The term false friends of a translator was first introduced. Meet the translator's false friends

In modern linguistics, the synchronous-comparative method is becoming increasingly widespread. Originating in the 19th century, it has become increasingly popular, primarily among linguists of the Geneva and Prague schools, in Soviet linguistics, in France, the USA and other countries since the 30s of the 20th century. and mainly in recent decades. The role of comparative study contrastive study or comparative descriptive study, etc.) languages ​​is especially increasing, in particular due to the wide possibilities for applying its findings in such areas as general and machine translation, teaching foreign languages, etc. This area of ​​linguistic research is also stimulated by its connections with other important theoretical problems linguistics, including issues of bilingualism and multilingualism and language contacts.

The synchronic-comparative method is aimed at establishing similarities and differences in language structures, considered not from the perspective of development, but of functioning, that is, in terms of synchrony, and languages ​​belonging to any language families and any historical periods can be compared. In fact, the attention of researchers is almost exclusively attracted to new languages ​​in connection with applied problems. The comparison, carried out separately for each level of linguistic structure, can be based on a descriptive or structural methodology. But in any case, its ultimate goal is usually to establish the possibilities of transforming language systems in the process of translation or to establish the degree of similarity of individual elements and entire systems in the second and native languages ​​being studied as a basis for preparing educational materials for teaching a foreign language.

In particular, the words of any two synchronically compared languages, from the point of view of their subject-logical relevance, can be in a relationship of either equivalence (more often - relative, within special areas of vocabulary - also absolute) or non-equivalence. Taking into account, in addition, the relationship between the sound (or graphic) side of equivalent words and the relationship between their syntagmatic and speech characteristics, one can further distinguish between the synchronic interlingual categories of absolute and relative synonymy, homonymy and paronymy. The role of interlingual synonyms is played by words of both languages ​​that fully or partially coincide in meaning and use (and, accordingly, are equivalent in translation). Interlingual homonyms are words of both languages ​​that are similar to the extent of identification in sound (or graphic) form, but have different meanings. Finally, interlingual paronyms include words of comparable languages ​​that are not quite similar in form, but can cause false associations in more or less people and be identified with each other, despite the actual divergence of their meanings. In turn, interlingual synonyms can be divided into outwardly similar (to the extent of identification in the processes of contact and comparison of languages) and outwardly different. Non-equivalent vocabulary, as a rule, has a specific external form, although cases of interlingual homonymy and paronymy are also possible here.

Pseudo-international words - Lexical units in different languages ​​are similar in form, but different in meaning. They are also called " false friends of the translator". At the end of the 60s, even a special dictionary of such “false friends” was published. Pseudo-international words also arose as a result of borrowing, but either the word was not borrowed in all meanings, but only in one, or two languages ​​were borrowed from which The third is the same word, but with different meanings, or, finally, in the process of borrowing, the word undergoes a radical rethinking.

In the practice of translation and lexicographic work, as well as teaching foreign languages, interlingual relative synonyms of a similar type present particular difficulties, and also interlingual homonyms and paronyms. All these semantically somewhat heterogeneous cases are united by the practical circumstance that words associated and identified (due to similarity in terms of expression) in two languages, in terms of content or use, do not completely correspond or even completely do not correspond to each other. That is why words of this type received the name faux amis du traducteur --“false friends of the translator.” This term, fixed in French, and hence in Russian linguistic terminology, has an advantage over the parallel used German and English descriptive phrases (irrefuhrende Fremdworter, misleading words of foreign origin), that it can be attributed to any words of the corresponding type, without reducing them to a more special case - foreign words playing this role. It seems completely inaccurate to call this category of words only “interlingual homonyms,” which is rarely found in the literature. Finally, the name proposed by linguists of the Michigan School is less successful ( deceptive cognates) - (deceptive cognates), since the term “cognate” is traditionally associated in linguistics with the common origin of words in related languages, while the group of words in question is defined purely synchronically, regardless of their origin.

As noted by linguist L.I. Borisov, many other names have arisen in different languages ​​to denote this category of words (for example, in Russian: false equivalents, interlingual homonyms, interlingual (interlingual) analogisms, pseudo-internationalisms, pseudo-equivalent pairs of words, etc.; in French: piiges, traquenards, йpines, trahisons, mots perfides, etc.). It is appropriate to quote the statement of P.A. Budagov, who substantiates the statement of this name in Russian: “Although the phrase “false friends of the translator” is long and too open to become a term, it has nevertheless been termed in recent years.” He argues his point of view by the fact that this phrase has no equal and a shorter equivalent, as well as the “openness” of the term seems attractive to him, as it reminds of possible pitfalls in translation... According to L.I. Borisova, the name “false friends of the translator” has the advantage that it accurately characterizes the translation phenomenon in which False identifications of international analogisms occur.

It is known that in the late 60s and early 70s, Soviet scientists conducted fundamental research into this category of words. In the works of V.V. Akulenko (1969, 1972), K.G.M. Gottlieb (1966, 1972), V.L. Muravyov (1969, 1974, 1985) presented the main theoretical provisions regarding false equivalents. At the same time, they compiled dictionaries and manuals of the “false friends of the translator.” They examine discrepancies between words that are similar in sound and spelling, but semantically or in usage are dissimilar in different languages.

The most complete definition of the concept “ translator's false friends" gives A.V. Fedorov: “A false equivalent is a word that completely or partially coincides (or is close to it) in sound or graphic form with a foreign word in the presence of complete etymological commonality between them, but has a different meaning (or other meanings) with a certain semantic similarity (related to one area of ​​application)".

It is important to distinguish between “false friends of the translator” in oral and written forms of speech. This requirement is mandatory in the case of comparing languages ​​with different scripts or, conversely, in the case of languages ​​with a common script, but phonemically dissimilar vocabulary. For the Russian and English languages, with their similar types of writing, which are in regular correspondence, this distinction may in fact not be made, although the degree to which the compared lexemes are identified by bilingual persons, and here it turns out to be somewhat different in each of the forms of speech, and in certain cases the identification multilingual words generally occur only in one of the forms of speech (for example, Russian. geyser and English, geyser["gi:za] "bath water heater" are similar only in spelling).

