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Управление Образования г. Алматы

Алматинский Государственный Гуманитарно-Педагогический Колледж

Специальность 0832002

«Переводческое дело»

Курсовая работа

По предмету: «Теория и практика перевода»

«The peculiarities of technical translation in the sphere of trade»

Алматы - 2010

Contents

Introduction

1. Theoretical part. Lexical problems in translation of technical texts

1.1 Translation of technical literature as a special discipline

1.2 Disclosure of the concept «Technical translation»

1.3 Lexico-grammatical transformations

1.4 Linguistic peculiarities of technical texts

1.5 «False friends» of translator

1.6 Lexicology and grammar of technical literature

1.7 Translation of headlines in technical articles

2. The Practical Part

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix

Introduction

The present course work deals with the lexical problems in translation of technical texts and research the main methods of translation of Technical texts at a deeper level. In connection with the rapid developments in technology and increase the technical information practical value of technical translation was raised.

Translation is a mean of interlingual communication. The translator makes possible an exchange of information between users of different languages by producing in the target language a text which has an identical communicative value with the source text. Technical translation or research in language for specific purposes has long been considered as a field of the exact sciences, and the idea of cultural embedding of technical texts was dismissed. When someone calls language technical in everyday life, it is usually understood to mean that its message is hard to grasp. In scientific circles however the modifier has a happier connotation. The expressiveness and flexibility of natural language make it hard to process in a methodical fashion, and researchers generally understand `technical text' to mean writing which is more tractable because, for example, it lacks figurative language and can be understood in its literal sense.

The aim of our course work is to study and analyse the lexical problems in translation of technical texts.

There are 3 following objectives:

1. To characterize the translation of technical texts.

2. To give a detailed explanation of constructions which cause special difficulties while translating.

3. To suggest some strategies for translating technical texts.

The subject of research - peculiarities in translation of technical texts in the sphere of trade.

The purpose of this work - the study of language features and technical literature on the lexical level.

In way translation of technical texts is the opposite of literary translation in what concerns the freedom of translator's actions and choices. The technical texts are highly standardized this applies both to the structure of the whole text (macrostructure) and to the arrangement of individual paragraphs and sentence (microstructure). At the macro level in technical texts usually consists of a preamble, main text body and a finalizing (concluding) part. Depending on the type of document the composition and content of its individual parts may slightly vary. This course work is intended for students who are already aware of the basics and peculiarities of the grammatical and syntax of the English language. That is why it offers some introduction in translation of technical texts which can cause special difficulties while translating. In my course work I have used the following resources:

· The usage of different information such as books, references and Internet.

· The own experience of work as a translator from English into Russian.

As for the structure of this project, it consists of the following parts:

Introduction

Theoretical part

Practical part

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction gives the full review of all course work; it contains objectives, short description of each part of my course work.

The theoretical part present the analyze of theoretical aspects in translation of technical texts. The theoretical part gives a detailed review of the study of the theory of translation and also reveals the role of technical literature and terms in everyday life of the humanity which are believed to be interesting to future translator/interpreters. It also discussed the methods of translation of technical text with purpose to make it easier for translator to achieve adequate translation in the target language.

Also theoretical part deals with the detailed study of grammatical and lexical, difficulties involved in translation of political literature.

It have been also attached some samples of translation of technical expressions and variants of possible translations so that to enable the future translator to benefit from the given paper in their further researches in the fields of translation.

In practical part I tried to apply all knowledge that I have obtained. I prepared translation of automobile, because it is good example of technical text and common for everyday life of humanity.

In conclusion we have summed up the results of our laborious investigation translation of technical literature.

1. Theoretical part. Lexical problems in translation of technical texts

1.1 Translation of technical literature as a special discipline

The translation of technical literature is a special discipline that arose at the intersection of linguistics, on the one hand, and science and technology, on the other.

The translation of technical literature must be viewed as a linguistic as well as scientific and technical positions, with the primacy of the first in study of common issues, and secondly, when considering the narrow nomenclature.

Most translators prefer to think of their work as a profession and would like to see others to treat them like professionals rather than as skilled or semi-skilled workers. But to achieve this, translators need to develop an ability to stand back and reflect on what they do and how they do it. Like doctors and engineers, they have to prove to themselves as well as others that they are in control of what they do; that they do not just translate well because they have `flair' for translation, but rather because, like other professionals, they have made a conscious effort to understand various aspects of their work.

