UNITS OF INTERNATIONAL LEXICON AND WAYS OF RENDERING THEIR MEANING AND LINGUAL FORM

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 613.

Synopsis 3

Translating by Means of Semantic Analogies

The analogous units in the national layer of lexi­con of different languages may be the result of multi­lateral contacts and influences. Consequently, they appear as a result of borrowings. The connotative divergences and sometimes the spheres of their use may not always fully coincide in the TL. English:the City Board of Education міський відділ освіти; pop corn кукурудзяні баранці; gingerbread імбирний пряник; stewed fruit узвар/компот. Ukrainian:доцент associ­ate professor.

Internationalisms are language units borrowed from one source language by at least three genealogically different languages in the same or similar form and identical meaning (cf. долар, атом, інтерес etc.). International may be not only words and phrases/word-groups, but also morphemes - prefixes, suf­fixes, nothing to say about root morphemes as the English or Ukrainian words fund фонд, gas ґаз, lord лорд, ohm ом etc. These morphemes are conveyed with the help of either transliteration or transcription.

Among the most often occurring international affixes in English and Ukrainian are the following:

1. Prefixes: anti-/aнти-, ех-/екс-, inter-/iнтep-, trans-/тpaнс-, ultra-/ультра

2. Suffixes: -ar/-ap, -er/-ep, -ist/-icT, -ssion/-сія, -tion/-ція

3. Inflexions: -иm/-ум -us/-yc, -а/-а

The lexicon of each developed language comprises a very large layer of foreign by origin words, word-groups and even a small num­ber of sentences. These units have been acquired by the borrowing languages to designate notions hitherto unknown in them. Among them there are:

a) the social and political termi­nology (audit, consti­tution, parliament, president, sophism)

b) natural history/sciences terminology (physics, mathematics, ge­netics, chemistry)

c) numerous technical terms (motor, starter, accelerator, battery), means of transport (bus, metro, taxi) and commu­nication (fax, telegraph, telex, radio, e-mail)

These and other words and phrases of the kind are referred to as internationalisms, or more precisely genuine internationalisms.The main characteristic feature of genuine internationalisms is their semantic singu­larity. It means that their lexical identity and orthographic similarity in the SL and in TL remains unchanged.

Loan internationalismshave also a generally common structural form but rarely a similarity in their orthographic form or sounding. Loan internationalisms are mostly different terms designating scien­tific and technological notions: brake гальмо, citric acid лимонна кислота; specific gravity питома вага; surplus value додана вартість.

There are also stable international phraseological/idiomatic ex­pressions in each language's lexicon. Their fund is constituted by the so-called absolute and near equivalents having a common lan­guage of origin - Greek, Latin or modern. For example, Heel of Achilles ахіллесова п'ята; to cross/pass the Rubicon перейти Рубікон; the die is cast жереб кинуто; the fair sex прекрасна стать; the tree of knowledge дерево пізнання.