False friends of translator in English: list with translation, examples.

The translator's false friends(tracing French faux amis), or interlanguage homonyms (interlingual paronyms) - a pair of words in two languages, similar in spelling and / or pronunciation, often with a common origin, but differing in meaning. For example, the Slovak word mesto place is consonant with the Russian word, although its translation into Russian is a city.

False friends of the translator can lead to misunderstanding and translation of the text. Some of them were formed due to the fact that after borrowing the meaning of the word in one of the languages ​​changed, in other cases there was no borrowing at all, and the words come from a common root in some ancient language, but have different meanings; sometimes the consonance is purely accidental. The term “false friends” was introduced by M. Kössler and J. Derocchigny in 1928 in the book “Les faux amis ou Les pièges du vocabulaire anglais”.

A special case of the translator's false friends are pseudo-internationalisms- interlanguage homonyms associated (in their graphic and / or phonetic form) with words of international vocabulary and causing all sorts of difficulties in translation: complete or utterance, violation of lexical compatibility or stylistic agreement of words in a utterance. Another special case of the translator's false friends are lexical units (words and phrases) that coincide in their internal form in different languages, but have completely different meanings:

Reasons for the appearance

Rethinking in the Process of Historical Development (Independent Development of Languages)

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

Introduction

The history of translation is rooted in 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 linguistic communities. However, for a number of reasons, translation acquired the status of an independent science only at the beginning of the 20th century. V modern conditions, when there is a rapid expansion of international relations and an intensive exchange of information, translation studies, as it develops, covers all large quantity problems and controversial provisions.

In recent decades, researchers' interest in the category of words united by the common name "false friends of the translator" (tracing paper from French faux amis du traducteur) has sharply increased. These words are interlingual relative synonyms, homonyms and paronyms of a similar kind. When translating this category of words, false identifications can occur, since interlanguage analogisms have some graphic, phonetic, grammatical, and often semantic commonality. An analysis of examples of “false friends of a translator” shows that the largest number of errors appears when translating international vocabulary. International parallels are easily identified in translation, since they have a common semantic structure. As a result of such identifications, false equivalents often arise due to the fact that in their semantic structures there are also significant differences, 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. Interlanguage homonyms are words of both languages ​​that are similar in the degree of identification of the sound (or graphic) form, but differ in meaning. Finally, interlanguage paronyms include words of the languages ​​being compared that are not completely similar in form, but, as a rule, cause false associations during translation, despite the actual discrepancy in their meanings.

A fundamental distinction should be made between the "false friends of the translator" in speech and writing. 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 with the existing similarity of their form.

In English and Russian, the category of "false friends of the translator" has several thousand words, which are limited to four parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. "False friends of the translator" can mislead not only beginners, but already professional translators. Even semantic structure the utterance 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 does not turn anywhere." But this is where the translator is confronted with a "false friend." The meaning laid down by the Englishman in this proverb is completely different, rather strange for a Russian-speaking person: “A road that does not turn off anywhere would be so long that it cannot exist” or “It cannot be that at the end of a long road there is no turn ". By analogy, difficulties can 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. A horse with four legs stumbles. " At the same time, it is wrong to believe that such errors mean insufficiently good command of a foreign language. According to modern theoretical linguistics, in most cases, proficiency in a second language is not perfect, and the absolutely correct parallel use of two languages ​​seems to be just an abstraction. Consequently, most people who speak languages ​​can, to one degree or another, make mistakes in translation. 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 today. So, for example, back in 1949 the Russian linguist and translator Ya.I. Retsker considered literalism only as a translation based on external (graphic or phonetic) similarity, and already in 1970 another prominent Russian linguist V.G. Gak divided literalism into lexical, phraseological, grammatical and stylistic.

The famous translator R.K. Minyar-Beloruchev believed that, based on the characteristics underlying this phenomenon, one should distinguish between:
- elementary literalisms, in which false connections are established between similar alphabetic and graphic characters of two languages ​​(for example: “magazine” - “shop” instead of “magazine”);
- semantic literalisms, when false sound connections of two languages ​​are established as a result of translation of a word or phrase according to their 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 is listening ”);
- 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 as "false friends of the translator"

When comparing English and Russian languages, you can identify a large number of words that have a similar sound or spelling. 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. Words like these can both help and hinder the translator. If words have not only external similarity, but also the same meanings, then they will undoubtedly help in translation. These words include, for example, English zink (zinc), panorama (panorama), chameleon (chameleon). This vocabulary is called international. Its role in translation is quite important, since for a person studying a foreign language, these words serve as the basis 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 all sorts of errors. "False friends" do not pose a great danger in translation if their meanings differ significantly from the meanings of similar Russian words. In this case, the immediate context excludes the possibility of misinterpretation of the word or phrase. So, even a student who still has a 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 is especially dangerous. For this reason, the following guidelines should be considered:

