Valery Mykhaylenko, D.Sc., Sebastian Tokar, B.A.

Chernovtsy, Ukraine

Variantological Component in the Cross-Cultural Interpretation

Summary: The present paper is focused on the semantic structure of the lexeme treasury in Global English and its National Variants (British, American, Canadian). Their common and specific components are revealed due to the conceptual, definitional, and componential analyses.

Key words: national variant, lexeme, semantic component, concept, definition, cross-cultural communication.

The success of cross-cultural communication depends on semantic universals present in the given languages (Вежбицкая, 2011: 59), though the semantic structure of their lexical nominations vary greatly, for example, the concept treasury may be verbalized by a phrase government finance institution “The department of a government in charge of the collection, management, and expenditure of the public revenue”. The interpretation of this concept (Карасик, 2013 : 93) from Global English into its National Variants needs meticulous specifications of its representations - lexeme meaning structures which mirror ethnic cultural features.

The objective of the present paper is a venture of revealing common and differential components in the semantic structure of the lexeme treasury in Global English and its British, American and Canadian Variants for a further cross-cultural English àUkrainian, English à Russian, and Ukrainian à English, Russian à English interpretation.

In Global English the concept treasury is defined as a governmental department in charge of finances and especially the collection, management, and expenditure of public revenues. It includes the following subconcepts: place in which stores of wealth are kept; the place of deposit and disbursement of collected funds; one where public revenues are deposited, kept, and disbursed; funds kept in such a depository, a governmental department in charge of finances and especially the collection, management, and expenditure of public revenues; the building in which the business of such a governmental department is transacted; government security (as a note or bill) issued by the Treasury.

The definitional analysis of the lexeme treasury in the American English language system differentiates the following constituents:

1. Printing of bills, postage, Federal Reserve notes, and minting of coins

2. Collection of taxes and enforcement of tax laws (through the IRS)

3. Management of all government accounts and debt issues

4. Overseeing U.S. banks

5. Maintaining a strong economy

6. Creating economic and job opportunities

7. Promoting the conditions enabling economic growth and stability

8. Strengthen national security by combating threats

9. Protecting the integrity of the financial system (Marriam Webster)

The dominant constituent of the treasury definition is a governmental department in charge of finances and especially the collection, management, and expenditure of public revenues, that has control over the collection, management, and disbursment of the public revenue.

The lexeme treasury in American English differentiates the following components:

1. Promoting the economic growth through policies to support job creation, sinvestment, and economic stability;

2. Overseeing the production of coins and currency;

3. Disbursement of payments to the public,

4. Revenue collection, and the funds to run the federal government.

C.f.: In American English the lexeme treasury has the component “economic growth promotion” while in British English the lexeme treasury includes the component “responsiblity for economic strategy” (Collins English Dictionary, 2009).

The concept ‘treasury’ in the British English language world view includes a government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy. The definitional analysis of the lexeme treasury in the British English language system differentiates the following constituents:

1. Public spending: including departmental spending, public sector pay and pension, annually managed expenditure (AME) and welfare policy, and capital investment;

2. Financial services policy: including banking and financial services regulation, financial stability, and ensuring competitiveness in the City;

3. Strategic oversight of the UK tax system: including direct, indirect, business, property, personal tax, and corporation tax;

4. Delivery of infrastructure projects across the public sector and facilitating private sector investment into UK infrastructure;

5. Ensuring the economy is growing sustainably

The treasury lexeme meaning reveals a structure of components (Лайонз, 2003: 120) : the government’s economic and finance ministry; control over public spending; setting the direction of the UK’s economic policy, and working to achieve strong and sustainable economic growth which form its nucleus, though there are some periphery components:

1. Achieving strong and sustainable growth;

2. Reducing the deficit and rebalancing the economy;

3. Spending taxpayers’ money responsibly;

4. Creating a simpler, fairer tax system;

5. Creating stronger and safer banks;

6. Making corporate taxes more competitive;

7. Making it easier for people to access and use financial services;

8. Improving regulation of the financial sector to protect customers and the economy.

The Treasury in both countries has the status of the Ministry of Finance while in Canada the Treasury Board is a Cabinet committee of the Queen's Privy Council of Canada.

The concept of treasury in the Canadian English language world view denotes the Cabinet committee of the Queen's Privy Council of Canada established in 1867 and given statutory powers in 1869. The president of the Treasury Board chairs a board which comprises the finance minister and 4 other ministers appointed by the governor-in-council.. The Treasury Board is responsible for accountability and ethics, financial, personnel and administrative management, comptrollership, approving regulations and most Orders-in-Council. The Secretariat makes recommendations and provides advice to the Treasury Board on policies, directives, regulations, and program expenditure proposals with respect to the management of the government's resources. The Secretariat is also responsible for the comptrollership function of government.

The concept treasury reveals the following subconcepts:

1. Cultivating the federal public service as a model workplace where professional, skilled workers are trained and motivated to serve Canadians.

2. Building management frameworks;

3. Supporting pro-active risk management;

4. Empowering partners to manage resources and report results;

5. Managing effectively the Public Purse;

6. Providing guidance so that resources soundly manage across government with a focus on results and value for money.

The definitional analysis of the lexeme treasury in the Canadian English language system differentiates the following constituents:

1. Supervising national banks and thrift institutions;

2. Advising on domestic and international financial, monetary, economic, trade and tax policy;

3. Enforcing Federal finance and tax laws;

4. Investigating and prosecuting tax evaders, counterfeiters, and forgers.

The conceptual and definitional analyses give an opportunity to reveal the meaning structure of the lexeme treasury in Canadian English:

1. Approvement of regulations;

2. Allocation of funds;

3. Financial management;

4. Comptrollership;

5. Administrative management (Canadian English Dictionary)

The present investigation is undertaken for a further comparative overview of the common and differential features of the functional semantics of the lexeme treasury as a basis for the conference translation manual in the area of finance.

REFERENCES:

Вежбицкая Анна. Семантические универсалии и базисные концепты / Анна Вежбицкая.- Москва: Языки славянских культур, 2011. – 568 с. (Язык. Семиотика. Культура).

Карасик В.И. Языковая матрица культуры / В.И. Карасик. - Москва: Гнозис, 2013. – 320 с.

Лайонз Джон. Лингвистическая семантика: Введение / Пер. с англ. В.В.Морозова и И.Б.Шатуновского. Под. общ. ред. И.Б.Шатуновского /

Джон Лайонз. - Москва: Языки славянских культур, 2003.– 400 с. (Язык. Семиотика. Культура).