General peculiarities of translation and transcription of abbreviations

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Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

General peculiarities of translation and transcription of abbreviations

Novikova O.V.

Currently, the growth of information saves language effort and time. Vocabulary as the most mobile layer of language is undergoing changes. Enrichment of language vocabulary is due to word formation, the section of lexicology that is responsible for the emergence of new words. The extremely rapid development of the World Wide Web has led to the emergence and wild popularity of social networks, which occupy a special place in the process of virtual communication as a service aimed at interpersonal communication of Internet users. As English is an international language, a number of American social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become international. Users of these networks create new words and promote them. These innovations cover the entire Internet space (websites, forums).

Modern English has a relatively new and highly productive way of wordformation - abbreviation. The reduction itself, as a popular way of forming morphological neologisms in recent decades, reflects the tendency to rationalize language.

Continuous increase in the vocabulary of the language is a prerequisite for the rationalization of language, saving nominative and word-formation efforts. A striking example of the rationalization of speech activity and optimization of language-forming processes is the phenomenon of reduction of lexical units. In our information-rich world, there is less and less time for communication and correspondence. As paradoxical as it may sound, the more information a person has, the more ways he or she seeks to reduce and convey it in a concise form.

The purpose of reduction is the maximum compression of information at the lexical level. The current language situation is characterized by the desire to use abbreviated forms of speech in all areas of literature. The formation of new abbreviations in English is a constant phenomenon that is increasingly evolving and improving. The number of reductions of all types is growing, this has already been noticed by many researchers.

Key words: shortening, abbreviation, decoding of abbreviations, translation, lexical abbreviations.

Новікова О. В. ЗАГАЛЬНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПЕРЕКЛАДУ ТА РОЗШИФРУВАННЯ СКОРОЧЕНЬ

Наразі зростання обсягу інформації призводить до економії мовних зусиль і часу. Зазнає змін саме лексика як найрухливіший пласт мови. Збагачення лексики мови відбувається завдяки словотвору, розділу лексикології, що відповідає за появу нових слів. Надзвичайно швидкий розвиток всесвітньої мережі Інтернет призвів до появи та шаленої популярності соціальних мереж, які посідають особливе місце в процесі віртуальної комунікації як сервісу направленого на міжособистісне спілкування користувачів інтернету. Через те, що англійська мова має інтернаціональний характер, низка американських соцмереж таких як Facebook, Twitter та Instagram стали міжнародними. Користувачі цих мереж створюють нові слова та сприяють їхньому масовому поширенню. Ці новоутворення охоплюють весь інтернет-простір (вебсайти, форуми).

Сучасна англійська мова має у своєму розпорядженні порівняно новий і високо продуктивний спосіб словотвору - скорочення (абревіація). Саме скорочення як популярний в останні десятиліття спосіб утворення морфологічних неологізмів відбиває тенденцію до раціоналізації мови.

Безперервне збільшення словникового складу мови є передумовою для раціоналізації мови, економії номінативних та словотворчих зусиль. Яскравим прикладом раціоналізації мовленнєвої діяльності та оптимізації мовотворчих процесів є явище скорочення лексичних одиниць. В нашому насиченому інформацією світі, часу на спілкування та листування залишається все меньше і меньше. Як би парадоксально це не звучало, але чим більшою кількістю інформації володіє людина, тим більше способів вона шукає для її скорочення і передачі у стислій формі.

Метою скорочення є максимальна компресія інформації на лексичному рівні. Сучасна мовна ситуація характеризується прагненням до використання скорочених форм слова у всіх галузях словесності. Утворення нових абревіатур в англійській мові є постійним явищем, яке все більше розвивається й удосконалюється. Кількість скорочень усіх типів зростає, це вже помічено багатьма дослідниками.

Ключові слова: скорочення, абревіатура, розшифрування скорочень, переклад, лексичні скорочення.

Introduction

Problem statement and relevance. English today is the most widely spoken language in the Internet community. Abbreviation is not an arbitrary process, and is subject to certain laws. Abbreviation is a way of forming secondary nominative units, which develops under the influence of traditional ways of word formation. Therefore, according to these laws, such units are formed that transmit the greatest amount of information in a condensed and, at the same time, accessible form.

