Download A dictionary is the most widely used reference book in English

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ
РЕСПУБЛИКИ КАЗАХСТАН
ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
имени ШАКАРИМА г. СЕМЕЙ
Документ СМК 3 уровня
УМКД
УМКД
Учебно-методические
материалы по дисциплине
«Иностранный язык»
Редакция №1 от 11.09.2014г
УМКД 042-18-17.1.17/03-2014
УЧЕБНО-МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЙ КОМПЛЕКС
ДИСЦИПЛИНЫ
«Специально-профессиональный иностранный язык
в контексте межкультурной коммуникации»
для специальности 050207 «Переводческое дело»
УЧЕБНО-МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ МАТЕРИАЛЫ
Семей
2015
0
CONTENT
Module 1
Theme 1 ……………………………………………………………………….1-22
Theme 2 ………………………………………………………………………22-52
Theme 3 ………………………………………………………………………52-64
Theme 4 ………………………………………………………………………64-92
Theme 5 ……………………………………………………………………...92-112
Theme 6 …………………………………………………………………….113-135
Module 2
Theme 7 ……………………………………………………………………135-172
Theme 8 ……………………………………………………………………172-185
Theme 9 ……………………………………………………………………185-193
Theme 10 …………………………………………………………………..193-214
Theme 11 …………………………………………………………………..214-226
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MODULE 1
Theme 1. English language as a means of international communication. The role of English
language among culturally meaningful means of communication. The ways of scientific
representation and description of the language. Basic concepts of the theory of text.
ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
The English language has become an international language from that of a tiny island off the
European continent since it was brought from the Continent 1,500 years ago. As language
changes in time and space, English has changed in Britain and has transformed into North
American English, Australian English, and further into Nigerian, Indian, Philippine, Singaporean
Englishes as the language spread globally. In its destinations, English has developed into local
varieties by adopting and adapting to local languages and cultures in its process of inevitable
localization and internalization. English, or should I say ‘Englishes,’ has adopted concepts and
forms of indigenous languages and incorporating local cultures and traditions in order to
accommodate local needs and for the sake of identities.
In North America, ‘potato chips,’ ‘lift,’ ‘underground,’ and ‘lorry’ have become ‘French fries,’
‘elevator,’ ‘subway,’ and ‘truck’; the spelling of ‘programme’ and ‘centre’ have changed to
‘program’ and ‘center’; the pronunciation of the first consonant sound in ‘schedule’ has changed
from that of the first consonant sound in 'shot' to that of the first consonant combination in 'skirt'.
‘Have you any valuables in it?’ has become ‘Do you have any valuables in it?’ and even the
meaning of the aphorism, ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss’ has been reversed in the mobilityoriented society.
In the former British colonies in Asia and Africa which have adopted English as the official
language, the transformation is more drastic than North America or Australia due to the nonJudeo-Christian cultural climates. In many African and Asian Englishes, ‘discuss about’ is the
standard usage; the tags of tag questions are invariable ‘isn’t it’; telephone operators say ‘Come
again’ instead of ‘Please repeat it again.’ There are cases of nonnative speaker’s creativity such
as ‘infanticipating’ coined from ‘infant’ and ‘anticipating’ and ‘prepone’ coined on the analogy
of ‘postpone.
the number of speakers in the Outer Circle, which includes India, the Philippines, Singapore,
Malawi, Nigeria where English is used daily as an official language by nonnative speakers,
exceeds those of the Inner Circle, where the language is a mother tongue as in Britain, North
America and Australia. Not only exceeds in the number of speakers, the Outer Circle people are
gradually shifting their norm of usage from Anglo-American (exonormative) standards to their
own (endonormative) standards. Kachru (2005, 12) refers to them as ‘functional native speakers’
and many of my colleagues in Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines, and
Singapore have native speaker’s intuition and say that they feel English is one of their native
languages. If English in the Outer Circle continues to be used according to their endonormative
standards and develops into distinct varieties, will English follow the trace of Latin which
diversified into Italian, Spanish, French, and other separate languages? The answer is NO.
The U.S.-led economic, technological, and cultural globalization has made English the most
widely used language in the world, but at the same time its worldwide spread has brought deAnglo-Americanization of the language. Today 80 percent of English use is among nonnative
speakers who use it as a lingua franca and this tendency will continue because the number of
English speakers in the Expanding Circle far exceeds that of the Inner and Outer Circles. It
means that English is required to keep its international intelligibility despite its localization and
resulting diversification. Here arises the conflict between the force to diverge the English
language in the Outer Circle into more distinct local varieties for international use and that to
converge the language into one that has more linguistic and cultural commonalities for use as a
means of international and cross-cultural communication. The issue is left to language and
language education policy makers to solve.
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Although English is a global lingua franca in politics, business, science and technology, and
academia, the frequency, density, and significance of its use is increasing more within what I call
‘wider region’ such as Europe, Asian, and Latin America than in the global scale. In each region,
standardization of ‘regional English’ is taking place, which has enough locality to function as a
means of identity and expression of local culture and yet has enough international intelligibility
to function as a global lingua franca. I classified those regional standard Englishes into six—
Native Speaker English, Euro-English, Asian English, Latin English, African English, and Arab
English. Euro-English among them is most advanced standardizing regional variety as you hear
in radio and TV news, in business interactions, and conferences in Europe. It is clearly not
British nor American native speaker’s English which has slurs and blurs at times. It is ‘school
English-like,’ sounding a little artificial and bookish, yet precise, clear and highly intelligible.
For example, [t] of [nt] in ‘twenty’ and 'international’ is not dropped, neither is [t] of ‘water’
changed to a 'flapped t" as in American English. The rhotic ‘r’ in ‘car’ and ‘park’ is clearly
pronounced unlike the practice in British English. Further, vowels in the unstressed syllables are
not necessarily turned to schwa (´). These are welcoming phenomena since the spelling and
pronunciation need to agree for English to develop as English as an International Language
(EIL). Its irregularity should be de-irregularized for higher learnability and usability. Words such
as ‘Worcester,’ ‘thorough’ and ‘through’ are bad examples (See the highway sign THRU
TRAFFIC). At the word level, hybrid expressions such as ‘Telefon junkie’ and ‘Drogenfreak’
are increasingly heard and seen as a sign of Europeanization of English (Jenkins 2003, 42). At
the syntactic level, fewer two-word verbs and idiomatic, metaphoric or proverbial expressions
are used.
The survey done by a Eurobarometer study (1998) indicates that German native speakers are top
of the European Union (EU) population (24%) and followed by French, English, Italian native
speakers (16% each). However, 31% of Europeans speak English as an added language while
French is only 12%, showing almost half of them (47%) speak English for cross-cultural
communication in EU.
Ten more countries from east Europe joined EU in 2004 and the percentage of English speakers
must have further increased by now. How English functions as a means of cross-cultural
communication within and outside EU will be interesting to see.
In Asia, more than 600 million Asians use English and every Asian city issues English language
newspapers and offers radio and TV programs in English. English is used intensively and
extensively, making English an important pan-Asian lingua franca in business and academic
world. ASEAN countries use English in their meetings. SEAMEO RELC in Singapore trains and
retrains English teachers in Southeast Asia and dispatches trained Asian teachers of English to
those countries. Asianization of English is going on to establish Asian English as regional
standard English.
These regional standard Englishes are the first step toward EIL, which is the core of these
Englishes, sharing basic grammar and vocabulary, pragmatic strategies, and intelligibility. My
concept of EIL is ‘a loose league of regional standard Englishes with high mutual intelligibility
which are spoken and understood by the educated speakers of any varieties’ (Yano, 2001, 124).
EIL is not a single standard international English which has the higher prestige and function than
the existing British and American standard Englishes. Such a single EIL is not possible to
establish nor necessary to do so. Educated speakers of any regional standard Englishes can
communicate cross-culturally and cross-regionally with any educated English speakers, native or
not, with no difficulty of understanding.
Cook (2003, 29) points out that being a native speaker does not presuppose that he or she has
proficiency in writing, a large size of vocabulary, a wide range of styles, and ability to
communicate across diverse communities. In all of these aspects of proficiency, he continues, the
expertise of the non-native speaker often exceeds that of many native speakers. When English
language teaching becomes increasingly efficient, it no longer matters where you are educated—
the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, or the Expanding Circle, but how you are educated. In the not
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so distant future, the issue of being a native speaker or not will be replaced by that of being
educated or not. It is more so at the professional level since gaining areas of knowledge and
expertise has much less to do with being a native English speaker or not. Proficiency in English
is shifting from the communal factor—whether you are brought up to be a native speaker to the
educational factor—whether you receive education and training. Medical doctors can participate
in an international conference wherever he or she received medical training—Brazil, Russia,
Japan, or Poland, but not untrained native speakers of English.
When language education raises the generation who turns Euro-English as a communication
means of pan-European culture, Asian English as that of pan-Asian culture, and so on, they are
speakers of EIL, a communication means of general human culture, which overarch or underlie
specific cultures.
Literature.
1. Yasukata Yano, Waseda University, Japan, Cross-cultural Communication and English as an
International Language, 2006
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS A MEANS OF CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Introduction
In our time of globalization, we have more to be exposed to and share with than ever before in
terms of culture- beliefs, worldviews, values, attitudes and ideologies- but at the same time much
of them remains different and unshared, which is enhanced by raising people’s awareness of
cultural, ethnic, and religious identities.
The Internet and modern technology have opened up new marketplaces, and allow us to promote
our businesses to new geographic locations and cultures. And given that it can now be as easy to
work with people remotely as it is to work face-to-face, cross-cultural communication is
increasingly the new norm.
