Филологические науки/6. Актуальные проблемы перевода
Victoria Bushkova, PhD, Associate professor
American Toponyms and Antroponyms – Translation
Problems
American
toponyms’ semantics, their linguistic and extra-linguistic motivation are
determined by definite social and historical factors. The topicality of the
problems of defining and analyzing the correlations between these factors and
linguistic nature of proper names is proved by the studies of such well-known Russian
and Ukrainian linguists as G.Tomakhin, A.Gudmanyan, S.Babushko, L.Masenko,
I.Sagun, T.Gavrylova, as well as foreign scholars – Richard Coates, Eilert Ekwall, Margaret
Gelling, Oliver James Padel, Robert Lee Ramsay, Albert Hugh
Smith, George Rippey Stewart, Craig Weatherhill
and others. The research is also aimed to investigate the main functions of
toponyms and anthroponyms, tackling some problems related to their rendering
into Ukrainian.
The
different points of view on giving the definition of proper names and their
usage are reflected in theoretical works, dictionaries and encyclopedias. In
spite of different approaches, there is an evident common ground presenting the
essential nature of this linguistic phenomenon. Linguistic encyclopedia gives
the following definition – toponyms are proper names of geographical objects.
In accordance with the definition used by G.Tomakhin toponyms are the facts of
speech, which comprise country studies information and are a valuable part of
the historical background of nation and its language.
The
general characteristic of the USA toponymy includes its etymology, lexical
meanings of toponyms in the course of their formation and development. Thus,
the American geographical names are very different in their linguistic nature.
They are subdivided into five groups:
1.
Proper
names, which reflect physical and natural characteristics of the objects - Long
Island, Split rock.
2.
PN,
which are given to the geographical objects in honor of the prominent persons,
whose names are associated with this or that place – Red Jacket.
3.
PN
borrowed from the other countries – Brazil,
Jerusalem.
4.
PN
which appeared as a result of economical activity of people - Valley Forge.
5.
Changed
former names or fantastic invented names - Penn
Yann.
While
selecting toponymic units into dictionaries the researchers take into
consideration some factors – the peculiar features of toponyms, their
importance in society, history of nation and frequency of their usage in
communicative contacts.
The
structural models of anthroponyms can be analyzed from the point of their linguistic
and social significance, their main functions in the process of communication.
In phraseological units the anthroponyms can serve as special language means,
expressing order, threat, reproach, warning and possessing positive, negative or
neutral coloring (peeping Tom – занадто
допитлива людина, to wear Joseph’s coat –
не піддаватися спокусі, the jolly Roger
– піратський прапор).
The
same names can have different connotations in British and American variants.
For example, the name Abraham in American expressions is associated with the
name of the American president Lincoln – the expressions “Father Abraham”,
“Honest Abe” have a positive connotation, while in British expressions this
name is a nickname of asylum patients.
The
main functions of anthroponyms in fiction are determined by their stylistic value,
reflecting the peculiarities of American anthroponymy. The use of anthroponyms
in fiction serves as a stylistic device in prose and poetry texts. They fulfill
artistic-aesthetic, informational and evaluating functions. For instance, with
the help of allusion John le Carre characterizes the main character of the
novel - a little drummer girl: “The canal
opened up and she saw, in the centre of a harbor of discarded warehouses, an
old black man straight out of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, sitting on a tethered raft and
playing his cello to a group of spellbound children”.
The anthroponym Uncle Tom
arouses in readers’ imagination the figure of a very kind, old, humble,
positive person. A considerable place in the background knowledge of Americans
is taken by the heroes from antique mythology and biblical heroes such as NOAH,
CAIN, MARY which have negative or positive connotations.
The rules of transcoding
proper names include the use of corresponding letter and sound combinations in
Ukrainian. For example, the letter “h” in the surname Henderson is rendered as
“г” („Гендерсон”), the combination of letters “th” can be rendered in 2 ways –
in the surname Booth as “т” (“Бут”), in the surname Crothers – as “з”
(“Крозерс”).
Having analyzed the
characteristic features of toponyms and anthroponyms, the ways of graphical and
phonetic rendering we arrived at the conclusion that the USA toponymy is an
integral part of history and culture of the American nation, its social and
political life. All American toponyms are traditionally classified according to
5 groups, fulfilling alongside with the main nominative function the other
additional functions: giving connotations containing emotional evaluation,
implications, associations etc. In fiction it requires additional comments, but
in actual speech of native speakers it’s unnecessary, because cultural
background includes this knowledge. There are the same geographical names in
British and American toponymy. But comparing to British English the American
spelling of many toponyms is different. The main ways of rendering toponyms and
anthroponyms are the following: transcribing, transliteration, the methods of
extending the primary meaning, neutralization, functional change, description
and commentary are also needed as top and anthroponyms belong to the national
vocabulary units and take a considerable place in the background knowledge of
the nation.
LITERATURE:
1. Гудманян А.Г. Адаптація
антропонімічних англіцизмів та питання української практичної транскрипції
//Компаративний аналіз: питання теорії і практики. – Київ: НМК
ВО, 1992. – С. 30 – 42.
2. Лингвистический
энциклопедический словарь / Под ред. В.Н.
Ярцевой. – М.: Советская энциклопедия, 1990. – 873 с.
3. Томахин Г.Д. США. Лингвострановедческий словарь. – Пролетарский светоч, 2009. – 632 с.