on the different meanings and senses of the word; a more

generic word collocates with more words and thus its collocational

range will be wider. However, more specific words collocate with

fewer words and thus the collocational range is narrower, as is

the case with bound and restricted collocations. The nodes and

collocates are important terms to define collocations. Important

is to chose the " node" in each lexical category of collocations.

-Collocations have the characteristics of combinability and

transparency which are decisive characteristics.

Combinability:

The classification of collocations (Aisenstad 1979,1981) is based

on the combinability of the elements within a collocation. In the

example make/ take a decision one element of a collocation is

considered to be restricted in its combinability. Restricted

combinability is when the words can co-occur with a word, three

or more words or collocates. The verbs make and take are combined

with " a decision" so there are two possibilities of verbs to combine

with a noun "a decision". Thus it is not restricted. [-

Restricted combinability].The verbs have a wide and unclear

meaning and collate with many different nouns. (Aisenstad

1981:57).When the word in a collcation has only one possibility in

combnining with other words it is refered as [+Restricted

combinability].Collocation occurs when two or more words combine,

forming a lexical unit such as "to have a lunch", or "extremely

happy". When the word has only one possibility of combinability

with other words they refer to restricted combinability. Howarth

(1996) considered combinability as a significant factor that

characterizes collocations. Some scholars use only the criterion

of combinability to distinguish collocations from free

combinations and others find both the criterion of combinability

and transparency necessary to differentiate between collocations

and idioms. (Aisenstad 1979;1981). For Warth combinability is a

significant factor that characterizes collocations.

Transparency (freely recombinable collocations)

Can be expressed as figurativeness of the words in a collocation.

It means weather the elements of the combination have a literal

or a non- literal meaning (Nesselhauf 2005). When a collocation is

literal, is defined as [+Transparency] and when is not literal is

regarded as [-Transparency] This is one criteria that has always

been used to distinguish between collocations and idioms

(Aisenstad 1979; 1981). In collcoations whose meanings are

transparent , the primary or literal meaning of the word is used

in combination with other words. In terms of collocations whose

meanings are not literal, the figurative sense of the word can be

identified rather its literal sense in combination with other

words.

1) +Restricted combinability / + Transparency (literal meaning) --

beautiful creature(krijesë e bukur)

2) -Restricted combinability/-Transparency (figurative

meaning)---------odd chaps(njerëz të mykur)

The first group includes collocations in which the node can

be combined only with one or two possible words and in which

a collocate has literal features in meaning (i. e. if a

collocate "verb " in the "verb +noun " collocation for

example, has literal meaning, it is classified as

transparency even if the collocation has figurative

meaning.for example: cure the soul (literal meaning)------- shëroj

shpirtin, but cure the soul means to be purified, honest as a

person.

The second group includes collocations that are not

restricted in combinability ( i.e the nod can be combined

with three or more possible words) with non literal or

figurative meaning. It is classified as [- transparency]

even if a noun in a" verb + noun" collocation has literal

meaning). A collocation is classified as [+transparency ]

when one of the words are used in their primary literal sense

and [-transparency] when either of the words are used in

their figurative sense. Tell the truth for example is

characterized as [+restricted combinability], whereas in the

case of make a speech there are options such as " make"

"give" or " write", and this is a [-restricted

combinability].

[free combinations: run a risk or a business, make an attempt or way]

[restricted combinations: adjective +noun; adverb+ verb; verb

+noun; noun+ verb].

Collocation strength

Carter (1987 in Taiwo, 2004). Lewis (1998 in Deveci, 2004) and

collocations dictionary(2002) make another categorization for

collocations strength.

Strong collocations present a large number, for example the

collocation expression rancid butter is strong and it is

generally used but this doesn’t mean that other things cannot

be rancid. So, strong collocations are words that almost

always go together.

Weak collocations are words which co- occur with a greater

frequency. Many things can be long or short, cheap or expensive, good or

bad, but some things are more predictable, which could be

called collocation for example white wine or red wine.

Medium strength are words that go together with a greater

frequency than weak collocations: hold a meeting, see a doctor etc.

Though different views are addressed to collocations, they

all share the same idea that words co-occur in combination

that can be considered as normal and acceptable in a

language.

Lewis proposes these groups:

Unique collocations. Hill (2000: 63-64) classifies collocations

into unique collocations, which are fixed; strong

collocations, which have a few other possible collocates;

weak collocations, which can be easily predicted; and medium

strength collocations, which Hill (ibid.) suggests to be

strongly emphasized in class. This class include words that

cannot be used in any other collocations; eg foot the bill, there

are no other words that might replace the word bill in this

collocation

Very strong collocations include words that might be used in

other collocations but they are in a lower number.( for example:

trenchant criticism, there are not many other things that can be trenchant)

Weak collocations, are collocations that can be combined with

many other words and provides a lot of possible combinations.

This type is ‘more predictable’, as in: good boy, white

shirt, white wine, etc.

Medium strength. They are between strong and weak

collocations. They have a high frequency than high

collocations.

Collocation range:

McIntosh (81961, in Carter and McCarthy,1988:33) and Baker

(1992:50) state the criteria of collocation range. Collocational

range commonly depends on the different meanings and senses of the

word; a more generic word collocates with more words and thus its

collocational range will be wider. Every word in a language have

a range of items. Range refers to the set of collocates which are

associated with the word. Some words have more collocational range

than others.( for example the English verb shrug has a limited

collocational range, it is collocated only with shoulders,( mbledh

supet) while run has a vast collocational range than others.(run a

company, run a business, show, car, stocking etc). There are two main factors(by

Beakman and Callow) that affect the collocational range of an

item:

specificity:

Translators should bear in mind specificity when they deal with

collocations, however more specific words collocate with fewer

words and thus the collocational range is narrower. The choice of

a correct collocation is influenced by register and genre:

sense of the word.

The more number of senses a word has, it tends to attract a

different set of collocations for each case. Collocational range

generally depends on the different meanings and senses of the

word; a more generic (common) word collocates with more words and

thus its collocational range will be wider; more specific words

collocate with fewer words and thus the collocational range is

narrower.

The collocational range of words may be different in the SL and

TL. Collocation ranges are not fixed since people create new

collocations all the time. Words usually do not exist in isolation

but in combinations, and each word gains different meanings when

it collocates with other words. Lyons (1981: 52) defines the

collocational range of an expression as "the set of contexts in

which it can occur". He gives the two examples of big and large, as

he discusses synonymy, which are not always necessarily

interchangeable as in: You are making a big mistake and not a large

mistake, whereas a big house can substitute for a large house. Thus the

collocational range of an expression is not always determined by

its meaning. Leech illustrates this with words" pretty" and "handsome"

and the collocate of each. These words share the common grounds

for "good looking" but they are distinguished by the range of nouns

which are most probable to co-occur. So the word meaning changes

as it collocates change. This word patterns are different from one

language to another. The SL may express an idea in one lexical

item, while TL may express the same idea in two or three lexical

items and we cannot pretend a total equivalence in the number of

words because it does not exist).

Maning and Schutz (1999:173) also claim some typical linguistic

characterizations of collocations:

Non-compositionality, which means that the meaning of a

collocation is not a direct composition(creation) of the

meaning of its parts). Collocations are not fully

compositional because of an extra meaning added to the

combination, e.g., the adjective strong in strong tea possesses

the meaning rich in flavour which is different from the

original sense having physical strength.

Non substitutability, The components of a collocation cannot be

substituted even by their synonyms . e.g., it is no possible

to use yellow wine instead of white wine even though yellow is a

suitable adjective for the description of the color of wine

Non modifiability, usually collocations do not accept or cannot

be freely modified with extra lexical items or the

grammatical transformations. A grammatical transformation is

not usually acceptable in the collocational structure for

example: to change singular into plural (1999,pp.172-173). It

is not possible to modify frog in the expression "to get a frog in

one’s throat " into "to get an ugly frog in one’s throat " though the noun

frog can be modi ed by an adjective fi ugly (Manning, Schütze,

1999, p.184).

(Barnwell (1980, p. 55) states that collocation is concerned

with the co - occurrence of words with what other words does a

word usually occur? With what other words may it acceptably occur?

One word can have different meanings according to the word it

collocates with, such as: develop an area, develop a film, and develop a disease.

This indicates that the co-occurrence of the words in any

collocation is very important for the meaning of the word, as the

changing of one word can affect the whole meaning of the

collocation.

.

Register

is strongly connected to collocations in the sense that it can

determine the type of collocation that is used. Sinclair (1991, p.

109) claims the relation between register and collocation by

stating that when a register choice is made, all choices are

greatly reduced in scope or in some cases, assimilated. The

following examples will illustrate this idea. Examples of general

collocations are: He will give me a call when he arrives at the hotel. Some other

collocations are subject field specific. Collocations are cohesive,

recurrent, arbitrary combinations of words which are not idioms

but in which the figurative meaning of one part is contextually

restricted to the specific combination. Translators should bear in

mind specificity when they deal with collocations, as

the more specific a word is the narrower its collocational range

will be. Furhermore

choosing a correct collocation should be influenced by register

and genre. Baker

mentions (1992, p. 52) that collocations that occur in one area of

discourse will not be so

in another area. It is commonly known that collocations have two

general classifications:

common collocations, which are used in everyday language

register-specific collocations, which are used in specialized

subject fields

o The notion of recurrence (Smadja 1993) is most typically

captured in the definition of collocation as 'recurrent

combination of words that co-occur more often than expected

by chance.

o Idiomatic because they belong to the semantic characteristics

making up the collocation and the way they are combined.

(Cowie and Mackin 1975), have stated that a collocation is

not an idiom because the meaning of the whole reflects the

meaning of the parts. The least we can say is that in most

cases the meaning of the collocate is not its most prominent

one.

o Contextually restricted means that the collocate is not found

"outside that limited context" some part is only used in

restricted context but some lexical variation is also

possible.

o Cohesiveness means that the presence of one or several words

suggest the rest of collocations. The notions are combined in

such a way that the base selects a specific word to express

a certain meaning. This combination is responsible for the

cohesion between elements

o The notion "arbitrary" relates to lexis. There is no semantic

reason in the word combinations.

Collocations can be characterized as follows. See Al-Qasimi (1979-29-30):

1. A collocation does not constitute a semantically or grammaticalsingle indivisible unit.2. The meaning of the collocation can be predicated from the meanings of the individual words themselves.

3. Unlike idioms, collocations can’t be replaced by any lexical /substitute word4. Unlike idioms, collocations vary i.e. the individual lexical items can be substituted by similar words without changing the whole meanings.

The University of Washington for Instructional Development and

Research names the criteria of fixedness as a way to describe

collocations. It places all collocations from unfixed, the less

fixed, to the very fixed.

Fixed collocations(opaque idioms) are those in which the

pattern has very few expected variations they behave very

much like idioms. Unlike them they have fairly transparent

meanings.” (Baker, 1992: 64). Houseman differentiates between

fixed and non fixed word combinations: collocation as such

belongs to the non-fixed kind of word combinations, he

explains that a collocation consists of a base and a

collocator. The base determines its collocator, the same

points Maxwell and Heylen (1994, p. 299) in determining that

collocations consist of two parts, the base and the

collocate. Commit a crime where the noun crime is the base and

the verb commit is the collocate.

Less fixed collocations in the case of more structural and

are defined as "common patterns that help structure a

sentence" but don’t carry as much specific meaning by

themselves. Less fixed collocations (less structural) are

words that are commonly used with other words.

Collocations are normally characterized as arbitrary and independent

of meaning (Baker, 1992, p. 48). This arbitrariness of language is

across languages and dialects. In American English one may say set

the table and make a decision while in British lay the table and take decision.

These characteristics indicate the difficulties in determining

what is an acceptable collocation. Researchers take advantage of

the fact that collocations are often domain specific, collocations

that are not part of everyday language. Thus file collocates with

verbs such as create, delete, save but not in other sublanguages. Benson

emphasizes that the "The arbitrary nature of collocations can be

established when they are put together with parallel collocations

in other languages. With regard to arbitrariness, Sarikas (2006,

p. 34) does not believe in it. He agrees that producing a

productive collocation requires a greater degree of competence in

language and the notion of arbitrariness is explained by

predictability, where a native speaker of the language can predict

these collocations while a learner of the same language finds it

hard to collocate the words.

One other characteristic of collocations is that they can occur

constantly (frequently or continually) in the text. This means

that there is not only one possibility to translate collocations,

one word might be translated in several different ways (usually

collocations are not translated in so many ways), but sometimes

more than one solution is possible. for example the word " e bukur"

may be translated as pretty, beautiful, attractive or good looking. So sometimes

it is possible to translate the collocation in two or more ways

using several synonyms. It is not advisable to use all the

possibilities in one text because it makes it contradictory.(the

reader would get confused).

According to Sarikas, collocations have many important functions

in language which is to help people talk and write about any topic

and to communicate effectively. Having a productive collocation

means to know which adjective are used with which nouns and vice

versa. The other function is that “language that is

collocationally rich is also more precise” which means that they

make the text have a more precise meaning.

1.4 Limitations to the study

This study is focused only at one type of collocation: Lexical

collocations, respectively (adj +n; adv + adj; v + n; n+ n). The

other limitation is that we are dealing with literary text when

these collocations are mostly used. The collocations are

translated only from English into Albanian and not viceversa.Of

great importance and highly challenging is also when we translate

from Albanian into English,we struggle to find the proper word,

but often we fail due to the unfamiliarity with language.

Chapter 2: Types of collocations.

2.1 Definitions of collocations.

Collocation is a new phenomenon and its definition is not fully

agreed on. Linguists define the notion of collocation variously:

collocations present specific problems in translation because

they are also difficult to handle for foreign language learners

and essentially is a lexical relation between words that is likely

to combine and form one semantic unit, they are not subject to

rules but to tendencies. There are no rules for these

combinations, but constrains that define the way they can be

combined to convey meaning. This chapter deals with collocations

and different definitions that were ensured on how this notion is

handled by many scholars.

Collocation- co + location, co-means together with and

location occur in one place together. Each collocation

consists of two parts — a base and a collocation ―The base

bears most of the meaning of the collocation and cause the use

of the collocation. This distinction is best illustrated by

collocations which include support verbs (McKeown and Radev

512). However, some scholars have pointed out that

collocation comes from Latin.

McArthur and Wales (1992: 231) claim that collocation comes

"from Latin collocation/ collocationis - placing together",

and give it two interpretations:

( 1) the act of putting two or more things together,

especially words in a pattern, and the result of that act.

(2) From linguistic point of view, a habitual association

between particular words, such as to and fro in the phrase to and

fro.

Also, Singleton (2000:47) demonstrates collocation comes from

two Latin words, the word cum (with) and the word locus

(place). Words that form collocations are constantly placed

with each other, they often co-occur within a short distance

of each other in speech and in written texts".