1. The translator should always remember that a number of words in both languages ​​have a purely formal similarity, behind which there is no common meaning for them. For example, the English word “decade” means “decade”, while the Russian “decade” means “ten days”. The English word "biscuit" and the Russian "biscuit" mean confectionery, however, in the first version it is "dry biscuits, biscuit", and in the second - " sweet pastries from butter dough ". The English word “stool”, with all the similarity to the Russian word “chair”, is translated as “stool”. And there are many such examples.

2. Even greater difficulties in translation are presented by words that, in addition to the presence overall value with Russian words have completely different, not inherent in the latter, meanings. For example: “false” is not only “fake”, but also “erroneous, artificial (about hair, teeth)”; “Conductor” - not only “conductor”, but also “conductor”; “Figure” is not only a “figure”, but also a “figure”; “Production” - not only “product”, but also “production”; “Professor” is not only “professor”, but also simply “teacher”, and so on.

Such vocabulary requires special attention of the translator, since it is most his "false friends". To avoid serious mistakes when translating it is possible only with the help of a thorough analysis of the context and checking all meanings of the word in the dictionary.

In the same group of "false friends of the translator" can be attributed a significant number of English words, in which the common meaning with the Russian similar word is not the main one, but on the contrary, it is less common and is located at the end vocabulary entry... The following words can be cited as an example: “partisan”, the main meaning of which is “supporter, adherent” and much less often “partisan”; "Sympathetic" - "sympathetic", "full of sympathy" and rarely "sympathetic"; “Novel” is primarily a “novel” and much less often a “short story”, etc.

In addition, there is a certain category of words that bears great similarity to Russian words, however, their meanings are completely different. So, the English word "velvet" does not mean "velvet", but "velvet"; “Satin” - not “satin”, but “atlas”; “Fabric” is 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 history this state.

So, 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 in 1688, among the Americans - with the war of independence of 1775-1783.
In order to avoid false associations in the translation process, it is often necessary to abandon the external similarity of such words and use a notation that is understandable for 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 Revolutionary War is a direct prototype of the national liberation wars in colonial and semi-colonial countries in present time ...

Thus, from all of the above, we can conclude that this vocabulary group requires special attention from the translator. In order 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 to use dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference books.

CONCLUSION

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

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 similar in spelling or pronunciation in two languages, which often have a common origin; however, they differ in their meaning. The paper provides examples of the most typical mistakes that occur during translation. Special attention was paid to the category of “false friends” called “pseudo-internationalisms”. Based on this, recommendations were offered to novice translators aimed at avoiding possible distortion of the semantics of the translated text.

Despite the sufficient study of this topic in translation studies, it remains relevant and requires even more thorough research.

Comparing the English and Russian languages, you can identify a significant number of words that have a similar spelling or sound. Basically, these borrowings - either from one language to another, or - more often - both languages ​​from a third, common source: as a rule, Latin, Greek, French (parliament, diplomat, method, theory, organization, etc.). Words of this kind can both help and hinder the translator. They provide help in cases where there is a coincidence of meanings behind the external similarity. No matter the context, the word zinc will translate as zinc,chameleon how chameleon,panorama how panorama, a classical music how classical music. This vocabulary is usually called international. Its role in translation should not be underestimated. For a language learner, these words serve as the pillars on which the meaning of the text is built. Pay attention to how many lexical units are similar to Russian in a sentence taken from a journal article:

The logic and strategy behind the U.S. Administration proposals were that the country might, over time, be willing to reduce drastically, perhaps someday to eliminate, its garrisons on this territory.

However, being borrowed by another language, a word can acquire new meanings, its semantic structure can completely change. Purely random coincidences are not excluded. Such words are usually called pseudo international . In French they were called faux amis du traducteur - "false friends of the translator." To the same extent that international vocabulary helps a translator, pseudo-international vocabulary can be a hindrance - misleading, pushing for all sorts of oversights and errors. "False friends" are not so dangerous when their meanings are so different from the meanings of similar Russian words that the immediate context excludes the possibility of misunderstanding, and, consequently, translation. It would never occur to anyone to translate to read a magazine how read shop or to lay smb under an obligation how put someone under a bond. Any student himself or with the help of a dictionary will translate these phrases as read a magazine or bind someone with a commitment. But the same words in a different environment may not testify so clearly about their semantic dissimilarity with the Russian "double": I like this magazine, I have no obligations.

