Conveying the Lexical Meaning of Internationalisms.

A faithful conveying of their lexical meaning requires considerable attention on the part of the translator and in the process of their translation both at language level and at speech level several factors have to be taken into consideration: the lingual form, the lexical meaning, the structure, the source of origin and the orthographic presentation of internationalisms in both the languages. As a result it may not always be termed translation proper (cf. atom атом, plan план, student студент); it may sometimes depend on the established model stereotype according to which these units are adopted in the target language. There exist several ways of conveying their lexical meaning.

Translation Transliteration. This is more often found in the internationalisms which originate from the languages whose orthographic systems have been arranged on phonetieal principles (Latin, Greek, Italian, Ukrainian, partly Russian and Spanish): Lat.: angina ангіна, proletariat пролетаріат, socialism соціалізм, gladiator гладіатор, class клас, rector ректор; Greek: poet поет, logarithm логарифм, electron электрон, stadium стадіон, drama драма, theatre театр; Ital.: macaroni макарони, concerto концерт, duet дует, solo соло; Span.; armada армада, tango танго, El Dorado Ельдорадо, embargo ембарго. It would be wrong to assume that internationalisms from other than the above-mentioned languages can not be transliterated. Many English, French, German and other non-European by origin lexemes are also transliterated: Eng.; bulldog бульдог, mister містер, shelf шельф, shilling шилінг, shrapnel шрапнель; Fr.; chef шеф, festival фестиваль, franc франк; Germ.; Diktat диктант, Edelweiss эдельвейс; Portuguese: cobra кобра, flamingo фламінго; Hindu: Brahmin брамін, khaki хакі, sari сарі; Jap.; kimono, tsunami цунамі; Arab.: algebra алгебра, atlas атлас, harem гарем; Afr.: banana банан, baobab баобаб, zebra зебра; Austral.: dingo, kiwi, etc.

Translation Transcription. Internationalisms originating from English, French and some other languages whose orthographic systems are based on other than phonetic principles (historical or etymological) are faithfully conveyed in the target language in their phonetic form: Eng.; boom бум, box бокс, jeans джинси, knock-out нокаут, leader лідер, raid рейд, round раунд, track трек; Fr.; boulevard бульвар, bouquet букет, bourgeoisie буржуазія, bureau бюро, drape драп, fuselage фюзеляж, pince-nez пенсне, etc.

We must bear in mind that in many internationalisms there is no absolute literal coincidence in the source language and in the target language: basketball баскетбол, shilling шилінг, waltz вальс, степ steppe, указ ukase, etc.

International lexemes are adopted in all languages according to the historically established traditions of their own and find their expression in stereotype models (bankruptcy in Eng., bankeroti in Germ., banqueroute in Fr. or bancarotta in Ital. but «банкрутство» in Ukrainian). This kind of adopting internationalisms is sometimes called a “practical transcribing”.

Some internationalisms may retain still less similarity/likeness in their lingual form when translated from English into Ukrainian: bachelor бакалавр, cocoa какао, crown корона, dance танок, giant гігант, grade градус, hocus-pocus фокус, mother-of-pearl перламутр, mosque мечеть, oil олія, outpost аванпост, papal папський, pound фунт, etc.

Many units in English and Ukrainian do not fully coincide in their orthographic, sounding and morphological (structural) form. This is to be explained by the differences in the phonetic and morphological systems of the two languages and also by the possible influence of a third language as an intermediary between the source/target language and the language from which the international lexeme originates. To convey faithfully the denotative meaning and the lingual form of these internationalisms other ways of translating can be employed.

Descriptive Translation. Many international lexemes are semantically condensed and can be conveyed in the target language in a descriptive way only. Depending on the nature of the lexemes their translation may have two somewhat different ways:

a) the lingual form of the source language lexeme/s can be preserved in the target language word-combination/sentence: civilizable – той, (та. me), що піддаються цивілізуванню; classifiable – той, (та. me), що піддаються класифікації; barony 1. володіння барона; 2.титул барона; energize викликати, збуджувати енергію.

b) the lingual form of the internationalism is not or can not be retained in the target language. It happens when the internationalism has not been adopted by the target language. Thus the noun epilogue is a genuine internationalism in many European languages but the adjective еріlogic derived from it, though semantically quite obvious, is unknown in Ukrainian and is rendered as заключний, ключовий, кінцевий.

Analogies. In the process of translating an international lexeme of the source language can be substituted in the target language for a synonymous international lexeme. This kind of substituting becomes possible due to the existence in the target language of synonymous international lexemes, of the same logico-grammatical class: athletics гімнастіка, diagram схема, phase період, fashion paper журнал мод, base фундамент, committee комісія, gangster бандит, standard еталон; ангар garage, бульвар avenue, графік plan, естрада variety, party line політичний курс.