There is still no clear definition of the terms «abbreviation» and in the works of linguists can be found different definitions. For example, I. V. Arnold writes that the abbreviation is a morphological word formation, in which some part of the sound composition of the initial word is omitted [2, p. 351].

T I. Arbekova calls the abbreviation - a means of forming new words by reducing the base [1].

Thus, the term «abbreviation» refers to the process during which a word or phrase is abbreviated, and the abbreviated word itself. In addition, the terms «reduction process» and «abbreviated words» may be referred to as abbreviations, abbreviated units, abbreviated words, compound words, partially abbreviated words, acronyms, contractures, ellipse.

In addition, abbreviations and acronyms used in different terminological fields are classified differently. First, depending on the field of application, all abbreviations of a terminological nature are divided into two major groups: stable and contextual. Stable abbreviations are common abbreviations or conditional graphic representations of terms-simple words and terms-complex words, commonly used short versions of terms-phrases, which are fixed in terminological dictionaries and are generally known to specialists in a particular field.

Modern English has a relatively new and highly productive way of word formation - abbreviation. The reduction itself, as a popular way of forming morphological neologisms in recent decades, reflects the same tendency to rationalize language.

Abbreviations are a method of word formation in which a part of the base that coincides with the word, or is a phrase united by a common meaning, is cut off. The concept of «reduction» includes both the process and the result of the process of, collection of phonemes and / or morphemes of words and phrases without changing their lexical and grammatical meaning. While the abbreviation is called abbreviated words that are formed from the first letters or from other parts of words that are part of the name or concept. The process of formation of new abbreviations is due to a number of extralingual (social, economic, historical, cultural, aesthetic, industrial, etc.) and intralin- gual factors (materiality of the language sign, linearity of language flow, excess information at all levels, uneven placement of information between elements of language flow).

Numerous works are devoted to certain aspects and classifications of Internet abbreviations in English and Ukrainian linguistics, as well as psycholinguistics: O. A Kirichenko, F. O Smirnov, L. M Chumak. V. V Borisov determines the structure of abbreviations and their relationship with creative units, L. A. Shelyakhovskaya and L. I Sapogova explore the basic principles of their modeling.

The topicality of the article is due to the widespread use of abbreviations in the Internet space and their general use. Internet communication requires a comprehensive scientific studying, it is insufficiently covered in the linguistic literature and covers all segments of the population - from programmers to people of different professions, social groups and ages.

In the modern age of high technology, man has endless opportunities for communication. Nowadays, one of the main types of written communication can be considered the system of instant messaging, and the rapid pace of development of social networks and their widespread use have led to the spread of online communication. That is why the problem of translating English abbreviations on the Internet, social networks and mobile text messaging remains relevant today and needs further study and improvement.

The purpose of the article. The purpose of the article is to identify peculiarities of English abbreviations translation into Ukrainian.

The presentation of the main material

The difficulty of terminological units translation lies in the correct disclosure and transmission of foreign language realities by means of the Ukrainian language. In the scientific literature there are texts focused not so much on native speakers of a particular language, but on representatives of a particular professional group. To adequately translate any special text, the translator must have a full understanding of the text. Literal translation of terms, without penetrating into their essence, without understanding the phenomena, processes and mechanisms referred to in the original text, can lead to great mistakes in the translation process. Thus, the main condition for overcoming the difficulties of translating terminological units is a detailed analysis of the phenomenon described and its transfer in terms that are established in scientific terminology [3]. reduction lexical abbreviation english

A peculiarity of technical and scientific texts is the use of abbreviations of a terminological nature. According to L. P Bilozerska, in some types of scientific and technical texts abbreviated lexical units sometimes account for 50 percent of all words and 15 percent of vocabulary [4, p. 39]. The difficulty of understanding and translating abbreviated units in specialized texts of a particular field is illustrated, for example, by the fact that A. A Kretschman: «Only half of all abbreviations and acronyms used by doctors of one specialty are correctly understood by specialists in other fields of medicine» [7, p. 285]. Adequate translation of terminological abbreviations requires special knowledge and attention. Using only specialized dictionaries of terms can not fully meet the growing needs of professionals in various fields.

A large number of abbreviated units set an important task for the translator - to translate the abbreviation as adequately and clearly as possible, using all necessary methods and techniques. The abbreviation, as noted by K. Yu. Kravets, should not be a mystery or a riddle that distorts the perception of the text and creates «information noise» [6, p. 63]. Abbreviations in translation should only be an encrypted language code that saves and optimizes language efforts.

Since English abbreviations can be attributed to the class of specific foreign names and words with unclear associative meaning, the process of their translation can be considered as a process of semantic adaptation. According to O. V. Syromolot, semantic adaptation is «the process of adapting a foreign lexical element to the phonetic, grammatical, lexical-semantic and stylistic systems of the recipient language» [9, p. 298].

To translate English abbreviations, you need to know the basic ways to transfer abbreviations into Ukrainian. Considering the process of translating abbreviations and acronyms, researchers first of all note that not only the translation, but also the decryption of the abbreviation in the original language always set significant difficulties for the reader or listener. This can be explained by the fact that there are many abbreviations that are not recorded in dictionaries, which are rarely used or are author's. When translating text with abbreviations and acronyms, you should first refer to the dictionary. Each large dictionary has applications that form specific dictionaries, such as a dictionary of proper names, a dictionary of names and surnames and a dictionary of abbreviations and acronyms [3, p. 28].

As for the translation of abbreviations and acronyms, according to researchers, such a translation is in a conditional sense. K. Yu. Kravets explains this conditionality as follows: «... the translation of abbreviations is conditional, because, as a rule, they do not have their own meaning, and are a reduced reflection of the value of the original unit - a ratio that must be preserved during translation» [6, p. 63]. A. V. Fedorinov agrees with this opinion, arguing that «abbreviations should be subject to the rules of vocabulary translation, which are based on the semantic correspondence between the relative units of this pair of languages; proximity to terms, i.e the lack of connotations, further highlights the need to transfer the semantic side of abbreviations» [6, p. 62].

In any language of the world, the system of abbreviations is an integral part of its overall lexical and semantic system. That is why the systems of abbreviations in all languages are different.

The frequency of use of specific groups of abbreviations varies considerably, in particular in English e.g. (Exempli gratia), while in the Ukrainian language it is better to use in similar cases «for example». That is why you should not try to transfer foreign abbreviations during the translation in each case as well.

Difficulties for the translator may arise when a large number of abbreviations used in the English technical literature are homonymous, i.e have different meanings with the same graphic form. Therefore, in such cases, it is sometimes difficult to determine the value of the reduction only by its form. For example, the abbreviation «a (.)» has about three dozen terms, of which, in particular, L. P. Bilozer- ska gives the following: absolute - абсолютний, atomic weight - атомна маса, acceleration - прискорення, area - площа, accommodation - пристосування, розміщення, aircraft - літальний апарат, administration - адміністрація, ampere - ампер, angstrom - ангстрем, anode - анод, atom - атом, automobile - автомобіль, amplitude - амплітуда тощо [4, p. 57].

Sometimes an adequate translation is easy to choose depending on the context, but in addition to these meanings from different areas, abbreviations can have several meanings in one specific area. For example, the abbreviation CAT has several possible meanings on computer topics, such as: computer- aided testing (автоматизоване тестування), computer-aided tomography (комп 'ютерна томографія), computer-assisted training (автоматизоване навчання) і computeraided translation (автоматизований переклад). Therefore, we can conclude that the context does not always unambiguously indicate the correct version of the translation.

The term «decoding» is usually understood as the process of establishing a derived word or correlate (unabridged form).

However, the meaning of the abbreviation does not always coincide with the meaning of the original word. Therefore, «decoding» means not only the establishment of the correlate, but also the definition of the meaning of this abbreviation in a particular text.

Decoding of little-known abbreviations, as noted by V. A. Nikishina, is a painstaking process. Additional literature and sometimes specialist advice may be needed to decode. Having found the decoding and translation of the abbreviation in the dictionary or personally decoding it, the translator can use this lexical formation in the text of the translation [8, p. 51].