V oral speech the extralinguistic situation itself often suggests the correct meaning. When translating a written text, we are deprived of such additional support. However, the magic of external similarity of words is so great that even experienced translators sometimes fall under it and make mistakes. For a novice translator, pseudo-international vocabulary is especially dangerous. Perhaps the following parting words will give him some help:

1) we must not forget that a number of words in both languages ​​have a purely formal similarity - they do not have a single common, intersecting meaning. At the same time, the context often does not give signals that the “correspondence” that suggests itself by analogy is false. This is mainly due to the fact that multilingual "analogs" belong to the same circle of concepts. For example, the English word decade and the Russian decade means a certain period of time, but the first - decade, and the second is ten days. English biscuit and Russian biscuit belong to the gastronomic field, but the first is dry biscuits, biscuit, and the second is pastries made from sweet pastry. Here are some more examples:

She has a very fine complexion .. She has a wonderful complexion (not "complexion").

The work is done accurately. This work is done accurately (not "neatly").

Well, he must be a lunatic. He must be crazy (not a "lunatic").

This is a literal translation of the text. This is a literal translation of the text (not "literary").

This boy is very intelligent. This is a very smart boy (not "intelligent").

2) words that, in the presence of a common meaning with the corresponding Russian words, have other meanings that are not inherent in the latter, are even more dangerous. For instance, fiction- it's not only fiction, but also fiction, fiction, false- it's not only false, but also erroneous, artificial (about hair, teeth), officer- it's not only an officer, but also officer, policeman, captain on a merchant ship and so on. Such vocabulary makes up the majority of the "false friends of the trainer" and therefore requires special attention. The only insurance against mistakes can be a very careful analysis of the context and checking all meanings of a word in a dictionary. The example below is an illustration of how it is necessary to carefully read the original in order to select the desired meaning of the word and link all the links of the text:

The African nation of Togo has sent more physicians and professors to France than France has sent to Togo.

This, at first glance, seemingly very simple phrase contains two "traps". Even after passing the first - the word physician, which means doctor, doctor(but not physicist),- you can get into the second and translate: "The African state of Togo sent more doctors and professors to France than France to Togo." However, a logical discrepancy, even within the intraphrasal context, should alert the translator: after all, a doctor can be a professor and vice versa (that is, one concept includes another, which, accordingly, is a special case of the first). English sentence does not contain this logical failure, since the word professor also matters teacher. Further confirmation of the correct choice of this particular value is contained elsewhere in the same article on the brain drain from developing countries:

Young physicians, nurses, engineers and teachers are abandoning poor countries for richer ones.

In the same group of “false friends of the translator” there is a considerable number of words whose meaning in common with a similar Russian word is not the main one, the leading one, it is less frequent and is located on the periphery of the dictionary entry: novel is first of all novel and much less often short story; partisan is supporter, adherent and much less often partisan;sympathetic- it sympathetic and extremely rarely cute and so on. The factor of frequency must be taken into account, it often plays an important role in the choice of the desired correspondence in the translation.

3) very often, even in those cases when the context realizes just the meaning that is common for English and Russian words, one has to abandon the correspondence of the same name because of the different norms of compatibility in the Russian language. For example, if Administration of the US translates as US administration, then coalition Administration like coalition government. When translating a phrase entirely consisting of international words theoretical and organizational defects it is desirable, for reasons of more familiar, natural compatibility, to replace the last word: theoretical and organizational miscalculations (blunders). Sometimes - again under the pressure of compatibility standards - it is convenient to use ready-made clichés in translation: "... the general and his fellow-officers"«... the general and his comrades in arms ”;"... unpopular nature of the KKK bands""... notoriety for the Ku Klux Klan gangs."

The use of such stable combinations gives the translation a natural sounding and to some extent compensates for possible stylistic losses in other parts of the text.

4) it should not be overlooked that the correspondences of the same name in both languages ​​can have different emotional and evaluative coloration. So, until recently, the word businessman in the Russian language carried a negative charge, although in the English language from which it was borrowed, it is used mostly neutrally. Therefore, in translations it was often necessary to use the combination business people, representatives of the business community.

Semantic structure of the English word nationalism represented as a value with negative connotations (3) - nationalism- and values ​​with a clearly expressed positive assessment - national identity; namriotism, striving for national independence:

The long Huk struggle, furt hermore has nourished a broad rebirth of nationalism among Philippines.

The prolonged Kukbong struggle revived the Filipinos' desire for national independence.