Unlike medicine and engineering, translation is a very young discipline in academic terms. It is only just starting to feature as a subject of study in its own right, not yet in all but in an increasing number of universities and colleges around the world. Like any young discipline, it needs to draw on the findings and theories of other related disciplines in order to develop and formalize its own methods; but which disciplines it can naturally and fruitfully be related to is still a matter of some controversy. Almost every aspect of life in general and of the interaction between speech communities in particular can be considered relevant to translation, a discipline which has to concern itself with how meaning is generated within and between various groups of people in various cultural settings. This is clearly too big an area to investigate in one go. So, let us just start by saying that, if translation is ever to become a profession in the full sense of the word, translators will need something other than the current mixture of intuition and practice to enable them to reflect on what they do and how they do it. They will need, above all, to acquire a sound knowledge of the raw material with which they work: to understand what language is and how it comes to function for its users.

Translation is a process of rendering a text, written piece or a speech by means of other languages. The difference of translation from retelling or other kinds of transfer of a given text is that that translation is a process of creating an original unity in contexts and forms of original.

The translation quality is defined by its completeness and value. “The completeness and value of translation means definite rendering of the contextual sense of the original piece and a high-grade functional-stylistic conformity.”

The concept “high-grade functional-stylistic conformity” clearly points on two existing ways of rendering the form in unity with the meaning: the first one is a reproduction of specific features of the form of the original piece and the second one is the creation of functional conformities of those features. It means when translating the specific features of an original literature we should rather consider the style inherent for the given genre but than direct copying the form of an original. While translating, we should also remember that different lexical and grammatical elements of an original might be translated differently if accepted by the norms of conformity to the whole original. The translation adequacy of separate phrases, sentences and paragraphs should not be considered separately but along with achievement of the adequacy and completeness of the translating piece as a whole because the unity of a piece is created through collecting the components.

No matter how a translator (interpreter) is talented he should remember two most important conditions of the process of translation: the first is that the aim of translation is to get the reader as closely as possible acquainted with the context of a given text and then second - to translate - means to precisely and completely express by means of one language the things that had been expressed earlier by the means of another language.

Bilingvistical study of language and style of scientific and technical literature provides an opportunity to obtain comparative data, which then form the basics of transfers so as a foreign language in Russian, with Russian as a foreign language.

Wall bilingvistical study of theoretical and practical patterns of language and style of scientific and technical literature and the development of translation from one language to another requires the combined efforts of linguists and logic, phycologists and teachers, translators and engineers.

New program of teaching foreign languages in high schools, approved in 1967, focuses its efforts on training teachers of reading and translation of scientific and technical literature. The new goal will require the development of new methods of teaching foreign languages. This new method should be based on the data bilingvistical study of languages and style of technical literature identifying the specific laws of its reading and interpretation.

Based on the characteristics of the language and style of technical literature and its attendant formal and logical style is necessary, starting with the first lessons to teach students a strictly logical analysis of language material, focusing on those phenomenal that are specific to language and style naunoy and technical literature cause errors in translation.

We can not allow the mechanical transfer method of teaching spoken language and leaning to read literature on the development of patterns of reading an translation of scientific and technical texts. In this regard, it is necessary first of all to abandon the emphasis on consolidation of “frequency” words and grammatical forms that do not cause difficulties in translation, and the popularization of “wireless reading”, which was build on the conviction that one can correctly understand the scientific and technical thought not knowing special words and combinations based on intuition and speculation.

Translation is the process and the result of turning a text from one language into another, which means expressing the same by the signs of a different language. Bearing in mind that every sign has two planes (plane of expression and plane of content) the essence of translation could be described as changing the elements of the plane of content remains constant.

The language of the original text is called «source language», the language into which the text is translated is called «target language » (the corresponding Russian terms are «исходный языкe» and «переходящий язык»). One of the main difficulties of translating lies in the fact that the meaning of the whole text is not exhausted by the sum of meaning of its elements. The meaning of a text is made up by words (characterized by their denotative and connotative meaning and stylistic reference), syntactic meaning of sentences and utterances larger than sentences, suprasegmental elements and lexico-semantic connections between words and phrases.