Today, we communicate beyond the national borders by e-mailing, chatting, blogging,
webbrowsing besides speaking and writing. In these days of global networking, we are thrown
into the society of deterritorialized, hybrid, changing and conflicting cultures, where we are
expected to become pluricultural individuals. In the light of cross-cultural communication, the
language policy and planning of the Council of Europe is a grand experiment based on
plurilingualism and pluriculturalism.
Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures
provide people with ways of thinking - ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. Thus
the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk
the "same" language. When the languages are different, and translation has to be used to
communicate, the potential for misunderstandings increases.
It is important to teach our students cross-cultural values and attitudes and their impact on how
we communicate across cultures.
Our cultural milieu shapes our world view in such a way that reality is thought to be objectively
perceived through our own cultural pattern, and a differing perception is seen as either false or
‘strange” and is thus oversimplified. If people recognize and understand differing world views,
they will usually adopt a positive and open-minded attitude towards cross-cultural differences. A
close-minded view of such differences often results in the maintenance of a stereotype – an
oversimplification and blanket assumption. A stereotype assigns group characteristics to
individuals purely on the basis of their cultural membership.[1]
The stereotype may be accurate in depicting the “typical” member of a culture, but it is
inaccurate for describing a particular individual, simply because every person is unique and all of
a person’s behavioral characteristics cannot be accurately predicted on the basis of
overgeneralized median point along a continuum of cultural norms. To judge a single member of
a culture by overall traits of the culture is both to prejudge and to misjudge that person. Worse,
stereotypes have a way of potentially devaluing people from other cultures.
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Sometimes our oversimplified concepts of members of another culture are downright false.
While stereotyping, or over generalizing, people from other cultures should be avoided, crosscultural research has shown that there are indeed characteristics of culture that make one culture
different from another.
Learners and teachers of a foreign language need to understand cultural differences, to recognize
openly that people are not all the same beneath the skin. There are real differences between
groups and cultures. We can learn to perceive those differences, appreciate them, and above all
to respect and value the personhood of every human being.
Because learning a foreign language implies some degree of learning a foreign culture, it is
important to understand what we mean by the process of cultural learning. Many students in
foreign language classrooms learn the language with little or no sense of the depth of cultural
norms and patterns of the people who speak the language. Another perspective was the notion
that a foreign language curriculum could present culture as “a list of facts to be cognitively
consumed” by the student, devoid of any significant interaction with the culture. Robinson-Stuart
and Nocon , casting those perspectives aside as ineffective and misconceived, suggested that
language learners undergo culture learning as a “process, that is, as a way of perceiving,
interpreting, feeling, being in the world,… and relating to where one is and who one meets’.[2]
Culture learning is a process of creating shared meaning between cultural representatives. It is
experiential, a process that continues over years of language learning, and penetrates deeply into
one’s patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Second language learning involves the acquisition of a second identity. This creation of a new
identity is at the heart of culture learning, or what some might call acculturation.
Stella Ting-Toomey describes three ways in which culture interferes with effective cross-cultural
understanding. [3]
First is what she calls "cognitive constraints." These are the frames of reference or world views
that provide a backdrop that all new information is compared to or inserted into.
Second are "behavior constraints." Each culture has its own rules about proper behavior which
affect verbal and nonverbal communication. Whether one looks the other person in the eye-or
not; whether one says what one means overtly or talks around the issue; how close the people
stand to each other when they are talking--all of these and many more are rules of politeness
which differ from culture to culture.
Ting-Toomey's third factor is "emotional constraints." Different cultures regulate the display of
emotion differently. Some cultures get very emotional when they are debating an issue. They
yell, they cry, they exhibit their anger, fear, frustration, and other feelings openly. Other cultures
try to keep their emotions hidden, exhibiting or sharing only the "rational" or factual aspects of
the situation.
All of these differences tend to lead to communication problems. If the people involved are not
aware of the potential for such problems, they are even more likely to fall victim to them,
although it takes more than awareness to overcome these problems and communicate effectively
across cultures.
The key to effective cross-cultural communication is knowledge. First, it is essential that people
understand the potential problems of cross-cultural communication, and make a conscious effort
to overcome these problems. Second, it is important to assume that one’s efforts will not always
be successful, and adjust one’s behavior appropriately.
We communicate so much information nonverbally in conversations that often the verbal aspect
of the conversation is negligible. This is particularly true for interactive language functions in
which social contact is of key importance and in which it is not what you say that counts but how
you say it—what you convey with body language, gestures, eye contact, physical distance, and
other nonverbal messages. Nonverbal communication, however, is so subtle and subconscious in
a native speaker that verbal language seems, by comparison, quite mechanical and systematic.
Language becomes distinctly human through its nonverbal dimension, or what Edward
Hall called the "silent language." The expression of culture is so bound up in nonverbal
5
communication that the barriers to culture learning are more nonverbal than verbal. Verbal
language requires the use of only one of the five sensory modalities: hearing. But there remain in
our communicative repertoire three other senses by which we communicate every day, if we for
the moment rule out taste as falling within а сcommunicative category (though messages are
indeed sent and received through the taste modality). We will examine each of these.
Kinesics
Every culture and language uses body language, or kinesics, in unique but clearly interpretable
ways. "There was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture," wrote Shakespeare
in The Winter's Tale. All cultures throughout the history of humankind have relied on kinesics
for conveying important messages. Books like Dresser's Multicultural Manners join a long string
of manuals offering light-hearted but provocative insights on the use of kinesics in North
American and other cultures. Today, virtually every book on communication explains how you
communicate—and miscommunicate—when you fold your arms, cross your legs, stand, walk,
move your eyes and mouth, and so on.
But as universal as kinesic communication is, there is tremendous variation cross-culturally and
cross-linguistically in the specific interpretations of gestures. Human beings all move their heads,
blink their eyes, move their arms and hands, but the significance of these movements varies from
society to society. Consider the following categories and how you would express them in
American culture.
Agreement, "yes"
"No!"
"Come here"
Lack of interest, "I don't know"
Flirting signals, sexual signals
Insults, obscene gestures
There are conventionalized gestural signals to convey these semantic categories. Are those
signals the same in another language and culture? Sometimes they are not. And sometimes a
gesture that is appropriate in one culture is obscene or insulting in another. Nodding the head, for
example, means "yes" among most European language speakers. But among the Ainu of Japan,
"yes" is expressed by bringing the arms to the chest and waving them. The pygmy Negritos of
interior
Malaya indicate "yes" by thrusting the head sharply forward, and people from the Punjab of
India throw their heads sharply backward. The Ceylonese curve their chins gracefully downward
in an arc to the left shoulder, whereas Bengalis rock their heads rapidly from one shoulder to the
other.
Contact
Is eye contact appropriate between two participants in a conversation? When is it permissible not
to maintain eye contact? What does eye contact or the absence thereof signal? Cultures differ
widely in this particular visual modality of nonverbal communication. In American culture it is
permissible, for example, for two participants of unequal status to maintain prolonged eye
contact. In fact, an American might interpret lack of eye contact as discourteous lack of attention,
while in Japanese culture eye contact might be considered rude. Intercultural interference in this
nonverbal category can lead to misunderstanding.
Not only is eye contact itself an important category, but the gestures, as it were, of the eyes are in
some instances keys to communication. Eyes can signal interest, boredom, empathy, hostility,
attraction, understanding, misunderstanding, and other messages. The nonverbal language of
each culture has different ways of signaling such messages. An important aspect of unfettered
and unambiguous conversation in a second language is the acquisition of conventions for
conveying messages by means of eye signals.
Proxemics
Physical proximity, or proxemics, is also a meaningful communicative category. Cultures vary
widely in acceptable distances for conversation. Edward Hall calculated acceptable distances for
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public, social-consultative, personal, and intimate discourse. He noted, for example, that
Americans feel that a certain personal space "bubble" has been violated if a stranger stands
closer than twenty to twenty-four inches away unless space is restricted, such as in a subway or
an elevator. However, a typical member of a Latin American culture would feel that such a
physical distance would be too great. The interesting thing is that neither party is specifically
aware of what is wrong when the distance is not right. They merely have vague feelings of
discomfort or anxiety.
Sometimes objects—desks, counters, other furniture—serve to maintain certain physical
distances. Such objects tend to establish both the overall register and relationship of participants.
Thus, a counter between two people maintains a consultative mood. Similarly, the presence of a
desk or a computer monitor will set the tone of a conversation. Again, however, different
cultures interpret different messages in such objects. In some cultures, objects might enhance the
communicative process, but in other cases they impede it.
Artifacts
The nonverbal messages of clothing and ornamentation are also important aspects of
communication. Clothes often signal a person's sense of self- esteem, socioeconomic class, and
general character. Jewelry also conveys certain messages. In a multicultural conversation group,
such artifacts, along with other nonverbal signals, can be a significant factor in lifting barriers,
identifying certain personality characteristics, and setting a general mood.
Kinesthetics
Touching, sometimes referred to as kinesthetics, is another culturally loaded aspect of nonverbal
communication. How we touch others and where we touch them is sometimes the most
misunderstood aspect of nonverbal communication. Touching in some cultures signals a very
personal or intimate register, while in other cultures extensive touching is commonplace.
Knowing the limits and conventions is important for clear and unambiguous communication.
Olfactory Dimensions
Our noses also receive sensory nonverbal messages. The olfactory modality is of course an
important one for the animal kingdom, but for the human race, too, different cultures have
established different dimensions of olfactory communication. The twentieth century has created
in most technological societies a penchant for perfumes, lotions, creams, and powders as
acceptable and even necessary; natural human odors, especially perspiration, are thought to be
undesirable. In some societies, of course, the smell of human perspiration is quite acceptable and
even attractive. Second language and especially second culture learners need to be aware of the
accepted mores of other cultures in the olfactory modality.
We cannot underestimate the importance of nonverbal communication in second language
learning and in conversational analysis.
