2.2.1. Calques
Calques, or loan translations, are lexical items that are based on the lexical counterpart in the surrounding spoken language. The structures of calques are typically two stems, which are typically a word-by-word translation from the compound in the neighbouring spoken language. For example, the LSC compounds illustrated in (a) and (b) are formed by mirroring the compound structure in Catalan [MORPHOLOGY 1.2]. Also, the simultaneous compound illustrated in (c) is formed by one lexical constituent, which is signed in the signing space for semantic purposes, as illustrated below. The meaning for ‘Facebook’ is signed with one lexical LSC sign book signed in front of the face, to refer to ‘face’.
a) system^nervous (‘nervous system’)
(recreated from DOMAD, 2002b)
b) fertilisation^external (‘external fertilisation’)
(recreated from DOMAD, 2002b)
c) (face)^book (‘facebook’)