1.2 Disclosure of the concept «Technical translation»

Technical translation is a type of specialized translation involving the translation of documents produced by technical writers (owner's manuals, user guides, etc.), or more specifically, texts which relate to technological subject areas or texts which deal with the practical application of scientific and technological information. While the presence of specialized terminology is a feature of technical texts, specialized terminology alone is not sufficient for classifying a text as "technical" since numerous disciplines and subjects which are not "technical" possess what can be regarded as specialized terminology. Technical translation covers the translation of many kinds of specialized texts and requires a high level of subject knowledge and mastery of the relevant terminology and writing conventions.

Technical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of formal writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology. Technical writers explain technology and related ideas to technical and nontechnical audiences. This could mean, for example, telling a programmer how to use a software library or telling a consumer how to operate a television remote control.

Technical writers gather information from existing documentation and from subject matter experts. A subject matter expert (SME) is any expert on the topic that the writer is working on. Technical writers are often not SMEs themselves (unless they are writing about creating good technical documentation). Workers at many levels, and in many different fields, have a role in producing technical communications. A good technical writer needs strong language and teaching skills and must understand the many conventions of modern technical communications.

Technical writing teams or departments are often referred to as Information Development, User Assistance, Technical Documentation, or Technical Publications. Technical writers themselves may be called API Writers, information developers, documentation specialists, documentation engineers, or technical content developers.

For technical documents to be useful, readers must understand and act on them without having to decode wordy and ambiguous prose. Good technical writing clarifies technical jargon; that is, it presents useful information that is clear and easy to understand for the intended audience.

Technical writing is often subject to parody, perhaps due to the publication of poor quality technical documents. A classic parody of poor technical writing is the assembly instruction sheet for a complicated device such as a bicycle or barbecue grill produced by a writer whose native language is not that of the target audience, and who lacks any sense of effective use of overview, naming, and sequencing in technical instruction documents. The phrase "some assembly required" has come to symbolize difficulty with essentially technical writing issues.

Technical translations, in the broader sense, involve any non-literary translation, i.e., translation of texts dealing with electronics, medicine, law, economics, or sports. In a narrower sense, technical translations deal with texts from the world of engineering, including chemistry, computer science, automotive engineering, geology, etc. The number of technical fields is infinitely large, and terminology is expanding and changing daily. Moreover, even within the same field, competing companies often use different terms for the same object to differentiate their products from those of their competitors.

Ideally, a technical text should therefore be translated by a specialist in the specific area in question, who is familiar with the terminology of the company for which the translation is being done. For example, it is highly desirable that a text dealing with IBM computer parts be translated by an IBM computer specialist, because chances are the same part is called a different name by Apple, Dell, or NEC. Obviously, this is not always possible in practice. What is important, however, is that the translator be familiar with the technical concepts involved in the text, so that the translation conveys the right idea to the engineer or technician reading it. The client can greatly contribute to the quality of the translation by providing the translator with any related documents written in the target language, as well as with the drawings and source-language documents dealing with the same topic. Then, especially if the translation is for publication, the terminology must be refined via a dialog between the translator and the client.

Dictionaries do not always provide the right answers to technical terminology problems. A technical translator will know the proper term to use.

Translation/conversion of units of measurement poses a special challenge to the translator. It's not only finding the correct conversion factor from pound per square inch to kilopascal, but also choosing the right fractional units to avoid expressing the weight of a microchip in tons or its dimensions in miles. Competent technical translators know that converting a temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius units or vice-versa requires a different formula from converting a temperature difference between the same units. They realize that some units (like standard screw sizes) are not to be converted. They know when to round numbers and how.

Even if the terminology and all information contained in the document is correct, technical writing has a style that is difficult, if not impossible, for a non-technical person to imitate. A high-quality technical translation combines correct terminology and a style appropriate for the type of document and the intended audience. A text describing a surgical procedure will use a different terminology and style depending on whether it is intended for physicians or laypersons. Excessively technical terminology may not be understood by the layman, while the specialist may be offended by use of popular.

1.3 Lexico-grammatical transformations

Every language is characterized by a specific structure of its lexico-grammatical fields and has its own lexical, morphological and syntactic system. It may result in lack of coincidence between the means of expressing the same content in SL (source language) and TL (target language). That is why good practical knowledge of the two languages is quite necessary but not sufficient for translating. Besides this knowledge one must possess a number of skills and be guided by a number of principles worked out by the theory of translation. These principles are connected both with linguistic and extra linguistic aspects. While translating one must keep in view typological characteristics of both the language and remember that the same idea may be expressed lexically in one of them and grammatically in the other.

It is well known that language differ in their grammatical structure. Apart from aving different grammatical categories that seem to be similar. This naturally results in the necessity to introduce some grammatical change in the translated version of any text. These changes depend on the character of correlation between the grammatical norms of SL and TL. Various as they are, all the possible changes may be classed under four main types: transposition (перестановки), replacement (замены), additions (добавление), and omission (опущение).

1. Transposition. There may appear a necessity to rearrange elements of different levels: words, phrases, clauses or even sentence. Transposition of words and phrases may be caused by various reasons: differences in the accepted word order in SL and TL, presence or absence of emphasis, differences in the means of communicative syntax.

Speaking of word order, it would be more accurate to say that to change word order really means to rearrange not so much words but part of the sentence when translating from English into Russian one has to change word-order because normally it is fixed in English while in Russian it is relatively free: Most of the modern radio-transmitters can communicate both telegraph and telephone signals.- Большинство современных радиопередатчиков может работать как в телеграфном, так и в телефонном режиме, which depends (in this particular case) on the rhythm of the whole utterance. But such freedom of choice is rather rare, since the word order of the Russian sentences is not as arbitrary as it seems to be. The position of a word in the sentence is often predetermined by its communicative function.

Transposition of clauses is also used to preserve the semantic and communicative balance of the whole sentences: We know the primary coil in the ordinary transformer to have more turns than the secondary one. - Известно, что первичная обмотка обычного трансформатора имеет больше витков, чем вторичная.

Transposition of sentences does not become necessary very often. However, it helps sometimes to render the meaning which is expressed by the Past Perfect from in the English text, so as to indicate the succession of action or events: This question was discussed at the conference - Этот вопрос был обсужден на конференции. (Этот вопрос обсуждался на конференции. Этот вопрос обсуждали на конференции.Конференция обсудила этот вопрос)

2. Replacement. Replacements are also made at different levels.

To conform to the demands of the grammatical system of TL it may become necessary to change the grammatical form of a word: “fifteen thousand dollars” - “пятнадцать тысяч долларов” (“thousand” - singular, “тысяча” - plural), etc.

They often have to replace one part of speech by another.

The zinc in the dry cell accumulates a great many excess electrons which will move to the carbon electrode.- Цинк в сухом элементе аккумулирует большое число избыточных электронов, которые движутся к угольному электроду.

Occasionally some other replacements may become necessary.

However, it must be remember that the choice of parts of speech influences the general stylistic coloring of the text, cf. “бросить взгляд” аnd “взглянуть”, “хранить молчание” and “молчать”, etc. Russian abstract nouns are usually more appropriate in newspapers and official texts, short-form adjectives and passive participle are somewhat bookish and should be avoided if possible when rendering colloquial speech, which means that part of speech replacements may be caused sometimes by purely stylistic considerations.

Replacement of parts of sentence. The most of frequent among such of replacements is that of substituting an object for the subject and vice versa. It is very helpful in translating English passive constructions. Statistics shows that in English they use passive constructions much more often that in Russian. Moreover, in English these constructions in themselves are not marked stylistically while in Russian they are mainly bookish and official. The essence of this replacement is in making the subject of the English sentence the object of the Russian version: This transformation is regularly used when the subject of the English sentence is expressed by a noun denoting some message: “the text (the telegram, the letter, etc.), “в тексте (в телеграмме, в письме и т.д.) говорят (сказано)”. Occasionally this transformation is applied to other nouns in the function of the subject.

One of the most important syntactic peculiarities of the English language is the existence of the secondary predication created by various participial and infinitive constructions. These constructions are included in the structure of the simple sentences in English while Russian simple sentences have only one predicative center. This may lead to the necessity of the substituting Russian composite sentence for simple sentence of the original text.

A long and syntactically complicated sentence containing secondary predication may be translated by several simple sentences: “A few months ago I was nominated for the Governor of the great State of New-York, to run against Mr.Stewart L.Woodford and Mr.John T.Hoffman on an independent ticket” - “Несколько месяцев назад моя кандидатура была выдвинута на пост губернатора великого штата Нью-Йорк, мне предстояло выступить против мистера Стюарта Л.Вудфорда и мистера Джона Т.Хоффмана.”

A different type of syntactic bond may be used in translation instead of that used in original text; i.e. subordination may be replaced by coordination and vice versa. Generally speaking, subordination is more frequently used in English than in Russian, since subordinating words in English are rather vague semantically while in Russian they state rather definitely the character of semantic connection between the clauses.

Syndetic connection used in English sentence is not always appropriate in Russian, so it would often create a wrong stylistic effect if preserved in translation. That is why asyndetic connection of part of the sentence is rather regularly used in Russian instead of English polysyndeton.

So, the following types of replacement may be used in order to overcome difficulties created by differences in the grammatical system of SL and TL: A. Replacement of word-forms (замена форм слова). B. Replacement of part of speech (замены части речи). C. Replacement of part of sentence (замены членов предложения). D. Replacement of a simple sentence by composite one and vice versa (замена простого предложения сложным и наоборот). E. Replacement of the principal clause by a subordinate one and vice versa (замена главного предложения придаточным и наоборот). F. Replacement of subordination by coordination and vice versa (замена подчинения сочинением и наоборот). G. Replacement of syndetic connection by asyndetic and vise versa (замена союзной связи бессоюзной и наоборот). Within the fourth type (replacement of a simple sentence by a composite one and vise versa) they also single out two additional varieties: joining several sentence together (объединение) and dividing a long sentence into several shorter sentences (членение).

3. Addition. It is very difficult to say whether this transformation is lexical or grammatical: it is both. Its lexical aspects have already been discussed: it is necessary to make some explanation of transcribed words, describe those notions which have no name in TL, add the words which are implied but not expressed in the structure of attributive phrases, etc. However, in all these cases the structure of the sentence is involved, that is why the transformation is considered to be grammatical. Sometimes there appear grammatical reasons for adding new words: it happens when some meaning is expressed grammatically in the original text while there is no way of expressing it grammatically in TL.

The IMF mission is to arrive in Almaty on November 17.The stuff will focus of the general macroeconomic indicates. (International Monetary Fund - Международный Валютный Фонд)

17 ноября в Алматы должна прибыть миссия МВФ. Сотрудники фонда сосредоточат внимание на общих макроэкономических показателях.

«You might ask why engineers have generally chosen to supply us with a.c. rather than d.c. for our household needs». - «Можно спросить, почему для домашних надобностей обычно используется переменный, а не постоянный ток».

In this way the translated version restores as it were the complete structure of the original sentence some elements of which might be only implied and not expressed materially. When using the transformation of addition one should be very careful to add only that which should really be added. It requires good knowledge of deep structure and surface structure grammars of both SL and TL and ability to analyze semantic and pragmatic aspects of text.

4. Ommision. This transformation is seldom structurally obligatory; it is usually caused by stylistic consideration and deals with redundancy traditionally normative in SL and not accepted in TL. A typical example of such redundancy is the use of synonymic pairs in English: “…their only stay and support…” - both the words mean "поддержка”, “опора”. There is no need to translate them both, one is quite enough: “их единственна поддержка” or, according to the demands of the context, “единственное, что спасло их от голодa”.

Sometimes it is recommended to omit semantically empty “tags” of declarative and interrogative sentence: The first thing I did was to give her a call. - Первое, что я сделал, позвонил ей.

They sometimes recommend omitting logical redundancies and repetitions to achieve what is called “compression of the text”. However, it must be remembered that logical redundancy of speech and various repetitions are used by writers to characterize the personage`s individual manner of speaking, his way of thinking, etc. In such cases omissions are not allowed.

These are the main types of grammatical transformations. It should be born in mind, however, that is practice it is hardly possible to find these elementary transformations in their “pure form”: in most cases it is necessary to combine them

1.4 Linguistic peculiarities of technical texts

Within the fields of research and teaching the concept "technical text" covers texts which exist within a technical knowledge area and which as a result make use of the technical terminology belonging to that area. Furthermore, technical texts are considered as being informative, impersonal, objective and with a relatively standardized syntax, e.g. with many pre- and post-modifications, nominalisations and passive constructions. So, in crude terms technical texts are -as mentioned - considered a rather stereotyped and homogeneous group. In 1994 Baakes wrote:

"Scientists and engineers are trained to be objective and to accept as facts only impersonal, objective statements about things which can be seen by any observers who choose to look. This objective attitude is naturally reflected in the way they express themselves...”

