Nowadays loanwords are extremely popular in current linguistic. Every day translators and interpreters come across words consonant with those that exist in their native language. On one hand, these words can signify the same ideas. On the other hand, they can have different translations, one of which will correspond to the meaning of the consonant native word. The most dangerous situation for the translator comes in particular when a foreign word, consonant with that which exists in his native language, actually represents a completely different subject. Thus, such problem is only relevant for those people who are not sufficiently familiar with linguistics and languages, in general. Considering this issue, I want to help those who want to understand handling with internationalisms and, in particular, with the so-called " translator`s false friends». In this article, I want to consider the important role of internationalisms and loanwords, in general. In addition, I will elucidate their classification, origin and supplement with examples.
Keywords: linguistic, lexeme, loan word, internationalism, translator`s false friends.
В современном мире заимствования крайне популярны в лингвистике. Каждый день переводчики встречают слова, созвучные тем, которые существуют в их родном языке. С одной стороны, эти слова могут обозначать одни и те же понятия. С другой стороны, они могут иметь разные переводы, один из которых будет соответствовать значению созвучного родного слова. Самая опасная ситуация для переводчика наступает именно тогда, когда иностранное слово, созвучное тому, что существует в их родном языке, подразумевает на самом деле совершенно иной предмет. Стало быть, такая проблема актуальна лишь для тех людей, кто недостаточно ознакомлен с лингвистикой и языками, в целом. Рассматривая данную тему, я хочу помочь тем, кто хочет понять, как нужно обращаться с интернационализмами и, в частности, с так называемыми «ложными друзьями переводчика». В этой статье я хочу рассмотреть важную роль интернационализмов, а также рассказать о том, что представляют собой заимствованные слова, в общем. Кроме того, я освещу их классификацию, происхождение и дополню примерами.
Ключевые слова: лингвистика, лексема, заимствованное слово, интернационализм, ложные друзья переводчика.
As all languages are mixing and developing nowadays, there is a huge number of English words almost in each language. Mostly they were brought from America. Russian people use these words in their everyday life. Therefore, you can hear them everywhere now.
Meanwhile, nowadays the social needs for learning foreign languages are intensified by internationalization of public life, which in its turn was strengthened under the influence of scientific and technological revolution. Today the tendency of language unification is gathering pace. Language unification tendency is a tendency developing replacement of dialects or languages.
It is necessary to consider that today the most current problem in the translation sphere is the translation of international lexicon. However, this problem is still insufficiently explored. Even a professional translator can meet several difficulties while he/she is translating various fictions. It is necessary to be afraid of infinite pseudointernationalisms that are frequently found in different literature. False use of pseudointernationalisms can significantly distort the sense of the entire text. There is also a difficulty in selection of a suitable equivalent to a foreign word.
What implies the word «internationalisms»?
In the current literature of internationalisms` research, there are numerous definitions of the term internationalism.
Braun terms these words as «interlingual and lexical correspondences».
Jablonski defines internationalisms as: «lexical units borrowed with the same meaning and the same or assimilated phonetic form from a „model language” (not only large language) into several replica languages (cultural languages)».
Braun asserts: " the term „internationalism” can be used when the comparative words coincide with only one meaning».
This linguistic phenomenon is more precise described in the Small German Encyclopedia. It explains: «Internationalisms are words that have the same or similar meaning in different languages and are respective phonetic, although they were adapted from another language. Often, they have Greek or Latin origins or are built (out) of Latin or Greek morphemes.
There are only 30 % of native English words in the English language; the other part is occupied by loan words (borrowings). In many languages, the percent of loan words depends on concrete historical conditions of this language. The percent of borrowings in the English language is much higher, than in other languages. The English language had more opportunities to borrow words in the conditions of direct contact, than any other language: for example, in the Middle Ages from uncountable aggressors of the British Isles, and further in conditions of colonizer activity of British and trade expansion. For example, in 1066, a duke from Normandy William shattered past retrieval of Anglo-Saxon army in the Hastings battle. He used a military trick to overcome an enemy army, which consisted of free peasants. As a result, a Normandy commander entered London, the capital of England. So called William the Conqueror became the king of England. The conquest acted as the beginning of central English state`s beginning.
Loan words in the English language are divided into three groups by different features:
1) Т otal or almost total coincidence .
For example: manager, lift, text, office, finish, conveyer.
2) Stress noncoincidence (in English language the accent is in the first syllable).
For example: congress, fragment, interval, record, orbit, period, problem, secret, distance.
3) Conformity in writing, but huge differences in pronouncing.
For example: pilot, radio, triumph, climate.
Nevertheless, as it has already been written all borrowings can be divided into three big groups.
The first one consists of English words that have the same meaning as the Russian ones.