The importance of collocation in language is given by

McCarthy (1990: 12) when states that it is a marriage

contract between words, and some words are more firmly

married to each other than others. It is an important

organizing principle in the vocabulary of any language.

The existence of many distinct definitions of collocations

indicates that there are no precise definitions but some

attempts that explain them.

Dalia Abdel Hakim says that using collocations appropriately

resembles solving a puzzle game, because the translator

select the right collocating words as if he is selecting the

right piece of puzzle that is the closed one. I think is a

topic of interest to be thinking about and the interest

stands on these words that are used together and do not

accept any other word to go with it. As in fast food but not a

quick food. Unfamiliarity with English language brings

difficulties in translating collocations. The definition of

the term itself is interesting:

Collocations are a lexical phenomenon, they include word

pairs and phrases that are generally used in language and no

syntactic or semantic rules are applied.

The British linguistic Firth is the first who dealt with

collocational phenomenon and is also believed to be the

"father" of the term collocation. To him (ibid.), collocation,

or lexical meaning, is one of five dimensions of meaning

(phonetic, lexical, morphological, syntactic and semantic).

In other words, collocation is “the company a word keeps”

(Firth, 1957:11). Porzig (1930) argued for the recognition

of the importance of syntagamatic relations between “bite”

and “teeth”, “bark” and “dog”, “blond” and “hair. In a

slightly different way Firth argued: He presents his typical

definition of collocations as " the company words keep

together".(cited in Zughoul, 2001: 02).

A number of definitions have been given for the phrase "

collocation" but a pioneering classification of this word

combination has been made by Palmer (1993), who collected examples

from dictionaries.

Palmer indicated that a collocation is a succession of two

or more words that must be learnt as an integral whole and

not pieced together from its component parts(ibid: 1) The study

he made left an impressionable effect especially on teachers

who thought that what made English difficult were not words

or grammar but the existence of so many odds coming together

as words that made the process of learning unclear and an

undetermined barrier(ibid: 13). His selection of collocations

is based on arbitrary selection from dictionaries. He

presented the "recognition knowledge" of collocations in

order to use "production knowledge"

According to Ghazala a collocation is a combination of two or

more words that always occur together consistently in

different context in language they are words which are

usually found next to other words. Firth and Ghazala both

stress the importance of context of surrounding words for

the collocation to be understood. Components of a collocation

often co-occur naturally, by chance.

Baker states that "a collocation is a systematically

arbitrary restriction which does not follow logically from

the prepositional meaning of a word ". one must know that

English people toast bread and not grill it. He stresses the

importance of collocations as devices that help to make the

language more appealing, expressive and moving. . In all of

the definitions above, focus is placed on lexical, rather

than grammatical collocation.

Haliday defines collocations as a " linear co-occurrence

relationship among lexical items which co-occur together".(a

word like tea occurs with the adjective strong, not with powerful although both

have the same meaning).

Sinclair marks that " lexical items" have a tendency to

collocate with one another, and that these tendencies have

the task of telling us facts about language that cannot be

got by grammatical analysis (cited in Schnese), while Schnese

quotes from Sinclair's (1991) that on some occasions, words

are chosen in pairs or groups and are not necessarily close

(p.115). She depends on this to define collocations as "co-

occurrence between words" (2002, p.9). They are described as

a "natural combination of words" and the way English words

are closely associated with each other.(McCarthy and O'Dell,

2collcoations 4).

Nida (1982) defined collocation as “a structured combination

of words with COMPATIBLE semantic components” (198).

Stubbs (2001) indicate that co-occurrence relation between

words often are strong and suggest that "collocation is a

linear string: a node predicts that a following word also

occurs.

Baker come close to Sinclair with her definition stating that

collocations would be thought as "the tendency of certain

words to co-occur commonly in a given language" (1992, p.47).

She indicates that every word in a language has its own

collocational range or a set of words, usually compatible

with it. The specificity of a word and the variety of

meanings it has are factors that determine the collocational

range of this word. When the word is more general its

collocational range is wider.

Palmer (1986) focused on sense restrictions that are based

wholly on the meaning of the collocated items.

Abdul Raof notes that the "violation" of the collocational

restrictions can produce unacceptable sentences although they

are grammatical. The brake of these restrictions of

collocations exist when words are "employed figuratively" The

understanding of the components of a collocation are

important in producing a correct collocation. He states that

words are collocationaly restricted as they co-exist only in

relation with their mates is a special linguistic

environment. They are defined both as non-idiomatic

expressions and as non free combinations

Cruse (2000) talks about co-occurrence preferences between

words. According to him words have "definite preferences

and dis-preferences" (p.76),which says why words accept to

co-occur with some intensifiers but refuses to appear with

other ones, even though they may reflect the same degree or

intensity.

David Crystal writes in the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of

Language (1987: 50) that ‘collocation is a kind of continuum,

running from total predictability at one end to words having

no predictability at the other. The more fixed a collocation

is, the more we think of it as an idiom.

Yule (1997:122-123) attain that we frequently give the

meaning of words in terms of their relationships. He focuses

on the specific kind of lexical relations known as

collocation, one way we seem to organize our knowledge.

According to Mitchell (1971: 52), collocation is

"a composite structural element in its own right" e of

words". This abstract mixture defines the generalization of

such associations which give a purely definition of the non-

figurative nature of collcoations.

According to Cowie (1981, p. 224), a collocation is defined

as “a composite unit which permits the substitutability of

items for at least one of its constituent elements (the sense

of other element, or elements, remaining constant).”

Others, Kjellmer (1987), Kennedy (1991), Mauranen (2000),

Sinclair (2004) included, define collocations according to

the number of occurrences of a lexical combination

To some linguists and translatologists, collocation is

defined as “basically a lexical relation between words that

are likely to combine regularly with certain other words to

form one semantic unit” (Dweik, & Abu Shakra, 2011: 6), and

words have only “a certain tolerance of compatibility” (Baker

1997: 63). Moreover, “there are nouns that enter into tight

collocational links with verbs and have no separate semantic

description” (Fillmore, 1994: 106).

Pecina (2009) claims that there is no commonly accepted

definition of collocation” and that it is understood “as a

meaningful and grammatical word combination constrained by

extensionally specified restrictions and preferences”

(ibid.). Therefore, it tends to be one of the most problematic

and error-generating area of vocabulary” Martyńska M. (2004:

5).

2.2 Difficulties and problems in translating collocations.

In translating a text, a translator usually faces many problems,

including the problem of translating collocation in his attempt to

transfer meaning from one source language into another receptor

language since every language has its own naturalness, which is

unique and different to another. The uniqueness of a language

means that each language has a certain system that does not

necessarily exist in other languages. Since collocational meaning

cannot be derived directly from the meaning of its components, it

may cause difficulties in the process of translation. In most of

the cases translators face various kinds of difficulties and

problems while translating. In this inner process there are

numerous factors such as social and cultural differences, lexical

and grammatical diversity which makes the translation task very

hard and cause loss in meaning. These translation difficulties

became enormous if SL culture and TL culture differences are

immense. One of the problems translators face is the knowledge

they should have when translating collocations whereas many of

them are misconceived due to a failure to recognize their

linguistic, stylistic, and cultural aspects.

The translation of any collocation pattern explains the vital

nature of them in the entire process of translation. Larson

(1984: 141) concludes that "knowing which words go together is an

important part of understanding the meaning of a text and

translating it well". Combinations of words as co-occurrences

differ from one language to another. Hatim and Mason (1990: 204-

205) notice that "achieving appropriate collocations in the TL

text has always been one of the major problems a translator

faces", so they emphasize the collocational level of meaning as

the main challenge that "confronts the translator" what they pose

is that "what is a natural collocation for one language user may

be less for another". For Palmer when he discusses Firths view of

translation says that it is difficult to find parallels for

collocations of a key word in any other language. He sees this as

either possible or impossible. Based on this, he considers some

preliminary remarks that for him tackle major problems a

translator faces. These remarks deal with problems of equivalence,

problems of structural semantics, problems of cultural

heterogeneity and untranslatability. By defining these remarks it

is possible to judge the successfulness of the translation of

collocation. As Nida and Taber(1969:12) say that "the best

translation does not sound like a translation".

Culture specific collocations.

These collocations may denote a concrete concept that carry

cultural specificity (veil, scarf, clothes) or it may denote

abstract concepts such (good, evil wisdom) etc. They are difficult

to translate not only because they are culture specific but

because they carry connotations. Translators must try to maintain

the connotative meaning but also reflecting the values and norms

of the TL. Culture expound difficulties in their denotative and

connotative meanings. Cultural specificity refers to the

phenomenon that exist only to one of the cultures under

translation. Translators interpret source-culture phenomena based

on their own culture specific knowledge of that culture. Cultural

gap derives from culture specificity of ST and TT and poses a

major problem.

Culture also poses difficulties in the task of translation

rendering it in some cases impossible. Rubel and Rosman (2003).

The difficulties stands to the linguistic differences between SL

culture and TL culture.

Lexical problems.

Here the difficulty remains because students or translators

understand translation as translation of individual words which

lead them to mistakes.Ghazala(1995:85) does not suggest literal or

word for word translation, because it is seen as dangerous and

destroys meaning. So lexical problems are crucial to any SL and

TT. We have to solve them for an effective translation. Also the

one to one or literal translation is the same where when have the

same word order and the same type and number of words. But this is

a better one method than the first because it takes context into

consideration and translates special and metaphorical SL words and

phrases into special words and phrases.

Literal translation of meaning or direct translation, deals with

grammar and word order of the TL. According to Ghazala direct

translation is the best method of literal translation and the most

acceptable one. Linguistics such as Newmark, 1988; Baker 1992;

Bahumaid, 2006 have revealed various problems that translators

have to deal while translating collocations. Baker, 1992 like

others deals with problems bound to cultural and linguistic

collocability between SL and TL. These problems rise due to

collocability of lexemes from one language to another, meaning

that what collates in one meaning does not necessarily collate in

another. In addition we can say that collocations reflect

preference of the specific language. Newmark (1988) believes that

the difficulty of translating collocations lies in two facts.

1) First, the fact that there is an arbitrary relation between

the collocates.

2) Second, at least one of the components has a meaning not in a

primary sense but in a secondary sense.

Each of the lexemes contributes to the meaning of the whole

collocation. She believes that we cannot talk of an impossible

collocation since they can be frequently created. English learners

may face various problems in dealing with collocations because

of their arbitrariness. For example blonde collocate only with hair,

it is unlikely to talk about a blond door or a blond dress even if the

color is similar to that of blonde hair (Palmer1976:77). So there

are always restrictions on the way collocations are combined

together.(Palmer 1976:76, Baker1992:47, and Thornbury, 2002:106)

According to her, unusual combinations occur naturally because

words tend to attract new collocate all the time. She lists five

common pitfalls encountered in translating.

1. The appealing effect of source text patterning

2. Misinterpreting the meaning of a source-language collocation.

3. The tension between accuracy and naturalness.

4. Culture-specific collocations

5. Marked collocations in the source text (Marked collocations

involve deliberate confusion of collocational ranges to create new

images)

Target language equivalent. Finding an acceptable target language

equivalent that is satisfactory is another difficulty which comes

after recognizing a collocation. The translation of collocation is

very difficult especially for non native -speakers which then lead

to two problems for them. The first is the lack of non finding

the proper equivalent between SL and TL and the competence needed

to associate words together in order to produce accurate and

natural English. Amstrong says that "the difficulty for

translators is not so much to recognize a SL collocation but to

find an acceptable equivalent (2005: 98). Although the equivalent

may exist in the TL, choosing the appropriate equivalent requires

a good competence in both languages. So every language learner may

be well qualified when dealing with collocations because they are

frequently used in spoken and written English. It is very

important to know as many collocational meaning as possible

because it will lead us to their mistranslation.

There are cases when one word collocation needs to be translated

with two or three word collocation in TL. As Biguenet and Schulte

(1989: xiii) notice some languages are richer than others in their

word count. The translator cannot pretend for a precise

equivalence because it will never be possible. This is to be

defined as the dilemma and challenge for the translator. When

translating collocations translators ignore or are not aware of

their existence, this cause problems for the translator because at

first language is not made up of large number of words that can be

used together in free variation. Equivalence of SL and TL items

may be found on the level of morpheme, word, phrase, clause,

sentence, paragraph, and the whole text". (Gutknecht and Rolle,

1996: 238). Bassenett-McGuire (1980: 29) states, that equivalence

in translation "should not be treated as sameness since it cannot

exist between two TL versions of the same text. But this view of

Bassenett-McGuire is extreme since there exists, especially

through literal translation even though sameness is a matter of

'cannot very often exist'.

Untranslatability. Pym and Turk (2000: 273) indicate as mostly

understood as the capacity for some kind of meaning to be

transferred from one language to another without undergoing

radical change". The art of translation will always have ''to cope

with the reality of untranslatability from one language to

another" (Friedrich 1992: 11). It may be linguistic,(for example

unfamiliar word order, unfamiliar collocations, use of words with

lower frequency) or cultural, including unfamiliarity with the

source text". Bassnett-McGuire (1980: 32-37) and Mason (2000: 32).

Misinterpreting. Misinterpreting of meaning is another difficulty

that collocation pose this happen due to the influence of our

language (TL) that the collocation may seem familiar to us because

it resembles one in our native language. Students face a lot of

difficulties when they have to choose between producing a typical

collocation in TL and preserving the source meaning at the mean

time. therefore there is loss in meaning.

Generalization. Generalisation is another problem, some English

words collate with one and the same word in English. The

difficulty relies because it cannot be generalized about the

meaning of a word which collates with different words, because it

may differ from collocation to another and from language to

language (Ghazala 1993:32). This variation across languages poses

difficulties for students. Collocations in the TL have more than

one possibility for the same collocation in the SL. So kinds of

words that go together in one language are often completely

different from the kinds of words in another language (Kharma and

Hajjaj,1989:67and Harmer,2001:20). These are cultural differences

and every language is the basis upon which culture rest. Each

language have its own collocation pattern which reflect the

speakers mentality, knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law,

customs, habits (Farghal and Shanaq,1999:122). It is important to

state that collocational difficulty is attributed besides culture,

to learners who lack the knowledge of their linguistic competence

in target language.

New English collocations. New English collocations pose difficulty

in translation. According to Saricas (2006:37) " New English

collocations which use noun compounds or adjectives + noun have

resulted difficult in translation.(common in social sciences and

computer language). Their translation is difficult because they

need a clear context and some of them are crucial in their

physical meaning which gives a strange translation.

Not only linguistic differences between languages create

difficulties, cultural differences also play a significant role.

