11 - Outlook

Summary

In this chapter I summarize the main findings of this monograph and outline further research possibilities in accounting for and resolving lexical conflict.

Cross-linguistic lexical anisomorphism is a subject of marginal interest in various fields of theoretical and applied linguistics. Nonetheless, the fields of ordinary language philosophy, anthropocentric branches of theoretical linguistics, metalexicography, translatology, and others provide various building blocks for the taxonomy of CLA.

There are three principal types of CLA: zero equivalence, in which a sourcelanguage word does not have a target-language equivalent; multiple equivalence, in which one SL word is juxtaposed to two TL words; and partial equivalence, in which one SL word has only one TL equivalent but they exhibit some differences in their key lexical characteristics. Zero equivalence and partial equivalence can be embedded in multiple equivalence, in that one of the two or more TL equivalents is either a zero or partial equivalent of the SL word.

Zero equivalence can be entity- or concept-based, and it also features two special cases: that in the operators, and the hierarchical variety.

In addition to being rooted in zero and partial equivalence, multiple equivalence can be found in operators and symbols, in which it can be entity-or concept-based, and the latter variety can be scalar or non-scalar.

Partial equivalents can exhibit differences in their connotation, their application, their organization, their syntagmatic properties, their place on a scale, their network links, incongruent prototypes, their frequency, and their mental imagery.

It is important to emphasize that a concrete entry, and even a concrete pair of equivalents, can contain two or more types of CLA. Similarly, what can be one type of CLA (for instance, multiple equivalence) if we go from the source language to the target language can be a completely different type of CLA (for example, zero equivalence) going from the target language to the source language.

On the one hand, the lexicographic treatment is determined by the particular type of CLA, but, on the other hand, the treatment is influenced by several general lexicographic parameters (dictionary type, general lexicographic strategy, etc.)

Zero equivalents can be explained, described, incorporated with an explanation, generalized and then specified. Furthermore, a partial equivalent with specification can be used, and the meaning an also be decomposed. Finally, an illustration is also possible.