CULTURAL EQUIVALENT

This is an approximate translation where a SL cultural word is translated by a TL cultural word; thus baccalaureat is translated as `(the French) "A" level', or Abitur (Matura) as `(the German/Austrian) "A" level'; Palais Bourbon as `(the French) Westminster'; Montecitorio as `(the Italian) Westminster'; charcuterie - `delicates­sen' (now English `deli'); notaire -'solicitor'. The above are approximate cultural equivalents. Their translation uses are limited, since they are not accurate, but they can be used in general texts, publicity and eropaganda, as well as for brief explanation to readers who are ignorant of the relevant SL culture. They have a greater pragmatic impact than culturally neutral terms. Occasionally, they may be purely functionally, hardly descriptively, equivalents, e.g., le cyclisme, `cricket', 'baseball'; `tea break', cafe-pause; carte d'identite, `car licence'. Functional cultural equivalents are even more restricted in translation, but they may occasionally he used it` the term is of little importance in a popular article or popular fiction. They are important in drama, as they can create an immediate effect. `He met her in the pub'- 11 l' a retrouvie dans le cafe. Or again, vingt metres derriere lui -'twenty yards behind him'. However, the main purpose of the procedure is to support or supplement another translation procedure in a couplet.

FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENT
This common procedure, applied to cultural words, requires the use of a culture­free word, sometimes with a new specific term; it therefore neutralises or general­ises the SL word; and sometimes adds a particular thus: baccalaureat - `French secondary school leaving exam'; Sejm -'Polish parliament'; `Roget' - dictionnaire ideologique anglais.
This procedure, which is a cultural componential analysis, is the most accurate way of translating i.e. deculturalising a cultural word.
A similar procedure is used when a SL technical word has no TL equivalent. Thus the English term `cot death' translates as mort subite d'un nourrisson, although the components `unexpected' and `without known reason' are here omitted from the French.
This procedure occupies the middle, sometimes the universal, area between the SL language or culture and the TL language or culture. If practised one to one, it is an under-translation (e.g. degringoler as `tumble'). If practised one to two, it may be an over-translation. For cultural terms, it is often combined with trans­ference: taille, as `a tax on the common people before the French Revolution, or taille'. I refer to the combination of two translation procedures for one unit as a `couplet'.