Ghazala ( 2001: 1) says: "usually cultural terms are thought to

pose the most difficult problems in translation". Culture creates

difficulties because of different interpretations of these

concepts by different societies in both their denotative and

connotative meaning. Lexical gaps is a concept which may exist in

one language may not exist in another. According to Baker

(1992:60) like culture specific words, collocations point to

concepts which are not easily attainable to the target reader. In

addition the overuse of literal translation proves to cause

problems for students. Ghazala maintains that " The central

lexical problem faced by students is their direct translation of

almost all words" leading them in errors (1995:84). It seems that

the difficulty depends mainly on the use of primary and non

primary sense on the component words. Collocations where words are

used in their primary sense are easily understood and translated

and they serve as a clue for the translator to guess the meaning

of the unknown or less transparent element. The problem starts

when one or both of the component words deviate from their

primary sense.

There is always a tension in achieving accuracy and naturalness.

Baker (1992:56) notices that some translators aim at producing

collocations that are typical in the target language and at the

same time preserving the accurate meaning associated with the

source collocation. The ideal translation cannot be achieved

always, since translation involves a difficult choice between what

is typical and what is accurate. Even the nearest acceptable

collocation in the target language will often involve some change

in meaning which can be significant or not. What is to be

emphasized is that in translation a certain amount of loss is

unavoidable. Language systems tend to be too different to produce

exact reproductions in most cases.

2.3 The distinction between collocations and idioms

Many researchers that study collocations claim that their

classification is a matter of inconsistency, thus they offer

different classifications of them. One of the debatable issues

among linguistics is whether or not idioms are considered as

collocations. Bolinger (1976) makes a distinction between

collocations and idioms stating that in the case of collocations

it is possible to deduce the whole meaning from at least one of

its part, whereas the meaning of an idiom cannot be understood

from the meaning of its constituent. Manning and Schutze (1999,

p.141) use this criteria to show that idioms are collocations and

that they are characterized by "a limited compositionality" and

in most

of the cases there is "an element of meaning added to the

combination", while idioms are considered to be the most extreme

examples of non compositionality.

Idioms are a different group from collocations, as the elements of

idioms are used together in specialized senses forming a single

semantic unit (rigid expressions), which has a figurative meaning.

According to Baker (1992, p. 63) idioms are “frozen patterns of

language which allow little or no variation in form and often

carry meanings which cannot be deducted from their individual

components. The meanings of the elements in the collocation the

water freezes can be understood as individual semantic elements -

the freezing of the water. However, the idiom pull one’s leg does

not connote the meanings of its parts pull + one’s + leg.(tërheq

këmbën e dikujt)

Cruse (1986, pp.37- 41) describes a differ way of idioms and

collocations considering them as two separate terms. At the same

time he represents what he calls "bound collocations" or

expressions "whose constituents do not like to be separated". As

J. Sinclair (2004:18) puts it “a grammar is a grammar of meanings

not of words” . In this perspective, collocability refers to

sharing meanings between words and between phrases and the result

is the collocation according to which the choice of one word

conditions the choice of the next. Idioms are a different group

from collocations, as the elements of idioms are used together in

specialized senses forming a single semantic unit (rigid

expressions), which has a figurative meaning. Sarikas adds that

idioms often have the same meaning as other lexical items in the

language but carry several emotive connotations not expressed in

the others (2006, p. 34), as in the idiom kick the bucket. The line

between idioms and collocations is not always very clear.

Mc McCarthy and O'Dell indicate that idioms are also groups of co-

occurring words but in a fixed order that have a meaning which

cannot be guessed by knowing the meaning of individual words. In

the same way Baker (1992:63) does not consider idioms as

collocation and states that though the meaning of a word depends

on its association with other words, the word has an individual

meaning in a given collocation. For example dry cow means a cow that

does not produce milk. Such particular meaning associated with the

word dry can be identified in this collocation- because cow means a

farm animal kept for its milk. While idioms carry meanings which cannot be

deduced from their individual components. They are frozen patterns

of language which allow little or no variation in form often carry

meanings which cannot be deducted from their individual

components.(Baker 1992,p.63). There are three ways of recognizing

an idiom:

1) Idioms are combinations of words2)They are firstly accepted and used as something new only when necessary.3) The meaning of an idiom cannot be obtained from the meaning of its words.

Unlike collocations the difficulties involved in translating idiom

are summarized by Baker (1992: 68-71):

• An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the TL. • An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the TL, but its context of use may be different; they may have different connotations or not be pragmatically transferable. • An idiom may be used in the ST in both its literal and idiomaticsenses at the same time and this play on idiom may not be successfully reproduced in the TT. • The agreement regarding idioms in written discourse, the contexts in which they can be used and their frequency of use may be different in the SL and TL.Collocations can be learned in this inductive way since they themselves are specific linguistic symbols of units.

Many linguistics and translators Mitchell (1975, p. 125), Cowie

(1981, p. 224), Cruse (1986, p. 37), Evelyn et al. (1986, p. 253),

Shakir, A. & Farghal, M. (1991, p. 1), Baker (1992, p. 63), and

Sarikas (2006, p. 34) believe that an idiom is classified as a

fixed combination that has a meaning as a whole but the meaning of

its individual words are not the same as the meaning of the

combination. However some experts do really make a distinction

between collocations and idioms. In a collocation the components

can freely go with other words. The words" rosy" and "cheek" in

the collocation "rosy cheek" can collocate with other words as in

"plump cheeks" or "rosy down" in order to form other collocations.

An idiom can be free in its combination but is more fixed in word

collocation. We can say "bread and butter" but not "butter and

bread. Shakir & Farghal (1991, p. 1) find that collocations and

idioms are more obvious also when they are used in language. They

note that collocations are “more communicatively useful” than

idioms as they are more common in real speech or materials and

“rarely replaceable” by other lexical substitutes. On the other

hand, idioms are used more in informal conversation and thus they

are used more in real speech or materials, as they are easily

replaced by other lexical constituents.

Nonetheless, collocations remain different from idioms. An idiom

almost permits variations. For instance, ‘make friends with’

cannot vary to become ‘make a friend with’. It is an idiom with a

fixed structure that yields one meaning in context. Patsala (2004:

1034) adopts these two criteria for the distinction between idioms

and collocations:

a) semantic transparency and high frequency of use for collocations, and

b) semantic opacity (lack of transparence) and fixed structure for idioms".

2.4 Lexical and grammatical collocations. (Benson and Ilson (1985,1997):

Different linguistics have been given varieties of classifications

of collocations. Linguists divide collocations into two major

groups: grammatical and lexical collocations. The distinction

between grammatical and lexical collocations is based on the

status of the constituents of the word combinations as content

words or function words (Bartsch, 2004, p.54). Linguists

distinguish seven types of collocations; however, the paper

focuses on four most common types of lexical collocations.

Lexical collocations

Lexical collocations are defined by Benson et.al (1986) as phrases

consisting of dominant words, they are natural combinations

between content words (noun, adjective, verb, adverb and a

preposition) in few words they are the co-occurrence of nouns,

adjectives, verbs or adverbs they are in contradiction to

grammatical collocations and do not contain prepositions,

infinitives or clauses. do not contain subordinate element, they

comprise two lexical components. A lexical collocations according

to Zhang is a type of collocation where one component frequently

co-occurs with one or more other components as the only lexical

choice or one of the few lexical choices in a combination.

Lexical collocations consist of three types:

1) open collocations (open class word) which are characterized by the

combination of two or more words that occur together and have no

relation between them and can be freely combinable. For instance,

the verb catch collocates with a wide range of other words bus, train,

cold, and fire. Unrestricted collocations have the capacity of being

open to keep company with a wide range of words.

2) Restricted collocations which are the most used one. The word

can collocate with limited and fixed words. Restricted

collocations are defined by Aisenstadt (1979, p. 71) as

“combinations of two or more words used in one of their regular

non idiomatic meaning" Restricted combinations differ from free

combinations because they co-occur with a small number of words.

Evelyn, et al. (1986, p. 253) provide to commit a murder as an example

where the verb collocates with a few nouns such as murder and crime.

” In fact, the more restricted a collocation is, the more

difficult is its translation into another language. This must

apply to culture-specific and language-specific terms, such as

those used in greetings, condolences, compliments, expressions of

thanks and gratitude (see Ferguson, 1983; Shammas, 1995; 2005).

3) Bound collocations are, as Cowie (1981, p. 228) describes them,

“a bridge category between collocations and idioms. ” The

significant feature of this group is that one of the elements of

the collocation is, as Emery states (1987, p. 9), “uniquely

selective” of the other. One example is to shrug one’s shoulders.

Grammatical collocations

While grammatical collocations or colligations is the co-occurrence

of nouns, verbs or adjectives with prepositions or certain

features of grammar, for example, a comparative form of an

adjective with the word than,or the verb deal with the preposition

with (Carter, 1998: 60) they are involved in closed class word. These

two types of collocations according to the word class appear to

be easily recognized to language learners and also as the most

frequent patterns. The close class words (lexical collocation) is

the case of a preposition such as different from, jumped up,thrust

away,danced out, passed across,looked at, etc. These two types of collocations

can be easily recognizable to language learners (Benson and

Ilson,1985). Lexical collocations refer to restricted word pairs

where they combine two equal lexical components, while grammatical

collocations combine a lexical word typically a noun, verb or

adjective with the grammatical word. The grammatical collocation

was defined as frequent combination of a dominant word (verb,

noun, adjective) followed by a grammatical word, typically a

preposition (apologize to; carry on) and the lexical collocations

do not contain subordinate element, they comprise two lexical

components, they do not contain preposition, infinitive or

clauses, they consist of two equal lexical components.(adjective+

noun; verb+ noun, noun +verb, adverb + adjective, verb +adverb) .

Both categories verb + noun and delexicalised verb + noun

collocation have been considered by researchers as not only the

most difficult for learners (Biskup 1992). According to Altenberg

(1993:227) they tend to form the "communicative core utterances

where the most important information is placed. The other category

of adjective + noun has not been studied at all. Grammatical

collocation is a type of collocation where one component co-

occurs with one or more other components as a grammatical

category. Lexical collocation is a combination of two or more

lexemes (e.g. serious damage), grammatical collocation is a

combination of a lexeme and a preposition (e.g. rely on). Smadja

(1993) argues that grammatical collocations are similar to lexical

ones because of their arbitrariness and co- occurrences of words;

however, grammatical collocations are much simpler in structure,

many of them include only one open class word which might be the

reason for dictionaries to actually include them.The main

difference between lexical and grammatical collocations is that

lexical collocations do not contain grammatical elements, e.g. good

work, strong tea, etc. (Moehkardi, 2002, p.59); moreover, lexical

collocation “has been called a relation of mutual expectancy or

habitual association” (Jackson, 1988, p.114). Each word

constituting a lexical collocation plays a significant role

because it contributes to the general meaning of the whole.

Four combination of lexical collocations ( The four major lexical

group).

Category Types of Lexical

Collocations

Example from the

translated work.

1 Adjective +Noun [A + N] Silly boy

2 Adverb +Adjective [Adv. +

Adj.]

Horribly dull

3 Verb+ Noun [V+N] Feed the hungry

4 Noun +Noun [N + N] Candour of youth

These are the most frequent types of lexical collocationsin the novel "The portrait of

Dorian Gray"

o Collocations that contain an adjective + noun such as silly boy

in which the translator aims to find the accurate adjective

in the target language such as djalë debil or djalë budalla.These

combinations are more frequently used in my work and are

really useful one (Benson 1985). This category benefits L2

and should be included in dictionaries. Such as "poor chap"

"pallid face" "bad business"

o Collocations that contain an adverb and an adjective such as

horribly thoughtless in which the translator aims to find the

equivalent adverb such as flet pa u menduar fare or tmerrrsisht i

pakujdeshëm. These are considered as difficult cases in

translation.

o Collocations that contain a verb and a noun such as examined

the picture serves the communicative aspect where the most

important information is placed (Altenberg,199:227) The task

of the translator here is not a demanding one since he has to

translate literally.

o Collocations that contain noun and a noun such as secrets of life

the translator again aims at finding an accurate noun is that

is more suitable for the target text, such as sekretet e jetës or

të fshehtat e jetës This category of collocation is less frequently

used but not of less importance.

Chapter 3: Collocations and literary texts.

3.1 Translation

Translation theory has been viewed as "an essay in continual

compensation" (Newmark 2001: 64).

Translation itself is a process that often deals us with problems

of any kind, it involves taking various features into

consideration in different languages, and thereby a common

problem for a translator is to find corresponding expressions in

the target language. Over the years translation has gained a great

importance and value, used not only as a means of transferring SL

words into TL words but also as a means of communication and

transmitter of culture. Nowadays it is used broadly and with more

confidentiality by professional translators. The base level when

translators translate is the text itself, so while translating we

face lexical items, cultural words, synonyms work over them, find

all their meaning and try to find the best solution that is

required in translation.

To achieve a good translation translators should have knowledge in

all possible collocations. We know that translation process also

depends on the kind or method of translation we are using.

Translators use different methods of translating, but when use

literal translation in the case of collocations it doesn’t always

function. As we translate we take words either separately or in

context; but when dealing with collocations words are not taken

separately. It is a challenge because most of the times we

cannot find the equivalent of the collocation in TL. It is also

noteworthy for translators to get the right meaning of these

words. A lot of definitions from different researches has been

given to the process of translation. Catford (1965: 20 ) defines

translation as the " replacement of textual material in one

language SL by equivalent textual material in another language

TL". Basically, translation is transferring a SL text into a

respective TL text. So in this process there are involved two

languages, the SL or the language of departure and TL which is the

language of achivement or the language which is being translated

into.

Ghazala defines translation as " generally used to refer to all

the processes and methods that convey meaning of the SL into the

TL" (1995:1) So he states that the aim of translation is meaning

which is not the result of lexemes but is a mixture of components

of language such as grammar, vocabulary, phonology, style. Vinay

and Darbelnet House agree with mentalist approach who states

that translation is considered as an individual creative act that

depends only in subjective interpretations. Texts have no core

meaning for them but their meaning changes according to the

speaker position. While for Nida a good translation is one that

achieves "equivalence of response", he took readers reactions to a

translation as a means for its quality. The role of the

translators should be to maintain the beauty and aesthetic aspect

of the ST and try to put it into TT in the best possible way.

(Xiaosong). For Nida and Taber, 1969 Hartmann and Stork: 1972, in

Bell, 1991: 7). Translation is the replacement of a representation

of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent

text in a second language"

For Catford the translation purpose is not to transfer meaning

between languages but to replace a source language meaning by a

target one. Catford (1965: 25) differentiates between three kinds

that could be regrouped into two: the "word-for-word" or "literal"

translation and the "free" translation. Larson (1984: 15) re-

subcategorises translation into "literal" and "idiomatic". The

former, to Catford and Larson, is form-based translation, and the

latter is meaning-based translation that does not sound like a

translation. The communicative translation to him focuses on the

reader's understanding of the identical message of the source

language text, whereas the semantic translation focuses on

rendering the exact contextual meaning of the original as closely

as possible. He concludes that all translations must be in some

degree both communicative and semantic, social and individual. Our

concern here relates to what translation procedures are most

pertinent to the translation of collocation. Quite noticeably,

translation has always been juxtaposed with terms such as

difficulties, problems, concerns etc, so is it with the

translation of collocation. Meaning is of paramount importance in

translation because, as Bell (1991: 79) explains "without

understanding what the text to be translated means for the L2

users the translator would be hopelessly lost". This necessitates

that a translator be a semanticist at the same time and well

equipped with the skill to analyze the significance of semantic

relations, of which collocation is a recognizable one in

translation.

