Recalques

Recalques, or calques, are loan translations in which elements from a source language are translated into a target language to create a new expression. The term recalque is used in several languages, while the English term calque derives from the French calque, meaning a tracing or imprint. Recalques are a form of language contact, showing how languages borrow not by phonetics but by semantic and structural replication.

Common types include lexical calques, where a single word is translated component by component; phrasal calques, where an idiom or fixed expression is translated literally; semantic calques, where a word takes on a new sense already present in the source language; and syntactic/structural calques, where the target language imitates the source language’s grammatical pattern.

Examples widely cited include French gratte-ciel for skyscraper (gratte ‘to scratch’ + ciel ‘sky’) and remue-méninges for brainstorm (remue ‘to stir’ + méninges ‘membranes surrounding the brain’). Another famous calque is the English term paper tiger, a translation of Chinese zhǐ lǎohǔ (纸老虎), used to describe a superficially threatening but ineffective force.

Recalques can indicate strong linguistic influence and contribute to naturalization of new terms, but they may also obscure nuance or create awkward phrases. They differ from loanwords, which borrow a word as a unit; recalques reproduce form and function through translation.

See also: calque, loanword, language contact.