Communicative competence includes nonverbal competence—knowledge of all the varying
nonverbal semantics of the second culture, and an ability both to send and receive nonverbal
signals unambiguously.
The language teacher and researcher, in dialog with each other, can be a part of that creative
event by fashioning an integrated and cohesive understanding of how learners acquire the ability
to communicate clearly and effectively in a second language.
We asked our students to compare their culture nonverbal communication norms (in our classes
we have Kazakhs, Tatars, Uzbeks, Koreans, etc) with that of Americans.
Eye contact – in Muslim culture everything depends on a sex (male, female). A woman doesn’t
maintain eye contact speaking to a man. Speaking to boss, they don’t maintain eye contact either.
Americans consider eye contact to be important in a conversation.
As for proxemics, when a woman speaks to a woman, the distance is closer than when she
speaks to a man. Proxemics is also important in American culture.
Artifacts – the length of a dress is important for girls, though most of them keep to European
style now. As for jewelry, it is up to their taste. Silver, they believe, protects from an “evil eye”.
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Kinesthetics: Touching signals very personal register. But men sometimes embrace each other
while greeting.
Olfactory dimensions – though it can seem strange, girls don’t use perfume as much as men.
To demonstrate our students how nonverbal communication is important, we organize a shortterm project Cross-Cultural Encounters. The aim of the project is to make students experience
and explore some cultural differences. The students work in small groups, then half-class, and in
the end – whole class. It does not take a long time – about 40 minutes.
Procedure: Divide the class into two groups and designate them Group A and Group B.
Separate the groups, using different rooms if possible. Give each student a copy of his group's
work sheet to read.
When the students have finished reading, give them five minutes to discuss and practice the rules
and behaviors indicated on their sheets. If the class is large, Groups A and В may be subdivided
for this step. If both groups are in the same room, this discussion and practice should be done in
such a way that members of the two groups do not hear and see each other.
Next, explain to the class that they will each receive two cards. Designate one color the Haves
and the other the Needs. Hand out the cards in such a way that the Haves of one group match the
Needs of the other.
The students will then walk around the class and talk to people in order to locate those whose
Have cards match their Need card.
The teacher may want to demonstrate this part of the activity.
In searching for the cards, the students must follow the cultural rules and behaviors they have
just read and discussed.
Give them five to ten minutes to try to locate the cards. Then send the students back to their
original groups.
Ask them to discuss how they felt about the people from the other culture and to make a list of
the rules that they thought the people from the other culture were following.
Finally, have the groups report back to the whole class. Discuss the observations and feelings
resulting from the exercise.
Writing Output:
1. Describe your feelings while you were playing the game and explain why you think you felt
that way.
2. Compare the two cultures described in the game.
3. Compare your culture and American culture on the issue of touching. Interview one or two
Americans to check when they feel they can or can't touch someone.
Cross-Cultural-Encounter Work Sheets
Work Sheet A
1. Time is very important in your culture. When you are talking to someone you must get to the
point quickly. Otherwise, they will think you are wasting time.
2. In your culture it is important to look directly into the yes of the people you are talking to. If
you do not, the people you are talking to may get the idea that you are not being completely
honest with them.
3. When you are talking to someone in a friendly way, you stand close enough to them to feel
their breath.
4. In your culture it is impolite to talk about another person’s belongings – clothes, furniture, etc.
Work Sheet B
1. Politeness is very important in your culture. When you meet people, you must show an interest
in them and their family. This is particularly important if you have a request to make of them, as
they must be convinced that you like them for themselves – not for anything they can do for you.
2. In your culture when you are talking to people, it is polite to look down except when you have
a problem understanding what they are saying.
3. When you are speaking, you should stand several feet away from the person you are talking to.
This is so you will not breathe on them and spread germs.
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4. To say thank you politely, you put your hands together and bow your head without speaking.
To make our students understand the importance of understanding and valuing other country
customs and traditions we ask them to do a culture quiz. After this, the students read the text to
see if they were right. Then we organize a discussion and ask our students if Kazakhs have any
traditions that may surprise the representatives of other cultures. As we teach Business English
and English for Economists, our examples are taken mostly from the business world.
There are many different traditions in addressing people in the world. In some cultures people
use each other’s first names immediately, in other cultures, the first name is only used by the
close friends and family. And in some cultures the first name is the family name and the second
name is the given name.[4]
As the example, we use the text “A Singaporean – American Encounter”
A partner in one of New York’s leading private banking firms went to Singapore to meet one of
his clients. In Singapore there are three different cultural traditions: Chinese, Malaysian and
English. His clients were ethnic Chinese.
The banker wanted to do everything correctly, so on his way to Singapore he memorized the
names of three representatives he would meet. In the first meeting with the representatives and
some business contacts, he began by addressing the top man, Lo Win Hao, as Mr. Hao. As the
meeting continued, he made sure to address each representative by name. After a while, one of
his contacts passed a note to the American banker. The note said, “Too friendly, too soon”.
After reading the text, the students discuss the following questions:
1. What did the note mean?
2. Why is it important to know about the traditions for addressing your foreign business partner?
3. Have you ever been called by the wrong name or was your name pronounced incorrectly?
How did you feel? What did you do? Did you correct a person or correct the mistake?
Using this text as a starting point, we organize a short-term project, in which students compare
ways of addressing people in Kazakhstani culture, Turkish, and American cultures. The final
product of such a project is students’ short presentations.
You
Turkey In America
1. How do people address
By first name or nickname
classmates?
2. How do people address their
By first name or nickname
business colleagues?
3. What different titles are used for
Miss or Ms for unmarried women and
women?
Mrs. Or Ms for married women
4. How do people address a person
Usually by first name
at their business social level if they
have just first met?
5. How do people address a boss or
Usually by first name. If there is a large
supervisor?
difference in power they may use Mr.
or Ms.
6. How do people address a
By first name
secretary or receptionist?
7. Are there social titles in a
In a company they do not use different
company depending on their
titles for different positions. Education
positions or their education?
and other professionals sometimes use
their titles but usually in business cards
and letters
Students can understand the importance of culture awareness doing this simple task: Read about
the problems companies had in selling their goods. What went wrong?
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1. Western companies had problems selling refrigerators in Japan until they changed the design
to make them quieter.
2. In Saudi Arabia newspaper adverts for an airline showed an attractive hostess serving
champagne to happy passengers. A lot of passengers cancelled their flight reservations.
3. In airline company called itself Emu, after the Australian bird. But Australians didn’t want to
use the airline.
4. A TV commercial for a cleaning product showed a little girl cleaning up the mess her brother
made. The commercial caused problems to Canada.
5. Several European and American firms couldn’t sell their product in Dubai when they run
advertising campaign in Arabic.
6. A soap powder ad had a picture of dirty clothes on the left, a box of soup in the middle and
clean clothes on the right. The soap didn’t sell well in the Middle East.
7. A company had problems when it tried to introduce instant coffee to the French market.
8. A toothpaste manufacturer couldn’t sell its products in parts of South East Asia.
9. An American golf ball manufacturer launched its products in Japan packed in boxes of four. It
had to change the pack size.
10. A ladies’ electric shaver was sold well throughout Europe but not in Italy.
Here are the reasons of the problems, but they are in the wrong order. Number them from 1 to
10. How many you get right?
1. In Japanese word for “four” sounds like the word “death”. Things don’t sell well fourpacked.
2. People thought the commercial too sexist and reinforced old male/female stereotypes.
3. Unveiled women don’t walk with men in Saudi Arabia and alcohol is illegal.
4. 90% of the population came from Pakistan, India, Iran and Arabic was the wrong
language.
5. It seems Italian men prefer ladies’ legs unshaven.
6. The advertisers forgot that in this part of the world people usually read from right to left.
7. The Emu can’t fly.
8. The people in this area didn’t want white teeth they thought drake-strained teeth were
beautiful and they tried to blacken them.
9. Japanese houses were small and sometimes walls were made of paper. It was impossible
for the refrigerators to be quiet.
10. Making “real” coffee was an important part of French way of life. Instant coffee was too
casual.
Case study is often used by us to present cultural differences and how they can affect
negotiations and business.
Whom should we send?
A US- based computer software company has recently heard from a Nigerian manufacturing
company. The Nigerian company has expressed interest in one of software programs. The
Nigerian company has invited the US Company to Nigeria to demonstrate the software.
The US Company has been very successful domestically, but this will be the first time it has ever
ventured into the international business world. The company would like to expand and begin to
build status in the international community. Being successful with the negotiations would help
the company very much.
The top managers have come together to plan a business strategy for the Nigerian business trip.
They must also decide who the most appropriate person to send to Nigeria to represent the
company is. The person chosen must be a highly competent negotiator, able to persuade the
Nigerians that the company’s software is the best in the market and exactly what the Nigerian
company needs. Therefore, they must think very carefully about the qualities of the person they
send.
After comprehension checking questions, we ask students to decide in groups which qualities can
affect the negotiations. The students rank them in an order of importance.
10
1 Very important.
2 Not important
1. Educational background (degrees, universities, attendant)
2. Sex (male, female)
3. Age.
4. Technical knowledge of the company’s product.
5. Seniority and experience in the company.
6. Personal connections.
7. Social competence, good social skills. Social status in the community.
8. Power and authority position within the company (power to make decisions).
9. Symbolic position of authority within the company (no power to make decisions).
10. Respect for authorities and rules.
After the students discussed the qualities, they read descriptions of three possible people of the
company could send to Nigeria. One of the representatives is a woman. The students decide in
groups who their final choice is and why.
They should take into the consideration the following:
Which of negotiator qualities of the chart their choices have?
Would they consider sending a second person? Why or why not?
Do they think they should consider the characteristics of the other country’s negotiator’s when
deciding whom to send? Why or why not?