According to R.A. Budagov, “false friends of the translator” pose a great danger in written speech. He argues that in oral translation it is possible to “bypass” a difficult or not entirely clear word, but in writing this is unacceptable. Therefore, the problem of “false friends of the translator” appears as a problem, first of all, of written speech, although the interpreter must also take it into account.

The works of V.V. deserve special attention in this area. Akulenko, who gave the rationale for “this broad, semantically heterogeneous bilingual category.” The author analyzes the sources of the appearance of “false friends of the translator”. They are the result of mutual influences of languages. His works clarify the concepts of “false friends of the translator,” “internationalisms” and “pseudo-internationalisms,” which were not differentiated by many authors and were used interchangeably. The scientist characterizes “false friends of the translator” as a semantically heterogeneous category of words, including international vocabulary /interlingual relative synonyms of a similar type/, pseudo-international words /interlingual homonyms/ and interlingual paronyms. His works provide a reasoned description of all three groups of words that make up the category of “false friends of the translator.” The works of V.V. Keltuyal emphasize the position that the divergence of the semantic content of parallel international words in different languages ​​is a natural and inevitable process associated with the development of society.

Using a large amount of factual material, the author shows that each international word goes through its own path of semantic development in the corresponding language. The semantic evolution of international words occurs differently in different languages. It is determined by the specifics of the lexical-semantic system of a particular language. Some differences in the semantic structure of international words of different languages ​​are natural and logical and do not change the international character of internationalisms.

Historically, “false friends of the translator” are the result of mutual influences of languages, in a limited number of cases they can arise as a result of random coincidences, and in related, especially closely related, languages ​​they are based on related words that go back to common prototypes in the base language. Their total number and the role of each possible source in their formation turn out to be different for each specific pair of languages, determined by the genetic and historical connections of the languages.

In the English and Russian languages, words of this kind in the overwhelming majority of cases represent direct or indirect borrowings from a common third source (often international or pseudo-international) vocabulary or parallel derivatives from such borrowings. The results of actual English-Russian language contacts are significantly less represented: words of English origin in Russian and Russian origin in English, although among the borrowed words of this group there are sometimes significant differences with sample words, making it difficult for native speakers of the source language to understand their seemingly “own ” words in another language.

The number, degree of divergence and distribution of “false friends of the translator” by parts of speech are different for different pairs of languages. But, in any case, their composition is generally the same for the speaker of each of the two compared languages, differing somewhat only in terms of interlingual paronymy.

In English and Russian, “false friends of the translator,” numbering several thousand words, are found within four parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. In a large number of cases, this role is played not by single words, but by all representatives of the corresponding word-forming nests. Naturally, for people who speak the basics of the second language, false identifications occur only in the sphere of identical parts of speech: thus, nouns are associated with nouns, etc., but homonymy of parts of speech, as a rule, does not cause difficulties. From a semantic point of view, words that belong to similar or related semantic spheres or, in any case, may appear in similar contexts, are misleading; obviously coincidental lexemes that essentially do not occur in the same contexts (such as English, rock"rock" - Russian. rock), do not cause false associations. Differences in pairs of “false friends of the translator” can be outlined in conceptual content, realities, stylistic characteristics and lexical compatibility; in practice, all these types of discrepancies are often intertwined.

The discrepancies in the conceptual, subject-logical content of falsely identified English and Russian words reflect the uniqueness of the classifications of phenomena, properties and relations of the objective world, characteristic of the semantics of each language. So, for example, English, agony expresses a broad concept of mental and physical suffering and their manifestations, which is reflected in the English-Russian dictionary as:

• 1) death throes, agony (for example, agony of death, mortal agony);
• 2) severe physical pain, agony; as in the example from J. Galsworthy: "...Dartle seized his wife"s arm, and... twisted it. Winifred endured the agony with tears in her eyes, but no murmur...";
• 3) a sudden manifestation, explosion, attack of feelings, as in agony of fear“attack of fear”;
• 4) strong mental struggle, despair, grief, as in "Not is in agony because of this conflict of ideas." It's a Russian word agony means only death-struggle (eng., throes of death, death-struggle). English word artist conveys the concept of a representative of art in the broad sense of the word and, in particular, of representatives of some specific types of art:
• 1) a representative of art, an artist, an artist in general, as in a creative artist, a literary artist etc.; Wed from O. Wilde: "Last night she was a great artist. This evening she is merely a commonplace mediocre actress",
• 2) painter, graphic artist, as in illustrations by the best artists; figurative character has meaning 3) a master of his craft, as in an artist in words“master of writing.” Russian word artist conveys the concept, first of all, of a professional (hence, amateur) actor, which corresponds to English words actor(about a dramatic artist, film artist), artiste(about a professional musician, dancer, comedy, pop artist); combinations are especially conveyed ballet artist - ballet-dancer, opera artist - opera-singer. In second place are the meanings: artist in general, representative of art (cf. artist) and figurative, colloquial master of his craft (cf. artist and expression a good hand in (at) something).

Even in terms like English, revolution -- Russian revolution, representing a classic example of international words with the same meaning in many languages, specificity is outlined in both basic and derived meanings. The English word (leaving aside its homonym with the meanings of “rotation”, “turnover”) means any complete change in the structure of society, the system of managing society, a change in government, as well as a complete restructuring, a radical transformation of anything. In the English-Russian dictionary the first of these meanings is reflected as:

• 1) revolution (about progressive radical revolutions in socio-economic relations), for example, in the Revolution -- English revolution of the 17th century, the French Revolution -- French revolution of the 18th century, the October Revolution -- about the October Socialist Revolution;
• 2) coup d'etat, seizure of power, as in a palace revolution"palace coup";
• 3) political or (figuratively) other uprising, riot; for example, A. Cronin describes the speech of a group of junior doctors against the extortions of their boss as follows: "But listen, darling, we're going to start a revolution." The second meaning is reflected in the English-Russian dictionary in the form of two equivalents:
• 4) perestroika, disruption, revolution, revolution in any matter, such as a revolution in science"revolution in science" the industrial revolution"industrial Revolution";
• 5) change, change, as in examples from W. Thackeray (...the whole course of events took place a peaceful and happy revolution) and R. Stevenson ("/ hope that our sympathy shall survive these little revolutions undiminished"). The meanings of the Russian word revolution correspond only in the first and fourth cases to the meanings of the English word.

