Meaning-Text Theory in the translator's classroom

The paper brings a brief presentation of key concepts of the Meaning-Text Theory and
focuses on the practical value of its lexicographical tool for the description of
syntagmatic meaning relations, i.e. the lexical functions (LFs). Although originally
developed to facilitate the description of lexical relationships within the monolingual
explanatory-combinatory dictionary, the system of lexical functions proves highly
valuable in the bilingual setting as well, particularly in the L1-L2 translation, i.e. in
encoding tasks. While translation into the translator’s mother tongue is commonly
regarded as less likely to suffer from poor knowledge of collocations, it is the L1-L2
translation that is typically affected by the translators’ erring on the collocational side.
On the basis of selected lexical items the paper will bring a brief comparison of
lexicographical presentations used in encoding (Slovene-English dictionaries) with the
results of the LF-based approach. Applied systematically and consistently within a given
lexical field, the encoding-adapted system of LFs will help translation students get a
better grasp of the elusive collocability of lexemes.