Then Group A reads Nigerian cultural information, Group И – the US cultural information. They
try to find the answers to the following questions:
1. If you are seriously interested in doing business, what qualities are most important in the
negotiators you send? Why?
2. How important is age?
3. What gives a person respect in a company?
4. What other qualities are important in a negotiator? What qualities are not important?
5. What is the role of women in business?
6. What is more common, negotiating in groups or alone?
Meeting as a whole class the students discuss;
1. Which cultural differences could cause the most serious problems between the Nigerian and
the U.S. negotiators?
2. Based on your notes, what person or people do you think would be most appropriate to send to
Nigeria? Does your choice differ from your group initial choice?
3. Who would be the least appropriate person to send? Why?
Next case study is connected with training of the international executive.
Many companies are now helping their employees build their cross-cultural communication
skills. These companies offer cultural training workshops and seminars. Each year more and
more companies are offering this type of training. They realize the importance of preparing their
employees for very different and challenging international business world.
Imagine that you and your group mates are salespeople for a sports clothes manufacturer which
has been very successful domestically, but has never had any success internationally. The
president of your company would like to try the international market again. This time she would
try exporting products to Turkey.
She would like to set up a training program for the sales team (you and your group mates). She
has asked you to arrange a meeting to discuss what type of oversea training you should receive.
She has given you the following list of possible topics to be converted in training program. The
program is designed to help you prepare for both living and working in Turkey. Unfortunately
your company can afford only five workshops due to money problems.
Possible training programs to be offered:
History of Turkey social practices;
Turkish language;
Turkish domestic management styles (management within Turkish companies).
11
Turkish economy;
Turkish distribution practices (distribution of goods in Turkey).
Turkish negotiation styles.
Turkish politics.
Turkish cultures.
Legal aspects of Turkish business;
Organization of Turkish business;
Culture shock.
Which of the topics are most important for an overseas training program? On your own decide
which five topics are the most important and rank those five topics in order of importance. 1 =
most important. Than share your decisions in small groups. As a group, create one final list of
five topics.
Teaching Business English we usually ask our students to prepare country presentation.
Country Presentation
Imagine that someone is going to Kazakhstan to do business and that you must train them before
they go. To do this, you will prepare an oral presentation, focusing on business practices in your
country and on culture values behind these practices. You can also choose a country that interests
you, research the country and prepare a presentation focusing on the same aspects.
The students are given presentation guidelines.
Presentation Guidelines
1. You must give your group mate all the important information they will need to be more
comfortable and successful on their business trip.
2. Introduce information about the business culture as well as the country’s basic data and
information (e.g.: size of the country, economy, major exports and imports)
3. Be sure your presentation to be well referenced by doing one or more of the following:
a) contacting one of the information centers;
b) talking to actual business people from your country;
c) reading articles from magazines or books about the country;
d) surfing the Internet.
A successful international businessperson must have many personal qualities that reflect his or
her commitment to cultural awareness and understanding. How exactly can be the qualities listed
below help an international businessperson in relationships and experiences with people from
other countries?
Adaptability: being at ease and comfortable in different environments.
Flexibility: being able and willing to change your ideas or plans even on very short notice.
Tolerance for ambiguity: being able to work in a situation where you feel information is not
always complete and clear.
Internationalism: having a commitment to learning about and exploring other cultures.
For student’s independent work (SIW) we ask them to write an essay (250 words) discussing the
importance of each of the qualities and give an example of a business situation where relevant.
With globalisation on the rise, more international educational exchange and cross-cultural
interacions are being encouraged. This has led to cross-cultural training to become a discipline in
recent times. Traditionally, multinational corporations used to concentrate their training efforts
solely on expatriate managers. This resulted in assumptions of how business should be carried
out internationally.
For an instance, multinational corporations felt that replicating the exsiting staff in foreign lands,
including the same perspectives and technical knowledge would keep the company going
smoothly. That business culture had a typical top-down management structure whereby major
decisions were made at headquarters level. Line-managers were supposed to manage the daily
operations by abiding with the rules of the firm without involving in matters pertaining to crosscultural issues.
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That was then. Today, the international business environment is different. With aggressive
competition going all around, multinational corporations around the globe has identified the
increasing need for international managers to be equipped with skills on working hand in hand
with people from various cultural backgrounds. It is also becoming of increasing importance to
train all possible employees so that highly proficient staff are available upon demand.
While many companies now offer training in the different cultures where the company conducts
business, it is important that employees communicating across cultures practice patience and
work to increase their knowledge and understanding of these cultures. This requires the ability to
see that a person's own behaviors and reactions are oftentimes culturally driven and that while
they may not match are own, they are culturally appropriate.
If a leader or manager of a team that is working across cultures or incorporates individuals who
speak different languages, practice different religions, or are members of a society that requires a
new understanding, he or she needs to work to convey this.
Consider any special needs the individuals on your team may have. For instance, they may
observe different holidays, or even have different hours of operation. Be mindful of time zone
differences and work to keep everyone involved aware and respectful of such differences.
Generally speaking, patience, courtesy and a bit of curiosity go a long way. And, if you are
unsure of any differences that may exist, simply ask team members. Again, this may best be
done in a one-on-one setting so that no one feels "put on the spot" or self-conscious, perhaps
even embarrassed, about discussing their own needs or differences or needs.
Demand Tolerance
Next, cultivate and demand understanding and tolerance. In doing this, a little education will
usually do the trick. Explain to team members that the part of the team that works out of the
Australia office, for example, will be working in a different time zone, so electronic
communications and/or return phone calls will experience a delay. And, members of the India
office will also observe different holidays (such as Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday).
Most people will appreciate the information and will work hard to understand different needs and
different means used to reach common goals. However, when this is not the case, lead by
example and make it clear that you expect to be followed down a path of open-mindedness,
acceptance and tolerance.
When dealing with people in a different culture, courtesy and goodwill can also go a long way in
ensuring successful communication. Again, this should be insisted on.
If your starting point in solving problems is to assume that communication has failed, you'll find
that many problems are quickly resolved.
Keep It Simple
When you communicate, keep in mind that even though English is considered the international
language of business, it is a mistake to assume that every businessperson speaks good English. In
fact, only about half of the 800 million people who speak English learned it as a first language.
And, those who speak it as a second language are often more limited than native speakers.
When you communicate cross-culturally, make particular efforts to keeping your communication
clear, simple and unambiguous.
And (sadly) avoid humor until you know that the person you're communicating with "gets it" and
isn't offended by it. Humor is notoriously culture-specific: Many things that pass for humor in
one culture can be seen as grossly offensive in another.
Conclusion
Second language learning involves the acquisition of the second identity. This creation of a new
identity is at the heart of culture learning.
Сulture learning is a process of creating shared meaning between cultural representatives. It is
experiential, a process that continues over years of language learning, and penetrates deeply into
one’s patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting.
13
Though there are stereotypes which describe the standards and the values that guide the behavior
of representatives of different cultures, the teachers should teach their students not to blindly
follow the stereotypes because each person within this or that culture is unique.
The language teacher and researcher, in dialog with each other, can be a part of a creative event
by fashioning an integrated and cohesive understanding of how learners acquire the ability to
communicate clearly and effectively in a second language, taking into consideration peculiarities
of different cultures communication norms.
Such kinds of activities as problem-solving, discussions, case study, projects connected with
culture study are designed by the teachers to help learners to improve cross-cultural
communication skills that include:
- Verbal and non-verbal cross-cultural communication styles;
- Cross-cultural working styles and expectations;
- Language issues in a cross-cultural context;
- Tips and strategies for a better cross-cultural communication.
Literature.
1. Brown, H. Douglas. 2000. Principles of language learning and teaching. NY: Longman.
2. Robinson-Stuart, Gail and Nicon, Honorine. 1996. Second culture acquisition: Ethnography in
the foreign language classroom. Modern Language Journal 80: p. 432
3. Ting Toomey, Stella. 1999. Communicating across cultures. Guilford Publications
4. Laura M., Lynn S. 1995. Business across Cultures. London: Longman.
WORD ORDER IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The position of words and syntactic structures relative to one another is well known to be a
most important part of English syntax. On this level of linguistic analysis distinction must
naturally be made between two items: the order of words in phrase-structure and the order of
words in sentence structure.
Due to the scarcity of morphological devices English has developed a tolerably fixed wordorder which in most cases shows without fail what is the subject of the sentence.
But this is not to say that the grammatical rules of the normal word-order are strictly
observed in absolutely all cases. The form of expression may depart from the common wordorder for certain logical reasons or under the stress of emotion, considerations of style, euphonic
reasons, etc. The speaker or writer generally has some special emphasis to put on some part of
the sentence (rhetorical order).
The following comparison will show the departure from the normal word-order in expressing
subject-predicate relations (S→ P P→S);
(a) Came frightful days of snow and frost. (London) Cf. Frightful days of
now and frost came.
(b) Oh! very well. And suddenly she burst into tears of disappointment, shame and overstrain.
Followed five minutes of acute misery. (Galsworthy)
Cf. Five minutes of acute misery followed. Further examples are:
(c) He remembered Irene saying to him once: "Never was any one born more loving and
lovable than Jon". (Galsworthy)
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(d) Then arrived in a group a number of Nicholases, always punctual — the fashion up
Ladbroke Grove way; and close behind them Eustace and his men, gloomy and smelling rather
of smoke. (Galsworthy)
Variations in word-order characterising a word or a phrase as to its thematic and rhematic
quality have special communicative functions. Examine also the word-order arrangement in the
following sentences with the front-position of objects and adverbial adjuncts:
On the hearth stood an enormous bowl, with bottles beside it, glinting in the firelight. (Ch.
Snow)
...At last I turned away. On the pavement, walking towards me, was Sheila. (Ch. Snow)
Sometimes emphatic front-position of sentence-element is found without inversion of subject
and predicate. This is the case, for instance, with objects referring to what immediately precedes
in the context.
