Translating by Practical Transcribing

International morphemes and lexemes are adopted in all lan­guages according to the historically established traditions of their own. These find their expression in stereotype models for each lexico-grammatical class of words. As a result, any international word, what­ever the language of its origin and irrespective of the source language, from which it is translated, will have one and the same lingual and structural form in the target language. Thus, whether it is bankruptcy in English, bankerott'm German, banqueroute'm French or bancarot-ta in Italian, it will always remain «банкрутство» in Ukrainian. Hence, only some degree of likeness is retained between the lingual form of bankruptcy and its Ukrainian equivalent «банкрутство». The adopted word has obtained in the target language an orthographic, sounding and morphological/structural form, which is only similar to that of En­glish, French, German, or Italian. This kind of adopting international­isms is traditionally called «practical transcribing» or translator's transcription.

Hense, some internationalisms may retain still less similarity/ likeness in their lingual form when they are translated from English into Ukrainian: Ьасле/огбакалавр, cocoa какао, crown корона/крона, dance танець, giant гігант, grade градус, hocus-pocus фокус, mother-of-pearl перламутр, mosque мечеть, oil олія, outpost аванпост, pa­pal папський, pound фунт (from German Pfund), etc.

The number of internationalisms making up this group is com­paratively small in the two contrasted languages. The bulk of interna-

 

tional lexemes, when conveyed by way of practical transcribing, still retain a considerable degree of lingual and structural similarity in the two languages. These are first of all nouns of Greek and Latin origin and also some adjectives, adverbs and verbs. They may often differ consid­erably in their morphological structure, mostly taking additional affixal morphemes in Ukrainian: ambition амбіція, apathy ana™, condenser конденсатор, devil диявол, diplomacy дипломатія, hierarchy ієрархія, lecturer лектор, vegetarian вегетаріан ський, condense конденс увати, criticize крити кувати, stabilize стабіліз увати, seriously серйозно, eco­nomic економ ічний, etc.

Translating of genuine and mixed-type international compounds is performed on the basis of and in accordance with the lingual form and structure of their componental parts. As a result, English interna­tional compounds can be rendered in the following ways:

a) with the help of corresponding compounds having the same international root morphemes as in the source language: electro-biol­ogy електробіологія, film-actor кіноактор, gas-meter газометр, mo­tor-cyclist мотоцикліст, radio-active радіоактивний, six-footer шестифутовий, etc.

b) by word-combinations consisting of the same componental parts as in the international English compound words but of different than in the source language morphological structure and nature of a componental part of speech: dance -music (N+N) танцювальна (adj.) музика, gas -collector газовий (а.) колектор, nerve-centre нервовий (а.) центр, olive-coloured оливкового (а.) кольору, police-station поліційне (а.) відділення, radio-active element радіоактивний (а.) елемент, telegraph-line телеграфна (а.) лінія, etc. Thus, only radio­active and радіоактивний are adjectives in both languages.

Mixed-type compounds consisting of international and com­mon Ukrainian root morphemes are translated in accordance with their complex nature. Their equivalents in Ukrainian, however, may be both compound words and word-combinations consisting of international and non-international (as in the original) component parts (or even simple words): gas-mask протигаз, taxi-cab таксі, river-basin басейн річки, toilet-table туалетний столик, to/pedo-boaf торпедний катер, turning-point поворотний пункт, etc.

4. Descriptive Translating of International Lexemes Many genuine international lexemes are semantically con­densed and can be translated into the target language only in a de­scriptive way. Depending on the nature of the lexemes, their transla­tion may have two somewhat different realizations:

 

a) the lingual form of the source language lexeme/s can be re­tained as the main lexeme/s of the target language word-combination/ sentence: civilizable той (та,те), що піддається цивілізуванню/ цивілізації; classifiable той (та,те), що піддається класифікації; barony 1.володіння барона; 2.титул барона; energize викликати (збуджувати) енергію; examinee той, що екзаменується/складає іспит; golf-club 1. клуб гравців з ґольфу; 2. ключка для гри в Гольф;

b) the lingual form of the internationalism is not or can not be retained in the target language. It happens when the internationalism has not been adopted yet by the target language. Thus, the noun epi­logue is a genuine internationalism in many European languages but the adjective epilogic derived from it, though semantically quite pellu­cid, is unknown in Ukrainian. Besides, some internationalisms can be substituted in the process of translation with the aim of achieving ex­pressiveness (for the reasons of style) or for the sake of explaining their denotative meaning: deputize (v) виступати (бути представником) від когось; epilogic заключний, кінцевий; park (parking) ставити машину на стоянку; регселгеглихвар («процентник»); гмзреллунікчемний/ копійчаний (вартий двох пенні).

