Translating Flora and Fauna Items in Igbo-English Dictionarie

Abstract

The knowledge of Igbo flora and fauna is an important aspect of the social values of the Igbo people and a mark of the speaker's competence. However, the translation of this aspect of Igbo lexicon poses a challenge to Igbo lexicographers. This paper discusses the translation problems of lexical nonequivalence for encoding these items in Igbo-English dictionaries, and examines the strategies adopted by Igbo lexicographers for handling the semantic gap created thereof. Data for the study were gathered from Igbuzo-Igbo language consultants and through participant observation. A total of 350 words denoting animals and plants were collected and analyzed. Using a multi-tier hyponymy structure, the flora and fauna items of both the English and Igbo languages were organized in semantic fields. The paper reveals that the difficulty of providing adequate lexical equivalents for flora and fauna items may be due to ecological divergence, dialect multiplicity facts, differences in semantic structures, the existence of a disproportionate relationship between superordinate units and their hyponyms, paucity of entries of flora and fauna in the extant dictionaries in spite of the rich lexicon of Igbo, scanty and inadequate descriptions for the plant and animal items in the dictionaries, as well as the lack of adequate knowledge of the principles and methods of combination of strategies of lexical equivalence in bilingual dictionary compilation. With improvement in lexical coverage and appropriate treatment of flora and fauna headwords, lexicographers can help forestall the attrition of these lexical items which constitute a unique aspect of the Igbo lexicon.