Abstract:
Not only in translated texts but also in bilingual dictionaries as a special sort of texts the cultures of the source and target languages are compared. Translation equivalents in a dictionary range from a continuum between the isomorphism on the one side and the anisomorphism on the other. Anisomorphism presents a crucial problem in finding translation equivalents. Among the plethora of equivalent relationships the most tangible one for the lexicographer is the »logical equivalence relationship« according to which there are three types of equivalence: full, partial and zero equivalence, the latter being the toughest nut to crack. In contrast to a translator who can omit an individual word in a longer stretch of translated text without violating its sense, a lexicographer must provide an equivalent for every single entry word. The examples from the Dutch‑Slovene Dictionary illustrate the different strategies of dealing with the zero equivalence. Solving the problems of anisomorphism is an activity par excellence which places bilingual lexicography also among the comparative cultural studies.