To the little I told him, he was formally sympathetic; but in his heart he thought it all
inexplicable and somewhat effeminate. (Ch. Snow)
, Of these she read to little Jon, till he was allowed to read to himself; whereupon she whisked
back to London and left them with him in a heap. (Galsworthy)
With regard to the relative positions of subject and verbal predicate there are three
possibilities which may be denoted respectively:
(a) the "normal" order S→ P;
(b) the "inverted" order P → S;
(c) the inverted order with P split up into two parts and S coming between them.
It is interesting to observe that in sentences of the third type (c) the subject often has a
lengthy attribute attached to it, which adds to its rhematic quality and semantic prevalence in the
whole statement.
“PARCELLING” AND "SEGMENTATION" IN ENGLISH SENTENCE-STRUCTURE
Flexibility in sentence-structure merits consideration in sentence-patterning with the so-called
"parcelling" by which we mean placing a syntactically dependent sentence-element out of its
usual sentence frame and setting it off by a full stop like an independent unit.
Parcelling is not infrequent in spoken English and literary prose. In such isolated position we
may find adverbial adjuncts, objective complements, attributes and epithet adjuncts. The
expressive value of such sentence-patterns, marked by special intonation contours in actual
speech, makes them most effective.
1. Adverbial adjuncts in isolated position:
Suddenly my mind leapt clear. "I should like to talk about that", I said. "Not tonight.
Tomorrow or the next day". (Ch. Snow)
2. Isolated predicatives:
He was exhausted. Completely finished, and sick with the balt water in him. (Aldridge)
15
3. Isolated subject-groups in patterns with the introductory it:
It had been the most ironical thing of all. To arrive from Gadvos after releasing those from
the Metaxists. To come back here and meet Metaxists from Egypt who want cooperation.
(Aldridge)
4. Isolated parts of complex modal predicate:
If you have troubles let me share them. You are so much to me — my only trouble I can fix
your life. Join it with mine. (Dreiser)
5. Isolated attributive adjuncts:
He had reached the centre of Parliament Square, when a figure coming towards him swerved
suddenly to its left and made in the direction of Victoria. Tall, with a swing in its walk.
(Galsworthy)
6. Prepositional and prepositionless objects in isolated position: Brian said to his cousin: "I'm
signing on as well in a way, only for life. I'm getting married". Both stopped walking. Bert
took his arm and stared: "You're not".
The final intonation of the segments seems to convert them into independent syntactic units.
The syntagmatic subordination of the separated element comes to be neutralised by its
intonation independence.
And here are a few typical examples of sub-clauses placed for emphasis out of their usual
sentence frame and set of by a full stop like independent units:
"I could be content", went on Hurstwood, "if I had you to love me. If I had you to go; for a
companion". (Salinger)
Parcelling and segmentation are both intended to give emphatic prominence to the separated
sentence-elements and as such have much in common. But the two syntactic devices are not
absolutely identical.
Parcelling can split a sentence into two or more parts, whereas segmentation is, in fact, a
twofold designation, a special kind of reduplication where the sentence is split into two
interdependent sentence-elements related as "the theme" and "the rheme" respectively, the
former being set off in a position of an independent unit.
Segmentation is also one of the universal features of syntactic arrangement. Structures of this
kind are not specifically English and are known to be fairly common in other languages. A few
typical examples for illustration:
And those geese — they don't seem, to mind your counting their features, do they?
(Galsworthy)
16
There are important treatments of the subject in Ch. Bally's Linguistique générale et
Linguistique française, where segmented sentences are referred to as consisting of two parts:
"theme" and "propos". The "theme" is generally represented in "propos" by pronouns. If the
"theme" (noun) precedes the "propos" (pronoun), the structure is called a reprise, if the "propos"
(pronoun) precedes the "theme", the structure is referred to as anticipation. Segmented sentences
have always a middle pause and special intonation.
Segmented structures make the long established order of words in French less rigid, the
lexical unit functioning in a sentence becoming ever more independent. This new trend in the
development of French syntax is gaining attention of many scholars as one of the most striking
features of its progressive development.
PROBLEMS OF THE ACTUAL DIVISION OF THE SENTENCE
Syntactic description may begin with "discourse" analysis as its starting point.
In these terms, syntax is described as "textlinguistics" concerned primarily with the
grammatical organisation and semantic aspects of supra-phrasal unities.
A supra-phrasal unity usually functioning as a communicative whole consists of a number of
semantically related sentences. In writing it corresponds to "paragraph", in spoken language this
semantic unity is signalled by pausation.
A "paragraph" is a traditional term used in manuscripts and printing to indicate a distinct
subdivision of a discourse, chapter, or writing. It is marked off by indentation at the beginning
and a break in the line at the end.
As a logical category the paragraph is characterised by coherence and relative unity of the
ideas expressed, as a linguistic category it is a communicative unit marked off by such formal
linguistic means as intonation and pauses of various lengths.
A supra-phrasal unit is analysed into sentences and phrases as interdependent units, the value
of which results from the simultaneous presence of the others.
Paragraphs in pictorial and emotive prose break up the narrative not only to facilitate
understanding but also for emphasis.
Take the following for illustration:
He lay flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and
high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the pine trees. The mountainside sloped gently where
he lay; but below it was steep and he could see the dark of the oiled road winding through the
pass. There was a stream alongside the road and far down the pass he saw a mill beside the
stream and the falling water of the dam, white in the summer sunlight. (Hemingway)
Discourse analysis then carries our attention to the actual division of the sentences making up
a supra-phrasal unity, i.e. their communicative function in a given situation, in other words, the
"functional sentence perspective", which is, in fact, the main category on this level of linguistic
analysis.
17
By actual division we mean dividing a sentence into two sections, one of which contains that
which is the starting point of the message — "the theme", and the other — the new information
for which the sentence has been spoken or written — "the rheme".
The two terms are Greek in origin: "theme" comes from the Greek root the- "to set", "to
establish" and means "that which is set or established". The term "rheme" is derived from the
root rhe- "to say" or "tell" and means "that which is said or told about".
There have been several pairs of terms proposed for this purpose, such as "psychological
subject" and "psychological predicate"1, "lexical subject" and "lexical predicate"2, "semantic
subject" and "semantic predicate". The terms "psychological subject" and "psychological
predicate", introduced by the German scholar H. Paul3, include a notion of individual
psychology, which is beyond the sphere of linguistics itself. Other terms seem to be inadequate
as incompatible with our general approach to analysing language phenomena.
Variation in actualising a word or a phrase in a sentence is organically combined with
changes in the order of words.
The grammatical arrangement of words in such patterns may well illustrate the fact that the
formal and the logical subject of the utterance are two independent elements.
The hierarchy of the components of the utterance is generally made explicit by their
syntagmatic relations in the grammatical organisation of the sentence.
We naturally cannot say that every sentence must necessarily consist of two such sections.
Some sentences, one-member sentences, in particular, cannot be divided up in this way, and
things are not clear with some other types.
However, most sentences do consist of these two sections and the relation between the
syntactic structure of the sentence and its division into those two sections merit consideration.
In most Indo-European languages the logical structure of the thought expressed by a sentence
is indicated by word-order but the functional value of the order of words is naturally not always
the same in languages of different types, where we always find their own idiosyncratic traits and
conventional practices of different character.
In a language with a highly developed morphological system and free word order
arrangement the order of words is widely used as a means to make the functional sentence
perspective explicit.
In languages like English or French, for instance, the grammatical function of the fixed
word-order does not always permit the rearrangement of sentence-elements.
Recourse is often made to other linguistic devices doing this duty, e. g.: specific syntactic
patterns, articles, particles and adverbs of emphatic precision (even, only, merely, solely, too,
just, notably, particularly, especially, positively, etc.), prosodic (suprasegmental) means, such as
variation in pitch, emphatic stress, pausation, etc.
The classifying indefinite article is very often used to introduce something that makes part of
the new information. Examples are numerous.
18
Examine the following for illustration:
1. (а) Девушка выглянула из окна.
Т
R
(b) Из окна выглянула девушка. Т
R
(a) The girl looked out of the window.
T
R
(b) A girl looked out of the window.
R
T
2. Лесничество было недалеко от деревни.
T
R
Недалеко от деревни было лесничество. T
R
(a) The forestry was near the village.
T
R
(b) There was a forestry near the village.
R
T
The functional sentence perspective (FSP) in Russian is signalled by the word-order
arrangement: the words девушка and лесничество are the theme when they stand at the
beginning of the sentence and the rheme when they are in the end-position. In English this
difference is made clear by the use of the articles in (1) and the structure with "there is" in (2).
Further examples are:
When she left Ernest's a huge basket of groceries rested at the foot of the pram, and the small
fortune of a pound note lay in her coat pocket. (Sillitoe)
In answer to the ring, appeared a page boy with a silver soup tureen. (Galsworthy)
The role of the order of words used to signal the T—R arrangement is most evident in
examples like the following:
And fast into this perilous gulf of night walked Bosinney, and fast after him walked George.
(Galsworthy)
Cf. И. Боснии шел быстро прямо в волны ночи, грозившей бедой, и так же быстро шел
за ним Джордж.
The actual division of the sentence stands in vivid and clear relief in syntactic structures with
double inversion by which we mean not only putting the subject before the predicate but
19
separating the verbal predicate. A few typical examples are given below, others will readily
occur to the student.
He stooped over the drawer where she kept her jewels; it was not locked, and came open as
he pulled; the jewel box had the key in it. This surprised him until he remembered that it was
sure to be empty. He opened it.