To this group belong such words as: republic, constitution, revolution, party, territory, mathematics, geometry, kilometer, engineer, technology, metal, game (gamer), online, offline, speaker, fitness, container, design, teenager, business, poster, rating, season, match, pricelist.
Words of this group are used to describe all spheres of human life. In addition, it is not necessary to find a synonym to explain them, because in two languages the meaning of the words is the same. A huge part of these words belongs to computer sphere as we live in the digital age.
The second group includes words, which have a specific meaning in the English language, but in the Russian language, they signify a wider idea. For example, words «industry» and «industrial» are translated into Russian as «индустрия» and «индустриальный». Nonetheless, there are some common words to explain this notion as «промышленность» and «промышленный». This also applies to words such as comfortable (удобный — instead of — комфортабельный), position (положение — instead of — позиция), local (местный- instead of — локальный), private (частный -instead of — приватный), distance (расстояние — instead of — дистанция), separate (отдельный — instead of — сепаратный).
Besides, there are some phrases, word-combinations or expressions that can`t be translated by meanings of its’ separate parts. For example, a word-combination «international situation» can`t be translated as «интернациональная ситуация». The correct variant of translation is «международная ситуация» or «международная обстановка». The same translation problem can appear with the word-combination «in order to». It can be wrongly translated as «в порядке» instead of the correct version «для того, чтобы».
«False friends»
The third last group includes words called «false friends». Judging by the definition, it is clearly seen that this group of loan words can become a huge trap for an inexperienced translator.
In simplified terms, these are the lexemes that have the same or almost the same form in another language, but have a completely different content. Many authors believe that «false friends» actually make it difficult to understand a text and create misunderstandings.
Keppler mentions these words as «misleading foreign words», «pseudo-international words» and believes that such words can easily cause erroneous interpreting.
There is a table with widespread «false friends», which are cited lower:
|
Term |
Correct translation |
False friend |
|
Fabric |
ткань, текстура, (сооружение) |
Фабрика — (factory) |
|
Fan |
веер, вентилятор, (разг. фанат) |
Фен — (hair dryer) |
|
Finnish |
финкский |
Финиш — (finish) |
|
Focus |
оптический фокус |
Фокус (магический) / Трюк — (trick) |
|
Dub |
ровнять, обтёсывать |
Дуб — (oak) |
|
Dutch |
нидерландский, голландский |
Датский — (Danish) |
|
Accuracy |
точность |
Аккуратность — (tidiness) |
|
Brilliant |
блистящий, сверкающий |
Бриллиант — (diamond) |
|
Data |
данные, информация |
Дата — (date) |
|
Cabinet |
кабинет, кабинет министров (правительство) |
Кабинет — study room, private office) |
|
List |
список |
Лист (бумаги) — (paper) |
|
Personal |
личный |
Обслуживающий персонал — (staff) |
Many of these examples were found by a talented girl from the 7 th grade. In fact, she has made a huge dictionary of «false friends». And as a result, her dictionary was published as a supplement to a popular English student`s book «Starlight 9», with the help of which students from my school learn English in the 9 th grade.
Moreover, I have interviewed an outstanding person, who is directly inquired about this linguistic phenomenon, one of the famous Russian translators — Шарандин Артём Вячеславович. In his opinion, no one must be afraid of internationalisms and «false friends». Internationalisms are inevitable and useful in moderate quantity. Besides a German teacher, Sebastian Hanisch, has participated in our conversation. In consequence of his earlier studies of Russian language from the very beginning, he distinctly realizes the problems with understanding internationalisms. At the end of our discussions, he said that people need to memorize more words to avoid the widespread translation errors. In addition, daily reading can help them with it.
In conclusion, I would like to summarize that internationalisms are one of the most efficacious motivators of each language class. Genetically unrelated languages have so many similarities in different linguistic patterns, that it can help us to reduce language barriers and facilitate our immersion into a new foreign language.
Undoubtedly, translation of the international vocabulary has its own difficulties. It consists of the fact that the translator can occasionally forget about the meaning of the word, and therefore he translates it literally. Thus, he transcends the linguistic norms of source and target languages, especially talking about word`s valency. Therefore, internationalisms and translator`s „false friends” can emerge. The solution to this problem consists only in the knowledge of peculiarities of the international vocabulary.
References:
- https://dic.academic.ru/
- https://www.dw.com/de/anglizismus-des-jahres-gendersternchen/a-47316467
- http://lingvotutor.ru/slovar-lozhnyx-druzej-perevodchika-en-ru
- https://www.zdf.de/kultur/kultur/zum-internationalen-tag-der-muttersprache-102.html
- Баранова К. М., Дули Д., Копылова В. В., Мильруд Р. П., Эванс В. — Starlight Student's book / Звёздный английский 9 класс. Учебник для общеобразовательных учреждений и школ с углубленным изучением английского языка, 2013.
