VALERIY V.MYKHAYLENKO, DOCTOR OF PHILOLOGY

Ivano-Frankivsk King Danylo Galytskyi University of law, Ukraine.

CONTRASTIVE SEMANTICS OF THE LEXEME “TOWN”

IN ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN: ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION

The present paper is focused on the distictive features of the semantics of the lexeme “town’ in English and Ukrainian. The lexeme is considered to be a semantic verbalizer of the concept “TOWN” in both languages. Though in English “TOWN” together with the concept “CITY” constitute a more general concept “URBAN SETLLEMENT”. The investigation lays the basis for the English – Ukrainian translation of the lexical-semantic field “TOWN” in the professional and belles letter registers of discourse.

Key words: lexeme, concept, semantics, field, contrastive, translation, source language, target language.

This paper explores the semantic structure of the lexeme ‘town’ as a near synonym of the lexeme ‘city’ in English and the Ukrainian equivalent ‘місто’ (misto) from a cross-linguistic perspective. Semantic combinability and distinctive features of lexemes have not been under discussion lately. Yet contrastive semantics of those two lexemes is of significant importance for translation studies. John Sinclair points out the inadequacy of traditional theories, which divide the lexicon from the grammar, for dealing with the way word meanings change when they are combined into phrases [2:1-24]. Therefore the study of meaning must be based on the word ‘inner’ meaning and the meaning it actualizes in the phrase, sentence and text.

First, we shall consider etymology of the noun ‘city’ which in the taxonomy ‘urban settlement’ occupies the highest position and includes the noun ‘town’ as a unit of a lower position. It developed from Old English ‘cite’ borrowed from French ‘cit’, from Latin ‘civitas’ citizenship’ state, city, from. ‘civis’ citizen; akin to Goth. ‘heiwa’ (in heiwafrauja man of the house), members of a family, servants, family, G. ‘Heirath’ marriage, prop., providing a house. It differentiates between two major components:

(1) a large town.

(2) a corporate town; in the United States, a town or collective body of inhabitants, incorporated and governed by a mayor and aldermen or a city council consisting of a board of aldermen and a common council; in Great Britain, a town corporate, which is or has been the seat of a bishop, or the capital of his see.

Now if a city is a big town then ‘town’ must have its own distinctive features.

As for its etymology its first use was registered before 900. The Old English tūn was a walled or fenced place, courtyard, farmstead, village. It is cognate with Old Norse ‘tūn’ homefield, German Zaun ‘fence’, Old Irish ‘dún’ fort. And then it developed into Middle English ‘toun, tun’, a place where people live and work. It contains many houses, shops, places of work, places of entertainment, etc., and usually it is larger than a village but smaller than a city (Oxford English Dictionary), cf.: town is place inhabited by a considerable number of people, being of a middle size between city and village (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Here t are two polysemantic words, whose different components form a semantic whole due to the proximity of the referents they name and the notions they express. A structured set of interalated lexical-semantic components constitutes the word semantic structure.

The common features of the near-synonyms are: the place living working and entertainment, and according the size first comes a city ‘big town’, then a town ‘bigger than a village’ and a village ‘smaller than a town. The distinctive features are administrative, economic, social, religious and cultural structure

In Ukrainian the town is defined as a place of densely populated area, bordered from other setllements [1:1-7]. The town fulfills the following functions: economic, ecological, demographic, social, political, and cultural. The number of population of the ‘regional місто’ must be 30000 people, and 10000 people of the ‘district місто’ (rayonne misto), two-thirds of which must be employed in industry and socio-cultural field. However, the Ukrainian Encyclopedia underlines the size of the ‘місто’: it is a big inhabited place, an administrative, industrial, trading, and cultural centre. The ‘місто’ is the only lexical nomination for an urban area in Ukrainian, but it is differentiated into big, small, mono-functional ones, and a town-enterprise (see also publications of: A.Shestakova, V.Nakonechny, O.Vasilieva, and O.Yegorov).

