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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.
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
Structural difference leads to
Stylistic difference results in stylistic overtone of the words:
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.
160 K o e s s l e r M. et D e r o c q u i g n y J. Les faux-amis ou les pièges du vocabulaire anglais. - 5 ed. - Paris, 1961.
161 N e w m a r k P. A Textbook... – P.283.
162 А н г л о - р у с с к и й и р у с с к о – а н г л и й с к и й с л о в а р ь «л о ж н ы х д р у з е й п е р е в о д ч и к а» / Сост. В. Акуленко, С. Комиссарчик, Р. Погорелова и др. – М., 1969.
163 C a m b r i d g e I n t e r n a t i o n a l D i c t i o n a r y o f E n g l i s h . – Cambridge University Press, 1995.
164 К о м и с с а р о в В. Н., К о р а л о в а А. Л. Практикум по переводу с английского языка на русский. – М.: Высшая школа, 1990. – С.84-87.
165 Б у д а г о в Р. А. Как мы говорим и пишем. – М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1988. – С. 46-54.
Content
Introduction………………………………………………
Chapter 1 “False friends” as one of the main problems of the translation
theory
Chapter 2 The translation of “false friends”
2.1 The causes of the “false friends” formation………………………………….18
2.2 Examples of the “false friends” translation ...….……………………………20
Conclusion……………………………………………………
List of the used literature……………………………………………………
Introduction
Since the ancient times the people use the translations from one language
into the other one.
But nobody can tell exactly when the first translation was made. It
is known only that this event took place when people having different
mother tongues began to communicate with the help of the intermediary
– the translator.
Thank to the translation the people could communicate in the multinational
states, the translation helped the interlingual and intercultural communication.
The translation favoured the spreading of religion.
Linguists emphasize the role that the translation plays in the development of
science, culture, economy, literature and language itself.
Sometimes, the translators (or simply people who learn the foreign language)
during their professional activity can be entrapped by the words which
have similar form, but different meaning. These words are known as “false
friends of translator”. Our work is devoted to this aspect of the
theory of translation.
The aim of our work is to reveal the main features of the “false friends
of translator”.
The aim of our work has defined next tasks:
The work consists of introduction, two chapters and conclusion.
In the first chapter we give the information about the translation in
general and about the “false friends of translator” particularly.
The second chapter represents the immediate studying of “false friends
of translator”. We consider thoroughly the example of translations
of “false friends of translator” from Russian into English and vice-versa.
The practical value of this work is that it can be useful for students
of philological faculty and anybody who learn foreign language.
While making our research we used the works on the translation theory
of Alimov V.V., Dmitrieva L.F., Budagov R.A. and others.
At the analysis of a practical material the English-Russian dictionary
of Мuller and explanatory dictionaries of publishing house of the Oxford
University were used.
Chapter 1 “False friends” as one of the main problems of the translation
theory
There are many definitions of the translations which are based on the
A.V.Fyodorov’s proposition that the “translation is the transmission
of the text of oral and written speech by the means of the other language”.
The Russian and foreign linguists give their own definitions of the
translation in their works. Every researcher, aspiring to develop his
own theory, gives his own definition of the research’s object. Let’s
give some of them.
^ V.S. Vinogradov:
«We have to agree with the fact that the translation is the particular,
original and independent kind of the verbal art. This art is “secondary”,
it is the art of “expression” of the original in the material of
the other language. The art of the translation is like the art of the
musician, actor by that he reproduces the existing art work, but does
not create something absolutely original. The creative liberty of the
translator is limited by the original text. The resemblance is finished
by these facts. But in others aspects the translation is distinguished
sharply from any kind of the performance. It is the distinctive kind
of the creative activity, the original form of the “secondary” art
creative work.1
R.K.Mignar-Beloruchev:
«The object of the science of the translation is not only the communication
with using of two languages, but the communication with using two languages
which includes the activity of the original, translator and the recipient.
The main link of this communication is the activity of the translator
or the translation, which represents one of the complex kind of the
verbal activity.2 «The translation doubles the components of the communication. Two
sources appear, each of them with its own motives and aims if the statement.
Two situations (negative and positive), two verbal productions and two
recipients appear too. The doubling of the components of the communication
is the distinctive feature of the translation as a kind of the verbal
activity. The doubling of the components makes its own problems. The
problem of the possibility of the translation and the problem of the
invariant in the translation are the most important problems.3
Lederer M.
“While translating it is not sufficient to understand yourself, it
is needed that the others will understand. The operation of the translation
disintegrates for two parts: the perception of the meaning and its expression.”4
Mounin G.
“The translation is the contact of the languages, the phenomenon of
the bilinguisme. But this very specific case of the bilinguism can be
rejected as an uninteresting one because it departures from the norm.
This is the case when the translator struggles against any departure
from the norm, against any interference”.5
L.S.Barkhudarov:
«The translation can be considered as a definite kind of the transformation,
namely the interlingual transformation». In the common meaning the
transformation is understood as some change, modification of the thing.
The Latin word transformatio means transfiguration and the latin verb transformare – to turn, to change. This
verb means also to translate.
The last meaning of the latin word is very important for us because
it allows to consider the process of the translation as the actions
of something's changing.
The positive connotation is clearly shown in these Latin words.
Both transformatio and transfo
Can we use such words as the improvement and the renovation saying
about the translation? Yes, we can, because the original text after
being translated, has new linguistic “clothes” and it became accessible
for many other cultures.
The original as the object of the national culture became the property
of the worldwide culture. From this point of view we can be examined
as the improvement of the original.
But if we appeal to such situations when the text suppose the obligatory
translation (for example, during the negotiations) the translated text
is better than the original.
Moreover, the new text appears, it conforms to the original indirectly.
This fact allows us to consider the transformation as the renovation.