Of exceptional importance for a correct understanding of the meaning of words is taking into account their systemic connections. So, if the meaning of the Russian word novel can only be understood in contrast to words story, short story, short story etc. (where the basis of the opposition is the degree of coverage of the reflected life phenomena, and hence the greater or lesser form of the prose work), then English, romance How the term of literary criticism means a prose or poetic narrative of a heroic adventure or romantic love plan, as opposed to novel -- prosaic realistic everyday work (the basis of the opposition here is the degree of realism, “down-to-earthness” of the plot). English meaning medicine manifests itself only in the contrast between therapy, surgery, obstetrics, dentistry, sanitation and hygiene, characteristic of the English tradition (in particular, academic degrees are awarded separately in these areas, having different values; cf., for example. Bachelor of Medicine, abbr. M.V. And Bachelor of Surgery, abbr. Ch. IN. etc.); medicine, in addition to the general meaning of “medicine”, in English it means therapy, therefore the first of the above degrees is translated as “bachelor of therapy”. The word is medicine means only the totality of sciences about human diseases, their treatment and prevention (as opposed to veterinary medicine) and cannot be mechanically likened to its English counterpart.

Using the last pair of words as an example, one can easily illustrate the general rule that the discrepancies especially increase in the sphere of figurative meanings: for example, the English word medicine in its figurative meanings means:

• 1) a liquid medicine taken orally, a mixture (as opposed to injection, lotion, medical preparation, pill, ointment etc.),
• 2) witchcraft, magic (among backward peoples),
• 3) talisman, amulet; it's a Russian word medicine has a completely different figurative colloquial meaning “medic, doctor, doctors (collectively)”, which is translated into English as physician, colloquial doctor or familiar doc in singular or plural.

The degree of semantic differences is different in different parts of speech: the most specific meanings of adjectives and, often even more, adverbs. It is often impossible to deduce semantic discrepancies in words of a given nest belonging to one part of speech, knowing the discrepancies in words belonging to another part of speech. For example, adjectives absolute And absolute completely or almost completely coincide in most meanings and are interchangeable in translation, but it does not follow from this that the same relationship exists between adverbs absolutely And absolutely: the English word even in its basic meaning, which is close to Russian absolutely, does not always correspond to the Russian analogue for reasons of lexical compatibility (for example, to absolutely agree“agree without objection”, to vanish absolutely“to completely disappear”, etc.) and has three specific meanings (of course, undoubtedly, in grammar - regardless, colloquial - yes, of course); a Russian word in a meaning that unites both analogues can be translated into English only in a minority of cases (often conveyed by the words entirely, perfectly, entirely, utterly), with a connotation of "in general" when negated, it is conveyed as at all, and with the connotation “quite” - like quite, besides what does "regardless" mean? (irrespectively; in absolute terms etc.). In cases like really-- really semantic proximity observed in adjectives (real - real), completely disappears.

One should object to the widespread opinion that the supposed semantics of Russian words similar to English ones, including internationalisms, as a rule, is poorer compared to their English counterparts. This relationship is typical only for some cases when a Russian special term is compared with an English word that combines terminological and non-terminological meanings. But along with this, there are many other, including opposite, cases. Meanwhile, this belief, along with some other reasons, leads to a significant impoverishment of the description of Russian words in Russian-English dictionaries, which often recommend translating a very semantically complex Russian word with only one, externally similar, but semantically only relatively suitable analogue.

A significant place among the “false friends of the translator” is occupied by cases of interlingual homonymy and paronymy. Moreover, interlingual homonymy is always reversible, i.e., it is perceived as such by speakers of both languages. It can arise directly during the contact and comparison of languages ​​(for example, English, mark -- Russian brand or English, family -- Russian surname, completely homonymous in modern usage), often intralingual homonyms are also involved in interlingual homonymic relations: for example, if English, crab I "crab, etc." and Russian crab are interlingual relative synonyms of a similar type, then English, crab II "wild apple tree" and crab III “slope, roll” are homonymous in relation to the first English word, and hence to its Russian analogue. Interlingual paronyms can also be bilateral and reversible, that is, misleading to speakers of both languages; this especially often occurs in cases where interlingual paronymy is based on intralingual paronymy: for example, English words specially - especially or at least concert -- concerto cause difficulties among the English themselves, and hence, naturally, among the Russians, associating in the Russian language with the words specially And concert. As a rule, however, interlingual paronymy is one-sided. So, mixing words like intelligence -- intelligentsia, history -- story, mayor -- major, principled -- principal possible for a Russian establishing analogies with words intelligentsia, history, major, principled, but not for an Englishman. And vice versa, only an Englishman can mix Russian pairs of words like standard - standard, farce - minced meat, pension - boarding house by analogy to words standard, farce, pension.

Differences in the subject-logical content of English and Russian “false friends of the translator” are in some cases associated with differences in the very life of peoples. In this case, comments about realities are inevitable, without which any purely linguistic comparisons will be incomplete. For example, a Russian translator needs to know the word academy what are they called:

• 1) special schools for adults (academies of music, of riding, etc.),
• 2) schools occupying an intermediate position between secondary and higher schools (military, naval academies),
• 3) in the past - private schools for children of rich parents (such as Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladles from W. Thackeray). Therefore, it is inaccurate to use this word when speaking about Soviet universities and higher military educational institutions, which are better called colleges.

Customs of word usage also play a significant role, sometimes (but not necessarily) associated with divergent realities. For example, for the correct use of the Russian word rector The English translator should know that in the USSR this is the name of the head of any higher educational institution (cf. English, president, principal, vice-chancellor), whereas, when applied to English higher education, the term rector only the heads of Scottish universities and the heads of two of Oxford's colleges (Exeter and Lincoln Colleges) are named.