3.2. Translation of collocations.

The notion of collocation has been one of the cornerstones of

linguistics and has been the subject of a significant reasoning

and empirical research. Collocations are considered as inevitable

sources of loss in translation in SL and TL. sufficient knowledge

on all collocations and their types is needed in order to gain an

acceptable or accurate translation The translation of collocation

creates many difficulties because the meaning of the word changes

when it combines with other words. They cannot be translated as

word for word.Translating collocations is considered to be one of

the main barriers that translators face, even though in most of

the cases it is difficult to find the accurate equivalences due to

the fact languages form their collocations in different, unique

and even arbitrary ways. The influence of the ST, cultural and

language specific collocations, being natural versus accurate are

factors that affect the translation of collocation, yet they are

not so easy to be handled. Thus the translation of collocation as

Ghazala (2004) states, besides being an interesting part or the

task of the translators job it is in effect very challenging and

demanding one. That is why translators should be sensible to all

types of collocations particularly when translating them.

The translation of collocation is also defined by Chang (1997) as

one of the most problematic lexical cohesion when checking

grammatical and lexical cohesive devices used in learners writing.

Furthermore many learners will use the literal translation to

produce acceptable or unacceptable collocations and sometimes

they rely on their intuition to translate a collocation and to use

textual equivalence rather than literal translation.(Liu, 2000b).

However it does not always work as it may lead to an incorrect

translation. A considerable amount of attention has been given to

the collocational meaning by Baker (2001: 53) who made it clear

that there is a big difference between the individualistic or isolated

meaning of the word and its contextualised or collocational

meaning. The meaning of one word is not extracted out of its own

isolation, rather it is evoked by its association with co-

occurring collocates. "knowing which words go together is an

important part of understanding the meaning of the text and

translating it well". Larson's (1984: 141) (ibid) explains, since

some words "often occur together "other words may occur together

"occasionally" and some combinations of words are not likely to

occur. However, to collocate means to put side by side and this

sidedness is not the same in different languages.

The 'company' that lexical items keep is the first noticeable

element in identifying meaning by collocation. Mutual expectancy

is another feature of the elements that demonstrates meaning by

collocation. Finally 'habituality of co-occurrence' should also be

borne in mind when discussing meaning by collocation. The lexical

items are used to co-occur together. Hence, in the process of

translation, there are benefits from this lexical feature since

the habitual co occurrence takes place in all languages, though in

fact collocability of certain items of one language does not

necessarily guarantee an immediate TL equivalent.

The translation of collocations needs some basic information: what

the collocation is, how can be recognized, how the collocation

behaves, what types of collocations are? etc. Their translation is

different from the translation of single words, it requires

certain knowledge of what collocation is and how it works. At this

stage the translator is able to translate and to produce a good

quality translation. Without this knowledge they would not be able

to translate correctly which would lead them to make a lot of

unnecessary mistakes. It is generally known that the task of the

translation involves loss in meaning due to many factors (poor

word choices, words with extended meanings, the different lexical

and grammatical systems between the two languages, etc). In the

case of collocations the translator should be very careful in

giving the precise TL equivalent. Translators should have a vast

knowledge of the source and target languages and their cultures,

as well as the strategies and norms in translation that allow the

translator to reproduce the writers imagery and style. Translators

should build their own memory bank of collocations which can be

recalled and activated when they need during the translation

process. Shakir & Fargal (1991, p. 4).

Collocations are found in all text types and all languages in a

variety of ways. People around the world apply collocations to

communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings in their own way.

Even more these collocations reflect much about people themselves.

Helena Halmari reinforces this with the statement. It happens to

us to use words together with other words intuitively, without

recognizing that we are making unconscious choices of what

combinations go well together and which their co-occurrences are.

However there is some degree of ready-made combinations in our

minds to be used , they are also potential carriers of culture and

ideology (2004, p.202). If the use of collocations is important in

the production of a fluent, highly expressive, coherent, cohesive

and comprehensible language, it is logical then to consider that a

translator who implements more TL (target language) collocations

in the TT will result in the production of a more competent

translation, bringing thus a better quality than a translation

which implements fewer TL collocations.

In translating a text the translator faces many kinds of problems

in his attempt to transfer meaning from one source language into

another language since every language has its own naturalness, it

is unique and different to another which means that each language

has a certain system that does not exist in other languages. Abdul

Raof (2001) states that errors in the translation of lexical items

occur when language specific collocations are not well estimated.

This is because a collocation that might be acceptable in one

language can be unacceptable in another language. Since

collocations are often language specific it is hard to find the

correct translation of such expressions. Linguistic such as

Newmark and Bahumaid have confirmed that translators have to deal

with various problems of different kind in the translation of

collocations. These problems are closely related to differences in

cultural and linguistic collocability between the SL and the TT.

Lexemes for examples differ in their collocability from one

language to another and what collocates in one language does not

necessarily collocate in another. The most important point about

collocational meaning is that each lexeme makes an independent

contribution to the meaning of the whole collocation. Collocations

pose an enormous challenge in translation, especially if the

translator lacks the ability to identify and recognize such

collocational patterns. According to Maning and Schutz the best

way to distinguish between a collocation and a free combination

is to translate it. If the literal translation does not work, then

it is a collocation. One of the opportunities of translating

collocations and to avoid mistakes is to not translate it all. The

translator can use simplification or shortening the text ensuring

that information is not omitted from the original text.

3.3. Translation of literary texts

The pleasure of reading literary texts is something that many of

us want to share with others. As translation is considered to be

one of the main sources of communication, the need for translating

literary texts has increased. However the differencies between

cultures and languages bring to some restrictions and problems

translating these texts. Literary vocabulary not only has

denotative meaning (dictionary meaning), but also connotative

meaning (intended meaning) and Literary Translation is a term used

broadly to refer to the translation of literature which can be

described as an illusive reflection of real life, where words

replace actions (see Wales, 1989: 300). Literary translation is an

art involving the transposing and interpreting of creative works

such as novels, short prose, poetry, drama, comic strips, and film

scripts from one language and culture into another. It can also

involve intellectual and academic works like psychology

publications, philosophy and physics papers, art and literary

criticism, and works of classical and ancient literature. Without

literary translation, human thought and art would be free of the

souls of great minds and books. Literary translation is perhaps

considered to be the most difficult kind of translation with lot

of abundance of expressive means and concepts, high emotional

load, usage of obsolete expressions, archaisms, and a large number

of stylistic devices. The translator should  have enough

imagination and creativity to render the complete sense, colors,

emotions and the effects of a literary text making it at the same

time clear and readable for a particular speaker. Translators of

literary texts create by their work a new, independent masterpiece

with all its special characteristics.

Holman and Beier (1998) show the relationship between the

creativity of a translator and the writer. The process of

translation is, of course, more restricted and less creative than

writing an original work as it has many constraints which limit

the translator in rewriting the original text. On the other hand,

writing an original work is by nature more creative than

translation due to the fact that the author is free from any

restrictions and thus can unleash their thoughts and feelings and

write as they wish. The translation of a literary text is the most

complicated of all types of written translation. Besides a perfect

understanding of both languages, the gift of words, a feel for the

language, the translator ought to have an artistic flair, the

talent of a writer or a poet. The quality in production is of

great importance. Translators usually dream of achieving an ideal

reproduction of the ST, but they often have to accept that not

everything can be translated exactly into different languages.

They do their best to produce an identical version of the SLT in

the TL, or a version in the TL as close as possible to the

original. Actually, translation is accomplished by choosing the

appropriate and idiomatic equivalents rather than choosing literal

and non-established equivalents.

Another feature of literary text is the style  which is

considered one of the fundamental components of a literary text,

every writer has a literary style and his style is reflected in

his writing. Some authors say that a translation should reflect

the style of the original text while others say that a translation

should possess the style of the translator. A good translator

should have a complete knowledge of the source and target

languages, be able to identify with the author of the book or

poem, understand his culture and country, and employ a good method

for translating literary texts. The literary translator has to

take into account the beauty of the text, its style, the lexical,

grammatical and phonological features. Some of these may not be

the same in the target language. The aim of the translator is that

the quality of the translation be the same as the original text

without leaving out any of the content. he should interact with

the text’s words, which they examine to recognize their cultural

and semantic function; to know their meanings, and points which

need to be transferred.

Style makes the literary work challenging to read, it shapes the

reader's perception of the characters, the settings, the plot

lines and the author himself. Style is based on the sum of the

author's word choices, it is the literary element that describes

the ways that the author uses wordssuch as the author's word

choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and sentence

arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and

meaning in the text. Consequently, literary translation must be

approached as “a kind of aesthetically-oriented which aims at

producing a target text intended to communicate its own form,

correspondent with the source text. (Burkhanov, 2003: 139).

The author uses various literary techniques to express their style

such as irony, symbolism, tone, and word play. Since collocations

are word choices, they are a feature of style. It is worth

mentioning that not all combinations are collocations. The best

way to distinguish between a collocation and a free combination is

to translate it into another language, if the literal or word for

word translation doesn’t work there is evidence that this is a

collocation

3.4. The translation of collocations in literary texts.

It is commonly known that the task of translation must involve

some kind of loss in meaning due to many factors (poor word

choices, words with extended meanings, the different lexical and

grammatical systems between the two languages, etc). Sarikas

(2006, p. 36) states that the basic loss when translating “is

reported to be on a continuum between overtranslation (increased

detail) and undertranslation (increased generalization) in the

translation task.” In our case, when translating collocations the

translator should be very careful in delivering the accurate

equivalent in the target language (TL). The interest in the

translation of collocations comes from their great importance in

language. They play an essential role in the coherence of the

structure of language. They also give language attraction and

special flavor which makes it more beautiful, more pleasant and

more extraordinary. The translation of collocations is an eternal

struggle to match the proper nouns with the proper verbs, the

proper verbs with the proper nouns, or the proper adjectives with

the proper noun. We all are aware that we spontaneously use

collocations in speeches or writings, either from experience,

dictionaries, from reading or listening to native speakers,

conversations etc. Thus collocations are recognized as a difficult

field not only for language learners but also for translators.

(Stubbs, 1995, p. 245).

The pleasure of reading literary texts is something that many of

us want to share with others. It is well known that translation is

considered to be one of the main sources of communication, thus

the need for translating literary texts has increased leaving

apart the cultural and language differences which bring to some

restrictions and problems in translating these texts. Literary

texts in general can be distinguish from other non-literary texts

because they include unique wording. The vocabulary used there

has not only has denotative meaning (dictionary meaning), but also

connotative meaning (intended meaning). Literature, as is widely

known is rich with metaphors and associations (connotative and

denotative), for this purpose literary translation is perhaps

considered to be the most difficult kind of translation.

Translators should distinguish between figurative and free

meaning. It is important to maintain the same connotative meaning

of SL collocation and TL by paraphrasing, expanding, using

synonyms or explaining. Landers (2001, p. 8) also discusses the

role of translating literary texts by mentioning some of the

competences that a literary translator should control: tone,

style, flexibility, inventiveness and ear for sonority and

humanity.

Beekman and Callow (1974) define collocational clashes and argue

that collocational clashes are the result of conflict of meaning

components. In a collocational clash there is a conflict of

meaning components within a text carried by both the grammar and

the lexical choices made. Larson (1984) even talks about

collocational clashes describing lexical collocational errors

committed by people who speak a language which is not their

mother-tongue. He adds that the translator must be alert to the

potential pitfall of collocational clashes.

Baker (1992) mentions that some problems and difficulties in

translation are related to collocations due to the attractive

effect of the SL text patterning, misinterpreting the meaning of

the SL collocation, the tension between accuracy and naturalness,

and the existence of culture-specific collocations. Jaber (2005,

p. 158-168) observes that there are eight translational methods

that deal with translating sentences and smaller units in literary

texts. One of these methods is literal translation, i.e.

translating word for word from the ST to the TT. It is not

considered a perfect method, as Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) argue

because it could be “unacceptable” giving contradictory or

inappropriate meaning to statements. This would lead to a fully

different style of language for example: turned pale-----u zverdh si limoni.

On the other hand, it could be helpful as Newmark advocates that

it could be a good method when literal translation means

translating meaning for meaning.For example: destroys the harmony-----

shkatëron harmoninë. Literal translation (word for word) is not

recommended in translating literature because it does not give the

TT the artistic color and effect of the original, this is because

translating literary texts is a special case and that literary

text has special features that distinguish it from other kinds of

texts. Jaber notices that collocations are widely used in literary

text such as novels and that the translator job is to deal with

them.

o Collocations that contain a noun and an adjective, such as a

fresh school in which the translator aims to find the accurate

adjective in the target language, such as shkollë e re

o Collocations that contain a verb and a noun such as becomes all

nose the translator aims to find the equivalent verb in the

target language such as merr frymë thellë me hundë

o Collocations that containan an adverb and adjective such as

quite magnificent in which the translator aims to find the

accurate target language equivalence such as shatngu në vend

o Collocations that contain noun and a noun such as mist of tears,

again the translator aims to find the accurate noun in the

target language, such as rrëke lotësh

As translation is defined by Touri (1980, p.200) as a kind of

activity that involves two languages and two cultural traditions

which are closely connected and makes translation possible, we

cannot pretend in absolute correspondence since two languages are

not identical either in meanings, phrases or sentences.

3.5. Strategies in translating collocations in literary texts.

The process of the translation of collocations has been carried by

linguists such as: (Newmark, 1988; Lorscher, 1991; Baker, 1992;

Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995). Newmark define translation as "a craft

consisting in the effort to replace a written message in one

language by the same message in another language". Later he

specified his definition by stating that translation is rendering

the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the

author considered the text. Their studies were focused on the

relationship within the strategies applied by translators and the

difficulties encountered in translation. Translation strategies

selected by the translator affect the meaning of the TT. They play

a vital role in delivering a complete and effective meaning in a

way that maintains the cultural and stylistic features of the

text. Translators play a major role in shaping the target text.

The decisions they make for which strategy to adopt contribute

largely to the final product of the translation.

In order to overcome the problem translators face when translating

collocations some strategies are needed. Among the famous pairs

methods of translation are Semantic and Communicative against the

traditonal Literal and Free methods. To Newmark (1981) semantic

translation is SLT-centered, whereas communicative translation is

TLT reader-oriented, seeking to produce an equivalent effect on

them. He makes a serious claim that "there is no one

communicative nor one semantic method of translating a text. A

translation can be more or less semantic – more or less

communicative, for it is quite hard to imagine how the same

sentence which is at the end one idea, can be translated half

semantically, half communicatively. The problem translators face

in the translation of collocations is finding the exact lexical

equivalents in TL, dealing with cultural aspects, conveying the

intended message and finding the proper strategy in order to

convey ST aspects in TL.

