engleski

Phraseological calques of Latin origin in Croatian and English

Latin had a great impact on other European languages and their systems, especially their lexical systems. In both Croatian and English there is a large number of lexical units which have been directly or indirectly borrowed from Latin, many of which are phrasemes, as set expressions. Numerous phrasemes of similar structure and meaning are common to different European languages. They largely originated from the Bible and other texts of church provenance, or their formation was motivated by a historical or mythological event or person, or a literary work. Phrasemes of Latin origin which are widespread in different European languages became their constituent part in either direct (untranslated) or indirect (translated) form. The present paper deals with phrasemes which were translated from Latin into Croatian and English. The study aims to carry out a contrastive analysis of Croatian and English phrasemes and examine their structural compatibility, given that their meaning is the same. The contrastive analysis showed: a) a full compatibility of lexical components and phraseme background (e.g. Lat. oculum pro oculo et dentem pro dente → Cr. oko za oko <zub za zub> ; Engl. an eye for an eye <and a tooth for a tooth>), b) a partial compatibility of lexical components and phraseme background (e.g. Lat. a pedibus usque ad caput → Cr. od glave do pete ['from head to heel'] ; Engl. from head to foot/toe). There are some phrasemes of Latin origin which do not have a translated equivalent in one of the languages. In addition to contrastive analysis, an explanation is offered for the motivation behind the formation of phrasemes as well as behind the phraseme background.

phraseology ; calque ; Latin, English, Croatian

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