Often, discrepancies in the meanings of English and Russian words are associated with new phenomena characteristic of modern reality; in this case, it is especially important that the translation takes into account the degree of familiarity of native English speakers with the relevant phenomena. Thus, what seems more difficult for the English reader is not to establish the relationship between English meanings and decade"decade" - Russian. decade"ten days", and the assimilation of a new fact of Soviet life - ten-day public campaigns called decades, in particular ten-day celebrations of the achievements of literature and art of one of the peoples of the USSR (English, ten-day campaign or ten-day festival). Word Ratio brigadier -- foreman clear only to persons who know the forms of labor organization in the USSR (in production teams - crews, work-teams, where foreman -- team-leader, crew-leader) and the British military rank system (Brigadier - brigadier general, intermediate rank between colonel and major general). In some cases, an inaccurate understanding of realities becomes not an isolated misunderstanding, but a traditional mistake of lexicographers, and hence many translators.

In addition, there is a need to take into account possible differences in the stylistic characteristics of associated words. Such discrepancies may accompany partial semantic differences, but they also occur in words with the same meanings. Therefore, it is impossible to fully understand a word and use it correctly without knowing its functional-stylistic and emotional-expressive connotations, and in some cases, restrictions on the place and time of its use. The most common differences in English-Russian comparisons are in functional-stylistic colors, that is, in the admissibility of using words primarily or exclusively in certain styles of speech. For example, even in a similar meaning “meeting of specialists” in English, consultation and Russian consultation do not completely coincide, since the first word is stylistically neutral, and the second has a bookish character. Even more noticeable are the stylistic differences in words like bark"boat" -- barge, where the first is classical poetism, and the second is stylistically neutral. Stylistic discrepancies make many words absolutely non-interchangeable in translation.

A significant type of stylistic differences are differences in evaluative, emotional and expressive colors. If the English word compilation“collecting, compiling” is quite neutral in this regard, then Russian. compilation has a connotation of disapproval, meaning “non-independent work based on the mechanical use of other people’s materials.” Emotionally expressive colors are especially often manifested in figurative meanings: an example is the use of such Russian words as subject, type, fruit, element, instance in the meaning of "person, personality". All these words, in addition to being assigned to casually colloquial or even familiar everyday speech, are characterized by a distinct disapproving connotation, which, when translated into English, has to be conveyed by various negative epithets with the words individual, person or stylistically more expressive: fellow and even devil.

There are frequent evaluative discrepancies, sometimes socially conditioned, in socio-political vocabulary: for example, in the reactionary bourgeois circles of the English-speaking countries, the word propaganda often associated with the concept of “lie”, “deception of public opinion”. One of the characters in the novel by the Australian writer D. Kyosak “Hot Summer in Berlin,” an American journalist, says: “Yes, this is exactly what ... we call “information” when it comes from us, and “propaganda” when others do it" (Chapter X). The same applies to the English word propagandist.“In Anglo-Saxon society,” writes Leonard Doob, “the surest way to insult, humiliate, or expose a person is to call him a propagandist” (Leonard W. Doob, Public Opinion and Propaganda, N.-Y., 1949, pp. 231) True, in the usage of progressive journalism, these words are free from disapproving connotations and can be used in positive contexts, meaning the dissemination and in-depth study of any ideas, teachings, as well as persons engaged in the relevant work. The meaning of the word is completely neutral and not recorded by most dictionaries. propaganda"persuasion, persuasion", widely represented in modern English and American literature. Russian words propaganda, propagandist neutral in emotional and expressive terms and can be used in a wide variety of contexts. In recent decades, they have been increasingly used in relation to modern reality in the meaning of “dissemination of knowledge, cultural values” (in combinations like propaganda of scientific knowledge, pedagogical propaganda, propaganda of art, propaganda of fiction and so on.); however, the first cases of synonymous use of words educator And propagandist date back to the 19th century.

Evaluative overtones can even penetrate into the terminology of social sciences, reflecting differences in the ideology and social reality of the countries of both languages. Legal terms such as English speculation -- Russian speculation, are basically similar in semantics, but fundamentally diverge in evaluative colors. The famous English lawyer D. Pritt remarked: “Speculation” (speculation)... is not clearly interpreted in British law, although it can bring a person either to the dock or to the House of Lords; the Russian term is "speculation" (speculatsie), little, essentially different in meaning, found in the list of crimes listed in the Criminal Code... Characteristic are specific evaluative layers, often associated with the peculiarities of interpretation of meanings, in some borrowings that were exchanged between both languages. For example, unlike the Russian word decree"decree of a government agency" ukase - about Russian history; decree, edict -- about modern Soviet reality), English, ukase when applied to the life of countries in English, it means “an arbitrary, despotic act” and has a negative connotation. In contrast to the completely neutral businessman, which corresponds to Russian business man, Russian businessman has a negative connotation, meaning an unprincipled businessman.

Finally, one cannot ignore temporary and local restrictions on the use of “false friends of the translator”. Russian battle not only used in slightly different languages ​​from English battle meanings: it occurs in literally the same meaning as the English word battle(“battle, battle”), but only in the language of the 18th century - early 19th century. Many difficulties are associated with the specific use of English words in different countries, primarily in the UK and the USA. A trivial example with the term gasoline, denoting "gasoline" in the UK, and "petrol" in America. It is also worth mentioning the case of the divergence in the meanings of terms for the largest numbers in British and American English. The English language of Great Britain, based here on the German model, uses the words billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion in the value of a million to the second, third, fourth and fifth powers. US English, based here on the French model, uses these words in the meaning of a million multiplied by 10 3, 10 s, 10 9, 10 12. This makes these words in their British understanding "false friends" in relation to the Russian language, as a result of which when translating using these words, it is necessary to take into account the country that is the source or destination of the translated text.

