Koller's Five Types of Equivalence
Werner Koller split the equivalence concept into five orthogonal types. The split lets translators name which equivalence they are prioritising and which they are knowingly sacrificing.
The five
- Denotative: same extralinguistic referent.
- Connotative: same associations, register, social colouring.
- Text-normative: same text-type conventions (a recipe reads as a recipe).
- Pragmatic (communicative): same effect on the target reader.
- Formal (formal-aesthetic): same form, rhyme, metre, wordplay.
Why orthogonality matters
No translation achieves all five at once. Koller's contribution is to make the trade-off explicit. A glossary entry can specify which type takes priority for which term class; an AI pipeline that exposes Koller's five categories gives the user a precise vocabulary for the brief.
Further reading: Nida equivalence, Baker's hierarchy.