Филологические науки/6. Актуальные проблемы перевода

Магістрант Мельниченко О.О.

М. МИКОЛАЇВ, МНУ ІМЕНІ В.О. СУХОМЛИНСЬКОГО

The problems of rendering of English clipped words and abbreviations in the field of computer engineering, the Internet and programming in Ukrainian translation

The article is dedicated to the problem of rendering of English clipped words and abbreviations in the field of computer engineering, the Internet and programming in Ukrainian translation; an analysis of the most used means of translation is given.

Key words: clipped word, abbreviation, means of translation, translation.

Research status: Clipped words translation is a complex, but also an important activity of studying national and cultural specificity of language. Nowadays clipped words and abbreviations are used in almost all spheres of human life. They are widely used in politics, mass media texts, technical texts, everyday conversations etc. A large number of such unites are used in the Internet communication. Each language has a lot of clipped words and abbreviations, as they occupy an important place among the communication units.

The problem of clipped word translation holds a specific place in linguistics and makes researchers carry out solid investigations for many decades. Clipped words and abbreviations are used both in written and in oral speech, reflecting our everyday life and the development of international relations, science, culture and technology.

Linguists are focused on thorough study of abbreviations’ peculiarities and their function in speech. These problems have been fundamentally investigated in the works of native and foreign scientists: T. Arbekova, I. Arnold, H. Bodry, V. Karaban, A. Kovalenko, I. Korunets and many others.

By definition, the term "clipped word" is more general than the term "abbreviation", but there are no exact explanations of these terms, because each linguist proposes his personal vision. In general, a clipped word - is a way of derivation, the essence of which consists in cutting off parts of the stem, or that coincides with the word or phrase that is united by general idea. Abbreviation – is a combination of reduced stems, reduced and full stems, and simple creation of original words by arbitrary reduction of a unit. Some linguists believe that a clipped word - is a clipping of the word and abbreviation – consists of initial letters or syllables of phrases or sentences. Abbreviations are sometimes called acronyms.

Main and frequently used abbreviations and other clipped words are always recorded in book applications or in special dictionaries. But almost every day new kinds of clipped words and abbreviations appear in the Internet communication. The use of these unites helps to save time and place. We have found that graphic clipped words are often used in the Internet: AFAIK - as far as I know, ICBW - I could be wrong. They are widely applied in chat rooms where different languages are used for communication and understanding each other. The peculiarity of these clipped words is a fact that they are not proper words, but phrases and even the whole sentences. Therefore, these lexical units are not a part of the vocabulary, but rather a specific sign system, a kind of a code. But many terms, personal names, realities and even stable expression have also the form of clipped words, that is why clipped words’ translation almost always causes difficulty.

We have defined that a problem of clipped word and abbreviation translation is very difficult, so we have attempted to analyze different approaches of linguists how to translate these lexical units.

Famous Bulgarian linguists Sergei Vlahov and Syder Florin offer the following means of clipped word and abbreviation translation: 1) use the national equivalent of abbreviation (HLR - МВР; UNO - ООН), but it isn’t productive in the Internet communication; 2) transcription (BBC – BBC; FIFA - ФІФА); 4) transliteration (IMHO - IMХO); 3) creation of a new abbreviation in the language of translation (in this case translator should spell it out in parentheses [3].

Famous Ukrainian scientist V. Shpak adds also combined translation. It is applied in the first use of an abbreviation and its full form in the text, with the aim to use a clipped word in the whole text instead of its full version [5].

Famous Belarusian linguist J. Golikova offers only two basic means of English clipped word and abbreviation translation – they are actually the translation (it is carried out using equivalents, analogues, etc.) as well as the transfer of lexical units (in the form of loans and transcribed and transliterated words) [4].

We have found that one of the means of clipped word and abbreviation rendering is also a descriptive translation or explication, which explains the content of the original clipped word, in which the original lexical unit is replaced by a phrase that gives an explanation or definition of this unit. Explication is a very productive mean of translation of terms and it is used when other methods are ineffective (ZIP (Zigzag In-Line Package) - найпоширеніший стандарт ущільнення файлів і формат архівів на FTP-серверах).

Conclusion

Clipped words and abbreviations are representatives of the culture in which they exist. Translation of abbreviation consists of the process of reformulation of abbreviation from one language to another. The process of reformulation consists of several steps. First of all it’s necessary to interpret each word, which constitutes abbreviation. The order of words can be changed after translation. New abbreviation is made from the new name with the next step. New initials can be completely different and abbreviations can have absolutely nothing in common in different languages. It’s also necessary to remember that not all the words are abbreviated in all languages. There are combinations of words that make the abbreviation in one language but are translated like several separate words in another.

Reference list:

1. Алексєєв Д.І. Абревіатури як новий тип слів // Розвиток словотворення сучасної англійської мови. – 3-є вид. – М., 1977. – С. 107, 202-205, 302-307.

2. Англо-український тлумачний словник з обчислювальної техніки, Інтернету і програмування. – Вид. 1 – К.: Видавничій дім «СофтПрес», 2005. – 552 с.

3. Влахов С.И., Флорин С.П. Непереводимое в переводе. – М.: Р. Валент, 2009. – 360 с.

4. Голикова Ж.А. Перевод с английского на русский: Учебное пособие – Минск: Новое знание, 2008. – 287 с.

5. Шпак В.К. Основи перекладу: граматичні та лексичні аспекти: Навчальний посібник. – К.: Знання, 2007. – 310 с.