Kulturgebundener Sprachgebrauch und Lexikografie. Zur Relevanz einer stärkeren Kulturbezogenheit in zweisprachigen Wörterbüchern für Übersetzer

Abstract

The Bond between Language and Culture in the Light of Lexicography. The Role of the Stronger Bond with Culture in Bilingual Dictionaries for Translators. Bilingual dictionaries are used for various reasons. One of the reasons is to find out what the particular word means using its equivalent in the target language. What is of great importance here, is that sometimes the meaning itself – expressed lexicographically – provides not enough information that is necessary to fully understand the particular word. Although it appears that the isolated meaning of the word is clear and understandable, its constitutional and contextual meaning in specific linguistic environment becomes unclear, confusing or misunderstood. This can be observed especially when the word and its meaning are unique and characteristic for the particular culture. This article focuses on the use of the language which is specific for the given cultural group. The phenomena of both the bond existing between culture and language as well as the use of the language within the culture are expounded upon and explored on the example of the words welcome and goodnight. The article investigates whether and to what extend bilingual dictionaries include in their microstructure the information concerning the cultural aspects of the use of the linguistic entity. The short characteristic of bilingual dictionaries and the assessment of the culture-specific phenomena serve as the theoretical background for the subject under investigation