- •Introduction
- •Lecture 1. What a translator is and what a translator does
- •1.1. Notes on the Profession
- •1.2. Translator and Interpreter
- •1.3. Bilingualism
- •1.4. The Education of a Translator
- •1.5. Process and Result of Translation
- •1.6. Materials for Translation
- •Lecture 2. The role of the translator
- •2.1. The Qualities Each Translator/Interpreter Possesses
- •2.2. Don’ts of a Translator/Interpreter
- •2.3. What an English-speaking Client Expects of His Interpreter
- •2.4. Another Glimpse into the Future
- •2.5. Comparison with other Professions
- •2.6. The Five Year Itch
- •2.7. Industry Trends
- •2.8. The Last Word about the Profession
- •Lecture 3. The basic principles of the translation theory
- •3.1. Translation Theory as a Theory of Transformations
- •3.2. Problem of Non-translation
- •3.3. Extralinguistic Factor
- •3.4. The Subject Matter
- •3.5. Machine Translation
- •Lecture 4. Units of translation
- •4.1. Classification of Translation Units
- •4.2. Level of Intonation
- •4.3. Translation on the Level of Phonemes (Graphemes)
- •Lecture 5. Translation on the level of morphemes
- •5.1. Morpheme as a Unit of Translation
- •5.2. Some Insights into How to Become Word-conscious
- •5.3. Latin and Greek Prefixes
- •5.4. Latin Roots
- •5.5. Latin and Greek Borrowings in English
- •5.6. Dictionary of Greek and Latin Roots
- •5.7. Latin Roots in English
- •Lecture 6. Translation on the level of words
- •6.1. Examples of Translating on the Level of Words
- •6.2. Category of Gender in English and Ukrainian
- •Sonnet 66
- •Sonnet 40
- •Sonnet 58
- •Сонет 40
- •Сонет 58
- •Lecture 7. Singular and plural of nouns as a translation problem
- •7.1. Peculiarities of Singular and Plural in English and Ukrainian
- •7.2. Plural of Compound Nouns
- •7.3. Nouns Used Only in Singular
- •7.4. Nouns Used Only in Plural
- •7.5. Grammatical Disagreement of Singular and Plural of Nouns in English and Ukrainian
- •Lecture 8. The problem of translating articles and pronouns
- •8.1. Translation of Indefinite Articles
- •8.2. The Problem of Translating Pronouns
- •Lecture 9. “false friends of the interpreter”
- •9.1. Interpenetration of Words in Different Languages
- •9.2. Mistakes in Translation Related to Differences in Realia
- •9.3. Interlingual Homonymy and Paronymy
- •9.4. Examples of Translating Newspaper Clichés
- •9.5. Semantic Peculiarities of Medical Terms
- •Lecture 10. Translation on the level of word combinations
- •10.1. Problems of Translating Idioms
- •10.2. Etymology of Idioms: Weird History
- •Lecture 11. Translation on the level of sentence and text
- •11.1. Translation of Clichés and Formulas
- •11.2. Types of Proverbs and Their Translation
- •11.3. Translation on the Level of Text
- •Список літератури
Lecture 9. “false friends of the interpreter”
9.1. Interpenetration of Words in Different Languages
In the Ukrainian and English languages there is a group of words close in sounding and writing, but different in their meanings and use.
None of specialists is indifferent to the problem of “false friends of the interpreter”. One of the scholars, who was engaged in this problem in detail, was and remains Akulenko V.V. (В.В. Акуленко. «Англо-русский и русско-английский словарь „ложных друзей переводчика“», М. 1969 г., 384 с.).
Words which are associated and identified in two languages do not fully comply with each other or are even entirely different.
For this reason words of this type have been called in French linguistics “faux amis du traducteur” — “false friends of the interpreter” (misleading words of foreign origin).
Historically the “false friends of the interpreter” are the result of interplay or interference of languages. They can appear as a result of casual coincidences, and in close languages, especially in relative languages they are based on congeneric or related words which have a general prototype in basis language.
It seems at first sight, that the “false friends of the interpreter” can mislead only people who begin to study language and do not know it very well. In reality everything looks vice versa: the bulk of “false friends” appears dangerous especially for those persons who are confident in their knowledge and speak languages pretty well. Similarity and near-identity of words in sounding and function in both languages is the main source of such mistakes. There are a few examples of incorrect translation from English, which penetrate into fiction, scientific literature and press:
ammunition „заряди, боєприпаси“ are often translated as „амуніція“, which in Ukrainian means „устаткування військовослужбовця (окрім зброї та одягу)“, in spite of complete irrelevance of this Ukrainian word in context.
Expert „спеціаліст“ is quite often translated as „експерт“ in the contexts, which just say about an engineer or doctor, who have nothing in common with expertise. A reader is surprised to learn about extreme poverty in the family of the English rector, without suspecting, that original goes not about the leader of university, but about a priest. Кінний диліжанс (Engl. waggon), they translate as „вагон“, асистент професора — from English “assistant professor”, that is „доцент“.
Repetition — повторення — Ukr. репетиція — rehearsal.
Instrument — засіб, знаряддя, (in Law — „документ, вексель“) in translation from English is rendered as „інструмент“:
„Хоч англійська мова не є національною мовою Індії, але вона стала інструментом спілкування великої маси людей“.
Gross misunderstanding is caused by rendering in English the word “mayor” — „мер“ as „майор“:
„До президента Рузвельта приєднались майже всі ліберальні члени Конгресу.., а також губернатори Флойд Олсен та Олін Джонсон і майор (мер Нью-Йорку) Ла-Гардіа“.
A journalist vainly promoted in the rank the police officers, saying:
„У дні чемпіонату в аеровокзалах і портах будуть розставлені поліцейські офіцери в цивільному“.
“False friends of the interpreter” in Ukrainian and English are met within four parts of speech: nouns, adverbs, adjectives and verbs.