ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the difficulties encountered by translators as a result of differences in the lexical patterning of the source and target languages. Lexical patterning will be dealt with under two main headings: collocation and idioms and fixed expressions. Collocational patterns are not always typical/untypical in relation to the language system as a whole. Register-specific collocations are not simply the set of terms that go with a discipline. They extend far beyond the list of terms that one normally finds in specialized dictionaries and glossaries. Differences in the collocational patterning of the source and target languages create potential pitfalls and can pose various problems in translation. A translator can easily misinterpret a collocation in the source text because of interference from his or her native language. Generally speaking, collocations are fairly flexible patterns of language which allow several variations in form.
