Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T01:59:06.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Characteristics of words determining how easily they will be translated into a second language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David J. Murray
David J. Murray*
Affiliation:
Queen's University at Kingston
*
David J. Murray, Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that variables such as word frequency, which are known to affect semantic memory, would have more influence on how quickly words were translated from English to French, or vice versa, than would variables such as imagery, which are known to affect episodic memory.

Students whose second language was French were presented with 145 words, with instructions that they translate them into French. Measures of accuracy and reaction time were taken. French-English translation of the same words was also investigated. Seventeen other characteristics of these words were also known from previous surveys. The results of a multiple regression analysis and a factor analysis indicated that translation efficiency was most strongly influenced by the frequency of the word in the language, its familiarity, and the similarity of the French equivalent to the English word. Variables such as emotionality and imagery, known to influence retrieval in episodic memory paradigms, had little influence on translation time.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 353 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Amos, F. L. (1920). Early theories of translation. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. R. (1982). Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psychological Review. 89, 369–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadbent, D. E. (1967). Word-frequency effects and response bias. Psychological Review. 74, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, W. P., & Ure, D. J. M. (1969). Five rated characteristics of 650 word association stimuli. British Journal of Psychology. 60, 233–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, B. E., & Hains, S. (1979). Individual differences in word recognition latency. Memory unit Cognition. 7, 68–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, J. B., & White, M. N. (1973). Age-of-acquisition norms for 220 picturable nouns. Journal of Verbal Learning ami Verbal Behavior. 12, 563–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catford, J. C. (1965). A linguistic theorv of translation. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, T., & Denny, M. R. (1978). Emotionality of pictures and the retention of related and unrelated phrases. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. 11, 149–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, R. C., & Desrochcrs, A. (1981). Second-language acquisition and bilingualism: Research in Canada (1970–1980). Canadian Psychology 22, 146–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gernsbacher, M. A. (1984). Resolving 20 years of inconsistent interactions between lexical familiarity and orthography, concretencss and polysemy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 113, 256–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gerver, D. (1976). Empirical studies of simultaneous translation: A review and a model. In Brislin, R. W. (Ed.). Translation: Applications and research. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Gilhooly, K. J., & Gilhooly, M. L. (1979). Age-of-acquisition effects in logical and episodic-memory tasks. Memory and Cognition. 7, 214–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilhooly, K. J., & Logic, R. H. (1980). Age-of-acquisition. imagery, concretencss. familiarity and ambiguity measures for 1.944 words. Behavior Research Methods ami Instrumentation, 12, 395–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givón, T. (1978). Universal grammar, lexical structure and translatability. In Guenthner, F. & Guenthner-Reutter, M. (Eds.). Meaning and translation. London: G. Duckworth.Google Scholar
Guenthner, R., & Guenthner-Rcutter, (Eds.) (1978). Meaning and translation. London: G. Duckworth.Google Scholar
Hall, J. F. (1971). Verbal learning and retention. New York: J. B. Lippincott.Google Scholar
Hudson, P. W. H., & Bergman, M. W. (1985). Lexical knowledge in word recognition: Word length and word frequency in naming and lexical decision tasks. Journal of Memory and Language. 24, 46–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jastrzembski, J. E. (1981). Multiple meanings, numbers of related meanings, frequency of occurrence and the lexicon. Cognitive Psychology. 13, 278–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kintsch, W. L. (1970). Learning memory and conceptual processes. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kučera, H., & Francis, W. N. (1967). Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence: Brown University Press.Google Scholar
Lawson, V. (1983). Machine translation. In Picken, C. (Ed.). The translator's handbook. London: Aslib.Google Scholar
Montague, R. (1974). Formal philosophy. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, D. J. (1975). Graphemically cued retrieval of words from long-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory. 104, 65–70.Google Scholar
Murray, D. J. (1985). Review of E. Tulving. Elements of episodic memory Canadian Psychologist, 26, 235–238.Google Scholar
Newmark, P. (1981). Approaches to translation. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Nida, E. A. (1964). Toward a science of translating. Leiden: E. J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, C. E. (1953). The meaning-familiarity relationship. Psychological Review. 60, 89–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paivio, A., & Desrochers, A. (1980). A dual-coding approach to bilingual memory. Canadian Journal of Psychology. 34, 388–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paivio, A., & Lambert, W. (1981). Dual coding and bilingual memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 20, 532–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paivio, A., Yuille, J. D., & Madigan, S. A. (1968). Concreteness. imagery and meaningfulness values for 925 nouns. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Monograph Supplement, 76, (1. Pt. 2). 1–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quine, W. V. (1959). Meaning and translation. In Brower, R. A. (Ed.), On translation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rodale, J. E. (1978). The synonym finder. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. C. (1980). 51 properties of 125 words: A unit analysis of verbal behavior. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 736–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, T. H. (1968). The art of translation (2nd ed.). London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Shanon, B. (1982). Lateralization effects in the perception of Hebrew and English words. Brain and Language, 17, 107–123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spreen, O., & Schulz, R. W. (1966). Parameters of abstraction, meaningfulness and pronounceability for 329 nouns. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 459–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, L. (1985). The structures and strategies of human memory. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whaley, C. P. (1978). Word-nonword classification time. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17, 143–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilss, W. (1982). The science of translation. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar