The phenomenon of an interlingual homonymy in english

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THE PHENOMENON OF AN INTERLINGUAL HOMONYMY IN ENGLISH

Verigo Catherine

Confusing words or interlingual homonyms - are words, which sound the same in two languages, but do not have the same spelling or meaning in both. Confusing words can lead to the misunderstanding and the translation of the text [2].

At any stage of studying of English you will surely meet the phenomenon of an interlingual homonymy. Such words are like traps both for beginners to study language and for translators. Studying of interlingual compliances of homonymous character, and also lexical interference caused by them, is especially actual in modern conditions of language contacts growth and interesting for linguistics [1]. To improve the quality of the translation and avoid false analogy while learning foreign languages, more and more bilingual dictionaries of pseudoequivalents have recently appeared, that proves the importance of this problem for the linguistics and the theory of the translation. The phenomenon of an interlingual homonymy is widespread. In this work we consider confusing words on the example of three languages: English, German and Ukrainian.

Intercultural communication now takes an important place in studying of foreign languages, therefore the aim of our work is studying a problem of pseudo-equivalence in foreign languages.

Interlingual homonyms are also called false friends of the translator. And the term «false friends» was entered by M. Kyossler and Z. Derokkinyi in 1928 in the book «Les faux amis ou Les piиges du vocabulaire anglais» (Paris, 1928). Usually we distinguish the meaning of such speech units in the native language from a context. While studying English homonyms make us often think seriously about the meaning of what we've heard. How to cope with them?

Firstly, it is necessary to know about existence of types of homonyms. There are such types of homonyms: 1) homonyms - speech units which sound and are written identically; 2)homophones - speech units which sound identically, but written differently; 3) homographs - speech units which sound differently, are written identically; 4) paronyms - speech units which sound similar [3].

Secondly, the only way how to cope with homonyms is to improve your vocabulary, keeping in mind homonyms which a translator meets in English most often. The number of homonyms has grown lately because of borrowing from different languages. Therefore the topic about the use and the correct writing of English homonyms becomes more actual.

The part of them was formed because of borrowing from another languages and the meaning of the word in one of languages has been changed; but in other cases there wasn't borrowing at all, and words having the same root as in common original language have different meanings; sometimes the consonance is purely casual.

Special case of false friends of the translator are psevdointernationalisms -- the interlingual homonyms associating (in their graphic and/or phonetic form) with words of international lexicon and defiant any difficulties during translating [2].

There are such reasons of emergence of interlingual homonyms:

1 . Coincidence. For example, eng. mist -- укр. туман, нім. der Mist -- укр. навоз. After exporting to Germany of a computer game Myst, Mist Stick deodorant, and also Rolls of the Royce of Silver Mist this coincidence led to an embarrassment. interlingual homonym coincidence derivation

Not less striking example is the word gift which in English means подарунок or обдарованність, and in German -- отрута. According to it gifted in English -- it is обдарований, and in German giftig means отруйний [4].

As an example of coincidence of word meanings in different languages there can be used this amusing joke. The Bundesrat of Ogi is on state visit in France. In the festive receipt he meets Mrs. Chirac. "Vous кtes beau,", (you are beautiful фр.) he says to her. "Belle, belle!" (beautiful итал.), whispers to him his adviser in the ear. and then Ogi: "Woof, woof!".

The reason for this embarrassment was the coincidence of sounding words bellen (ger. bark) and belle (ital. beautiful).

2 . Parallel derivation. Ukrainian-English confusing words have one common original language and it is Latin in most cases.

In the majority of the European languages the word prйservatif, preservativo, etc. means "a barrier method of man's contraception" (in this value the word was included and into Russian), but in English preservative -- "консервант".

Ukrainian "ангіна" occurs from lat. angina tonsillitis ("suffocation from an inflammation of almonds"), while English angina (укр. стенокардія) -- from lat. angina pectoris ("suffocation chest") [4].

There are also the homonyms, whose lexical meanings coincide completely or partially at the expense of existence of the general signs, allowing to carry these words with these values to one sphere of the use.

Exactly the last case is connected with the greatest number of mistakes during the translating. For example, the English word "aggressive" has not only meaning "агресивний", but also "наполегливий, енергійний". Coincidence of the first lexical meaning of the word "aggressive" to a lexical meaning of Ukrainian can lead to that, for example, in translating the phrase "aggressive salesman" the second meaning of the English word which Ukrainian doesn't have, will be ignored and the phrase will be translated as "агресивний продавець" instead of correct form "наполегливий продавец" [3].

The other example is the word "electric". It means in English "електричний", whereas on sounding it coincides with Ukrainian "електрик". Both meanings have a direct attitude to electricity, and the knowledge of this fact by simultaneous ignorance of rules of word formation can be at the bottom of mix of meanings during translation.

The following words can be referred to a parallel derivation: "revolution" -- it is not only "революція", but also "обертання", "поворот"; "trailer" -- in Ukrainian not only "трейлер" (1. the trailer platform for transportation of large piece freights, 2. the cinema term), but also "причіп", "автодом", the word "tunic" -- can be translated as "кітель", "гімнастерка", and not just "туніка" [5].

There are a lot of examples of an interlingual homonymy in English and Ukrainian, and the translator first of all should remember that the wrong transfer of these lexical units can lead to false understanding of foreign texts. For example, (eng.) mayor -- укр. мер міста, instead of майор; (eng.) accord -- згода, but not укр. акорд; (eng.) accurate -- точний, instead of укр. акуратний; (eng.) cabinet -- укр. шкаф, чулан, вітрина, but not офіс; (eng.) cloak -- укр. плащ, instead of клоака; (eng.) resin -- укр. смола, instead of резина; (eng.) stool -- укр. табурет, instead of стул; (eng.) venerable -- укр. шановний, instead of венеричний; (eng.) sodium -- укр. натрій, instead of сода [5]. Apparently from these examples, the interlingual homonymy is the phenomenon, which is inherent in all fields of activity: scientific, cultural, military, etc.

The phenomenon of a homonymy deserves special attention as it is one of global problems of linguistics.

Literature

1. Борисова Л. И. Ложные друзья переводчика. Общенаучная лексика. Английский язык / Л.И. Борисова. - М.: Ювента, 2002. - 212 с.

2. Carpenter E. English Guides 4 Confusable Words / Е. Carpenter. - L.: Collins CoBUILD, 1993. - 240 p.

3. Dolgopolov Y. A Collection Of Confusible Phrases. False «Friends» and «Enemies» in Idioms and Collocations / Y Dolgopolov. - L.: Llumina Press, 2004. - 137 p.

4. Parker, G. NTC's Dictionary of False Cognates / G. Parker, A. Cornell. - Lincolnwood: NTC, 1992. - 432 p.

5. English Russian Dictionary of "False Friends" by K.V.Krasnov [Электронный ресурс]. - Режим доступа : http://falsefriends.ru/

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