Semantic features of the lexeme “town” in the English Vocabulary

1.Town as an administrative center: the most important city or town in a country or area; a densely populated urban area, typically smaller than a city and larger than a village, having some local powers of government and a fixed boundary; (in the US) a territorial unit of local government that is smaller than a county; the local government of a town; a thickly populated area, usu. smaller than a city and larger than a village, having fixed boundaries and certain local powers of government; (esp. in New England) a municipal corporation with less elaborate organization and powers than a city; (in most U.S. states except those of New England) a township; a collection of inhabited houses larger than a village and having more complete local government; the chief town or city of a district or country; a municipal corporation, in New England, with less elaborate organization and powers than a city; a New England territorial and political unit usually containing under a single town government both rural areas and urban areas not having their own charter of incorporation; a territorial and political unit governed by a town meeting, especially in New England; in New England and some other states, a unit of local government having its sovereignty vested chiefly in a town meeting.

2. Town as infrastructure: a place where people live and work, containing many houses, shops, places of work, places of entertainment, etc., and usually larger than a village but smaller than a city; (mainly US) the place where you live or work; a place with many houses, shops/stores, etc. where people live and work; a city, borough, or other urban area; place: a large area with houses, shops, offices etc where people live and work, that is smaller than a city and larger than a village; where you live; a place where people live and work that is larger than a village but smaller than a city; the place that you live in or the place that you are talking about; a densely populated area of considerable size, as a city or borough; the central area of a city; a cluster or aggregation of houses recognized as a distinct place with a place-name; a compactly settled area as distinguished from surrounding rural territory; a compactly settled area usually larger than a village but smaller than a city; a large densely populated urban area; a group of houses; hamlet; a more or less concentrated group of houses and private and public buildings, larger than a village but smaller than a city; a city or other thickly populated urban place.

3. Town as trading and business center: the part of a town where the main shops are; the area of a town where most of the shops/stores and businesses are; the nearest town or commercial district; main centre: the business or shopping centre of a town; the center of a town where all the shops are; the main business or shopping area in a town or city; downtown; (Brit.) a village or hamlet in which a periodic market or fair is held; (Brit.) a village or rural community which holds a periodic market; an English village having a periodic fair or market; (chiefly British) a rural village that has a market or fair periodically; in England, a village that holds a market periodically; the business center of a city.

4.Town as population: the people who live in the town; the people who live in a particular town; the in trading and business center of a town; all the people who live in a particular town; the inhabitants of a town; townspeople; citizenry; the townspeople; the permanent residents of a university town as opposed to the university staff and students; the townspeople of a college or university town as distinct from the academic community; the residents of a town; the residents of a community in which a university or college is located, as opposed to the students and faculty; the inhabitants, voters, etc. of a town; the local residents of a town as distinct from the members of a college within the town.

5. Peripheral parameters: (especially North American English) a particular town where somebody lives and works or one that has just been referred to; life in towns or cities as opposed to life in the country; village (American English) several houses forming a small group around a church, shops etc; not country: the town, life in towns and cities in general; life in a town compared with life in the countryside; the particular town or city in mind or referred to; the city or urban life as contrasted with the country; a group of prairie dog burrows.

Evidently, (especially in North American English) a particular town where somebody lives and works or one that has just been referred to; life in towns or cities as opposed to life in the country; village (American English) several houses forming a small group around a church, shops etc; not country: the town, life in towns and cities in general; life in a town compared with life in the countryside; the particular town or city in mind or referred to; the city or urban life as contrasted with the country; a group of prairie dog burrows;structure of the lexeme “town Evidently, the semantics of the lexeme ‘town’ is constituted by the following components: administrative center, infrastructure, trading and business center, population, and way of life.

Thus any urban settlement in the USA or the UK can be called a town like in Ukrainian, see comparative characteristics of the two lexemes, the English town and the Ukrainian ‘місто’:

Table #1

Comparative Table of Semantic components of English ‘Town’ and Ukrainian ‘місто’

	English town	Ukrainian Misto
1	administrative center (municipal unit) + settlements and rural area	administrative centre (regional with towns and districts, district with rural area)
2	population	Population: 10000 / 30000
3	infrastructure	infrastructure
4	trading and business center	trading and business center
5		Financial centre (regional)
6		Cultural and religious centre

We must stress that English has two near synonyms ‘town’ and ‘city’ based primarily on the population size, while Ukrainian ‘місто’ differentiates between big and small that causes significant difficulties for translators, see:

(1) on the level of the word: English town and city à Ukrainian місто; Ukrainian містоàEnglish city;

(2) on the phrase level: English big city à Ukrainian велике місто; English small city à Ukrainian маленьке місто; Ukrainian велике містоàEnglish (big)city; Ukrainian маленьке містоàEnglish small town

.Though there is no unanimity in translating the following, for instance: English city of Bohuslav à Ukrainian місто Богуслав; Ukrainian місто Богуслав àEnglish city of Bohuslav. There is a regularity, when the Ukrainian noun місто precedes the name then it is translated into English city, no matter whether it is big or small.