Equivalence (As-Safi,1996:11) is a bilingual synonymy or sameness

based on lexical universals and cultural overlaps. Baker (2005:77)

rightly maintains that equivalence is a central concept in

translation theory although there are certain small controversies

about the concept. Proponents define equivalence as relationships

between ST and TT that allows the TT to be considered as a

translation of the ST in the first place. Many theorists think that

translation is based on some kind of equivalence depending on the

rank (word, sentence or text level). Collocational equivalence is

defined as equality in content between ST and TT collocations

within a given context (sentential and situational). Thus in

instances when a translation is criticized as inaccurate or

inappropriate, this may refer to the translator's failure to

recognize a collocational pattern with a meaning different from

the sum of meanings of its elements.

The pedagogical approach states that if we have a direct

equivalent for a SL collocation there is no difficulty in

translation. We can talk about absolute equivalence if both

collocation of both languages are words with identical content. It

is widely accepted that to produce an acceptable, accurate or

appropriate TL equivalent for a SL counterpart poses a challenge

even to the most competent and experienced translator. Achieving

appropriate collocations in the target text Basil and Mason

declare has been always seen as one of the major problems a

translator faces, because SL interference may escape unnoticed and

as a conclusion ununnatural collocation will weaken the TT. The

translator’s tiresome task is due to the semantic arbitrariness of

collocations as explicated by the following examples. Nida

proposes two kinds of equivalence, Formal and Dynamic equivalence:

Formal equivalence pays more attention ST (to source text)

rather than TT, so it reveals as much as possible of the form

and content of the original message.

Dynamic equivalence looks at TT and makes it more natural for

the receptor. It has in focus the receptor response, which

mean that you find the closet natural equivalent to the

source language mesagge. In this way Dynamic equivalence is

proposed as a strategy in translation studies and seems to be

a very successful method of dealing with collocations in

literary works.

Lorscher has defined translation strategies as "conscious

procedures" with the aim of solving translation problems. Instead

Baker (1992, p 26) has pointed to translation strategies as

descriptions that treat "various types of non equivalence" The

most comprehensive and applicable set of translation strategies is

what Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) proposed for the sake of semantic

and communicative effect: borrowing, calque, literal translation,

transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. Apart that

we can say that there are not fixed translation strategies, some

can be really helpful whereas others tend to be not so

beneficial. The search for the right collocation requires an

effort on the part of the translator. When they come across the

obstacle of not finding the corresponding TL equivalent for the SL

lexical item they refer to several strategies to overcome the

problems. We normally say in English “make a visit”, but not “perform a

visit”. Baker (ibid) also gives the example of the verb “drink” in

English which collocates naturally with liquids like “juice and milk”

but not with “soup”. All the above examples indicate that

collocations cannot be literally transferred from SL into TL.

Garcia, (1996) says that "different procedures for the

translation are implemented to achieve a successful transfer, when

difficulties in translation often become inevitable.

Finding the appropriate collocation in translation is a "continual

struggle" and the translator always tries to solve a thousand

small problems in a large context. One of the big mistakes

translators tend to make is adopting several strategies while

translating collocations such as: simplification, reduction,

synonymy, and paraphrasing. As Asqlan (1991, p. 4) notes “the

higher the degree of these strategies the less effective the

translation and the less natural the intended communication will

be.” Baker (1992, p. 46) consider that the main challenge which

the translator faces when translating collocations, idioms, and

fixed expressions consists of achieving an equivalence above the

word level. Translators should work hard to minimize translation

loss. Furthermore, in literary translation, mistranslations may

lead to a lexical impoverishment of the TT and obscure the

expressive purpose of the ST.

Literal Translation is concerned with translating individual words

more out of context than in context. Although we translate words

"words alone do not carry meaning" (Raffel, 1994: 4). We translate

words in context and context is of different types: referential,

collocational, syntactic, stylistic, semantic, pragmatic,

situational, cultural, etc. (Newmark, 1988: 73 ). Translators deal

more with ideas than words, and, in literary translation, they

deal among other with cultures (Landers, 2001: 72). Literal

translation is normally taken to mean an accurate translation of

meaning, no more no less. Everything is translated to a measure as

much as possible: no deletions, no additions, no unnecessary

exaggerations, no artificialities or groundless digressions. Thus,

literal translation is the accurate translation of meaning as

closely, directly and completely possible.

Chapter 4: Methodology

4.1. Introduction

Collocations in general pose tremendous challenge to translators if

translators do not have the required abilities to identify and recognize

this collocational patterns. The research done in this area shows that

lexical collocations in translation are of primary importance. Dealing

with translation of collocations especially in literary text is a matter

of word choice or style that translator uses to translate the proper

collocation. As we early mentioned it is not an easy way to translate

collocations but rather a difficult task to be handled. It is necessary

for the translator to possess good knowledge of the language, a

proficiency one and a mastery of it. The use of the proper method led to

a right choice and thus to a clear, meaningful collocation into the TT.

Analysing the three books, the original one and both translated versions

had been not only an easy task but a pleasure at the same time. I enjoyed

the novel, their translations as well as each of them in its own way.

The title themselves of the The picture of Dorian Gray is mysterious in what

it represent to the reader. The first is the picture painted by Basil

Hollward and the literary " picture" that Wilde creates here. Both of

these indicate the so called "real world" that we cant see in the world,

the truth of Dorians soul. The painting is at the center of the novel,

while Dorians physical beauty remains untouched, then he suddenly changes

horribly to reflect the corruption of his soul. The Portrait of Dorian

Gray is one of Oscar Wildes masterpiece. In essence the author had dared

to display the decay and all the artificiality of the system by strongly

condemning all the immorality that has ruined English society. The novel

tries to represent the inner world of the main character, Dorian Gray,

who is under the destructive influence of Lord Herry which characterise

all the interest,envy, corruption and immorality that cares for physical

beauty and not happiness. This novel reflects the depravity of English

aristrocatic society and the spiritual emptiness of this society.The

proficienct at which this novel is written is rare.

4.2. Materials (instruments of the styudy)

In my thesis I have taken into consideration the study of the

linguistic phenomenon known as collocation. The thesis aims at

analysing the translation of collocations in literary text from

English into Albanian. It makes use of the techniques of corpus

linguistics to account for frequencies of occurrence and

translation strategies. As a matter of fact one English literary

novel and two Albanian translations of it were chosen to be the

data for this study.

"The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde (an Irish writer and

poet) it’s a novel, the genre belong to Ghotic,

philosophical,comedy of manners, it is written in English in 1890,

in London with setting(time1890s) and the setting place (London,

England), the tense in which the novel is written is Past tense.

Date of the first publication: 

The first edition of the novel was published in 1890 in Lippincott’s

Monthly Magazine. A second edition, complete with six additional

chapters, was published the following year.

Publisher: The 1891  edition was published by ward, Lock & Company.

Themes: The purpose of art; the supremacy of youth and beauty; the

surface nature of society; the negative consequences of influence.

The novel is translated in two versions by different translators,

repectively the first book "Poretreti i Dorian Greit" is

translated by the translator Klodian Briçi (February, 2001),

published by publishing house " Naum Vqeilharxhi" and the second

version of "Portreti i Dorian Greit" is translated by Nikoleta

Kalldremxhi (January, 2006), published by the publishing house

"TOENA", second edition. The novel consists of 20 chapters (382

pages). Chapters 1-6 coresponding to pages (23-83) and chapters

12- 15 corresponding to pages (136-164) were chosen for analysis.

To have reliable findings and draw accurate conclusions I have

verified and analysed 1138 collocations corresponding to four

categories under the study. Respectively 745 count for adjective +

noun; 146 for adverb + adjective; 143 for verb + noun and 104 for

noun + noun.

.

4.3. Methodology

As mentioned early the study attempts to examine various

collocations along with their translations and demonstrate how

translators deal with them when transferring them to the target

language, what strategies are adopted and whether the target text

fulfills the linguistic and stylistic characteristics of the

collocations or not. Three questions are investigated:

What happens to collocations when they are translated?

How do translators deal with collocations?

What strategies do they adopt in translating collocations in

literary texts?

It is worth mentioning that English collocations will not be

equal, because transferring collocations from one language into

another is transferring from one linguistic system to another and

from culture to culture (Heliel, 2002:62). Collocations were

specified in the chapters ( source text). Collocations and their

translations were checked for their stylistic features and

strategies being used. The procedure was simple: I carefully read

all the source text and payed great attention to the selected

chapters, then I firstly read the translated version of the first

book that is that of Klodian Briçi and then proceeded with the

other version. At the same time i underlined all the lexical

collocations that I found in the ST and I divided them according

to their category. I also underlined all the translated versions

of collocations into the TTs. The easiest part consists of not

dealing with the translation of these collocations by my self,

but only with the detection of each category. I listed them in a

table to make the work easier and visible. While reading I noticed

the difference of both texts. I found the first book of (Klodian

Briçi) more interesting for the reasons i mentioned in this work.

The book is close and more faithful to original, the style of the

translator, his word choice makes the book more attractive for the

reader, more natural,comprihensible and you feel like you are

reading a TT novel. The number and percentage of collocations

translated by each strategy identified are calculated to rank them

according to their frequency. The most-used strategy is determined

as the most frequent strategy used in translating collocations in

literary texts. Finally, conclusions are drawn to provide a

general and informative view of strategies used to translate

collocations in literary texts as well as to provide

recommendations for how to deal with them.

4.4 Examples of Lexical collocations

Types of Collocations found in the translated literary work

Table 1: The translation of Adjective + Noun collocation from source text into two

respective target texts.

"The portrait of

Dorian Gray" by Oscar

Wilde

Adjective +Noun

(ST)collocation

"Portreti i Dorian

Greit" përkthyer nga

Klodian Briçi

"Portreti i Dorian

Greit" përkthyer nga

Nikoleta Kalldremxhi

Rich odour of roses Aromën e dëndur të

trëndafilave

Aromën e fortë të

trëndafilave

Fantastic shadows Hijëzimet e shkëlqyera Hijet e flatrave

The long unmoun grass Në barin gjatosh pirg Barit të lartë të

pakositshëm

Heavy scent of lilac Duhma e rëndë e jargavanëve Era e fortë e lilakut

Gracious and comely form Trajtës së hirëshme dhe

magjepsëse

Formën e bukur e të hijshme

Curious dream ëndrra kundërshtjellëse Ëndërra misterioze

The only place I vetmi vend I vetmi vend

odd chaps Ç njerëz të mykur Krijesa të çuditshme

young man Djelmoshat e rinj Poetët e rinj

rugged strong face Fytyrë me rrudha të thella Omitted

young adionis adionisi riosh Adionisit të ri

Lear ned proffesions zanate Në çdo fushë

Silly habit Zakon i marrë Duket budallallëk

Extraordinary fellow Mik i jashtëzakonshëm Tip i pazakontë

White daisies Luledelet bardhake Luleshqerrat e bardha

Pink petalled daisy Luledele që i kishte petalet

ngjyrë karafili

Luleshtrydhe me petale të

trëndafilta

Elderly ladies Zonjat plakaruqe Zonjat plakaruqe

Huge price Një shumë të mirë Një dorë të mirë lekësh

Dainty silver case Kutizë prej argjendi Kutia delikate e

fildishtë

Tedious luncheon Drekën e lehtë Drekën e mërzitshme

Silly marriages Martesat e pamenda Martesa të çmenduraBrute force Kur forca përdoret mizorisht Ti rezistoj brutalitetit të

forcësLight summer wind Puhia e lehtë e beharit Puhiza e lehtë e erësBeautiful nature Natyrë tërheqëse Natyrë e butë

Long bamboo seat Ndenjëse të gjatë prej bambuje

Poltron bambuje

Tall laurel bush Kaçubeje të gjatë dafine pemëPolished leaves Gjethet e shndritshme Gjethe të pastraLittle golden white-feathered disk

Fushës së vockël ngjyrë ari me push bardhak

Zemrës së lules

Heavy lilac blooms Lulet e rënda të jargavanit Boçhet e lilakut të rënduaraLanguid air Ajrin e thatë omittedHer Brown gauze wings Krahët e saj tejdukshëm Flatrat e hollaPoor artists Artistët e gjorë Artistët e gjorëPointed brown bear Mjekrën ngjyrë kafe mjekrënRomantic spirit Frymë romantike Shpirt romantik

Silent amuzement Heshtjen zbavitëse Kënaqësi e heshturBeautiful nature natyrë e bukur Tip i këndshëmMomentary Japanese effect Ndikim I përkohshëm Japonez (Për një moment) të krijonin

një efekt të një mjedisi Japonez

Pallid jade -face Çehren e fytyrës verdhacuke Fytyrat e zbehta dhe verdhacuke

Dim roar Buçima e mbytur Zhurma e mërzitshmeHuge overdress dowagers Vejushat e veshura deri në

grykëVejushat e pispillosura

Tear-stained eyes Me sytë e njollosur nga çurgët e lotëve

Me lot në sy

Mere personality personaliteti Thjesht bukuriaExquisite sorrows Brengat më të thella Hidhërime të bukuraGigantic tiaras Diadema vigane Kurora gjigandeCrisp gold hair Flokët kishin ngjyrën e arit

të qartëKaçurrelat delikatë biondë

Sulky moods turivarurit Nuk është në orë të miraRose-white boyhood Plot gjallëri Adoleshencë e papërlyerWilful paradox Paradoksin kryeneç Paradoks i stërholluarDreamy languorous eyes Sytë ëndërrimtarë e të

lodhurSytë ëndërrimtarë dhe indiferent

Rebellious curls Krelat e ndërkryera Kaçurrelat rrebeleGilded threads Flokët e praruar Flokët e verdhaVisible symbol Simbol I ri ShekullGreen and white butterflies Flutura me ngjyrë të blertë

e të bardhëFlutura jeshile

The long palette knife Paletën gjatarushe Thikë piktoriAbsurd fellows Miq të pakuptueshëm Njerëz të çuditshëmReal-colour element Elementi I vërtetë bojatisës E vetmja gjuhë e vërtetëRough shooting coat Shilte e ashpër e bërë me

lëkurë kafshëshPallto të trashë gjahu

Bushy white eyebrows Vetullat plot lesh të bardhë Vetullat e trasha e të bardha

Penniless young fellow Djalosh riosh pa asnjë kacidhe në xhep

Djalë pa asnjë dyshkë

Poor chap Djaloshi skamnor I shkreti djalëBad business ( një punë e tillë )Qelbej

