Translating by Means of Semantic Analogies

Despite the differences in economic, social, political, cultural and in many cases also geographical/environmental conditions, un­der which the nation of the source language and that of the target language develop, some peculiar notions in both the languages may be identical or similar/analogous in their meaning and functioning. It happens due to the existence of common routine or habitual actions, common occupations, social services, food, etc., in these two lan­guage communities.

The appearance of analogous units in the national layer of lexicon of different languages may also be the result of bilateral or multilateral contacts and influences to which the nations may have been exposed for centuries. Consequently, similar/analogous national notions in different languages may appear as a result of direct or indirect (through an intermediary language) borrowings. No wonder that analogous units of national lexicon directly correlate in the source language and in the target language in their denotative meaning and mostly in the common sphere of their functioning - social, cultural, political, etc. Though far from all the analogies ever possess the absolute complexity of meanings inherent in the source language units. The connotative divergences and sometimes the spheres of use may not always fully coincide in the target language as can be seen from the following few examples. English: the City/Town Board of Education міський відділ освіти; pop com кукурудзяні баранці; gingerbread імбірний пряник, коврижка; shop-steward цеховий староста (голова профкому); stewed fruit узвар/компот; Well done! Well done! (sports) Мо-лод-ці! Мо-лод-ці!; come! come! Вгамуйся, заспокойся/ цить, цить, не плач. Ukrainian: залік preliminary/quali­fying test/examination; дипломна робота graduation essay/project; курсова робота yearly essay/project; доцент principal lecturer/ reader, associate professor; курси вдосконалення refresher course; підвищення кваліфікації in-service training course; кватирка hinged window pane/pilot window; консультація tutorial.

No doubt some of the English /Ukrainian units in the list above are only functionally approximate analogies (cf. доцент principal reader/lecturer reader, associate professor, кватирка hinged win­dow pane). Their complete denotative meaning can naturally be un­derstood only from a larger context. Functionally analogous are also some nouns in the forms of address in both the languages as shown below:

Sir, she, being his wife will not, Пане, їй, як дружині, згідно according to custom, mention звичаю не можна називати ім'я his name. (M.R.Anand) свого чоловіка.

Грай, кобзарю] Лий, шинкарю] (Т. Шевченко) «То, прошу панів, наше пасовисько...» (І. Франко) «Oh, I beg your pardon. I'm terribly sorry, gentlemen» (Ibid.)

Innkeeper, pour! Play, minstrel, play!

Please, sirs, that's our pasture.

«Ax, перепрошую вас, дуже перепрошую, панове...»

As can be seen, the choice of an appropriate analogy in the target language is greatly influenced by the national/cultural tradi­tions (cf. пани sirs/gentlemen; кобзар minstrel). The use of various analogiesin the target language is largely because of the existence of many translations and often repeated usage of them. Especially strong is the influence of translation of belles-lettres works and films, let alone the large scale Study of the source language at our schools as a foreign language. Under the influence of these and other fac­tors the co-occurrence of some units of particular national lexicon in the target language may increase considerably. These units may soon become well-known to the majority of the target language speakers. It is in this way that many English and American culturally biased notions have become familiar in this country and some our culturally biased words (notions) have penetrated into the English and other languages. Many of these units of the specifically national lexicon have become regular internationalisms (cf. hryvnia, kozak, Kyiv chicken, borshch, etc.). Similarly the notions like долар, шилінґ, Торі, бренді, фунт, etc, and now also бартер, ваучер, дискета, транш, дефолт, аудит, саміт, комп'ютер, менеджмент, рокенрол, поп-музика and many others from the English/American culturally bi­ased lexicon belong not only to our active vocabulary. They have penetrated into other languages as well despite the fact that they are still clearly recognized by the target language speakers as foreign borrowigns.

Sometimes a faithful translation of analogous units of the pe­culiar national lexicon can be achieved only with the help of an addi­tional explications as in the examples like special school спеціальна школа (початкова або середня школа для дітей із психічними/ фізичними вадами); summer school літня школа (курс лекцій, семінарів, практичних занять для підвищення кваліфікації іноземних вчителів та студентів); caravanning проводити літній час/відпустку, подорожуючи в будиночку-причепі на колесах. - •

It is easy to notice that the denotative meaning of the first two of the above-given culturally biased units of national lexicon are prac­tically identical in English and Ukrainian. The difference is in a few extralingual details only. Thus, «summer school» in Gr. Britain is not free of charge. Besides, it functions during the summer holidays when the rooms in schools and universities are not occupied by the stu­dents. One can assume, therefore, that the notions like these are only conventionally different. They are closer to regular semantic equivalents, though not devoid of some extralingual details in the source language. Our students must be aware of such differences when dealing with the kind of units of the specifically national lexicon of the source language. This can not be said, naturally, about caravanning, which is a purely American phenomenon as yet.