Classification of realia

Classification of realia
Koller (1997:232-233) distinguishes four groups of realias. However, the name he uses for problems that result from the lack of equivalence is “gap” (Lücke). Gaps are characterized as political, institutional, socio-cultural or geographical concepts or names that are specific for certain countries. Nedergaard-Larsen (1993:210) also distinguishes four different types. She divides realia into geographical, historical, social and cultural terms but they can be divided into smaller subgroups, respectively. Table 1 below from Nedergaard-Larsen (1993:211) shows the realia types. The first column of the table includes the four main categories. The subcategories for each are represented in the middle column and in the last column the subcategories are described more specifically, even though the description is not exhaustive. For example, the geography category includes mountains and rivers, but naturally also seas, lakes, roads, etc. belong to it.
Table 1 Extralinguistic culture-bound problem types

To illustrate table 1 I give examples of Finnish realia from each category. Halti, Päijänne, Saimaannorppa and sinivuokko are geographical realia. Sibelius-monumentti, Snellmanin päivä, kansalaissota and Topelius are historical realia. Kakola, KRP, Kokoomus, Matti Vanhanen, and mämmi are social realia. Kerimäen kirkko, Jyväskylän yliopisto, Keskisuomalainen, Alvar Aalto-museo and hotelli Kämp are examples of cultural realia.
Another possibility is to group realia prototypically into cultural words (German Kulturalien) and natural words (German Naturalien) (Bödeker and Freese 1987, as quoted in Kujamäki 1993:52). The cultural realia refer to political, financial, social or cultural institutions. The natural realia, on the other hand, represent the natural environment, such as special meteorological phenomena and the flora and fauna typical of a region. Accordingly, in table 1 the categories history, society and culture are cultural words and the geography category comprises natural words.