erëNjë dreq punë

Proper hands Dërrasë të kalbur Në duar të miraSombre hall Sallë e pandriçuar Një si tip holli meksikanFacile excuse Shfajsim të rëndomtë Justifikim sa për sy e faqeUnpardonable error Gabim i pafalshëm OmittedDelightful theory Çteori e shkëlqyer Kam shumë frikëLong tussore-silk curtains Perde me xhufka Perde të gjata të mëmdafshtaExtraordinary improvisation Improvizimi i pazakontë Improvizimi i mrekullueshëmA harsh word Një fjalë e vetme Nuk dua të bëj sherrPerfect host Bujtinë e mrekullueshme Zot shtëpie The old gentleman Zotëria plakush PlakuInummerable cigarettes Një numër të jashtëzakonshëm

cigareshCigare pa fund

Dark crescent-shaped eyebrows

Vetullat e tij të errta dhe leshtore

Vetullat e tij të zeza e të trasha

Awkward silence Heshtjen e sikletshme Qetësinë e mërzitshmeFaint odour of frangipanni Aromë të mbytur të jaseminit Erën e parfumitDecent society Shoqërive të pahijshme shoqëriMad curiosity Me kurreshtje të marrë Me kuriozitetSordid sinners (me) mëkatarë të fëlliqur Mëkatarët e këqinjSplendid sins Mekatet qejfbërëse Mëkatet e mrekullueshmeGrimy streets Rrugë të lerosura Rrugicave të errëtaBlack grasseless squares Sheshe të errëta pa bar Shesheve të pagjelbëruaraAbsurd little theatre Teatër i vogël pa pikë vlere Teatër i vogël qesharakHideows jew Një jude Çifut i shëmtuarAmazing waistcoat Jelekun më të çutditshëm Jelek tejet qesharakGreasy ringlets Unaza të lyrosura Baluke të lëpiraIdle classes Klasat përtace Klasat e lartaHorrid little private box Arkë e vockël Llozhë private e shëmtuar"The idiot boy" Djali I luajtur mendsh Idioti(tituj filmash)Wretched hole Vrimë mjerane i ndyrë(vend)Cracked piano Piano që krakëllinte Piano çalamaneStout elderly gentleman Zotëri kaprroç Plakaruq I shëndoshëCorked eyebrows Me vetulla të ashpra Me një palë vetulla harkWild passion of violins Dashurohej pas zjarrmisë së

violinaveKishte pasionin e ndezur të violinës

Dainty cap Kësulë të bukur Kapel kalorësi

Painted faces Makiazh i fytyrës Surrat të tualetosurCharming room Dhomë e hijshme Dhomë e këndshmeTiny stain-wood table Tryezë e lustruar Tavolinë e vogël prej

mëndafshi dhe druriCurious woman Grua që të ngjall kërshëri Grua kuriozePerfect mania fiksim Kishte një maniThin lips buzët BuzëtA long tortoise-shellpaper knife

Presë letrash në trajtën e breshkës

Thikë letrash prej lëkure gjarpri

Emotional coloured- life ofthe intellect

Jetë emocionale lajlelule tëintelektit

Jetën shumë- ngjyrëshe të emocioneve të intelektit

Brown agate eyes Vetullat e tij të vijëzuara të syve

Në sytë e tij kafe të axhituar

Beautiful face Sytë e tij të bukura Fytyrë e bukurWorn chair Karrigia e vjetëruar Karrigia e rrjepurThe Wordy silence Moshtënia e fjalëve Kjo qetësi

Dreadful old bear Derr i egjër Arush plakSwell people Njerëzit me sqimë Njerëzit që mbajnë erë të mirëA brilliant marriage një burrë I shkëlqyer Një martesë e shkëlqyerImaginary gallery Portreti imagjinar Galeri imagjinareThe Heavy youth Të riun e vramur rininëWicked, red-shirted bushrangers

Rojet e kufirit që ishin të ligj dhe që mbanin këmisha të kuqe

Kthetrat e kaçakëve

Smart people Njerëzinë mendjemprehtë Njerëzit e veshur bukurGold-fields Fushat e arta Minierat e aritNice sheep-farmer Dhiar i shkëlqyer Fermer i këndshëmA great opportunity Një ndjenjë e re zhgënjimi Shanci i madh

The tables represent the examples of adj + noun collocations

found in the literary work of Oscar Wilde " The portrait of

Dorian Gray". These kinds of lexical collcoations are

translated in two different versions from two different

Albanian translators. In the first line are presented the

types of lexical collocations (adj + n) taken from the

source text. In the second line are given the translations of

adj + n collocations from the first book tanslated by Klodian

Briçi, and the third line represents the second version of

translated collcoations by Nikoleta Kalldremxhi.

Table 2: The case of Adverb + adjective translation from the two translated versions

"The picture of DorianGray" by Oscar WildeAdverb + Adjective (ST) collocation

"Portreti i Dorian Greit"

përkthyer nga Klodian

Briçi

"Portreti i Dorian

Greit" përkthyer nga

Nikoleta Kalldremxhi

Too large Shumë e madhe Shumë e madhe Too vulgar Tepër e trashë E rëndomtëPerfectly hideous Hileqarë Sa të shpifurAbsolutely delightful Të mrekullueshme Gjithmonë në formëAwfully foolish Tmerrësisht luajtur nga

binarëtTmerrsisht i çmendur

Absolutely necessary Domosdoshmërisht të nevojshëm

Obsolutisht të nevojshme

Thoroughly ashamed Që të vjen turp Të vjen turpAbsolutely inseparable E pandashme Të pandaraQuite serious Me tërë mend seriozishtQuite magnificent E shtangu në vend E paparëAbsolutely necessary Është bërë pjesë e

domosdoshmeKaq I nevojshëm

Entirely new manner Një lloj të ri, stli Një formë tjetërPerfectly cold and perfectly indiferent

(të sillesh) Plotësisht ftohtë dhe me mospërfillje

Komplet i ftohtë dhe indiferent

Horribly thoughtless Flet pa u menduar fare Tmerrësisht i pakujdeshëmHorribly freckled i mbushur plot me quka Me quka të tmerrshmeToo frightened Kam frikë Kam shumë frikëVery pressing Shumë harbut Shumë bindës

Horribly dull Me të vërtetë e bezdishme Shumë e mërzitshmeDreadfully tedious Jashtëzakonisht e frikshme MerzitenStrangely bright Shndrisnin në një mënyrë të

çuditshmeShkëlqim i çuditshëm

Dimly conscious Gjysëm i vetëdijshëm Gjysëm koshientIntensely interesed Ju ndez) interesi keqazi Shumë i interesuarPerfectly still Edhe pak Komplet i paluajtshëmHorribly hot Nxehtësirë e tmerrshme Shumë nxehtëAbsolutely fascinating E magjepste pa masë Kishte diëka shumë

tërheqëse Awfulli obliged Ti ishe shkaktari që më

detyroveTë jam shumë miënjohës

Hardly care Me zor sa Nuk ma ha mendjaPerfectly right Plotësisht të drejtë Plotësisht të drejtëA little silly Një grimë budalla Pak budallaExtremely young Në kulmin e rinisë Sa i riExtraordinarily beautiful girl

Grua me bukuri të jashtëzakonshme

Një vajzë me një bukuri të jashtëzakonshme

Excessively anxious me ankth Të eturaDreadfully dowdy Vejushë frikacake Kaq e shëmtuarIntesely earnest manner Zell i papërmbajtshëm Me një ton mjaft solemnExtremely civil Jashtzakonisht të qytetruar Janë shumë të gjenduraAbsolutely reasonable Shumë të arsyeshëm Shumë të arsyeshëmQuite vexed Do të bie në qafë Pothuajse e mërziturTerribly morbid Butësi e tmerrshme Tmerrësisht e trishtueshmeTerribly grave Tmarrsisht të mëdha Shumë e mërzitshmeDreadfully demoralising Të mpakni zemrën Tmerrsisht demoralizuesWonderfully beautiful face Fytyrë me të vërtetë manhitëse Ke një fytyrë të

mrekullueshmeSickly aims Ndihmat që të shtihen

sëmundjetQëllime të kota

Terribly enthralling E tmerrshme Tmerrësisht skllavërueseExtremely interesing people

Popull me të vërtetë interesant

Njerëz shumë interesant

Extremely dangerous Tepër I rrezikshëm Shumë I rrezikshëmToo romantic Tepër romantik Shumë romatik

Quite cosmopolitan kozmopolit kozmopolitanëQuite different Shumë të ndryshme Të ndyshmeQuite charmed Shumë I kënaqur Shumë I lumturuarCompletely satisfied Plotësisht e kënaqur Është e lumturFairly full Mbushur plot Ishin të zënaQuite empty Ishin të lira Bosh(radha ishte)Quite obvious Tashmë dihet Duken qartëTerribly disappointed Jashtmase I zhgënjyer Tmerrësisht I zhgënjyerStrongly recomended Që ua rriste vlerën deri në

qiellI vlerësoi shumë

Quite uncoscious Gati të pavetëdijshme Plotësisht e pavetëdijshmeInfinitely mean E pafundme E zymtëAbsolutely and entirely dive

Krejtësisht hyjnore hyjnore

Dreadfully late Shumë me vonesë Jashtzakonisht vonëTerribly excited Tmerrsisht në ankth Tmerrsisht i emocionuarPersonally delightful Të lumtur magjepsësPerfectly unintersting Skanë pikë interesi OmittedAbsolutely fascinating Të shtangin duke të magjepsës magjepsësFinely bred I hijshëm OmittedToo shabby I kam rrobat e zhubrosura Jam i rreckosur

The second table represents the second type of translated

collocation adverb + adjective and their respective translated

versions. The first line represents the collocation type, the

second line represents the first translated version and the third

line represents the second translation versions.

Table 3: The case of Veb + Noun collocation and their translation

from both translated versions

"The picture of DorianGray" by Oscar WildeVerb + noun (ST) collocation

"Portreti I Dorian

Greit" përkthyer nga

Klodian Briçi

"Portreti I Dorian

Greit" përkthyer nga

Nikoleta Kalldremxhi

Catch the gleam Kapte rrezet Të shihteGave rise U pat dhënë hov U ngritënElevated his eyebrows Ngriti vetullat Ngriti vetullatTo gain a reputation (Per të) fituar bujë (Për të )Fituar famëDestroys the harmony Shkatëron harmoninë Shkatëron harmoninëBecomes all nose Merr frymë thell me hundë Gjithçka bëhet me hundëChill our intelligence Freskoj mendjen Freskoj mendjetShrug your shoulders Mbledh supet Mbledh supetBring ruin U bëjnë keq të tjerëve Sjellin problemTo love secrecy Ta dua me gjithë shpirt

sekretinTë dua në fshehtësi

Leave town Lëshoj qytezën Largohem nga qytetiShook some bloosoms Lëkundi ca lule Shkundi ca luleQuit the room Të largohesha nga dhoma Mbath( për tia mbathur)Pulling the daisy Duke shtypur luledelen Mori një lule në dorëTreats her guests Trajton mysafirët Trajton mysafirëtPlays the piano I bie pianos I bie pianosBecome friends U bënë miq U bëmë miqShook his head Tundi kokën Tundi kokënDetesting my relations Përbuzur mardhëniet e mia Të urrej të afërmit e miMake an ass Luan mendsh Bën ndonjë budallallëkTapped the toe Ciku gishtin Goditi me majën e këpucësRecreate life Të krijoj rishtazi jetë Jeta më zbulon atë që..Charm his vanity Për të ngjallur magjepsjen

e tijPër të përmbushur vakumin

Pay attention Mos e kthe kokën Vër veshinGrow sick sëmuret SëmuretCure the soul Shërojë shpirtin Shërojë shpirtinCharm the world (Botën) e lë gojëhapur nga

habiaMagjeps njerëzit

Striking the table Duke ndukur tryezën Duke goditur tavolinën me grusht

Turned his steps Drejtoi hapat në drejtim të U kthye në drejtim të

Feed the hungry U japin të hanë barkzgorpurve

Ushqejnë të urriturit

Clothe the beggar Mbathin me rrobë lypsit Japin rroba për lypsitTurn your head Ktheje kokën një grimë Ktheje pak kokënTragic survval Mbijetesë tragjike Ekzistencën evtevetes

Monstruous laws Ligjet e përbindshme Ligjet e padrejtëHeard a step U dëgjuan ca hapa Ndjen zhurmën e hapaveShook his head Pohoi me kokë Tundi kokënShutting the door Mbylli derën Duke mbyllur derënGain reputation Të të respektojnë Të fitosh emërCommit one mistake Bejnë një gabim Bëjnë të njëjtin gabimSucking the poison Thithin ethshëm helmin Duke thithur helminRide in the park Kalërojnë në park Shkojnë në parkBecome bankrupt falimentojne FalimentojnëPay compliments Të përgëzojë Ditka të bëka kompimentTo stirr the dust Të çukërrmojë Tu përziej pluhurinWhispered the girl Përshpëriti çupa Përshpëriti vajzaTossed her head Tundi kokën Tundi kokënRules life Ka marrë në dorë jetën tonë Do të kujdeset për neStirred the fold Ia hodhi përpjetë palat I përzjeu palatCaught the melody Kapën melodinë Kapnin melodinë

The third table represents verb + noun collocation type. In the

first line is presented the verb + noun collocation, in the second

line is given its first translation from the first book and in the

third line is given the second version of translation from the

second book.Verb + noun collocations in this literary work seems

to be easy enough for both translators.

Table 4: The case of Noun + Noun collocation and the translated versions from both books.

"The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar WildeNoun +Noun (ST) collocation

"Portreti I Dorian Greit"

përkthyer nga Klodian

Briçi

"Portreti I Dorian

Greit" përkthyer nga

Nikoleta Kalldremxhi

Public excitement Shqetësim ZhurmëSmile of pleasure Pasqyrim I vërtetë Buzëqeshje kënaqësieMode of exaggeration Një mënyrë e tepëruar BarrëDearest friend Mikun më të shtrenjtë Mikun më të mirëDearest riend Mik për kokë Miku im më I mirëPenny newspapers Gazeta Gazeta të vogëlaDivorce court Gjykatë shkurorzimi Gjykatë divorciDignity of labour Dinjiteti i punës Dinjiteti I punësNatural passions Pasioneve të natyrshme Pasion I natyrshëmLook of joy hare ndjenjë gëzimiMist of tears Rrëke lotësh perde e purpurt lotëshChapter 3 Translation 1 Translation 2

A pack of radicals Lukuni radikalësh Ishin të shitur tek radikalët

A good deal Një thes me gjëra OmittedA pot of money Poçe me të holla Goxha paraHymn book Libër psalmesh Libër lutjeshGrave shake Vdekje me kokë Duke Tundur kryet rëndëPraise of folly Lëvdimi i çmendurisë Çmimi i marrëzisëWreath of ivy Dredhkat e shermashekut Gjerdanin e jaseminit

Hills of life Çukat e jetës Kodrat e jetësIn mock of despair Duke pëbuzur dëshpërimin Duket si vetë pafajësiaSecrets of life Të fshehtat e jetës Sekretet e jetësThe separation of spirit Ndarja e shpirtit omittedThe mist of a dream Mjegullina e një ëndërre Vello ëndërreThe Marble Arch Harku I mermertë Te Marble RickThe rumble of omnibuses Zhaurimën e koloshinave Zhurma e tramvajit

Noun + noun pattern is the case of collocation that has been used

least in this literary book considering that noun + noun

collocations are very useful in literary works. Again the first

line represent the noun + noun collocation, the second line gives

the first translated version from the first book (Klodian Briçi)

and the third line gives the second translated version from the

second book(Nikoleta Kalldremxhi).