5. Translating by Way of Synonymous Substitution An international lexeme of the target language can be often sub­stituted in the process of translation for another international lexeme of synonymous or close to it (or of the same) meaning. The substitutions are mostly performed in larger context, though sometimes they may also be carried out at language level. This kind of substitution becomes possible due to the existence in the target language of internationalisms borrowed by it at different previous historical periods. Such international lexemes are of the same logico-grammatical/lexico-grammatical class. The faithfulness of translation achieved through this kind of synony­mous substitutions may be usually established in a text, at word level or at word-group leevel. The existence of some equivalent internationalisms for a notion is explained by its contacts in different periods with different languages. Cf. base (Greek) база, фундамент (Lat.); elixir (Arab.+Greek) еліксир, панацея (Greek); Fata Morgana (Ital.) фата морґана, міраж (Fr.); diagram (Greek) діаграма, графік (Ibid.), схема (Ibid.); fashion (Fr.) фасон, мода (Fr.+Latin); athletics (Greek) атлетика, гімнастика (Ibid.), ect. Such kind of translation presents, of course, an equivalent conveying of meaning and structurtural forms.

 

TRANSLATING OF LOAN INTERNATIONALISMS

Forming a common fund of lexicon in different languages of a geographical area, the loan units usually retain an identical/similar surface structure, i.e., form of a word, word-combination or sentence. Like genuine internationalisms, they are constantly appearing in dif­ferent languages as a result of unceasing progress in various domains of science, technology and culture. A great many of international loans have long become an integral part of each language's lexicon. De­spite all that, they preserve in each national language the unity of their componental parts, i.e., their structural peculiarly, an absolutely identical notional meaning and a common sphere of functioning: loud­speaker: Germ. Lautsprecher, Ital. altoparlante, Ukr. гучномовець, Russ. громкоговоритель; steam-engine: Germ. Dampfmaschine, Ital. macchina a vapore, Ukr. парова машина, Russ. паровая машина; long/short waves (radio), Germ. /ange/fcurzeWellen, Ital. onde lunge/ code, Ukr. довгі/короткіхвилі, Russ. длинньїе/короткие волньї, etc.

A bulk of international loan words and expressions are used to designate various grammatical, lexicological, stylistic and other no­tions. Depending on their nature, as well as on their denotative mean­ing and their sphere of functioning, international loan units can be rendered into Ukrainian in one of the following three ways:

a) by direct translation of the componental parts without chang­ing considerably their structural form cf.: coefficient of afficiency коефіцієнт корисної дії, conjugation/declension дієвідмінювання/ відмінювання (слів); genitive/dative case родовий/давальний відмінок; personal/possessive pronouns особові/присвійні займенники; prepositional government прийменникове керування; compound nominal predicate складений іменний присудок; literal/ verbal translation буквальний/дослівний переклад, etc.

Note. It is worth mentioning that some Ukrainian or Russian loan internationalisms may be genuine internationalisms in other lan­guages and vice versa. Thus, підмет, присудокапб other parts of the sentence are genuine internationalisms in English, German, Italian and in some other West European languages. Cf.: the subject, the predicate, the object; German: derSubjekt, das Pradicat, das Objekt; Italian: il soggetto, il predicate etc. Consequently, these and other loan internationalisms are practically rendered only with the help of the phonological level units, i.e., they are trancsribed or transliterated in these three languages.

 

b) with the help of componental translation and some replace­ments, omissions or substitutions arising from the national peculiari­ties of the target language, i.e, depending on its stylistic mode of usage. Thus, the equivalent of the English set expression foreign trade is not іноземна торгівля but зовнішня торгівля, and living standard is not життєвий стандарт but життєвий рівень. Similarly in other cases with single loan internationalisms. Cf.: homogeneous parts of the sentence однорідні члени речення but not частини речення; structure of matter is будова матерії but not структура матерії, national anthem is державний гімн but not національний гімн. Simi­larly with national serviceman військовослужбовець, а не наці­ональний службовець and parts of speech are частини мови, but not члени мови.

c) with the help of descriptive translation as in the examples like: digital computer цифрова обчислювальна машина; compound/ complex sentence складносурядне/складнопідрядне речення; in­volution (math.) піднесення до ступеня; pluralia tantum іменники, що вживаються тільки в множині; singularia tantum іменники,що вживаються тільки в однині; evolution (mathem.) винесення з-під радикала (витягнення кореня), common fraction (mathem.) простий дріб.