Language-specific words as loanwords and translation (quasi) equivalents: a case study of the German loanwords Angst and Schadenfreude and the Malay amok

Abstract

The paper analyses language-specific and culture-bound vocabulary as a source of loanwords. A case study of the German loanwords Schadenfreude and Angst, as well as the Malay loanword amok being put forward, the paper scrutinizes their usage in English, German and Russian parallel corpora, with emphasis on their semantic changes and quasi-equivalents in translation.