Table 1. Frequency of collocation type in the ST

Type of collocation Frequency of

collocation type

(times)

Frequency of

collocation type in

(%)

adjective + noun 745 65%

adverb + adjective 146 13 (12.8)

%

verb + noun 143 13 (12.5)

%

noun + noun 104 10 %

1.138 (total)

The table represents types of collocations and the frequency for

each category. Ten (10) of twenty (20) chapters were taken into

consideration for this study. As the table shows the highest

number of collcoations in this work is that of adjective + noun

with 745 cases in total and the lowest number is that of noun +

noun with 104 cases. The frequency for each category is expresssed

in percentage.

Graphic: The frequency of collocations type in the ST

The graphic below represent the frequency of the most occurred

collocation type. The blue colour shows the highest number of

adjective + noun collocation, the adverb + adjective collocation in red

colour, verb + noun in green colour and the last in violet colour

is the noun + noun collocation.

Frequency of collocation type

adjective + noun collocationadverb + adjective collocationverb + noun collocationnoun + noun collocation

Graphic 1: The frequency of collocation type

4.5 Analysis of the collcoations

As Chesterman and Wagner 2002:5 state:

One of the best contributions translation scholars can make to the

work of professional translators is to study and then demonstrate

the links between different translation decisions or strategies,

and the effects that such decisions or strategies seem to have on

clients, readers and cultures, both in the past and in the

present, under given conditions. For sure we can state that the

translation strategies selected by the translator affect the

meaning of the TT. Translation strategies play an essential role

in delivering a complete and effective meaning in a way that

maintains the cultural and stylistic features of the text.

Translators play a major role in shaping the target text. The

decisions they make as to which strategy to use contribute mostly

to the final product of the translation.

The strategies used in translating collocations in both

target texts.

Literal

This strategy is SL based strategy in which the translator simply

translates the words without taking into consideration the

cultural aspect. Literal translation means to adopt the denotative

meaning. It means to transfer the utterance from the source text

into a syntactically and idiomatically appropriate target language

utterance where the translator’s task is restricted

This strategy is almost used in all categories of collocations but

the highest number of usage results in adjective + noun, although

most cases are found at verb + noun collocations. Here almost all

collocations are translated literally in both texts. The

translations are nearly the same apart from some cases that don’t

affect the meaning. These collocations are quite recognizable.

ST

T1 T2

destroys the harmony shkatëron harmoninë shkatëron harmoninëplay the piano i bie pianos i bie pianoscurious dream ëndërra kundërshtjellse ëndërra misteriozeShook his head tundi kokën tundi kokënRomantic spirit frymë romantike shpirt romantikcure the soul shëroj shpirtin shëroj shpirtin

other examples of literal translation

A dangerous theory Teori e rrezikshme Teori e rrezikshmeCharming room dhomë e hijshme dhomë e këndshmeTerribly proud tmerrsisht krenare shumë krenareLuxurious arm-chair kolltuk luksoz kolltuk luksoz

Dignity of labour dinjiteti i punës dinjiteti i punës

These are cases of collocations that are translated nearly in the

same way in two different novels. We can either call them

transparet collocations. They are easily recognisable collocations

and have primary meaning.

ExplicitationVinay and Darbelnet define explicitation as “the process of

introducing information into the target language which is present

only implicitly in the source language, but which can be derived

from the context or the situation”(Klaudy, 2001, p. 80). This

strategy is regarded as some kind of addition, but it is a more

specific concept since addition in general does not necessarily

mean that what is added is implicit in the source text. One of the

reasons that explicitation is used in translation is to make up

for the loss of meaning or to have a more target language-oriented

structure. Furthermore, explicitation is used to make implicit

information in the ST explicit in the TT. Explicitation can

indicate the translator’s intervention by deciding to add one word

or more to the collocation. This is probably to make the context

and situation clear.

For example:

The ST adj + n collocation A curtained picture is translated in the

first book as një pikturë që i kishin hedur përsipër një perde të trashë. We

notice that in the first translation the translator has tried to

give a broad explanation for the ST collocation, the explicitation

stand at the adjective "curtained" meaning a picture that has a

curtain hanging across it and translated it would sound vë perde ose

mbuloj. While the second translation has translated the collocation

and has remained faithful to ST. Një pikturë e mbuluar.

Great vein if translated literally would be vena e madhe ose kryesore,

instead the translator has choosen to explain so to add more words

in the target text translating it as vena që është pas bulës së veshit,

making us to understand better and to stress the importance and

the position of this vein that results in an immediate death such

was that of Basil(The friend of Dorian Gray and painter of his

picture).

Other examples are:

ST Translation 1 Translation 2Empty bookcase Një raft shumë të madh librash bosh

Një raft librash bosh

Great vein Vena që është pas bulës së

veshit Prapa qafës

Silent houses Shtëpitë që kishin rënë në heshtje

Dyert e qeta të shtëpive

Murdered man Njeriut që kishte vrarë me duart e tij

i vdekuri

Long fantastic arms Krahët që i mbante të hapura sa gjatë-

gjerë Krahët e gjatë e të ngurosur

EquivalenceCases of equivalence are a good deal. Equivalence is when

something is translated into another language and has the same

cultural function. Equivalence in translation studies has a

different meaning than the one that is used here as a translation

strategy. According to Kenny, equivalence is “the relationship

between a source text (ST) and a target text (TT) that allows the

TT to be considered as a translation of the ST in the first place”

(1998, p. 77) . Also, Jakobson discusses the notion of equivalence

in meaning and states that when we translate from one language to

another, we cannot get a full equivalence of what he called a

“codeunit” (Munday, 2008, p. 37) in the other language. So

equivalence means to achieve an equal level of meaning and

structure between the two texts. Here equivalence is not reached

by both translations at the same time.The first translator has

found an equivalence në lulen e moshës for the ST rose-red youth. If

translated literally it would be rini e kuqe si trëndafili. Rose-red

describes the youth that is like a rose that has just began to

florish, it is young, fresh and full of vitality.

ST Translation1 Translation 2rose-red youth në lulen e moshës në rininë e trëndafiltëStrangely calm Se prishi gjakun fare Çuditërisht i qetëextraordinary piece of luck çfat i madh çfarë fati

tarnished name njolllos emrin nam i keq

smart society shoqërinë e të zgjuarve në pozita të shëndosha

in a hard clear voice prerazi me një zë të lartë të qartë

AdaptionThis technique replaces a ST cultural element with one from the

target culture.It is mainly used for plays and poems. Adaptation

occurs when something specific to one language culture is

expressed in a totally different way that is familiar or

appropriate to another language culture. It is a shift in cultural

environment. 

The ST collocation of " a dutch silver spirit case" translates in the

first translation as tabakaja hollandeze prej argjendi. This is the case

of an adaption because the noun case which correspond to a box,

container or even a situation is translated as tabakaja in the first

translation while in the second as shishe e hapur Gjermane pijesh e

argjendtë. The adjective dutch is given as hollandezët and is right

because it is related to the Netherlands while in the second

version it is given as gjermanët. Thus both translators has used

adaption as a strategy by giving a totally different version.

ST T1 T2dotted pomegranates Kishte ngjyrën e shegëve e mbuluar me lule

Terrible distinctness Një trajtë të llahtarshmeSkena të tmerrshmeHorrible thoughts Duke arritur në përfundimin omittedBlack cleft of precipice Të çarë zioshe të ndonjë gremine Në bregun e mprehtë

të një fatkeqsie të madhe

Lets see how adjective + noun collocations are translated

from one book into another.

We notice a deviance from the ST especially in the second

translation. In the first example the collocation "wonderful

heiress" if translated in a literal way would be "trashgimtaren e

mrekullueshme" but the translator in the first book has chosen

the adjective "fat" that does not correspond to that of the

original. Nevertheles the translation result a good one, this

heiress that is wanderful is also a lucky one.

The second translator has used only the noun"

bukuroshen"omitting thus the adjective in the given

collocation. Apart that, even the noun heiress is not a

corresponding one to the ST. To replace "heiress" with "

bukuroshen" means not being faithful to the original but

adopting it. It is important in the ST to stress the noun

"heiress"and not to focus only in her appearance.

ST T1 T2 wonderful heiress trashgimtaren me fat bukuroshen

In the other example derr i egjër has nothing to do with that of

the ST. In the second translation dreadful is the adjective for

i fikshëm while old bear for arush plak. The second translation is

closer to the ST with the exception of not expressing the

adjective dreadful. The first translation has used the noun derr

for bear and the adjective wild for dreadful and old giving thus

the translation of derr i egjër.We notice how the translator has

adopted the ST collocation into the TT.

ST

Translation 1 Translation 2

dreadful old bear derr i egjër arush plak

Transposition

To change a grammatical category from ST into TL.

The collocation strangely melancholy is an adverb + adjective

collocation. The first translation has given as dëshpërim i

thellë, this is the case of an equivalence but from the shift

point of view the adverb strangely has changed into an adjective

i thellë instead of keeping the adverb and writing çuditërisht.

Huge window in the first translation is translated as dritare e

stërmadhe while in the second translation dritaret e mëdha. We

notice a change from singular into plural in the second

translation.Window transalted as dritaret. Other

examples:Intellectual power. The first translation has translated

it as intelekti i fuqishëm. The adjective intellectual has been changed

into a noun intelekti, while the noun power has been changed into

an adverb i fuqishëm.The second translation pak a shumë inteligjent

has only changed the noun power into an adverb pak a shumë. The

cases of shifts being their noun into verbs or adjective into

adverbs or singular forms into plural have not affected the

meaning of the target text rather they have made it more

challenging.

Deletion

This strategy is also used in the translation of

collocations. It is mostly used in the second translation.

The translation is omitted, it is not given. Honestly, this

kind of omission is not serious, meaning that it is not

overused, so it does not affect the meaning of the target

text.

Deletion is found to be of two types:

1. Full deletion, which means the whole collocation, is

dropped, i.e. providing no

translation. Rascally aventurier is translated in the first

translation as horr aventurier, while the second translation has

fully omitted this collocation. Examples:

ST Translation 1 Translation 2 Horrid places vise që të kallin datën omitted fashionable manner mënyrën e tyre magjepsëse omitted unpardonable error gabim i pafalshëm omitted excellent authority burim i besueshëm omitted patent leather boots çizme prej lëkure të shndritshme omitted rugged strong face Fytyrë merrudha të thella Omitted

2. Partial deletion is when one element (or more) of the

collocation is dropped while

transferring the remaining elements, as the deleted part does

not affect the whole

meaning of the original collocation. For example: We notice

that mostly in the second translation collocations are

partially omitted. White tie is translated by the first

translator as kravatën e bardhë while the second translator has

given only the noun kravatën,omitting thus the adjective white-

(e bardhë).

ST T1

T2

white tie kravatën e

bardhë kravatën

the old gentleman zotëria plakush

plaku

common gardener kopshtar

kopshtar i zakonshëm

Horrid ship anije e

frikshme anije

Again the example below is exact, meaning that it explain the

kind of society the author is speaking which is very

important for that time in London. An indecent society

translated as shoqëri e pahijshme while the second translation

gives just the word "shoqëri" thus it does not explain what

kind of society it is, while in the ST it is specified that

it is the kind of " an indecent" society, explaining better

the period time in London. These examples ilustrate that the

second translation omits words that are present in the source

text.

ST Translation 1

Translation 2

Indecent society shoqëri të pahijshme shoqëri Mad curiosity me kureshtje tëmarrë me kuriozitet The old gentleman zotëria plakush plaku Old gentle man zotnia bablok plaku

Transliteration

In the texts we find also some cases of transliteration,

where the word is not translated but it

is given as it is pronounced.

ST bitter herbs is translated as herbet e hidhura, thus the noun

herbs is transliterated, not translated in barëra.

ST the heavy scent of the lilac is translated as era e fortë e liliakut.

Again the ST noun lilac is transliterated liliakut instead of

translated it as jargavanëve.

Silver Faun is brought as fauni prej argjendi. The translator has

choosen to not translate the noun faun which is an ancient

Roman God that has the body of a man and with legs and horns

of a goat. The cases of transliteration are in a low number

and does not have any effect in the meaning of both

translations.

Numbers and percentages of strategies used in translatingcollocations for each target text:

Table 2TRANSLATION 1 TRANSLATION 2

Strategy Number of collocations

Percentage Strategy Number Percentage

Literal 292 49% Literal 279 51%Explicitation

93 15.5% Adaption 118 22%

Equivalence

84 14% Deletion 48 9%

Adaption 76 13% Equivalence

44 8%

Transposition

35 6% Transposition

26 5%

Deletion 11 2 Explicitation

23 4%

Transliteration

3 0.5 Transliteration

6 1%

594(total)

544 (total)

Translation 1Literal tr.ExplicitationEquivalnce AdaptationTransposition DeletionTransliteration

Graphic 1 Frequency of strategy types in target text nr. 1

This table represents the frequency of each strategy used in the

first translation. For each of the given colour is represented

each of the strategies, ranging from literal with blue clour which

is also the most used strategy in this translation,explicitation

with red colour, grren is equivalence,slight green transposition,

deletion is orange coloure and at the end is deletion in blue

light colour.Even though are used the same strategies they differ

in their ranking.

Translation 2Literal tr.AdaptionDeletionEquivalenceTranspositionExplicitation

Graphic 2: Frequency of strategy types in target text nr. 2

This table represents the frequency of each strategy used in the

second translation. The blue colour indicates the literal strategy

wich is the preceding one, then the red colour represents the

adaption method which is considered in high occurrence in the

second translation.Cases of equivalence are lower they are

indicated by the violet colour.The other strategies are as they

are shown in the graphic, the blue light is the transposition, the

orange colour is explicitation which is not used to much in this

translation and the last is transliteration.

Numbers and percentages of strategy types used in translating collocations for both target texts: Table 3

Types of strategies in translating collocations

LiteralExplicitationEquivalenceAdaption TranspositionDeleletionTransliteration

Strategy Number ofcollocations

Percentage

Literal 571 50.1%Explicitation 116 10.2%Equivalence 128 11.2%Adaption 194

17%Transposition 61 5.3%Deletion 59 5.2%Transliteration

9 1%

1138(total)

Graphic 3: Frequency of strategy types in both target texts

The table above (table 2) represents the total number of each

strategy used in the translation of collocation found in the

literary text. They are listed according to their frequency. The

first line represents the strategies, numbers and percentages of

the translated collocations from the first translator of the

portrait of Dorian Gray (Klodian Briçi) while the second line

represents the strategies, numbers and percentages of translated

collocations from the second translator (Nikoleta Kalldremxhi).

