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Home » What are calques and loans?

What are calques and loans?

A loanword, also known as a loan word or loan-word, refers to a term borrowed from a donor language and integrated into a recipient language without any translation. Unlike a calque, or loan translation, where a concept or expression from one language is translated into pre-existing terms in another language, loanwords retain their original form and meaning. This process of borrowing is common in linguistic evolution, especially in multilingual societies or in fields where one language dominates, influencing others.

Calques, on the other hand, involve the literal translation of elements from one language into another. This means that the structure or components of a word or phrase in the source language are directly replicated in the target language. For example, the English phrase “skyscraper” was calqued from the French “gratte-ciel,” where “gratte” means “to scrape” and “ciel” means “sky.” In this way, calques often preserve the original semantics more closely than loanwords.

In linguistic studies, understanding the nuances between loanwords and calques is crucial for comprehending the historical and cultural exchanges between languages. While loanwords enrich a language’s lexicon with diverse terms, calques demonstrate the adaptability and creativity of language users in expressing new concepts. Both phenomena contribute to the dynamic evolution of languages, reflecting the interconnectedness of human societies and their modes of communication.

(Response: In summary, loanwords are direct borrowings from a donor language into a recipient language without translation, while calques involve the literal translation of elements from one language to another. These linguistic phenomena are vital in understanding the interaction and evolution of languages.)