Translating geographical terms

Toponyms are normally transcribed or transliterated: Oxford – Оксфорд, Находка – Nakhodka. Now the tendency towards transcription prevails over the tendency towards transliteration – some decades ago one should render Stratford-on-Avon as Статфорд-на-Авоне, now it is Стратфорд–он-Эйвон. Likewise: Комсомольск-на-Амуре should be rendered Komsomolsk-na-Amure rather than Komsomolsk-on-the-Amur.

Care should be taken to revert to non-naturalized place-names: Beijing is not *Бейцзин in Russian, but Пекин, Leghorn is Ливорно, and Munich is known to Russians as Мюнхен. In rendering, a translator should check all terms in the most recent atlas. Bilingual general and specialized dictionaries may be consulted (especially –English-Russian and Russian-English Geographical Dictionary by M.V.Gorskaya155). A term found must be carefully checked in monolingual dictionaries.

Transparent local geographical names can be translated by calques: Rocky Mountains – Скалистые горы, Saint Helena Island – остров Святой Елены, залив Золотой Рог – Golden Horn Bay.

Half-calques can be used to translate toponyms with classifiers, such as river, lake, bridge: Waterloo Bridge – мост Ватерлоо, Salt Lake City – город Солт-Лэйк-Сити.

If a toponym is a little-known proper name, it is normally transferred (transcribed) with the addition of some generic information (Dalnegorsk, a small mining town in Primorski Region). Names of states are usually clarified: Seattle, Washington – (город) Сиэтл, штат Вашингтон.

Some toponyms are substituted in translation: Strait of Dover – Па-де-Кале, the English Channel – Ла-Манш. However, it is important to avoid wrong associations in substitution. For example, Приморский край is sometimes translated as Maritime Territory, which sometimes confuses English-speaking receptors mistake it for the Canadian Maritime Province.

Chinese place names are usually written in the Pinyin spelling. If the new Pinyin spelling is so radically different from the traditional spelling that a reader might be confused, it is necessary to provide the Pinyin spelling followed by the traditional spelling in parentheses. For example, the city of Fuzhou (Foochow). Traditional spelling is used for the following place names: Canto, China, Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Tibet.

TRANSLATING PUBLISHED EDITIONS

Periodicals are normally transcribed: Financial News – Файнэншл Ньюз, Economist – Икономист. The definite article testifying to the name of a newspaper is not transferred: The Times – «Таймс». Also, the names of periodicals are usually extended: газета «Таймс», журнал «Икономист». Note the difference in the position of the generic name: Asian Business magazine – журнал «Эйжн Бизнес». Transplanting foreign names is one of the latest trends: журнал “Asian Business”.

Titles of literary works are translated: The Man of Property – Собственник. When used in the English text, all notional words in titles are capitalized and either italicized or underlined. More rarely are they written with quotation marks. In Russian, titles are usually quoted in a text.

For pragmatic reasons, a translator can substitute the title. For instance, «Двенадцать стульев» by Ilf and Petrov was translated into English under the title Diamonds to Sit On, so as to make the book commercially more enticing.

It is also necessary to observe literary traditions of a country. The world famous tales «Тысяча и одна ночь» are known in English-speaking countries as The Arabian Nights.

Scientific works in references are not translated. When a work of science is translated from English, the source language title of reference to remains in its original form. When a scientific work is translated from Russian, references to Russian scientists are usually transliterated.

Translated document titles must render the general meaning of the official document, so various translation transformations are admissible: e.g., the British No Hanging Bill is translated by generalizing «Закон об отмене смертной казни», since it spoke of abolishing the death penalty in general.

TRANSLATING ERGONYMS

When the name of an institution is identified, it is usually transferred with a word about its function and status: DalZavod (Far Eastern Dock), детский спортклуб “Юность”- Yunost, Children’s and Youth’s Sports Club, магазин “Океан” - the Ocean seafood store, Востоктрансфлот - VostokTransFlot shipping company.

