3. Translation of Internationalisms (Borrowings) and the Problem of False Friends

Internationalisms (Borrowings)

Borrowing is a word or phrase which has been taken from one language and used in another language.

Borrowed terms often pass into general usage, for example in the fields of technology ("software") and culture ("punk"). It can be pure (without any change, when speakers pronounce them as they are pronounced in the original language), e.g., lobby (English) and лобби (Russian), or it can be naturalized (when speakers pronounce it according to the sound system of their own language), e.g., globalization – глобализация (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics, p. 57).

False Friends

False friend is a word or expression in one language that, because it resembles one in another language, is often wrongly taken to have the same meaning

Classification of False Friends

№	Type of false friend	English	Russian
1	The Russian word coincides with the English word only in one or two meanings.	Import - 1) импорт; импортирование (ввоз в страну товаров из-за границы); 2) значение, смысл, суть, сущность	Import - импорт (Syn: ввоз)
2	The meanings of the word in Russian and English don’t coincide at all. It is typical of the situation when the word is borrowed into Russian and English from the third language.	Academia - 1) научное сообщество, мир университетской науки; 2) традиционность; академизм, академичность; педантизм (следование строгим классическим образцам, установившимся традициям и правилам); 3) академизм, академичность; схоластика (сугубо теоретическая направленность занятий, их оторванность от практики и жизни)	Академия - academy
3	The word has both coinciding and different meanings in Russian and English.	Qualified - 1) квалифицированный; компетентный; 2) годный, подходящий; 3) ограниченный; частичный, неполный	Квалифицированный – 1) (подготовленный) skilled, trained, qualified; (опытный, знающий) expert, competent; 2) (с отягчающими обстоятельствами) aggravated
4	The word has the same or very similar form in two languages, but it has a different meaning in each.	Pathetic - 1) жалостный; трогательный, умилительный; 2) душераздирающий; 3) грустный, задумчивый, печальный; 4) жалкий, вызывающий презрение	Патетический - высокий, возвышенный, приподнятый, торжественный, патетичный

Lecture 4

The Translation of Word Combinations

1. The Translation of Free Word Combination

The Translation of Attribute Groups

The attribute group consists of two words.

In these word-combinations the right noun is a prop word (опорное слово) and the left noun is a determiner (определяющее).

The prop word is considered the first member, and the determiner is the second member.

From the structurally-semantic point of view attribute word-combinations are divided into two groups:

Type of the word-combination	English example	Russian translation
Adjective / participle + noun (A/P + N)	Operating budget	Операционный [оперативный, текущий] бюджет
Noun + noun (N + N)	Labour victory	Победа лейбористов (но не Лейбористская победа)

The attribute group (or the nomial word-combination) can be introduced by articles, possessive pronouns (this, that), indefinite pronouns (some, any), negative pronouns and nouns in the possessive case. They serve as syntactic words but not as members of word-combinations. As a rule they refer to the prop word.

One should bear in mind that these syntactic words are the markers of the left border of the word-combination, and the marker of the right border cannot be anything but a noun.

some rebranding tips – some tips on rebranding

Ex: Helpfully, she later shared some rebranding tips with the Financial Times.

Позже она любезно согласилась поделиться некоторыми советами по возрождению бренда с журналистами газеты Financial Times.

In order to understand the two-member word-combination correctly it’s necessary to establish a sense connection between its members. To achieve this aim we will have to transform this word-combination into a noun word-combination with a noun in the function of the right attribute and find a suitable preposition which will connect both nouns into a logical word-combination.

Ex: property administration = administration of property (управление недвижимостью)

The Translation of Three-Member Word-Combinations

This kind of word-combinations differs from the two-member one by the fact that there is one more third element, which is the extreme (крайний) left member.

Word-combination	Translation	Explanation
Family size norm	Норма размера семьи (средний размер семьи)	1) the norm of size - норма размера; 2) the size of a family - размер семьи
Minimum wage legislation	Законодательство о минимальной заработной плате	1) wage - заработная плата; 2) minimum wage - минимальная заработная плата; 3) wage legislation - законодательство о заработной плате

The correct translation depends upon the context. But more often the third member is closely connected with the first (though it is not a rule because as it was mentioned above, our translation should be based on the context).

NB! The ability to define the current structural type is very important for the correct understanding:

Ex: the forward car wheels = 1) передние колеса а/м;

2) колеса передней а/м

The Translation of Multinuclear Nomial Combinations

The multinuclear nomial combination consists of four and more members.

The first and the second members are always nouns.

The rest can belong to different parts of speech.

Word-combination	Translation	Explanation
Customer relationship management system	Система управления взаимоотношениями с клиентами	1) the system of management; 2) management of relationship; 3) the relationship with customers 4) the system of customer relationship management
Long-Term-Disability workers compensation medical benefits	Медицинские выплаты в качестве компенсации для работников с долговременной нетрудоспособностью	1) benefits - выплаты; 2) medical benefits - медицинские выплаты; 3) workers compensation benefit - пособие по нетрудоспособности; 4) disability benefit - пособие по нетрудоспособности; 5) long-term disability -долговременная нетрудоспособность