Language units and levels of their faithful translation

The theoretical principles of faithful translation and their realization through various devices of the target language testify to the fact that referential meanings of many language units can be equivalently expressed via the same level units of the target language. For example, the proper names of people and most of geographical names, like the international words can be faithfully translated at the level of words. The phraseological/idiomatic expressions and the bulk of words expressing specific nationally biased units of lexicon are mostly translated at the level of words-combinations/phrases and sentences. Though sometimes the lexical meaning of an idiom or a unit of specific national lexicon can be faithfully turned into the target language with the help of a single word as well (when international).

In other words, a considerable number of simple lexemes and word combinations, stable and idiomatic expressions can be faithfully translated when they are taken isolated, viz. at language level. Thus, the meaning of most pronouns and numerals remains unchanged whether they are used in context or taken as separate words at language level Cf.: ґЛгеетри, fifteen п'ятнадцять, fifty п'ятдесят, fifth/sixth п'ятий/ шостий, one-third одна третя, zero point nine нуль цілих дев'ять десятих; І я, he він, she вона, nobody ніхто, etc.

Similarly with many nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and function words which are monosemantic both in the source language and in the target language: the sky небо, the moon місяць, geese / swans гуси/ лебеді, lake озеро, the island острів, political політичний, fo/ac/счорний, white6\nm, bathe купатися, sing співати, sleep спати, легетут, often часто, firstly по-перше, among серед/ споміж, under під, or чи, that (conjunction) що; hallo! anno, ah ax, oh ox, even навіть, yet однак, etc.

A bulk of words belonging to the above-mentioned logico-gram-matical classes of words may also have two or more semantically identical referents, i.e., synonymous meanings. The latter are often stylistically marked and.should possibly be distinguished in the text under translation as well. Among these may be even such seemingly simple words as the English because бо, тому що, через те що; courage сміливість, відвага; dad/daddy тато, татунь/татусь; drake селезень/ качур; everywhere повсюди, скрізь or Ukrainian: дитя

baby/kid/child; осел ass, donkey; тьху! phew, pie, pshaw, pooh!; чиж/ик greenfinch, siskin. These words have one referent similarly to many different terms which are translated both at word level and at word-group/sentence level. E.g.: sprint спринт, біг на короткі дистанції; steeple-chase біг з перешкодами; service first stroke (tennis) удар, яким уводиться м'яч у гру.

A faithful conveying of a referential meaning at word level may often depend upon some extralingual factors as well. Thus, depending on the readers/listeners addressed, the translator/interpreter should use correspondingly either British or American lexical variants: lorry вантажна машина (Br. Engl.), truck (Amer. Engl.), tin консервна банка (Br. Engl.), can (Amer. English), ІітеїаЬІерозклас) (Br. Engl.), schedule (Amer. Engl.), sweets цукерки (Br. Engl.), candies (Amer. Engl.), bathroom ванна (Br. Engl.), туалет (Amer. English), maize кукурудза (Br. Engl.), corn (Am. Engl.), cloak-room роздягальня (Br. Engl.), coat-room (Amer. English), etc.

Regional peculiarities of the kind must be taken into consideration in order to achieve the necessary national orientation of a purposeful written or oral translation.

Most of compound English words having transparent componental semes are translated into Ukrainian either at the level of words (compounds) or at the level of word-combinations, the latter being formed from the componental parts which become separate words in Ukrainian: air-base авіабаза; but air-raid повітряний наліт; birthplace місце народження; cross-road перехрестя шляхів/ доріг; steamship пароплав; tooth paste зубна паста; hour-hand годинникова стрілка.

The translation of compounds may sometimes look like descriptive though: breadthways у ширину/завширшки; longwise у довжину/завдовжки; southwardna південь/у південному напрямку; tenfold десятиразовий; thousandfold у тисячу разів; westward спрямований на захід/у західному напрямку.