Differences in the lexical compatibility of the corresponding Russian and English words create significant difficulties in learning languages ​​and in translation, but, as a rule, are not sufficiently reflected in bilingual dictionaries. It is assumed that such difficulties are almost always surmountable with conventional (not machine) translation, since the translator, relying on his linguistic instinct, “feels” in what combinations the words recommended in the dictionary are acceptable. This is generally true in relation to the native language, but usually applies to a much lesser extent to foreign languages. The situation is complicated by the fact that the preference given to one word or another in a given combination cannot be justified by anything other than tradition. For example, words industry -- industry in the meaning of “industry” coincide in meaning, but the first is not always translated as the second, since if socialist, capitalist, modern, heavy, light, engineering - industry or industry sound equally correct, then, according to the norms of Russian literary usage, we can only talk about automotive, nuclear, paper, gas, mining, mining, canning, flour milling, oil, processing, food, ore, soda, glassblowing, construction, weaving, electrical, energy etc. industry, but not industry. Discrepancies in compatibility make even such obviously synonymous internationalisms as English, international(the author does not talk about local nuances in the use of this word in the USA and Canada) - Russian. international: in in Russian along with the word international the word is used in the same meaning international, traditionally preferred in the vast majority of combinations, while the English word knows no restrictions in lexical compatibility and is used in all cases where it is appropriate in meaning.

Hello! At the initial stage of learning English, a beginner faces several basic topics that need to be understood and mastered - these are phonetics, grammar And vocabulary. These groups of topics can be called steps leading to the alluring goal of mastering a language. After mastering the first two, it’s time to study vocabulary - to expand and enrich your vocabulary. And although each topic requires a lot of effort, attention and time to master, learning vocabulary requires inexhaustible energy, since a huge load is placed on memory.

As a rule, wanting to achieve quick results, a student of English begins to watch films, listen to music, read books in English and tries by any means, deductive or associative, to understand a language that is still foreign to him. Such zeal, of course, is commendable, but all these methods of expanding vocabulary are good with properly organized step-by-step study, well-selected material and special diligence. Otherwise, you will find many surprises and mistakes in understanding the English language, one of which is the concept of “false friends of the translator.” A translator's false friends are pairs of words in two different languages, identical in pronunciation or spelling, but different in their semantic meaning.

"False friends" of the translator in English

A translator's false friends are pairs of words in two different languages, identical in pronunciation or spelling, but different in their semantic meaning.

False friends of a translator lead to misunderstandings during translation and misunderstanding of English. It is precisely for the reason that similar words, instead of helping to master the language faster and easier, lead to errors, they were so symbolically called “false friends of the translator” by two linguists M. Kössler and J. Derokkiny in 1928.

Take a look at the examples of the translator’s false friends, different in meaning, and it will immediately become clear what kind of pitfalls are hidden underneath them:

• Aspirant — candidate, but not at all graduate student
• Codex codex, but not code
• List - list, but not sheet
• Patron - boss, patron, but not cartridge

Similar pairs of words in different languages ​​cannot always be explained by common etymology, that is, by the fact that these words are borrowed. Of course, in many cases the common root of the translator's false friends is taken from some language, but their meanings have become different over time in two independent languages. However, this kind of similarity can also be the result of coincidence.

Video: False friends of translators

False friends of a translator can be found between some pairs of languages: Polish and Ukrainian, English and German, Russian and English, etc. Of course, we will deal with the false friends of a Russian speaker studying the “insidious” English language. Unfortunately, Russian and English are included in the small number of language pairs where there are words that are similar in appearance but have different meanings. In the vast majority of languages, translators do not need to engage in detailed study of “false friends”.

In fact, these words are not so scary, although sometimes they set traps for beginners: you may encounter no more than a few dozen pairs of words that you can actually remember. But a complete and, I must say, very long list of all false friends of the translator should not be taught. The question “maybe it will be necessary?” It will seem absurd when you try to remember thousands of pairs of words that are identical in spelling but different in meaning. “False translators” often set traps for gullible beginners

If this topic seemed difficult to you and you are already thinking about whether you need to learn such an incomprehensible language at all, I hasten to reassure you: in the English language you can also meet “true friends of the translator,” which linguists call “ cognates».

Congnates are pairs of words that have the same root, common origin and the same semantic meanings in two (or more) independent languages

The commonality of such words is not always due to the fact that these languages ​​belong to the same group of languages. Take a look at examples of “true translator friends” between Russian and Romanian:

• citi (chiti) - read
• iubi (yubi) - be in love
• drag (drag) - Expensive

In English and Russian languages, you can also encounter words that are similar to each other:

• territory — territory
• strategy — strategy
• clan - clan

However, this was a slight deviation from our topic. And now I propose to pay attention to the most commonly used words in the English language, which are similar to Russian, but different in meaning.

Examples of a translator’s “false friends”

Dictionaries of “false friends of the translator”

The similarity between the graphic or phonetic forms of words with different meanings is also found within the same language and is called homonymy

Linguists also discovered the so-called interlingual homonymy (or the already familiar name “false friends of the translator”), after conducting a detailed study and study of this phenomenon, dictionaries were created that include words of this kind, as well as their correct and erroneous translations.

In 1969, a bilingual dictionary (English-Russian and Russian-English) of “false friends of the translator” was published, authored by Ukrainian linguist, Doctor of Philology V.V. Akulenko. Akulenko's dictionary contains 900 English words, each of them is accompanied by a similar-sounding Russian word and their analysis of the discrepancy, complete or partial. In addition, in the dictionary you will find a useful article that has a very good analysis of this category of words. And although many years have passed since its publication, this dictionary of “false friends” has not lost its relevance for everyone who studies English.

In 2004, the English-Russian dictionary of the translator's false friends appeared, which already contains more than 1000 English-Russian translator's false friends, the author of which is K.V. Krasnov. Today this dictionary is the largest dictionary of interlingual homonyms (false friends of the translator). Recommended for teachers, translators and anyone who seriously works with the English language.

It is important for every “translator” to know

As is already known, in the native and studied languages, two words with different meanings, completely or partially coinciding in pronunciation or spelling, can confuse any person. However, that's not all. There are these kinds of words that can have several meanings, one of which still coincides with the meaning of the word “false friend”, but is not its main meaning. For example:

• the first meaning of the word " officer" is "executive"

Translators are the most mysterious and all-powerful people on the planet. Only they can change the meaning of the lines of the characters in your favorite movie or the text of a book beyond recognition. Suffice it to recall at least the translations of the Harry Potter novels, on which the translators experimented as best they could.

Legends say that the Rosman publishing house released an edition translating the name of the main villain of Rowling's novel Voldemort as Voldemort in order to draw a mysterious parallel with Bulgakov's Woland.

