Parallel words
Two languages have words linked by an established meaning A.
Translation Practice · Interactive Research
Semantic Calque
Semantic Loan
When a language borrows a meaning without borrowing the word itself.
Follow the meaning01
The central concept
A native form. A borrowed association.
A semantic calque occurs when a word already present in a recipient language acquires an additional meaning modeled on a donor-language word.
Source language
WORD XMeaning AMeaning Bsemantic influence→form does not cross
Recipient language
WORD YMeaning A+ Meaning BWhat is actually borrowed?
What is borrowed
The meaning travels.
The word stays.
A documented semantic calque
mouse → ratón
English already used mouse for both the animal and the computer device. Spanish ratón, the existing animal word, acquired the device sense. Only the association crosses the divide.
02
How it happens
Five stages. One semantic shift.
The process copies a polysemy pattern through contact; the original sense can remain.
An added sense
The donor-language word also possesses meaning B.
A contact path
Bilingual use, translation, media, or another contact channel aligns them.
Meaning extension
Speakers begin using the recipient word with meaning B.
Copied polysemy
The recipient word now carries A + B; its form remains its own.
03
Do not collapse the categories
Three mechanisms. Three different moves.
Loanword
Form + meaning move.
software→software
Foreign lexical material enters the recipient language.
Semantic calque
Meaning moves. Form stays.
mouse⇢ratón
An existing recipient word extends its semantic range.
Loan translation
Components are translated.
A + B→a + b
A complex expression is reproduced with native elements.
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Academic terminology
A family of terms—not a synonym list.
Usage changes across frameworks. Select a term to see its analytical role.
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Semantic calque
An existing word copies an additional meaning or polysemy pattern.
A foundational framework
Einar Haugen
“The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing”
Haugen organized borrowing around importation and substitution. His loanshifts—substitution without imported foreign morphemic material—provided a durable foundation for later accounts of calquing and semantic transfer.
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Language contact
Lexical systems can touch without exchanging forms.
Bilingualism, translation, education, media, technology, institutions, migration, and cultural contact can align meanings across languages.
Language AMeaning B
Language BWord Y
contact zone
Possible result
WORD YMeaning AMeaning B
The original meaning often remains, creating copied polysemy.
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Critical distinction
Not every new meaning is a semantic loan.
Semantic change can develop internally. A borrowing claim requires a plausible donor, chronology, contact, and usage evidence.
Internal development
Meaning changes within the language.
No donor-language influence is required.
Contact-induced change
Another language models the new sense.
Historical and contact evidence support the direction of influence.
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Translation Practice
Translate the sense, not the resemblance.
The reliable question is whether the target word conventionally expresses this sense in this context and register.
Context check
“Move the pointer with the mouse.”
Which Spanish rendering is established for the device sense?
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Knowledge check
Can you track what moved?
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Which element is primarily borrowed in a semantic loan?
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Which sequence represents a semantic calque?
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What is needed before classifying a new sense as borrowed?
0/3 answered
Evidence before intuition.
The word already exists.
↓Contact introduces a new semantic association.
↓The recipient word adopts that meaning.
Semantic Calque
Form stays. Meaning travels.
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Academic references
Follow the evidence.
APA 7 references from the supplied research document, plus the peer-reviewed source used for the required mouse → ratón example.
Backus, A., & Dorleijn, M. (2009). Loan translations versus code-switching. In B. E. Bullock & A. J. Toribio (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching (pp. 75–94). Cambridge University Press.
DOI / source ↗Gimeno, M. C., et al. (2024). Lexical language contact phenomena: A combined model and its application to historical lexicographic material. International Journal of Lexicography, 37(4), 448–472. Oxford University Press.
Grant, A. P. (2014). Lexical borrowing. In J. R. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the word (pp. 431–444). Oxford University Press.
DOI / source ↗Haspelmath, M. (2009). Lexical borrowing: Concepts and issues. In M. Haspelmath & U. Tadmor (Eds.), Loanwords in the world’s languages: A comparative handbook (pp. 35–54). De Gruyter Mouton.
Haugen, E. (1950). The analysis of linguistic borrowing. Language, 26(2), 210–231.
DOI / source ↗Kowalczyk, M. (2023). Terms. In Borrowings in informal American English (pp. 22–44). Cambridge University Press.
DOI / source ↗Matras, Y. (2009). Language contact. Cambridge University Press.
Rodríguez González, F. (2018). Apuntaciones críticas sobre los calcos en español. Revista de Lexicografía, 24, 129–136.
DOI / source ↗
Source note: examples proposed in the brief but absent from the supplied research document were intentionally omitted.