It was not empty. Divided in the little green velvet compartment, were all the things he had
given her, even her watch, and stuck into the recess that contained the watch was a threecornered note addressed "Soames Forsyte", in Irene's handwriting. (Galsworthy)
The idea about the jewel box is given in the previous sentence; the adverbial adjunct and the
predicate "Divided in the little green velvet compartment were" are the starting point of the
statement (the theme) and the new information is carried by the subject of the sentence "all the
things he had given her, even her watch" — the rheme.
Similarly: "stuck into the recess that contained the watch was "is the theme, and the new
information is carried by the subject "a three-cornered note addressed "Soames Forsyte", in
Irene's handwriting"— the rheme.
It is interesting to observe that in sentence patterns of the given type the subject often has a
lengthy attribute attached to it, which adds to its rhematic quality and semantic prevalence in the
whole statement.
In different speech events the components of the functional sentence perspective may
correspond to different sentence-elements. In each case variation in the T—R arrangement as
motivated by the consituation will be made clear by variation in prosody.
(a) John is going to Spain next week.
T
R
→ an answer to the question: "When is John going to Spain?"
(b) John is going to Spain next week.
T
R
T
Syntactic means to express the rhematic quality of the subject include also structures of
predication with the passive verb-forms and converted subject introduced by the preposition by.
Fixed phrases of emphatic precision it is... (it was) also can, by situation, lay emphasis on any
part of the sentence and intensify its rhematic quality.
Sentences that are introduced by it is (it was...) have special traits of their patterning and are
logically interesting. We may reasonably say that they homonymically combine a grammatical
and a stylistic meaning always signalled by the speech context or situation.
The use of such structures is always a logical result of the previous linguistic situations, and it
is but natural that only the syntactical context can define their functional and stylistic value, with
all the subtle shades of subjective modal force potentially implicit in them.
20
Variation in actualising a word or a phrase in a sentence is organically combined with
changes in the order of words. The two devices in such structures appear inextricably involved
and are inseparable.
The grammatical arrangement of words in these patterns may well illustrate the fact that the
formal and the logical subject in a sentence are two independent elements.
The it-inversion is useful in all types of prose as filling the position of the sentence opener
with a structural word that enables postponement of the theme.
The foremost notion in the speaker's thoughts, i. e. the logical subject of the utterance is the
element introduced by it is... (it was ...).
When we say It is the teacher that decides or It was the student I was looking for, we mean:
the teacher is the deciding person and the student was the young man I was looking for. The
relative clause thus does not restrict the teacher or the student but obviously belongs to it. It is
coffee I like best of all may be easily transformed into Coffee is what I like best of all. This seems
to explain why in such sentences we can have a that-clause or a contact-clause after a word
which is in itself so definite that it cannot be further restricted:
It is he that must decide.
It was our victory that saved the whole world from fascist slavery.
We cannot fail to see this logical connection in some proverbial sentences, which, analysed
differently, will give no sense:
It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest.
The linguistic essence of structures with it is, it was has been variously treated by
grammarians. Patterns of this sort are sometimes referred to as special emphatic forms of a
simple sentence (H. Poutsma, O. Jespersen), complex sentences with emphatic attributive
clauses (E. Kruisinga), complex sentences with subordinate subject clauses (G. Curme)1.
Any part of the sentence can thus be made prominent and intensified in its emphatic quality.
Examples follow:
a) t h e s u b j e с t of the sentence:
It was not she who was after them, but they after her. (Galsworthy) The problem in the
background of her consciousness was how to help him, and she turned the conversation in
that direction, but it was Martin who came to the point first. (London)
b) t h e o b j e c t of the sentence:
He it was whom they cheered. (Bates)
c) the prepositional object:
It was not the results of their experiments that we disapproved of, but some diagrams (the
results of their experiment — the rheme of the sentence).
21
d)the attributive adjunct: It's an ill wind that blows nobody good (proverb).
e) a d verb і a 1 s of time:
It was at this time that he wrote letters of enquiry to the general... (London)
f) adverbials of manner:
It was thus that Frank Algernon Cowperwood's Chicago financial career was definitely
launched. (Dreiser)
With reference to persons, sentence-patterns with the pronoun he or she are also common.
He would indeed be a clever man who could decipher this old manuscript.
As a matter of fact structures with it is (it was) combine two functions: expressing syntactic
relations of subordination and laying logical emphasis on what is prominent in the speaker's
mind by placing the words expressing the given idea in an unusual position.
It is to be noted that patterns of this kind are often a logical consequence of a lengthy narration
developing in certain sequence. The stylistic aspect of the structure is defined by the context
which is always explicit enough to make the meaning clear.
Euphemia Forsyte, who happened to be in the room — she had come round to borrow the
Rev. Mr. Scoles' last novel "Passion and Paregoric", which was having such a vogue — chimed
in.
"I saw Irene yesterday at the Stores;" she said" and Mr. Bosinney were having a nice little
chat in the Groceries."
It was thus, simply, that she recorded a scene which had really made a deep and complicated
impression on her. (Galsworthy)
As B. Ilyish very rightly points out, there are some other points to be made concerning the
thematic and rhematic analysis.
The theme need not necessarily be something known in advance. In many sentences it is, in
fact, something already familiar, as in some of our examples, especially with the definite article.
However, that need not always be the case. There are sentences in which the theme, too, is
something mentioned for the first time and yet it is not the centre of the predication. It is
something about which a statement is to be made. The theme is here the starting point of the
sentence, not its conclusion. This will be found to be the case, for example, in the following
sentence: Jennie leaned forward and touched him on the knee. (Wilson) which is the opening
sentence of a short story. Nothing in this sentence can be already familiar, as nothing has
preceded and the reader does not know either who Jennie is or who ,,he" is. What are we, then to
say about the theme and the rheme in this sentence? Apparently, there are two ways of dealing
with this question. Either we will say that Jennie represents the theme and the rest of the
sentence, leaned forward and touched him on the knee, its rheme.
22
Or else we will say that there is no theme at all here, that the whole of the sentence represents
the rheme, or perhaps that the whole division into theme and rheme cannot be applied here.
Though both views are plausible the first seems preferable. We will prefer to say that Jennie
represents the theme, and emphasise that the theme in this case is not something already familiar
but the starting point of the sentence.
Literature.
1. N.M.Rayevska Modern English Grammar, For Senior Courses of the Foreign Language
Faculties in Universities and Teachers' Training Colleges, VYŠČA SKOLA PUBLISHERS
KIEV — 1976- 304c.
Theme 2. Grammatical categories of the English language. Ways of translation of passive
constructions into the Russian language. Extension and systematization of knowledge of
grammatical material necessary for the translation of scientific literature on specialties.
GENERAL NOTION OF THE PROBLEM OF GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES
IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR, part 1.
The immediate expression of grammatical time, or "tense", is one of the typical functions
of the finite verb. It is typical because the meaning of process, inherently embedded in the verbal
lexeme, finds the complete realization only if presented in certain time conditions. That is why
the expression or non-expression of grammatical time, together with the expression or nonexpression of grammatical mood in person-form presentation constitutes the basis of the verbal
category of finitude, i.e. the basis of the division of all the forms of the verb into finite and nonfinite.
When speaking of the expression of time exposes it as the universal form of the continual
consecutive change of phenomena, time, as well as, space is the basic forms of the existence of
matter, they both are ineluctable properties of reality and as such are absolutely independent of
human perception. On the other hand, like other objective factors of the universe, time is
reflected by man through his perceptions and intellect, and finds its expression in his language.
It is but natural that time as the universal form of consecutive change of things should be
appraised by the individual in reference to the moment of his immediate perception of the
outward reality. This moment of immediate perception, or "present moment", which is
continually shifting in time, and the linguistic content of which is the "moment of speech",
serves as the democration line between the past and the future. All the lexical expressions of
time, according to as they refer or do not refer the denoted points or periods of time, directly or
obliquely to this moment are divided into "present oriented" or "absolutives" expressions of time.
The absolute time denotation in compliance with the experience gained by man in the
course of his cognitive activity distributes the intellective perception of time among three spheres
the sphere of the present with the present moment included within its framework the sphere of
the present by way of retrospect; the sphere of the present day by way of prospect.
Thus, words and phrases like now, last week, in our century, in the past, in the years to
come, very soon, yesterday, in a couple days, giving a temporial characteristic to an event from
23
the point of view of its orientation in reference to the present moment, are absolute names of
time.
The non-absolute time denotation does not characterize an event in terms of orientation
towards the present. This kind of denotation may be either "relative" or "factual".
The relative expression of time correlates two or more events showing some of them
either as preceding the others, or following the others, or happening at one and the same time
with them. Here belong such words and phrases as after that, before that, at one and the same
time with, so time later, at an interval of a day, or different times, etc.
The factual expression of time either directly states the astronomical time of an event, or
else conveys this meaning in terms of historical landmarks. Under this heading should be listed
such words and phrases as in the year 1966, during the time of the First World War, at the epoch
of Napaleon, at the early period of civilization.
In the context of real speech the above types of time of naming are used in combination
with one another, so that the denoted event receives many sided and very exact characterization
regarding its temporal status.
Of all the temporal meanings conveyed by such detailing lexical denotation of temporal
meaning conveyed by such detailing lexical denotation of time, the finite verb generalizes in its
categorical forms only the most abstract significations, taking them as dynamic characteristics of
the reflected process. The fundamental divisions both absolute time and of non-absolute relative
time find in the verb a specific presentation, idiomatically different from one language to
another. The form of this presentation is dependent, the same as with the expression of other
grammatical meanings, on the concrete semantic features chosen by a language as a basis for the
functional differention within the verb lexeme. And it is the verbal expressions of abstract,
grammatical time that forms the necessary background serving as a universal temporal
"polarizer" and "leader", the marking of time would be utterly inadequate. Indeed, what
informative content should be following passage convey with all its lexical indications of time, if
it were with all its lexical indications of time achieved through the forms of the verb – the unit of
the lexicon which the German grammarians very significantly call "zuwort" – the "time word".