The table shows that the highest number that prevails in both

translations is that of literal translation.

Out of the total number(292) of literal collocations in the first

translation 195 belong to adjective + noun; 34 to adverb +

adjective; 23 to noun + noun; whereas in the second translation we

find 177 cases of adjective + noun; 34 to adverb + adjective; 39

to verb + noun; and 29 to noun + noun from the total number of

279.

Literal (Translation 1) Literal (Translation 2)adjective + noun =195/292 adjective + noun= 177/279

adverb + adjective =34/292 adverb + adjective =34/279verb + noun = 40/292 verb + noun = 39/279noun + noun=23/292 noun + noun =29/279

Explicitation (Translation 1) Explicitation (Translation 2)adjective + noun = 62/93 adjective + noun = 16/23adverb + adjective = 15 /93 adverb + adjective = 2/23verb + noun = 8 /93 verb + noun = 3/23noun +noun = 8 /93 noun +noun = 2/23

Equivalence (Translation 1) Equivalence (Translation 2)adjective + noun = 47 /84 adjective + noun = 20/44adverb + adjective = 19/84 adverb + adjective = 10/44verb + noun = 12/84 verb + noun = 7/44noun +noun = 6/84 noun +noun = 7/44

Adaption (Translation 1) Adaption (Translation 2)adjective + noun = 54 /76 adjective + noun = 80/118adverb + adjective = 6/76 adverb + adjective = 12/118

verb + noun = 8/76 verb + noun = 14/118noun +noun = 8/76 noun +noun = 12/118Transposition (Translation 1) Transposition (Translation 2)adjective + noun = 24/35 adjective + noun = 21/26adverb + adjective = 6/35 adverb + adjective = 3/26verb + noun = 4/35 verb + noun = 1/26noun +noun = 1/35 noun +noun = 1/26

Deletion (Translation 1) Deletion (Translation 2)adjective + noun = 7/11 adjective + noun = 33/48adverb + adjective = 1/11 adverb + adjective =4/48verb +noun =1/11 verb + noun =6/48noun + noun = 2/11 noun + noun = 5/48Transliteration (Translation 1) Transliteration(Translation 2)adjective + noun = 3 adjective + noun =6adverb + adjective = 0 adverb + adjective =0verb +noun = 0 verb + noun = 0noun + noun = 0 noun + noun =0

Style

I have chosen cases when both translations convey the same message but uses different diction.Word choice makes the

difference between translated versions and the original and

specifies in this way the author style. Using i çjerrë instead

of i thatë or e vjetëruar instead of e rrjepur is a matter of style

which differentiate the translator and makes his work more

valuable, obvious or understandable for readers.There is an

special attraction in the search for the right word from the

part of the translator.

ST Translation 1 Translation 2 a shrill voice një zëi çjerrë një zë i thatë worn chair karrigee vjetëruar karrige e rrjepur apricot-coloured light drita me ngjyrë kajsie drita e portokalltë fresh school shkollëe sapopërfunduar shkollë e re

An analysis from a paragraph point of view.

Lets see how these collocations appear in a larger paragraph,

how are they translated and to what extend do they affect the

translation.

First excerpt (chapter 1,pg.23)

" The studio was filled with rich odour of roses, and when the light summer

wind stirres amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the

open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink -

flowering thorn". (chapter 1, pg. 23)

First translation: Studioja qe mbushur me aromën e dendur të

trëndafilave dhe kur puhia e lehtë e beharit fryu duke trazuar pemët që

gjëndeshin në mes të kopshtit, përmes derës së hapur u ndie duhma e

rëndë e jargavanëve, tok me aromën e parfumuar të karafilave.

Second translation: Studioja ishte mbushur me aromën e fortë të

trëndafilave dhe kur puhiza e lehtë e erës lodronte mes pemëve të

kopshtit, përmes derës së hapur futej era e fortë e liliakut ose parfumi

delikat i gjëmbaçëve të lulëzuar.

In the first translation the sentences are arranged in a more

eloquent way. The author tries to describe the event and the

characters of the ST in detail. He is desribing the enviroment

outside the studio, filled with lots of different flowers, their

delicate parfume which inspire the painter.We notice the

translation of collocations in both versions. The messagge is the

same but the uses of different words in each translations makes

the diffference.

-The heavy scent of the lilac is translated as duhma e rëndë e jargavanëve(first

translation) and era e fortë e liliakut (second translation).Both

translators are speaking about the same flower but the first has

chosen a more expressive way, saying duhma instead of era or

jargavan instead of lilliakut these are details that differentiate a

translator and makes his translation more evaluated, clearer and

more readable for the target readers.

-The delicate parfume of the pink-flowering thorn. Here the first translator

has achieved a melodious translation, he has omitted the part of

thorn which is given in the second translation and somehow has

achieved a literal translation of this collcoation. But the noun

thorn is not convenient here as the author is speaking about a

wonderful landscape, a delicate and fragile one.

Second excerpt

Chapter 2 uses lexical collocations to describe the character

extraordinary beauty in detail:

"Lord Henry looked at him. "Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome,

with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was

something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour

of youth was there, as well as youths passionate purity."(p.34)

First translation: Lord Henri sakaq po e vërente atë. "Po, në të

vërtetë ai ishte jashtzakonisht shumë simpatk, buzët i kishte të dredhura dhe të

kuqe flakë, sytë i kishte ngjyrë të bruztë dhe të padjallëzuara, ndërsa flokët kishin ngjyrën

e arit të qartë. Në fytyrën e tij kishte diçka që të nxiste besimin. Tërë

çiltërsia e rinisë gjendej atje e ngërthyer sikurse edhe pastërtia e

përzemërsisë rinore".

Second translation: Lord Henri e vështroi. " Ishte kaq i bukur me

buzët e kuqe të skalitura, me sytë e çiltër blu dhe me kaçurrelat delikatë biondë. Kishte

diçka në fytyrën e tij që të bënte ta besoje menjëherë. Gjithë dlirësia e

rinisë ishte mishëruar në të sikurse edhe pasioni i çiltër".

Reading both translations the first one attracts me more. We

notice how the lexical collocations especially adj + n are brought

in the TT. The first translation has managed to translate all the

possible collocations in detail, remaining faithful to the

original.What differentiate the first translation from the second

one is excatly the style of the translator or word choice which makes

such a great distinction from one translation into another.

The first translation above has tried to translate almost all the

possible collocations of the ST. Certainly wonderfully handsome, two

possible versions translated as jashtëzakonisht shumë simpatik and kaq i

bukur. Again, finely curved scarlet lips as buzët i kishte të dredhura dhe të kuqe

flakë and buzët e kuqe të skalitura.etc.The author does not only describes

events and setting in details but also the characters by

emphasising their physical characteristics and their inner world.

The first book translated represent a language in fact that

is typical for the writer. He uses words of everyday usage-

colloquial language but not only in this kind of translation,

we find words that we do not normally use in everyday

speaking or even writing. Words such as ëndërra kundërshtjellse,

cigarja rëndake or rob koti, çehren e fytyrës verdhacuke, djalkë, ju gjegj ai (p

13),u shtriq ai, etc. In this case he has given the TT equivalents

that are most appropriate and gives that flavour to the text

that seems as if the book is writen in Albanian. Both

translated versions differ in the use of words and this is

what makes the difference or distinction between them. The

first translator has perfectly arranged a good translation.

The words used coincide with that of the ST in the sense that

the book is written long ago (1869).

Conclusions

Translating collocations is not an easy task. Choosing the right

collocation for a translator will make the text sound more

natural, above all they need to understand original language

grammar and syntax, appreciate and understand literary devices

used by original authors and understand the target audience and

its language. As collocations play a vital role in language they

have gained a great importance in language. Translating literary texts usually is a special case since the literary text has special

features that distinguishes it from other kinds of texts. Translators

as well as students must understand the relationship between

words, so which nouns are used with which words, which verbs are

used with which nouns and which adjectives with which nouns.

I have chosen the most spicy examples of both translations to

analyse and how these translations are given in target texts: In

these kind of translation it is clearly noted the distinction

between two translations under the study.In the first book the

translation is detailed and close to original, the translator

tries to introduce everything and is more discreet, while the

second translator achieves the production of an accurate message

from the tanslation point of view. At time the second translation

tries to omit, that’s why the first translation gives a flavor to

the text and makes it more attractive to the readers.

In both books the translations are nearly the same regard to the

message. This mean that the translator has used different diction

to express the same meaning.The first writer (K. Briçi) has

translated nearly all the words with their proper equivalents,

while in the second translation (N. Kalldremxhi) there have been

cases of untraslatability or omissions of the words. Here is seen

a more direct translation of words. The adj + noun collocation are

that kind of collocation that are used more in this literary work

and gives a flavor to the text. They occur in a high frequency

than other collocations and hold a great importance in the work because they describe the characters, the events, the enviroment, setting

in detail. In the first translation of (Klodian Briçi) these lexical

collocations are even more detailed and closer to the original whereas

the second translation of (Nikoleta Kalldremxhi) tries to cut short .

In v + n collocation the translation is nearly the same in both

books with a slight difference in the second translation. Mostly

the translation is reached through a literal method which is

easily recognizable and both translators has maintained the same

structure. The distinction is made between the use of other

collocation especially of adj + n & adv + adj where the demand is

greater from the part of the translator.

A distinction in word choice is noticed in both translations,

meaning that each author has used his /her own style, diction,

sentence structure and this is refleceted in the translation of

lexical collocations which are under the study.We can say that

depending on the category of the collocation they no changes at

all (literal translation, the collocation is translated as it is

in the st). In experience radical changes,(where the collocation

has been translated in a totally different manner) slight

changes(where the translator has not translated the whole

collocation but partialy)or the translation of collocations exist

certain principles and if the translator does not maintain them,

problems and mistakes may occur. In general both translations are

arranged in such a good, understandable, meaningful product.

-Even though we have mentioned that literal translation is not

always suitable, especially for literary work in these cases it

has proved successful. Most of translated collocations for each

category have produced a target text close to original without

distorting nuances of meaning. This lead in a well translation and

comprehensible target text. As it is believed that literal

translation is the basic translation procedure in communicative

and semantic translation, it ranges from one word to one word from

collocation to collocation, clause to clause etc. However above

the word level, literal translation becomes more difficult.

Collocations where words are used in their primary sense are

easily understood and translated and at the same time they serve

as a clue for the translator to guess the meaning of the less

transparent element.

-Explicitation is a method that is most used by the first

translator than the second one. The first translator has tried to

give a broader explanation rather than translating the collocation

as it is in the source text without losing the original meaning.

By explaining he has made clearer the context, adding details that

are not present in the ST. The second translator has used

explicitation but not as much as the first translator, rather he

has tried to translate the collocation more or less as it is in

the source text.

-Adoption is used most by the second translator. At times he has

tried to give a translation that deviate from that of the source

text giving thus a meaningless translation but in general he has

used this procedure to convert ST culture to TT, in a way the text

is rewritten. The first translator has tried to find more cases of

equivalence for the ST collocation making the final production a

challenging one, close to TT readers and to sound more natural.

Cases of equivalence are in considerable number. This strategy has

been used as a means of communicating the meaning of ST

collocation effectively.

Even though the strategy of omission is mostly used by the second

translator, it hasn’t affect the meaning of the TT. There are

cases when the omission is visible and comparing to the first book

makes a distinction.It is not beneficial to use these strategy

just only when it is extremely necessary. Also in both TT we find

examples of partial deletion which tries to give not the whole

collocation but only one part of it.

The cases of transpositions show that they havent influenced on

meaning. Changes in class shift are not great in number but they

demonstrate that the work done by the translators is discreet. In

general all the strategies used in both texts have resulted

affective without having produced odd meanings. They have tried to

translate the collocation in different forms (strategy) as we

mentioned, bringing thus a natural comprehesible text. It is

noticed that even both texts maintain the same strategies their

ranking is different, meaning that in the literal level both

translations are nearly the same, but if the first translation has

ranked explicitation in the second place, the second translation

has ranked adaption, meaning that this strategy is more used in

the first translation and adoption is more used in the second

translation.

The TT translation has implemented more TL collcoations and the

translation results more competent and with a better quality. It

is unique.It is very important to stress that the first translator

ha preserved the same denotative meaning of the SL collocation by

expanding, explaining angd by giving their proper equivalents. As

it seems both translators show abilities in recognizing and

identifying collocationswhich lead them in a meaningful

translation.The fact that the translation has resulted a good one

shows that the translator has had the abilities and good

knowledge to recognise them and to give the proper TT equivalent.

What it is noticed in this work is the number of strategies used

by both translators. The choices made by the first translator

range from literal to explicitation and equivalence, whereas in

the second translation are literal and adaption, this shows that

both translators have produced an effective TT. Translators deal

with collocations in different ways, opting for different

strategies to translate them. This depends on the kind of the

source text collocation and the kind of the target language

collocation at the translator’s disposal but according to Asqlan

(1991, p. 4) the higher the rate of these strategies, the less

effective the translation is, consequently the less natural the

intended communication will be, he states that one of the big

mistakes translators tend to make is adopting several strategies

while translating collocations.Thus we can add that in translating

colocations translators can adopt many strategies such as literal,

equivalence, explicitation, deletion etc. The findings of this

research suggest that literal translation is the most frequent

strategy adopted by both translators. The second top strategies are

explicitation, equivalence and adaption.

The style of the ST work is perfect, whereas regards to the words,

they remain sculpted. The new and talented translator, Klodian

Briçi has made Wilde to speak Albanian language. He has faced a

difficult task, a challenge one which has successfully coped. His

translation is very high-toned, he has remained faithful to the

core of the original recreating it in a wonderful, comprehensible

Albanian vesion with lots of words and phraseology.

As Baker (1992, p. 46) believes, the main challenge the

translator faces while translating collocations, idioms, and fixed

expressions consists of achieving an equivalence above the word

level. In addition, translators should work hard to reduce

translation loss to an acceptable minimum by knowing which feature

in the SL should be valued and which can be ruled out.

Recommendations for further research

Translation requires a special attention on the part of the translator so

as to avoid delivering an awkward collocation and incorrect meaning to

the target audience. It is recommended that the translation of

collocations in literary texts avoid calque translation as much as

possible, it should be used only with marked collocations to reflect the

source text style. and opt for other strategies that help in producing

dynamic equivalence to produce texts with literary style in the TL.

Collocations are a fascinating phenomenon in all genres. Other kinds of

texts such as business, sports reporting, legal language, and science and

technology can be investigated. Hope that collocations will receive

more attention in the future from the part of the translators

since competence of collocations increases and strengthens

translators language in general, they must integrate more suitable

TL collocations into their translations to produce attractive and

expressive writings rather than simple translations that transform

ST words into the TL one.

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