So, the common meaning of the word “transformation” is “the processes
of transfiguration, the original form and appearance changing. The transformations
are the positive changes which reform the object's state.
The result of the translation is the text of the original, transmitted
by the means of the other language. From some definitions of the translations
given in the dictionary of the linguistic terms of O.S.Akhmanova we
would like to cite the two ones: 1. “The translation is the transmission
of the information of the given verbal work by the means of the other
languages”; 2. “The translation is the finding out in the other
language of the means of expression which could provide not only the
different information, but the full correspondence of new text by the
form that is needed in the case of the translation of fiction.6.
The translation is distinguished from the summary by the fact that it
is the process of the creation of the unity of content and form of the
original. While translating from one language into the other the translator
has to take account the same logical and semantic facts to transmit
the content of the text, keeping its stylistic, expressive and other
features.7
It is needed to distinguish the educational and professional translation.
The educational translation is connected with the decoding of the foreign
text aiming to understand it. This translation gives the possibility
to perceive the bases of the foreign language, the methods and technics
of the translation, to improve the knowledges in the languages corresponding
the chosen profession. The professional translation is the special activity
which creates the original in the other language. this activity demands
the special training and knowledges. The quality of the translation
is defined by the adequate translation and the level of the translator’s
training.
1.2 “False friends of translator” and their kinds
False friends of translator (or faux amis in French) are pairs of words in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look and/or
sound similar, but differ in meaning.
False cognates, by contrast, are similar words in different languages
that appear to have a common historical linguistic origin (regardless
of meaning) but actually do not.
Both false friends of translator and false cognates can cause difficulty
for students learning a foreign language, particularly one that is related
to their native language, because students are likely to misidentify the words due to linguistic interference. Because false friends
of translator are a common problem for language learners, teachers sometimes
compile lists of false friends of translator as an aid for their students.
One kind of false friends of translator can occur when two speakers
each speak different varieties of the same language. Speakers of British English and American English sometimes have this
problem, which was alluded to in George Bernard Shaw's statement "England and America are two countries divided by a
common language." For example, in the UK,
to "table" a motion means to place it on the agenda, while
in the U.S. it means exactly the opposite—to remove it from consideration. Let’s
see the list
of British and American words.
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Comedy sometimes includes puns on false friends of translator, which are considered particularly
amusing if one of the two words is obscene; when an obscene meaning is produced in these circumstances, it is
called cacemphaton (κακεμφάτον), Greek for "ill-sounding".
The problem of “false friends of translator” is widely considered
in the theory of translation. R.A.Budagov in his work “False friends
of the translator” has defined eight main types of the “false friends
of translator”. They are formulated by next way:
1) in one language the word has more general (less special) meaning
than in other language;
2) in one language the word has the generic meaning and the specific
meaning in other language;
3) in one language the word has one meaning and many meanings in other
language;
4) the words and word combinations have different stylistic meanings
in two languages;
5) in one language the word has the non-archaic meaning and the archaic
meaning in other language;
6) in one language the word has the free lexical meaning and the non-free
lexical meaning in other language;
7) in one language the word is the term and it is not the term in other
language;
8) in one language the word is translated by the word combination into
the other language.8
And now let’s consider the “false friends of translator” in different
languages.
The Parker Pen Company may have experienced a case of such confusion when they were trying
to translate their slogan "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass
you" for the Latino market. As they mistakenly thought embarazar meant to embarrass, the Spanish slogan was proudly displayed across
Latin communities as: "It won't leak in your pocket and impregnate you" (to embarrass in Spanish is "avergonzar").
Words like hot dog can become lost in translation, and especially since words carry different
connotations in different areas; Richard Lederer, an author and professor of English, reports going to Germany and asking a vendor
for a heißen Hund (a literal translation of "hot dog").
The vendor broke out laughing, for in German, heißer Hund suggests a dog in heat (Germans
use the English term hot dog as a loan phrase).
Also, since English and German have the same etymological origins, there
actually are a great number of words in both languages that are very
similar and do have the same meaning (word/Wort, book/Buch, house/Haus,
water/Wasser). However, similar words with a different meaning are also
quite common (bekommen means to get, that is, to come by, not to become, and is thus a false friend,
which could lead a German English learner to utter an embarrassing sentence
like: "I want to become a beefsteak.").
This often causes some confusion for native speakers of one language
learning the other language, and equally confusing (and sometimes amusing)
for the listener who speaks the learnt language.
Another example is the word gift, which in English means "present"
but in German and the Scandinavian languages means "poison".
An example in Spanish/English is red, with different pronunciation in both
languages. This refers to the colour in English but means 'network'
in Spanish, and therefore gives rise to such phrases as red inalámbrica (wireless network).
The Latin root of concur has several meanings; to meet (in battle) and to meet (in agreement).
In many European languages, words derived from this root take after
the first meaning - English being a notable exception (French concurrent is a competitor in English).
Some of words will be “false friends of translator”, such as French
“éventuellement” (meaning “maybe”) and English “eventually”
who look very similar but have different meanings.
But most cognates - words that look similar in two different languages
- are real friends. That means that to remember them all you need is
see the similarity with the other word you already know. You will do
this without having to think for most words (French “le restaurant”
is English “the restaurant”).
Other similarities will come to some people earlier than others (cat/chat,
to flirt/compter fleurette, etc...).
With some basic etymological knowledge, but you can also investigate
a little closer words that at first do not seem to be similar in any
way, but are. For instance, French and English have many shared words
who only differ by one letter. Where French uses 'G', English puts a
'W'. To learn that French for 'warren' is 'garenne', all you need is
replace the 'g' by a 'w'. The same goes for William/Guillaume, war/guerre,
warranty/guarantie, ward/guarde, wasp/guêpe, wage/gage, etc