My own birthday passed without ceremony, I would as usual, in the morning and in the
afternoon went for a walk in the solitary woods behind my house. I have never been able to
discover what it is that gives these woods their mysterious attractiveness. They are like no woods
I have ever known (S.Maugham).
In Modern English, the grammatical expression of verbal time, i.e. tense, is effected in
two correlated stages. At the first stage, the process receives an absolute time characteristic by
means of apposing the past tense to the present tense.
The marked member of the opposition is the past form. At the second stage, the process
receives a non- absolute relative time characteristic by means of opposing the forms of the future
tense to the forms of no future making. Since the two stages of the denotation are expressed
separately, by their own oppositional forms and besides, have essentially different orientation
characteristics, it stands to reason to recognize in the system of the English verb not one but two
24
temporal categories. Both of them answer the question: in the "what is the terming of the
process?" But the first category, having the past tense as its strong member, expresses a direct
retrospective evalution of the time of the event reflected on the utterance finds its adequated
location in the temporal context, showing all the distinctive propeties of the lingual presentation
of time mentioned above.
In accord with oppositional marking of the two temporal categories under analysis, we
shall call the first of them the category of "prospective time", or contractedly prospect.
The category of primary time, as has just been stated, provides for the absolutive
expression of the time of the process denoted by the verb, i.e. such an expression of it as given
its evolution, in the long run, in reference to the moment of suffix –(e)d, nemic interchange of
more or less individual specifications. The suffix marks the verbal form of the past time leaving
the opposite is to be rendered by the formula "the past tense – the present tense", the latter
member representing the non-fast tense according to the accepted oppositional interpretation.
The specific features of the category of primary time, that it divides all the tense forms of
the English verb into two temporal planes: the plane of the present and the plane of the past,
which affect also the future forms very important in this respect is the structural nature of the
expression of the category: the category of primary time is the only verbal category of primary
time is only the category of immanent order which is expressed by inflexional forms. These
inflexion forms of the past and present coexist in the same verb+entry to speech with the other,
analytical models of various categorical expression, including the futures; on the other hand, the
future of the present, is prospected from the present; on the other hand, the future of by the
speaker the meaning of the present with this connotation will be conveyed by such phrases at this
very moment, or this instant, or exactly now, or some other phrase like that. But an utterance like
"now while i’m speaking" breaks the notion of the zero time proper, since the speaking process
is not a momentary but a durative element. Furthermore, the present will still be the present if we
relate to such vast periods of time as this month, this year, in our epoch, in the present
millennium, etc. The denoted stretch of time may be prolonged by a collocation like that beyond
any definite limit. Still furthermore, in utterances of general truths as for instance, "Two plus two
makes four" or "The sun is a star", the idea of time as such is almost suppressed the implication
of constancy, unchangeability of the truth at all times being made prominent. The present tense
as the verbal form of generalized meaning covers all these denotations, showing the present time
in relation to the process as inclusive of the moment of speech incorporating this moment within
its definite or indefinite stretch and opposed to the past time.
Thus, if we say, "Two plus two makes four", the linguistic implication of it is "always,
and so at the moment of speech". If we say "I never take his advice", we mean linguistically "at
no time in terms of the current state of my attitude towards him, and so at the present moment".
If we say, "In our millennium social formations change quicker than in the previous periods of
man’s history", the linguistic temporal content of it is "in our millennium, that is, in the
millennium including the moment of speech". This meaning is the invariant of the present,
developed from its categorical opposition to the past, and it penetrates the uses of the finite verb
in all its forms, including the perfect, the future, and the continuous.
25
Indeed, if the radio carries the news, "The two suspected terrorists have been taken into
custody by the police", the implication of the moment of speech refers to the direct influence or
after-effects of the event announced. Similarly the statement "You will be informed about the
decision later in the day" describes the event, which although it ahs not yet happened, is
prospected into the future from the present, i.e. prospection itself incorporates the moment of
speech. As for the present continuous its relevance for to present moment it self-evident.
This, the analyzed meaning of the verbal present arises as a result of its immediate
contrast with the past form which shows the exclusion of the action from the plane of the present
and so the action itself as capable of being perceived all the verbal forms of the past, including
the perfect, the future and the continuous. Due to the marked character of the past verbal form,
the said quality of its meaning does not require special demonstration.
Worthy of note, however, are utterances where the meaning of the past tense stands in
contrast with the meaning of some adverbial phrase reffering the event to the present moment.
Cf.: Today again I spoke to Mr. Jones on the matter, and again he failed to see the urgency of it.
The seeming linguistic paradox of such cases consists exactly in the fact that their twotyped indications of time, one verbal grammatical and one adverbial-lexical approach the same
event from two of opposite analysis. But there is nothing irrational here. As a matter of fact, the
utterances present instances of two-plane temporal evaluation of the event described: the verbform shows the process as part and gone, i.e. physically disconnected from the resent as for the
adverbial modifier, it presents the past eent as a particular happening, belonging to a more
general time situation which is stretch out up to the present moment inclusive, and possibly past
the present moment into the future.
A case directly opposite to the one shown above is seen in the transpositional use of the
present tense of the verb with the past adverbials, either included in the utterance as such, or else
expressed in its contextual environment. E.g.: Then he turned the corner and what do you think
happens next? He faces nobody else than Mr. Greggs accompanied by his private secretary!
The stylistic purpose of this transposition, known under the name of the "historic present"
is to create a vivid picture of the event reflected in the utterance. This is achieved in strict accord
with the functional meaning of the verbal present, sharply contrasted against the general
background of the plane of the utterance content.
The combination of the verbs shall and will with the infinitive have of late become
subject of renewed discussion. The controversial point about them is wether these combinations
really constitute, together with the forms of the past and present, the categorical expression of
verbal tense, are jus modal phrases whose expression of the future time does not differ in essence
from the general future orientation of other combinations of modal verbs with the infinitive. The
view that shall and will retain their modal meanings in all their uses was defended by such a
recognized authority on English grammar of the older generation of the twentieth century
linguists as O.Jesperson. In our times, quite a few scholars, among them the successors of
Descriptive linguistics, consider these verbs as part of the general set of modal verbs, "modal
auxiliaries" expressing the meanings of capability, probability, permission, obligation, and the
like.
26
A well grounded objection is against the inclusion of the construction will+Infinitive. In
the tense system of the verb on the same basis as the forms of the present and the past has been
advanced by L.S.Barhudarov. His objection consists in the demonstration of the double making
of this would be tense form by one and the same category; the combinations in question can
express at once both the future form time and past form time which hardly makes any sense in
terms of a grammatical category. Indeed, the principle of the identification of any grammatical
category demands that the forms of thecategory in normal use shoul be mutually exclusive. The
category is constituted by the opposition of its forms, not by their co-opposition.
However, reconsidering the status of construction shall/will+Infinitive in the eight of
oppositional approach, we see that, far from comparing with the past – present verbal forms as
the third member – form of the category of primary time, it marks its own grammatical category,
namely, that of prospective time. The meaningful contrast underlying the category of prospect
time is between an after action and non- after-action. The after-action or the future having its
shall/will – feature, constitutes the marked member of the opposition.
The category of prospect is also temporal, in so far as it is immediately connected with
the expression of processual time, like the category of primary time. But the semantic basis of
the category of prospect is different in principle from that of the category of primary time: while
the primary time is absolutive, i.e. present – oriented the prospective time is purely relative; it
means that the future form of the verb only shows that the denoted process id prospected as an
after-action relative to some other action or state or event, the timing of which marks the zerolevel for it. The two are presented, as it were, in prospective coordination: one is shown as
prospected for the future, the future being relative to the primary time either present or past. As a
result, the expression of the future receives the two mutually complementary manifestations: one
manifestation for the present time – plane of the verb, the other manifestation for the past time –
plane of the verb. In other words, the process of the verb is characterized by the category of
prospect irrespective of its primary time characteristics, or rather as addition to this
characteristic, and this is quite similar to all the other categories capable of entering the sphere of
verbal time, e.g. the category of development (continuous in opposition), the category of
retrospective coordination (perfect in opposition), the category of voice (passive in opposition):
the respective forms of all these categories also have the past and present versions, to which in
due course, are added the future and non0future versions. Consider the following examples: 1) I
was making a road and all the coolest stunk. 2) None of us doubted in the least that Aunt Emma
would soon be marveling again at Eustace’s challenging success. 3) The next thing she wrote
she sent to a magazine, and for many weeks worried about what would happen to it. 4) She did
not protest for she had given up the struggle. 5) Felix knew that they would have settled the
dispute by the time he could be ready to have his say. 6) He was being watched chased by that
despicable going of hirelings.
As we have already stated before, the future tenses reject the do-forms of the indefinite
aspect, which are confined to the expression of the present and past verbal times only. This fact
serves as a supplementary ground for the identification of the expression of protest as a separate
grammatical category.
Of course, it would be an ill turn to grammar if one tried to introduce the above
circumstational terminology with all its pedantic strings of "non’s" into the elementary teaching
27
of language. The stringed categorical "non-terms" are apparently too redundant to be
recommended for ordinary use even at an advaced level of linguistic training. What is achieved
by this kind of terminology, however, is a comprehensive indication of the categorical status of
verb-forms under analysis in a compact tense presentation. Thus whenever a presentation like
that is called for, the terms will be quite in their place.