The following methods are used to decode abbreviations:

- context analysis;

- use of dictionaries of abbreviations;

- analysis of the structure of reductions;

- use of analogies.

Therefore, the process of translating absent abbreviations in dictionaries and reference books is carried out in two stages:

1) decoding the abbreviation, i.e identifying the original English form or correlate;

2) transmission of the correlate by means ofthe Ukrainian language, i.e the search for the appropriate Ukrainian form, which most accurately conveys the meaning of the identified concept.

There are many ways to translate abbreviations, but most translators focus on the most common options.

V. I. Karaban identifies the following ways of translating abbreviations:

1) transfer of a foreign abbreviation to the corresponding abbreviation of another language or creation of a new abbreviation in another language;

2) translation of a foreign abbreviation into the appropriate full form in another language;

3) transcoding (transliteration and transcription);

4) descriptive translation;

5) borrowing a foreign word (preserving the Latin spelling) [5, p. 71].

When translating scientific and technical texts, the transmission of foreign abbreviations with equivalent abbreviations of another language is most often used, especially for the transmission of abbreviations that define various physical quantities, units of measurement, etc .: m (meter) -м (метр).

At the same time, it is possible to transfer a foreign abbreviation to the existing equivalent reduction of the Ukrainian language, as well as the formation of a new Ukrainian abbreviation. The last method is to translate the correlation of the foreign abbreviation and created on the basis of translation in accordance with the laws of the Ukrainian abbreviation of the new abbreviation in the Ukrainian language. In this way, a reduction ЦРУ - CIA ((Central Security Agency) - центральне розвідувальне управління) was formed.

If there is no corresponding abbreviation in the language of translation, then the translation with the corresponding full form of the word is used. For an adequate translation, it is also necessary to determine the full form of the abbreviation in the original language (according to the dictionary or the text of the original). If the abbreviation is used repeatedly in the original text, then the translator may enter the corresponding abbreviation in parentheses in the translated text after submitting the full form of the abbreviation and then use the corresponding abbreviation in the Ukrainian text in the translated text: CRS (Center for Resources Studies) - Центр вивчення ресурсів (Канада), Br Std (British Standard) - Британський стандарт.

The full form of the abbreviation is usually translated as accurately as possible by calquing, so that from the corresponding translated full form it is possible to form an equivalent abbreviation: WMO (World Meteorological Organization) - Світова метеорологічна організація (ВМО).

But sometimes it is necessary to deviate from the literal translation in order to take into account the norms of the language of translation and more fully convey the meaning of the abbreviation: WCIP (World Climate Impact Studies Program) - Всесвітня програма дослідження впливу клімату на діяльність людини.

Descriptive translation helps to convey multicomponent terminological phrases, for example: VR - virtual reality (світ, штучно створений за допомогою комп 'ютерної техніки); AAR - Automati Alternative Routing (маршрутизація з автоматичним обходом несправних вузлів) та ін.

It is worth noting that many abbreviations in the Ukrainian language were borrowed from English. So far, there is no consensus on how to borrow such abbreviations: transliteration or in the original spelling (Latin alphabet). As an example, we can choose a computer term Unicode (universal code - універсальне кодування) it is used as Юнікод, Уні- код, а також Unicode.

An example of direct borrowing of abbreviations in their original Latin script is the Ukrainian localization of the Microsoft Windows operating system, where the product brand (Eng. XP) is conveyed into Ukrainian as ХР.

Conclusions

Interest in studying the phenomenon of abbreviations and acronyms in English has grown markedly. The choice of one or another method of translation depends on various factors. This is the nature of the translated text, and the audience of the consumer of products, and features of the psychology of the translator, his commitment to a particular literary tradition. It all depends on each case. The goals, objectives and conditions of interlingual professional communication play an important role in translation.

To choose the method of translation, it is necessary to take into account such factors as ease of pronunciation and spelling in Ukrainian, the tradition of translating this acronym in other languages (if, for example, it has universal spelling in all European languages), etc. Each approach has certain advantages and disadvantages, so you should choose the appropriate method in each case. Of course, the goals, objectives and conditions of interlingual professional communication, the nature of the text to be translated, as well as the audience of the consumer of the product play an important role in translation.

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