But translators often embark on such experiments against their own will: “false friends” can mislead them. What words are usually called the translator’s false friends?

Most often, these are words that are similar in sound and spelling in different languages, but have different meanings. For example, aborigine in English is a native inhabitant of Australia, in Russian it is an aborigine, a native. At first glance, such words seem familiar and understandable, but in fact they can change the text beyond recognition and bring chaos to the meaning of what is said or written.

Top 10 false friends of the English translator

1. AGITATOR- instigator (not agitator). The word may be translated incorrectly, since "agitator" and "instigator" can be used interchangeably in certain contexts. Still, there are differences to keep in mind: “inciter” has a negative connotation.
2. BEHEMOTH- monster, giant. The meaning of "hippopotamus" is considered obsolete, examples of use are found only in biblical texts. Although in the computer game Heroes of Might and Magic the name of one of the creatures is also often translated as “hippopotamus”.
3. B.R.A.- bra. No matter how much you would like to translate this word as “sconce,” don’t do it. Just imagine the kind of proposal that could come out.
4. DIAMOND- rhombus; diamonds, card of the diamond suit. Often translators forget about these meanings of the word, using only the obvious “diamond”, “brilliant”, not to mention the outdated “diamant”.
5. COLLABORATION- any cooperation. We are accustomed to perceive this word in the meaning of “aiding the enemy, the enemy.”
6. NOVELIST- novelist. This word is never translated as "novelist". Confusion with meanings could also arise because the division into literary genres in our country differs from Western Europe. In foreign literature there are no stories, only stories or novels: all works that are larger than a story in terms of volume, plot development and number of characters are considered novels. And short stories often turn out to be works with several plot lines.
7. PRINCIPAL- head teacher. Sometimes this word can be confused with the word “principle” even by native speakers, since the words have the same pronunciation.
8. PROFANE- blasphemous, obscene. This word is never used in the sense of "profane", there is another word for this - ignoramus.
9. ROUTINE- established order, habitual routine. Sometimes it can be used with a negative connotation to mean “routine,” but is never used to mean “stagnation, stagnation.” And the word is rarely used with a negative connotation, which translators may forget about.
10. URBANE- polite, with refined manners. No matter how much we would like to translate it as “urban, urbanistic,” we should remember that there is a word for this: urban.

Linguists do not exclude the possibility that many words were once common to different languages, but their development paths diverged and in different languages ​​the words acquired different meanings or their shades. A translator's false friends are the best inspiration for creating puns and language riddles. You just need to use them wisely and check the meaning of words in the dictionary more often.

Classification of “false friends of the translator”

The works of many linguists (Akulenko V.V., Borisova L.I., Gurevich T., Aguzarova K.K., etc.) are devoted to the study of interlingual correspondences in the Russian and English languages.

Having become acquainted with their works, I found out that the “false friends of the translator” include interlingual relative synonyms of a similar type, as well as interlingual homonyms and paronyms. What is it?

Interlingual synonyms - these are words of both languages ​​that fully or partially coincide in meaning and use (Akulenko V.V., 1969, 371) - for example, the English word “artist” is a representative of art in the broad sense of the word, and the Russian “artist” conveys the concept primarily about a professional actor.

Interlingual homonyms - these are words of both languages, similar in sound (or graphic) form, but having different meanings (for example, English “mark” and Russian “mark”; English “family” and Russian “surname”) (ibid.).

Interlingual paronyms - these are words that are not completely similar in form, but can cause false associations and be identified with each other, despite the actual divergence of their meanings (for example, the English words specially - especially, concert - concerto cause difficulties for the English themselves, and, of course, for Russians, associated with the words “specially” and “concert”) (Akulenko V.V., 1969, 372).

All these cases are united by the fact that the words associated and identified in two languages, in terms of content or use, do not fully correspond or even completely do not correspond to each other. In addition to the listed groups, there are the so-called internationalisms - words that completely coincide in meaning.

We have already said that a truly systematic and widespread study of interlingual correspondences began in 1928, with the work of M. Kessler and J. Derkonyi, who identified two types of “false friends of the translator:

• 1. “completely false” with similar spelling and divergent semantics;
• 2. “partially false” with similar spelling and mostly common semantics.

An analysis of the literature on this issue allowed us to conclude that partially false The translator's friends are mainly synonyms, which in turn have two types of discrepancies in subject-logical content (4):

• 1) The Russian word coincides with the English one not in all meanings, but only in one of them. This usually happens when an English word was borrowed into the Russian language only in part of its meanings. This group covers a large number of words and presents significant difficulties in translation. For example, the word “meeting”, which passed into the Russian language from the English language, is used in only one meaning, and the corresponding English word meeting can also mean “meeting, meeting, encounter, duel, etc. The English word record, in addition to meaning “record,” can mean “chronicle, reputation, protocol, record, etc.” The word nation is widely used in English and, as a rule, does not mean “nation” (this word in Russian is used as a socio-economic term), but “people, country, state, etc.”
• 2) The Russian word has meanings that its English counterpart does not have. This usually happens when a word is borrowed in both languages ​​from some third language. For example: auditorium - audience. In English, it is used only to denote a room, and not people listening to a speech, as in Russian.

TO completely false These include mainly interlingual homonyms. These are Russian and English words, similar in form, and having completely different meanings. For example: “actual” - a false analogue of “actual” - the correct translation is “valid”; “intelligence” is a false analogue of “intelligentsia” - the correct translation is “mind”.

Linguists also say that in comparable languages ​​there are words that are not exactly similar in form, but can cause false associations in most people and be identified with each other, despite the actual divergence of their meanings. These are the so-called interlingual paronyms . For example, “curious”, “specifically” or an example typical only for our school: some students associate the English word “begin” with the surname of the labor education teacher “Bedin”.

As some researchers note, the “false friends of the translator can also include English and Russian international words. A striking example is the words “affair” and its Russian false analogue “scam”. In Russian, the word “scam” has a negative connotation, while the English word “affair” is stylistically neutral (4).

