Register-Free and Register-Specific Collocations : A Problem for Translators.

Abstract

Collocation is one of the old, intensively investigated topics, but whose results are, unfortunately, not been made use of. This is evident from translators' serious difficulties in handling this aspect of language. The problem becomes even more serious when it comes to collocations in specialized texts (i.e. register-specific collocations). To verify this observation, a test was designed in which twenty five fourth-year students were asked to translate twelve sentences without being told about the test objective so that the responses are spontaneous and thus more reliable. The test results verified the hypothesis on which this paper was based; test subjects scored 38.4% of correct responses in dealing with register-free collocations, while this percentage declined to 15.4% in dealing with register-specific collocations. The paper attempted to highlight the causes behind such unpleasant performance. Finally, the paper gives some remedial suggestions which are hoped to contribute in overcoming the difficulties encountered in this respect.