A similar approach is often made when translating many Ukrainian structural and semantic compounds into English: восьмина the eighth part of smth.; вузькоколійка the narrow-gauge railway; третина, the third part of smth./one-third of smth.; сімсотріччя the seven-hundredth anniversary.

Since the number of notions in any language does not coincide with the number of words expressing them, a word-level translation can not always provide a faithful rendering of any single word meaning. Thence, a large number of the source language words are to be

translated into the target language by means of word-combinations or even sentences: hi-jack силою змушувати пілотів міняти курс літака з корисливою метою; abound бути багатим на щось; agape роззявивши рота (від здивування); armistice коротке перемир'я / припинення воєнних дій; asyndeton пропуск сполучників; aurist спеціаліст із захворювань вуха; banting лікування ожиріння дієтою; briber той, хто дає хабарі; casualize переводити на тимчасову роботу; didacticism схильність до повчань.

Quite a few monosemantic words in Ukrainian are also notion-ally extended: вчадіти to be affected by the fumes/to die from carbon monoxide poisoning; доба day and night (24 hours); заполоч coloured threads for embroidering; літепло slightly warm/ed water; бути нівроку (to be) healthy looking and fleshy, beautiful, strong; нудьгувати to be despirited/to be in the dumps; нюшити to sniff the air (about dogs); окріп boiling/extremely hot water, періодизація division into periods; цяцькатися to take much trouble over smb./smth.

Various evaluating meanings (diminutive, augmentative, etc.) are expressed or rather conveyed in English and Ukrainian both at word level and at word-combination level, the former being predominant, as a rule, in Ukrainian: baggie мішечок; catkin котик (на вербі); coatee пальтечко; горбик hillock; квіточка floweret; чоловічок manikin.

Many Ukrainian diminutives expressing also the meaning of endearment through morphological means may have in English two realizations (morphological and lexico-syntactic): матуся mummy/ dear mum; татко dad (daddy), dear dad; сестричка sissy/little sister; книжечка booklet/little book; пташина birdie/little bird; хмаринка cloudlet/little cloud, small little cloud.

It must be emphasized, however, that more Ukrainian words expressing their evaluating meanings morphologically are rendered in English through lexico-syntactic sense units/word-combinations: будиночок a small house or a small little house; рученька a little hand or a small little hand; садочок a small garden or a small little garden/orchard, воріженьки perfidious/cunning enemies.

Higher degrees of diminutiveness and endearment in Ukrainian diminutive words which is expressed as shown above (through suffixes and prefixes) can be conveyed in English (though not always to an equal degree) with the help of lexico-syntactic means (at word-combination level): матусенька/татунечко dear/dearly loved (beloved) mummy/daddy; рученятка /рученяточка small little hands/dear little hands; манюсінький ґномик small/tiny little gnome;

найкращенька рибинка the most beautiful small/tiny little fish; двієчко діточок two small little babies/two dear kiddies; спатоньки to have a little sleep, have a sweet little sleep, etc.

Negative evaluating meanings, which are mostly expressed at word level in Ukrainian, can also be rendered into English lexico-syntactically (at word-combination level): бицюра (про чоловіка) а veritable man of a bull; собацюра a monster of a dog; рибисько а whale of a fish; ямище a veritable abyss; дідуган (pejorative) a venerable/staid old man, вітрюга heavy/strong wind, an almost stormy wind; дурощі (напр. куріння) monkey-business, etc.

It must be noted that some pejorative evaluating meanings can be expressed in Ukrainian and sometimes in English by morphological means. Consequently, these meanings are rendered at word level: heavy йшп/га/г/п'яничка/п'янюга; с/и//ага[тупак/тупиця, «ступа»; kinglet нікчемний король/королик, sluggard ледацюга/лежень.

These are by far all Ukrainian and English means which can together with the diminutive/augmentative affixes considerably influence the denotative and connotative (evaluative) meaning of some notional words. The beginning translator must be well aware of this fact while selecting equivalent versions for such kind of words in the target language. Still greater care should be taken when rendering the connotative meanings of words which are not morphologically manifested.