Also play a significant role customs of word usage , sometimes associated with divergent realities. For example, to correctly use the Russian word “rector,” an Englishman must know that in Russia this is the name for the head of any higher educational institution (cf. president, principal, vice-chancellor), while in English higher education the term “rector” only the heads of Scottish universities and the heads of two Oxford colleges (Exeter and Lincoln Colleges) are named.

Exactly the same in English. “Assistant professor” at a university is not an assistant, but an associate professor. The team of teachers in higher educational institutions of the USA and England is called “faculty”, which cannot be confused with our faculty, a department of the university; in English it is usually translated as department, less often - school. And only some of the oldest universities continue to call their faculties by the word faculty. English aspirant is generally a person who achieves something, strives for something (a meaning that goes back to the Latin aspirans (aspirantis), so it may well appear in a context that is incomprehensible to us: presidential aspirans 'candidate for the post of president', which , however, is perceived as a little archaic. In the English version, the Russian graduate student is postgraduate (student).

Speaking about interlingual correspondences, one cannot fail to mention that there are some common types of relationships within the “false friends of the translator”.

• 1. The first type of relationship: in one language a word has a more general meaning than in another language. The word “idiom” in Russian is interpreted as a term meaning “indecomposable figure of speech.” In English, the word idiom can have both a general (“language”) and a special (“indecomposable figure of speech”) meaning.
• 2. The second type of relationship: unambiguity in one language, polysemy in another. The adjective “gallant” in Russian has one meaning - “exquisitely polite”, and in English “gallant” has multiple meanings, often meaning “brave, valiant”: “gallant soldier” - “valiant warrior”. Then - “beautiful, brilliant”, “gallant show” - “beautiful spectacle”.
• 3. The third type of relationship: a lexically free meaning in one language and a lexically non-free meaning in another language. Thus, the word “idea” does not “behave” the same way in different combinations of certain languages. In English, “idea” in certain phrases takes on the meaning of “idea”: “to give an idea of ​​smth.” -- “to give an idea of ​​something”, “to form an idea of ​​smth.” -- “to form an idea about something.”

There are many more such types of relationships in the field of “false friends of the translator”, and a separate work can be devoted to this.

All linguists agree that although the issue of “false friends of the translator” attracts the attention of many specialists in translation and foreign language teaching, there is no detailed examination of this category of words for the vast majority of languages. If we do not touch upon short, more or less random lists in individual articles and educational publications, here we can name, in fact, only bilingual dictionaries based on French and English, Spanish and French, German and French, Spanish and Russian, English and Russian, Russian and Polish languages.

Having analyzed all the sources available to us, we come to conclusion that, since a word can have different meanings, when translating a sentence it is necessary to choose one from these many meanings of the word. When selecting this meaning, one must proceed from the general content of the thought contained in this sentence, as well as from the style, genre and general content of the text being translated.

Difficulties in translation or "False friends of the translator"...

Introduction

The history of translation goes back to the deep past, to those distant times when the proto-language began to disintegrate into separate languages, and people who spoke several languages ​​became in demand as intermediaries between representatives of different language communities. However, for a number of reasons, translation acquired the status of an independent science only at the beginning of the twentieth century. In modern conditions, when there is a rapid expansion of international relations and intensive exchange of information, translation studies, as it develops, covers an increasing number of problems and controversial provisions.

In recent decades, the interest of researchers in the category of words united by the common name “false friends of the translator” (tracing paper from the French faux amis du traducteur) has sharply increased. These words are interlingual relative synonyms, homonyms and paronyms of a similar type. When translating this category of words, false identifications may occur, since interlingual analogisms have some graphic, phonetic, grammatical, and often semantic commonality. Analysis of examples of “false friends of the translator” shows that the largest number of errors appears when translating international vocabulary. International parallels are easily identified during translation, since they have a common semantic structure. As a result of such identifications, false equivalents often arise due to the fact that there are significant differences in their semantic structures, which the translator sometimes simply forgets about.

Definition of the interlingual phenomenon of “false friends of the translator”

The category of words known as “false friends of the translator” presents particular difficulties in the practice of translation work. The role of interlingual synonyms is played by words of both languages, which partially or completely coincide in meaning and, accordingly, are equivalent in translation. Interlingual homonyms are words of both languages ​​that are similar in the degree of identification of sound (or graphic) form, but differ in meaning. Finally, interlingual paronyms include words of compared languages ​​that are not completely similar in form, but, as a rule, cause false associations when translated, despite the actual divergence of their meanings.

A fundamental distinction should be made between the “false friends of the translator” in oral and written speech. This requirement is mandatory when comparing languages ​​with completely different scripts or, conversely, languages ​​with a common script, but phonemically dissimilar vocabulary.

In historical terms, “false friends of the translator” are the result of the mutual influence of languages, in some cases they can arise as a result of random coincidences, and in closely related languages ​​they are based on words that go back to common prototypes in the proto-language.

“False friends of the translator” as a translation problem

When learning and using a foreign language, we often transfer our language habits to another language system, which contributes to the emergence of false analogies. The study of “pseudo-international” words allows the translator to avoid many mistakes caused by the difference in their meaning despite the existing similarity of their form.

In English and Russian, the category of “false friends of the translator” contains several thousand words, which are limited to four parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. “False friends of a translator” can mislead not only beginners, but also professional translators. Even if the semantic structure of a statement seems clear and obvious to the translator, in fact it may have a completely different content. An example is a simple English proverb: It is a long lane that has no turning. It would seem that its translation into Russian may well be literal: “This is a long road that doesn’t turn anywhere.” But this is where the translator encounters a “false friend.” The meaning put into this proverb by the Englishman is completely different, quite strange for a Russian-speaking person: “A road that turns nowhere would be so long that it cannot exist” or “It cannot be that there is no turn at the end of a long road " By analogy, difficulties may arise when translating another English proverb: It is a good horse that never stumbles. At first glance, the translation is also simple and obvious: “This is a good horse that never stumbles.” In fact, its meaning is as follows: “A horse that never stumbles must be so good that there are no such horses at all. The horse has only four legs and stumbles.” At the same time, it is wrong to assume that such mistakes mean insufficient proficiency in a foreign language. According to modern theoretical linguistics, in most cases, command of a second language is not impeccable, and the absolutely correct parallel use of two languages ​​seems only an abstraction. Consequently, most people who speak languages ​​can make errors in translation to one degree or another. For this reason, it is the practice of translation that plays a huge role in the study of this phenomenon.