In search of near-equivalents - we underline ‘near’ because the nominations of ‘urban settlement are symbols of civilizations of both nations – of the English ‘town’ we come across Lisette de Roche’s blog on BBC, an interior designer, who comes to see her friend in Ukraine very often. And Lisette names Ukrainian urban settlements from the point of her civilization, for instance:

1. If you need a lift to get from your village to town you can stand by the road and put your thumb out to ask for one. Most likely you will be successful and perfectly safe.

1.1. Якщо ви хочете, щоб вас підвезли із села до поближнього містечка, то можете стати при дорозі і зупинити попутну машину, і, найбільш імовірно, вас підвезуть і це буде цілком безпечно.

Compare the English – Ukrainian equivalents: town à містечка. There are two possible interpretations of the author’s nomination: (1) there is a contrast between rural area (village) and urban area (town) and (2) any nearest town. The translator knows the Ukrainian countryside and small district centres and chooses the lexeme ‘містечкo’ which expresses the concept of a small town in the Ukrainian countryside.The collocation of the lexeme in the Source Language gives a true clue to the Target Language equivalent [see: 4: 103-129].

2. I recently returned from my latest Spring visit to my friend and her family in the village and Kiev [and she brought rock salt from Ukraine and tells the story of the salt produced in Britain] In the UK we have two counties; Cheshire and Worcestershire where there are natural brine springs used since Roman times and a couple of famous seaside towns; Maldon and Anglesea where we dehydrate the sea water to make expensive flakes of salt.

2.1. У Британії в нас є два графства - Чешир і Вустершир - з природними соляними джерелами, де сіль видобували ще з часів римлян, а також кілька містечок на узбережжі, таких як Малдон чи Енґлс, де з випаруваної морської води виготовляють дорогі пластівці солі.

The English – Ukrainian equivalents: a couple of famous seaside towns à кілька містечок show that the Ukrainian equivalent does not reflect the characteristics of the English towns. Note: Moldon is the seat of the Maldon district (the population is not indicated); Anglesea is the largest island in the Irish Sea by area, and the second most populous island in the Irish Sea (after the Isle of Man).The actual population taken at the 2011 census was 69,751. As you see these two towns are not comparable, the common feature they share - salt dehydration the sea water.

 In the process of translation especially a written one, there must be an algorithm: first, compare the semantic structure of the word in the Source Language and in the Target Language; second, analyse the word collocation in both languages which will specify the meaning of the unit in use; third, consult the conceptual system presented by the lexeme in both Language worldviews [see: Edda Weigand, 1998]. The semantic analysis starts with word its collocation, the use in text/discourse and then to the concept in the SL and the TL may bring a perfect and reliable translation though it is an empirically driven process.

REFERENCES

1.Шевченко А. Полеміка щодо визначень поняття «місто» та його функції //

Публічне адміністрування: теорія та практика: Електронний збірник наук. праць.– 2009.– Вип. 2 (2)/ / А.Шевченко.– Режим доступу: http://www.nbuv.gov.ua/e-journals/Patp/2009_2/09saspmf.pdf.

2.Sinclair John. The Lexical Item / John Sinclair // E. Weigand (ed.). Contrastive Lexical Semantics. -Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1998. – Pp.1-24

3.Weigand Edda Contrastive Lexical Semantics / Edda Weigand.- Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1998. -268 p.

4.Xiao Richard, MceneryTony Collocation, Semantic Prosody, and Near Synonymy: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective /Richard Xiao, Tony Mcenery // Applied Linguistics. 2006. – Vol. 27. Issue1 // - Pp. 103-129.