Ergonyms comprising highly informative names are calque-translated: Дальневосточный центр поддержки бизнеса - The Far Eastern Business Support Center. Official administrative bodies are normally translated: Гоcударственный комитет РФ по рыболовству - The Russian Federal Committee on Fisheries, Краевой комитет по архитектуре и строительству - The Krai Committee for Architecture and Construction.

TRANSLATOR’S FALSE FRIENDS

The term ‘translator’s false friends’ (les faux amis) was introduced by the French theorists of translation M. Koessler and J. Derocquigny in 1928.160 This term means a word that has the same or similar form in the source and target languages but another meaning in the target language. Translators’ false friends result from transferring the sounds of a source language word literally into the target language. P. Newmark calls them deceptive cognates,161 as their meanings are different and they can easily confuse the target text receptor.

Misleading words are mostly international, or it is better to say that they are pseudointernational. They are loan words that can be borrowed from the source text but have developed their own meanings in the target texts. For example, interview = ‘a series of questions in a formal situation in order to obtain information about a person’; интервью = a journalist’s questioning some public figure in order to be published in mass media’. Or they can have the same origin of the third language (mainly Greek and Latin) and be borrowed both into the source and target languages: aspirant = ‘a person who has great ambition, desires strongly, strives toward an end, aims at’; аспирант = ‘a graduate student’. Sometimes the form similarity can be accidental: herb = ‘an aromatic plant used in medicine or as seasoning’; герб = ‘an object or representation that functions as a symbol’.

Reference to some ‘false friends’ can be found in some dictionaries, like a special dictionary of ‘false friends’162 or Cambridge International Dictionary of English.163

‘False friends’ could be called interlanguage synonyms, homonyms and paronyms.

Interlanguage synonyms are words that coincide in one or more meanings. However, beside similar meanings, they have some special meanings. For example, concert – концерт. Both words have the meaning of ‘a musical performance’, but the English word has the second meaning: ‘agreement in purpose, feeling, or action’. The Russian one has acquired a generic meaning of ‘any performance (reciting, drama extracts, etc.)’. Thus they can be equivalents in only the first meaning and somewhat erroneous in their second meaning.

Interlanguage homonyms are words that have no common meanings, like accord – аккорд. The English word means ‘agreement, harmony; a settlement or compromise of conflicting opinions; a settlement of points at issue between the nations. The Russian word is more specific, meaning ‘musical chord’.

Interlanguage paronyms are words with similar but not identical sound, and with different meanings. The case can be illustrated by example – экземпляр. The Russian word denotes ‘a copy’, whereas the English indicates ‘a representative of a group as a whole; a case serving as a model or precedent for another that is the same or similar’.

When compared in the source and target texts, translators’ false friends can differ semantically, syntactically, stylistically, and pragmatically.164

Semantic difference presupposes the following oppositions:165

• generic vs. specific meaning: actual (real, existing in fact) – актуальный (topical); моторист (air-fitter; machinist) – motorist (one who drives or travels in an automobile).

• monosemantic vs. polysemantic: галантный (couth) – gallant (1. Showy and gay in appearance, dress, or bearing a gallant feathered hat; 2. Stately, majestic; 3.high-spirited and courageous gallant soldiers; 4. Attentive to women, chivalrous, flirtatious.)

• different connotation (positive vs. negative): aggressive (determined to win or succeed) – агрессивный (inclined to act in a hostile fashion)

Structural difference leads to

• different word combinations: comfortable – комфортабельный have the same meaning ‘producing a feeling of physical relaxation’. But in English this word is combined with the noun income (comfortable income), and in Russian this combination is impossible – the English expression has the equivalent of хороший доход. Likewise, sympathetic – симпатичный, but sympathetic strike – забастовка солидарности.

• impossibility of calque translation: ходячая энциклопедия – walking library. In this case idiomatic meanings are expressed by different structures.