A natural consequence of the conventional view on technical texts - in a translational perspective - must be that if you master the conventions of technical language, i.e. technical style, the greatest problem to the translator must be of a terminological kind. What I realised during my work as a translator in a technical company was that the expression "technical texts" in business life and among professional translators covers texts within a technical knowledge area (just as was the case within research and teaching), BUT that the expression - in practice - is in no way limited to informative, impersonal and objective text types with a fixed syntax and style. On the contrary it covers a very wide range of text types. In my work I have used the skopos theory (Vermeer 1989) to show that it is the skopos - i.e. purpose/function - which ought to decide which translation strategy is to be used and not an illusion of equivalence between the source and the target text. In the same way you could say that it is the function of the source text which determines the contents and style of a text and not the fact that a text contains technical terminology and certain syntactic characteristics. In translation-oriented text classifications technical texts are traditionally classified as informative texts - and frequently as the extreme opposite to literary language and poetry - which is probably one of the reasons for the very stereotyped view on technical texts. Fortunately, today many researchers are moving away from that view and are becoming more conscious of the fact that most texts - whether they are technical or not - are multifunctional:

"The traditional view of objective, a thetorical scientific discourse...has come increasingly into question..."

Some might claim that the texts are only classified according to their dominant function, but you could then ask the question whether such a classification is possible at all - for how do you assess which function is the most important in a text - is it necessarily the function which takes up most space? Buhler and Jakobson's well-known language functions are extremely useful concepts for the description of functions present in a text, but as the basis of a translation-relevant classification they are of no value and even misleading.We have worked with the following overall hypothesis "Though the informative function is evidently important in technical texts it is not the only relevant one. The majority of technical texts are more expressive than assumed up to now and are multifunctional to an extent which should be taken into account by the translator." Before we proceed we would like to explain what is meant by the concept "expressivity".

Expressivity Defined and Explained

Non-informative purposes can of course be explicitly expressed in a text, but due to the tradition of objectivity there is a tendency to express non-informative purposes in technical texts in a more subtle or implicit way - which does not exactly make it easier for the translator to discover the underlying messages of a text. Stylistic features which express something non-informative we call expressive features. Inspired by Gliser and to a certain extent Nord we have divided the expressive features into syntactic expressivity and lexical expressivity. Syntactic expressivity structures and emphasizes part of the text. A text can thus be organized in a way which supports the non-informative purposes of the text. Examples of syntactic expressivity can be: parallelisms, rhetorical questions, antithesis or inverted word order.

Lexical expressivity occurs when the attitudes and expressive messages of the writer are expressed at the level of lexis. E.g. by means of metaphors, puns, alliteration, hedging or by the use of lexemes with many connotations and a large number of other lexical means. By means of a mini-corpus consisting of 6 different technical texts in Danish (from the same company) we have tried to show that the technical writer - like any other writer - makes use of syntactic as well as lexical expressive linguistic means. It goes without saying that in most technical texts these features are a bit more subtle than e.g. within literature and poetry, but of course this does not mean that they do not exist. You might even say that a pun or a creative metaphor has a stronger effect in a text type where they are not so frequent. Each expressive feature often seems rather unimportant seen in isolation, but it is important to understand that it is the sum and interplay of the expressive elements in a text which point at the expressive messages.

When working as a staff translator it gradually dawned upon me that we was often left with impressions of a text which did not stem from the purely informative level of the text. We quite often got the impression that a writer was expressing this or that attitude in a very subtle way. I.e. in addition to the obvious subjects and purposes, the texts were filled with "hidden agendas" (not to be understood in any negative sense). Presumably most professional translators would recognize the intuitions just described as it is well known that there is more to a text than meets the eye. However, this is traditionally the way we describe phenomena we do not know enough about and when taking a closer look at the texts we was dealing with we discovered that my intuitions probably originated (at least partly) from a number of lexemes pointing in the same direction, though frequently with only part of their meaning. As we were later to become aware, the phenomenon just described is that of isotopy.

1.5 «False friends» of translator

“False friends” - words or expressions that appear the same in two languages, but have different meanings in each. French and English form a happy hunting-ground. As language evolves, meanings change, and words from the past become false friends although in the same language.