5) the last example is related to cases when the choice of the desired correspondence in the translation is dictated by extralinguistic factors and the translator needs to have the same background knowledge that the readers of the original have. After all, a word can have not only a linguistic context - it also lives in the context of a certain era and culture. Behind a similar shell in different languages ​​there may be different concepts related to the life and history of a given country. Russian speakers have the word revolution connected, first of all, with the idea of ​​the events of 1917, the British the revolution- the overthrow of James II from the throne that took place in 1688, for the Americans - with the war of independence 1775-1783. In order to avoid false associations in translation, it is often necessary to abandon external similar correspondence and use a designation that is explicit and unambiguous for readers:

The american revolution was, in truth, a closeparallel to the wars ofnational liberation thathave erupted in thecolonial and semi-colonialregions of the present ...

American Revolutionary War- a direct prototype of national liberation wars in colonial and semi-colonial countries at the present time ...

But in a different context - and this again echoes the last example from the previous paragraph - the word revolution realizes its other meaning, registered in the dictionary, with not at all positive connotations:

The revolution in Chile was headed by Pinochet.

Coup in Chile headed by Pinochet.

Extra-linguistics and consideration of the background knowledge of the reader determine the choice of option in the following case: "... the counter-revolutionary organization was set up to suppress the Negro-poor white alliance, that sought to bring democracy to the South in the Reconstruction period ... ".

Apparently, not every reader will understand what the period of Reconstruction is, although in special historical literature this combination is translated this way. Here, a translation that carries an explanation is preferable - in this case, any reader will receive the amount of information necessary for understanding: “... this counter-revolutionary organization was created by the planters of the south to suppress the joint struggle of blacks and white poor people who sought to establish democracy in the south after the abolition slavery ... ".

In another case, the presence of background knowledge of the translator will help him correctly translate such a combination as The emancipation proclamation is the title of the Abolition of Slavery Act that was passed by the government of President Lincoln. It has no direct connections with "emancipation" in our understanding of the word, so the probability of a mistake is not excluded here.

From all that has been said, it is easy to conclude that this vocabulary group requires increased attention from the translator. A careful analysis of the context - both narrow and wide - dictionaries and encyclopedias can protect "false friends of the translator" and even turn them into real friends.

Task number 1

Read the English interpretation of the words below - "the translator's false friends." Translate the examples that illustrate them:

Note. The English word is interpreted only in those meanings

Translators are the most mysterious and omnipotent people on the planet. Only they can change beyond recognition the meaning of the lines of the heroes of your favorite film or the text of a book. 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 publishing house "Rosman" published a circulation with the translation of the name of the main villain of the novel Rowling Voldemort as Voldemort, in order to draw a mysterious parallel with Bulgakov's Woland.

But it is not uncommon for translators to embark on such experiments not of their own free will: they can be misled by “false friends”. What words are usually called false friends of the translator?

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 of Australia, in Russian - an aboriginal, native. At first glance, such words seem familiar and understandable, but in fact they can change the text beyond recognition and bring chaos into the meaning of what is said or written.

Top 10 false friends of an English translator

1. AGITATOR- the instigator (not the agitator). The word may be translated incorrectly, as "agitator" and "instigator" in a certain context can be used interchangeably. However, the differences should be kept in mind: the "instigator" has a negative connotation.
2. BEHEMOTH- a monster, a giant. The meaning "hippopotamus" is considered obsolete, examples of use are found only in biblical texts. Although in computer game Heroes of Might and Magic, the name of one of the creatures is also often translated as "hippo".
3. BRA- bra. As much as you would like to translate this word as "bra", do not do it. Just imagine what kind of proposal you might get.
4. DIAMOND - rhombus; tambourines, a card of diamonds suit. Often translators forget about these meanings of the word, using only the obvious "diamond", "diamond", not to mention the outdated "diamond".
5. COLLABORATION - any cooperation. We are accustomed to taking this word in the sense of "aiding the enemy, the enemy."
6. NOVELIST- a novelist. This word is never translated as "novelist". Confusion with the meanings could also arise because the division into literary genres in our country differs from the Western European one. 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 the number of characters are considered novels. And short stories often turn out to be works with several storylines.
7. PRINCIPAL- head teacher. Sometimes this word can be confused with the word "principle" even native speakers, since the words have the same pronunciation.
8. PROFANE- blasphemous, obscene. This word is never used in the sense of "profane", for this there is another word - ignoramus.
9. ROUTINE - established order, the usual mode. Sometimes it can be used with a negative connotation to mean "routine", but never used to mean "stagnation, stagnation". Yes, and with a negative connotation, the word is rarely used, which translators may forget about.
10. URBANE- polite, with exquisite manners. As much as we would like to translate it as "urban, urban", it should be remembered that there is the word urban for this.

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