• multi-component phrase vs. one-word structure: аудитория читателей – readership, readers.

Stylistic difference results in stylistic overtone of the words:

• neutral vs. emotionally colored words: ambition (stylistically neutral) – амбиция (often negative); protection (neutral) – протекция (bookish)

• modern vs. archaic: depot – депо (in the meaning of ‘a building where supplies are kept’)

• common word vs. term: essence – эссенция (vinegar).

Pragmatic difference implies the different associations a word carries for various groups of people, nations, etc. For example, when saying “Моя мама родилась через два года после революции”, a Russian person will definitely mean the Russian Revolution of 1917. S/he might be misunderstood by an American for whom the word ‘revolution’ is associated with American Revolution. The same with the common Russian expression после войны: Он поступил в институт сразу после войны. Probably, it will take time and effort for an American to associate the event with World War II, since America also knew the Korean and Vietnam wars in this century.

WAYS OF TRANSLATING IDIOMS

In general, idioms are open to a variety of translation procedures. Among them are:

• Substitution with the analog: Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs. – Яйца курицу не учат. However, in oral translation a translator should sustain the image. Then a new (changed) figurative meaning may frustrate the translator. For example, the Soviet leader N. Khruschev, when speaking in the USA, used the idiom “всякий кулик свое болото хвалит”. And in some minutes continued, “Долго ли мы с вами будем торчать в этом болоте холодной войны?” Luckily, the translator did not use the analog in the first case, “Every cook praises his own broth.” The continuation of the metaphor would have caused an impossible phrase of the kind “broth of cold war”.171 When working with an analog, one should be sure to use the same style and retain the meaning of the idiom.

When substituting a figurative expression with its analog, a translator may generalize or specify some components of the idiom: They could not conceive of any greater joy in life; to work their own land, to keep what they produced by the sweat of their brow, for themselves and their children. - Они не могли представить себе большей радости в жизни, чем работать на своей земле и делать запасы того, что они производили в поте лица для себя и своих детей. The words brow – лицо are the example of generalization. On the other hand, specification can be seen in the following example: Richard drove back to East Hampton, Maria’s tirade still ringing in his head. - Ричард ехал назад в Ист-Хэмптон, а тирада Марии все еще звенела у него в ушах.

• Substitution with the simile. After getting married she is living in clover. – Выйдя замуж, она живет как сыр в масле. The simile also contains an image, so it is as expressive as the metaphor.

• Antonymous translation takes place when the translator uses a negative construction to translate an affirmative sentence: The situation was serious, but he kept his head. – Положение было серьезным, но он не терял присутствия духа.

• Literal, or calque translation. This technique can be employed even if there is an idiom analog. A word-for-word translation is used in translating sustained metaphors, phraseological synonyms, and puns. Literal translation usually leads to playing upon the figurative and literal sense of an idiom, that is, to enlivening an idiom. For example, the English expression as dead as a door nail figuratively means ‘lifeless’ and corresponds to the Russian бездыханный, без малейших признаков жизни. However, in the following extract from C. Dickens the idiom is used in its double meaning, literal and figurative, which made the translator calque it. Old Marley was as old as a door nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know of my own knowledge what there is particularly dead about a door nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of iron mongery in the trade. – Старый Марлей был мертв как дверной гвоздь. Заметьте, я не хочу сказать, что дверной гвоздь является чем-то особенно мертвым. Я сам скорее склонен считать гвоздь от гроба самым мертвым предметом из скобяных изделий.

Another argument in favor of literal translation is that the new metaphor in the target language will hold the interest of the reader.

Calque translation is not an incorrect and overfaithful translation that breaks the target language rules of semantic agreement and combinability and conflicts with the style of the text.

• Descriptive or explanatory translation. When an original metaphor appears to be a little obscure and not very important, it may be replaced with a descriptive expression. У него семь пятниц на неделе. – He is very confused. Это камешки в мой огород? – Was that aimed at me?