In France, the word “demander” means only to ask or request. Woe betides the translator who renders it into English as “demand” - which is far more peremptory, and in some contexts can sound rude. This error is rumoured to have provoked a diplomatic incident. Another, which I witnessed myself, was made by the official interpreter whom the late President Georges Pompidou brought with him to London when Britain was seeking to join the European Community, as it was then called. The President had said - on television - that he well understood the emotional bonds between Britain and the Commonwealth. His interpreter translated “liens sentimentaux” as “sentimental links”. He should perhaps have said “links of sentiment”: but his actual words implied that those links were mawkish, false, or a blend of both.

These are plain instances of how “false friends” can affect diplomatic relations. But there are many that merely confuse ordinary people. “Actuel” means “present-day”, not “actual”; “une bribe” is a fragment (of music or talk), not a bribe; “un courtier” is not a courtier, but a broker; “descente de lit” (“bedside mat”) was misread, by a translator of Jean Cocteau, as “getting out of bed”. The alphabet could continue indefinitely.

Translation remains the problem, especially when the words in each language appear the same. And “false friends” are not the only culprits. Less usual suspects also carry burdens from the past. These are words and expressions that are directly translatable, and sometimes virtually identical.

For example, the words:

1. Actual -- means "фактический", not "актуальный".

It is interesting to illustrate, at this point, how Flory's original equation can lead to serious discrepancies if applied without due regard to the actual concentration of materials. На этой стадии интересно проиллюстрировать, как первоначальное уравнение Флори может привести к серьезным отклонениям, если его применять без учета фактической концентрации реагентов.

2. Original -- means "первоначальный", not "оригинальный".

The relationship is responsible for the original shifting of this band. Это взаимоотношение обусловливает первоначальный сдвиг этой полосы.

3. Progressive -- means "постепенный", not "прогрессивный".

A progressive increase in volume was noticed at all extensions. При всех растяжениях было замечено постепенное возрастание объема.

4. Actually -- "фактически", not "актуально".

This compound actually proved to be an isomer. Фактически это соединение оказалось изомером.

5. Originally -- "первоначально", not "оригинально"-It is the method originally developed by Hahn and his co-workers. Это метод, первоначально разработанный Ханом и сотрудниками.

6. Progressively -- "постепенно", "все более", not "прогрессивно".

The stability of an ion of the present type decreases as the number of aromatic rings decreases, so that benzhydrol and benzyl alcohol appear to behave as progressively weaker bases. Устойчивость иона данного типа уменьшается по мере того, как уменьшается число ароматических колец, так что, повидимому, бензгидрол и бензиловый спирт ведут себя как все более и более слабые основания.

7. Specific -- means "удельный", not "специфический".

If one knows the value for the specific rotation of optically pure phenylmethylacetic acid, it then becomes possible to set minimum values for the rotations of the optically pure aphenylethylphenols. Если известно значение удельного вращения оптически чистой фенилметилуксусной кислоты, то возможно установить минимальные величины вращения оптически чистых афенилэтилфенолов.

8. Technique -- "метод", "методика", "процесс", not "техника"

9. Procedure -- "методика", "метод", not"процедура" (см. ї 60).

10. Figure -- "рисунок", "цифра", "число", not "фигура".

11. Object--"цель", "предмет", not "объект".

12. Subject-- "вопрос", "предмет", not "субъект".

13. Extra -- "добавочный", "дополнительный", "лишний", not "высшего качества"

1.6 Lexicology and grammar of technical literature

Any translator comes across various problems within translating any text documents; many lexical problems can be seen during his course of work. To check out these lexical problems we should first of all know what does lexicology means: The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin / from «lexis» - «word» and «logos» - «science». Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups.

The term «vocabulary» is used to denote the system of words and word-groups that the language possesses.

The term «word» denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

The term «word-group» denotes a group of words which exists in the language as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of syntactical function, e.g. the word-group «as loose as a goose» means «clumsy» and is used in a sentence as a predicative / He is as loose as a goose/.

Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin of words and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development of their sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historical lexicology.

Another branch of lexicology is called descriptive and studies the vocabulary at a definite stage of its development.

a) Language units

The main unit of the lexical system of a language resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning is a word. This unit is used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest language unit which can stand alone as a complete utterance.

A word, however, can be divided into smaller sense units - morphemes. The morpheme is the smallest meaningful language unit. The morpheme consists of a class of variants, allomorphs, which are either phonologically or morphologically conditioned, e.g. please pleasant, pleasure.