The translator should not forget about the danger of “literal translation”, which, thanks to some researchers, has received a wide interpretation these days. For example, back in 1949, Russian linguist and translator Ya.I. Retzker considered literalism only as a translation based on external (graphic or phonetic) similarity, and already in 1970, another outstanding Russian linguist V.G. Hak divided literalism into lexical, phraseological, grammatical and stylistic.

Famous translator R.K. Minyar-Beloruchev believed that, based on the characteristics underlying this phenomenon, one should distinguish:
– elementary literalisms, in which false connections are established between similar alphabetic and graphic signs of two languages ​​(for example: “magazine” - “store” instead of “magazine”);
– semantic literalisms, when false sound connections between two languages ​​are established as a result of translating a word or phrase according to its semantic components or basic meaning without taking into account the speech situation (for example: “to take the chair” - “to take a chair”, instead of “to preside”; “Ivanov” speaking” - “Ivanov speaks”, instead of “Ivanov listens”);
– grammatical literalisms, in which direct false connections are established in two languages ​​between the methods of the source language (for example: “headphones” - “headphones”, not “headphones”).

Pseudo-internationalisms in the role of “false friends of the translator”

When comparing English and Russian languages, you can identify a large number of words that have similar sounds or spellings. Basically, these words are either borrowings from one language to another, or both languages ​​from a third, common source: usually Latin, Greek or French. A striking example of such borrowing is the following words: parliament, diplomat, theory, method, organization, etc. Such words can either help or hinder the translator. If words have not only external similarity, but also the same meaning, then they will undoubtedly help in translation. Such words include, for example, the English zink (zinc), panorama (panorama), chameleon (chameleon). Such vocabulary is called international. Its role in translation is quite important, since for a person studying a foreign language, these words serve as a support on which the meaning of the text is built.

However, there is also pseudo-international vocabulary, which can become a hindrance for the translator and contribute to the appearance of various types of errors. “False friends” do not pose a great danger in translation if their meanings diverge significantly from the meanings of similar Russian words. In this case, the immediate context excludes the possibility of misinterpretation of the word or phrase. Thus, even a student who still has poor command of a foreign language will never translate the phrase “to read a magazine” as “read a store,” since in Russian such a phrase is devoid of any meaning.

For a novice translator, pseudo-international vocabulary poses a particular danger. For this reason, the following recommendations should be taken into account:

1. The translator should always remember that a number of words in both languages ​​have purely formal similarities, which do not have a common meaning behind them. For example, the English word “decade” means “ten years,” while the Russian “decade” means “ten days.” The English word “biscuit” and the Russian “biscuit” mean confectionery products, however, in the first version it is “dry cookies, biscuit”, and in the second it is “sweet pastries made from butter dough”. The English word “stool”, despite all its similarities with the Russian word “chair”, is translated as “stool”. And there are many such examples.

2. Even greater difficulties in translation are words that, in addition to having a common meaning with Russian words, have completely different meanings that are not inherent in the latter. For example: “false” is not only “fake”, but also “erroneous, artificial (about hair, teeth)”; “conductor” – not only “conductor”, but also “conductor”; “figure” – not only “figure”, but also “figure”; “production” – not only “products”, but also “production”; “professor” is not only “professor”, but also simply “teacher”, etc.

Such vocabulary requires special attention from the translator, since it makes up most of his “false friends.” Serious errors in translation can only be avoided by carefully analyzing the context and checking all meanings of the word in a dictionary.

In the same group of “false friends of the translator” one can also include a significant number of English words whose common meaning with a similar Russian word is not the main one, but, on the contrary, it is less common and is found at the end of the dictionary entry. As an example, we can cite the following words: “partisan”, the main meaning of which is “supporter, adherent” and much less often “partisan”; “sympathetic” - “sympathetic”, “full of sympathy” and extremely rarely “nice”; “novel” - first of all “novel” and much less often “short story”, etc.

In addition, there is a certain category of words that are very similar to Russian words, however, their meanings are completely different. Thus, the English word “velvet” does not mean “corduroy”, but “velvet”; “satin” – not “satin”, but “satin”; “fabric” – not “factory”, but “fabric”; “clay” is not “glue”, but “clay”; “accord” is not “chord”, but “unanimity, agreement.” The list of such words can be very long.

3. The translator should not forget the fact that behind a similar shell in different languages ​​there may be different concepts related to the history of a given state.

Thus, the word “revolution” among Russian speakers is associated, first of all, with the events of 1917, “the Revolution” among the British - with the overthrow of King James II from the throne in 1688, among Americans - with the War of Independence of 1775-1783.
In order to avoid false associations during the translation process, it is often necessary to abandon the external similarity of such words and use a designation that is understandable to readers:

The American Revolution was, in truth, a close parallel to the wars of national liberation that have erupted in the colonial and semi-colonial regions of the present... The American War of Independence is a direct prototype of national liberation wars in colonial and semi-colonial countries in present time...

Thus, from all of the above we can conclude that this group of vocabulary requires special attention from the translator. To avoid misinterpretation of words and phrases from the category of “false friends of the translator,” it is necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of the context, as well as use dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference books.

CONCLUSION

There is no doubt that translation is a very ancient human activity. One of the significant difficulties in the work of a translator can be considered an interlingual phenomenon called “false friends of the translator.” This phenomenon is of great interest to translators and linguists, since this category of words can mislead even professionals in the field of translation studies who speak the language at a high level.

As mentioned earlier, this interlingual phenomenon appeared as a result of the mutual influence of two related languages. “False friends of the translator” are the so-called homonyms and paronyms, i.e. pairs of words with similar spelling or pronunciation in two languages, which often have a common origin; however, they differ in their meaning. The work provided examples of the most typical errors that arise during translation. Particular attention was paid to the category of “false friends” called “pseudo-internationalisms”. Based on this, recommendations were proposed for novice translators aimed at avoiding possible distortion of the semantics of the translated text.

Despite the fact that this topic has been sufficiently studied in translation studies, it remains relevant and requires even more thorough research.