Morphemes are divided into two large groups: lexical morphemes and grammatical (functional) morphemes. Both lexical and grammatical morphemes can be free and bound. Free lexical morphemes are roots of words which express the lexical meaning of the word; they coincide with the stem of simple words. Free grammatical morphemes are function words: articles, conjunctions and prepositions (the, with, and).Bound lexical morphemes are affixes: prefixes (dis-), suffixes (-ish) and also blocked (unique) root morphemes (e.g. Fri-day, cran-berry). Bound grammatical morphemes are inflexions (endings), e.g. -s for the Plural of nouns, -ed for the Past Indefinite of regular verbs, -ing for the Present Participle, -er for the Comparative degree of adjectives.

In the second half of the twentieth century the English word building system was enriched by creating so called splinters which scientists include in the affixation stock of the Modern English word building system. Splinters are the result of clipping the end or the beginning of a word and producing a number of new words on the analogy with the primary word-group. For example, there are many words formed with the help of the splinter mini- (apocopy produced by clipping the word «miniature»), such as «miniplane», «minijet», «minicycle», «minicar», «miniradio» and many others. All of these words denote obects of smaller than normal dimensions.

On the analogy with «mini-» there appeared the splinter «maxi»- (apocopy produced by clipping the word «maximum»), such words as «maxi-series», «maxi-sculpture», «maxi-taxi» and many others appeared in the language. When European economic community was organized quite a number of neologisms with the splinter Euro- (apocopy produced by clipping the word «European») were coined, such as: «Euratom» «Eurocard», «Euromarket», «Europlug», «Eurotunnel» and many others. These splinters are treated sometimes as prefixes in Modern English.

There are also splinters which are formed by means of apheresis that is clipping the beginning of a word. The origin of such splinters can be variable, e.g. the splinter «burger» appeared in English as the result of clipping the German borrowing «Hamburger» where the morphological structure was the stem «Hamburg» and the suffix -er. However in English the beginning of the word «Hamburger» was associated with the English word «ham» and the end of the word «burger» got the meaning «a bun cut into two parts». On the analogy with the word «hamburger» quite a number of new words were coined, such as: «baconburger», «beefburger», «cheeseburger», «fishburger» etc.

The splinter «cade» developed by clipping the beginning of the word «cavalcade» which is of Latin origin. In Latin the verb with the meaning «to ride a horse» is «cabalicare» and by means of the inflexion -ata the corresponding Participle is formed. So the element «cade» is a combination of the final letter of the stem and the inflexion. The splinter «cade» serves to form nouns with the meaning «connected with the procession of vehicles denoted by the first component», e.g. «aircade» - «a group of airplanes accompanying the plane of a VIP» , «autocade» - «a group of automobiles escorting the automobile of a VIP», «musicade» - «an orchestra participating in a procession».

In the seventieths of the twentieth century there was a political scandal in the hotel «Watergate» where the Democratic Party of the USA had its pre-election headquarters. Republicans managed to install bugs there and when they were discovered there was a scandal and the ruling American government had to resign. The name «Watergate» acquired the meaning «a political scandal», «corruption». On the analogy with this word quite a number of other words were formed by using the splinter «gate» (apheresis of the word «Watergate»), such as: «Irangate», »Westlandgate», »shuttlegate», »milliongate» etc. The splinter «gate» is added mainly to Proper names: names of people with whom the scandal is connected or a geographical name denoting the place where the scandal occurred.

The splinter «mobile» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word «automobile» and is used to denote special types of automobiles, such as: «artmobile», «bookmobile», «snowmobile», «tourmobile» etc.

The splinter «napper» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word «kidnapper» and is used to denote different types of crimesters, such as: «busnapper», «babynapper», «dognapper» etc. From such nouns the corresponding verbs are formed by means of backformation, e.g. «to busnap», «to babynap», «to dognap».

The splinter «omat» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word «automat» (a cafe in which meals are provided in slot-machines). The meaning «self-service» is used in such words as «laundromat», «cashomat» etc.

Another splinter «eteria» with the meaning «self-service» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word «cafeteria». By means of the splinter «eteria» the following words were formed: «groceteria», «booketeria», «booteteria» and many others.

The splinter «quake» is used to form new words with the meaning of «shaking», «agitation». This splinter was formed by clipping the beginning of the word «earthquake». Ther following words were formed with the help of this splinter: «Marsquake», «Moonquake», «youthquake» etc.

b) Word-building

Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation, composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation, blends, and back formation.

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