In analyzing the English future tenses the modal factor naturally should be through taken
into consideration. A certain modal colouring of the meaning of the English future cannot be
denied especially in the verbal form of the first person. But then, as is widely known, the
expression of the future in other languages is not disconnect from modal semantics either and
this is conditioned by the mere fact that the future action, as different from the present or past
action, as different from the present or past action, cannot be looked upon as a genuine feature of
reality. Indeed, it is only foreseen, or anticipated, or planned, or desired, or otherwise prospected
for the time to come. In this quality, the Russian future tense does not differ in principle from the
verbal future of other languages, including English, suffice it to give a couple of examples
chosen at random:
Я буду рассказывать тебе интересные истории. Расскажу о страшных кометах, о
битве воздушных кораблей, о гибели прекрасной страны по ту строну гор. Тебе не будет
скучно любить меня (А.Толстой). Немедленно на берег.
The future of forms of the verbs in the future of the above Russian examples clearly
expresses promise; those in the second examples render a command.
Moreover, in the system of the Russian tenses there is a specialized modal form of
analytical future expressing intention (the combination of the verb стать with the imperfective
infinitive). E.g. Что же вы теперь хотите делать? – Тебе это не касается что я стану делать.
Я план обдумываю. (А.Толстой)
Within the framework of the universal meaningful feature of the verbal future, the future
of the English verb is highly specific in so far as its auxiliaries in their very immediate
etymology are words of obligation and tne survival of the respective connotations in them in
backed by the inherent quality of the future as such. Still on the whole, the English categorical
future of differs distinctly from the modal constructions with the same predicator verbs.
In the clear-out modal uses of the verbs shall and will the idea of the future either is not
expressed at all or else is only rendered by way of textual connotation, the central semantic
accent being laid on the expression of obligation, necessary, inevitability, promise, intention,
desire. These meanings may be easily seen both on the examples of ready phraseological
citation, and genuine everyday conversation exchanges.
The modal nature of the shall/will+Infinitive combinations in the cited examples can be
shown by means of equivalent substitution:
 He who does not work must not eat either…  All right Mr. Crackenthorpe, I promise
to have it cooked…  None are so deaf those who do not want to hear… I intend not to allow
a woman to come near the place.
28
A counting for the modal meanings of the combinations under analysis, traditional
grammar gives the following rules: shall + Infinitive with the first person, will + Infinitve with
the second and the third persons express modal meanings, the most typical of which are intention
or desire part for I will and promise or command on the part of the speaker for you shall, he will.
Both rules apply to refined British English. In American English with all the persons, shall as
expressing modality.
However, the cited description, though distinguished by elegant simplicity, cannot be
taken as fully agreeing with the existing lingual practice. The main feature of this description
contradicted by practice is the British use of will the first person without distinctly pronounced
modal connotations. Cf.:
I will call for you and your young man at seven o’clock. When we wake I will take him
up and carry him back. I will let you know on Wednesday what expenses have been necessary. If
you wait there on Thursday evening between seven and eight I will come if I can.
That the combinations of will with the infinitive in the above examples do express the
future time, admits of no disputes. Furthermore, these combinations, seemingly, are charged with
modal connotations in no higher degree than the corresponding combination of shall with the
infinitive. Cf.:
Haven’t time, I shall miss my train. I shall be happy to carry it to the House of Lords, if
necessary. You never kow what may happen I shan’t have a minute’s peace.
Granted our semantic institutions about the exemplified, uses are true, the question then
arises what is the real difference if any, between the two British first person expressions of the
future, on with shall the other one with will? Or are they actually just semantic doublets, i.e.
units of complete synonymy, bound if by the paradigmatic relation of the alternation?
Observing combinations with will instylisticall neutral collocations the first step of our
study we note the adverbial of time used with this construction. The environmental expressions,
as well as implications, of future time do testify that from this point of view there is no
difference between will and shall both of them eqully conveying the idea of the future action
expressed by the adjoining infinitive.
As our next step of inferences, nothing the types of the infinitive environmental
semantics of will in contrast to the contextual background of shall, we state that the first person
will – future express an option does not at all imply that the speaker actually wishes to perform
the action or else that he is determined to perform it, possibly in defiance of some contrary force.
The exposition of the action shows it as being not bound or by any special influence except the
speaker’s option; this is exhaustive characteristic. In keeping with this, the form of the willfuture in question may be tentatively called in "voluntary future".
On other hand, comparing the environmental characteristics of shall with the
corresponding environmental background of will it is easy to see that, as different from will the
first person shall expresses of future process that will be realized without the will of the speaker,
irrespective of his choice. Inform of the first person future should be referred to as the nonvoluntary i.e. as the weak member of the corresponding opposition.
29
Further observation of the relevant textual data show that some verbs constituting a
typical environment of the non-voluntary shall-future occur also with the voluntary will, but in a
different meaning, namely in the meaning of an active action the performance of which is freely
chosen by the speaker of. Your arrival cannot have been announced to his majesty. I will see
about it.
At the final stage of our study the disclosed characteristics of the two first-person futures
are checked on the lines of transformal analysis. The method will consist not in free structural
manipulations with the analyzed constructions, but in the textual search for the respective
changes of the auxiliaries depending on the changes in the infinitival environment.
Applying these procedures to the texts, we note that when the construction of the
voluntary will – future is expanded a syntactic part re-modeling the whole collocation into one
expressing an indunatary action, the auxiliary will is automatically replaced by shall. In
particular, it happens when the expanding elements convey the meaning of supposition or
uncertainty. Cf.:
Give me a goddess’s work to do, and I shall do it.  I don’t know what shall do with
Barbara. Oh, the only very well, very well. I will write another prescription.  I shall perhaps
write to your mother.
Thus, we conclude that within the system of the English future tense a peculiar minor
category is expressed which affects only the forms of the first person. The category is constituted
by the opposition of the forms will+Infintive and shall+Infinitive expressing respectively the
voluntary future and the non-voluntary future.
The future in the second and third persons, formed by the indiscriminate auxiliary will
does not express this category, which is dependent on the semantics of the persons: normally it
would be irrelevant to indicate in an obligatory way the aspect of futurity option otherwise than
with first person, i.e. the person of self.
This category is neutralized in the contracted form –‘ll, which is of necessity indifferent
to the expression of the futurity opposition. As is known, the traditional analysis of the
contracted future states that –‘ll stands for will, not for shall. However, this view is not supported
by textual data. Indeed, bearing in mind the results of our study, it is easy to demonstrate that the
contracted forms of the future may be traced both to will and to shall.
Form the evidence afforted by the historical studies of the language we know that the
English contracted form of the future –ll has actually originated from the auxiliary will. So, in
Modern English an interesting process of redistribution of the forms ha staken place, based
apparently on the contamination will –‘ll –shall. As a result, the form –‘ll in the first person
expresses not the same "pure" future as it the expresses by the indiscriminate will in the second
and third persons.
The described system of the British future is by for more complicated than the expression
of the future tense in the other notional variants of English in particular, in American English
where the future form of the first person is functionally equal with the other persons. In British
English a possible tendency to a similar leveled expression of the future is actively
30
counteractions of the future auxiliarities in the negative form, i.e. shan’t and survival of shall in
the first person against the leveled positive contraction –ll’. The second is the use of the future
tense in interrogative sentences where the first person only shall is normally used. Indeed it is
quite natural that a genuine question directed by the speaker to himself, i.e. a question directed
by the speaker to himself, i.e. a question showing doubt or speculation, is to be asked about an
action of non-wilful, involuntary order, and not otherwise. Cf.: what shall we be shown next?
Shall I be able to master shorthand professionally? The question was, should I see Beatrice again
before her departure.
The semantics of the first person futurity question is such that even the infinitives of
essentially volution governed actions are transferred here to the plane of non-volution,
subordinating themselves to the general implication of doubt, hesitation, and uncertainty.
Apart from shall/will+Infinitive construction, there is another construction in English
which the framework of the general problem of the future tense. This is the combination of the
predicator be going with the infinitive. Indeed, the high frequency occurrence of this
construction in contexts conveying the idea of an immediate future action can’t but draw a vey
close attention on the part of a linguistic observer.
The combination may denote a sheer intention to perform the action expressed by the
infinitive thus entering into the vast set of "classical" modal constructions.
I’m going to ask you a few more questions about the mysterious disappearance of the
document. Mr.Greff. he looked across at my desk and I thought for a moment he was going to
give me the treatment too.
But these simple modal uses of be going are countered by cases the direct meaning of
intention rendered by the predicator stands in contradiction with its environmental implications
and is subdued by them. Cf.: You are trying to frighten me. But are not going to frighten me any
more (L.Helman). I did not know now I was going to get out of the room (D.du.Mawren).
Moreover, the construction dispute its primary meaning of intention presupposing a
human subject is not infrequently used with non-human subjects is not infrequently asked used
with non0human subjects and even in impersonal sentences. Cf.: She knew what she was doing
and she was sure going to be the worth doing (W.Sarayan). There is going to be a contest over
Ezra Grolley’s estate (E.Gardener).
Because of these properties it would appear tempting to class the construction in question
as a specific tense form, namely, the tense form of "immediate future", analogous to the French
future immadiat (Le spectacle va carn mencer).
Still, on closer consideration, we notice that non-intention cases of the predicator be
going are not indifferent stylistically. Far from being neutral, they more often than not display
emotional coloring mixed with semantic connotations of oblique modality.
For instance, when the girl from the first of the above examples appreciates something as
"going to be worth doing; she is expressing her assurance of its being so. When one labels the
rain as "never going to stop" one clearly expresses one’s annoyance at the bad state of the
31
weather. When a future event is introduced by the formula "there to be going to be", as is the
case in the second of the cited examples, the speaker clearly implies his foresight of a like nature.
Thus, on the whole, the non-intention uses of the construction be going+Infinitive cannot be
rationally divided into modal and non-modal, on the analogy of the construction
shall/will+Infinitive. It broader combinability is based on semantic transposition and can be
likened to broader uses of the modal collocation be about, also of basically intention semantics.
The oppositional basis of the category of perspective time is neutralized in certain uses, in
keeping with the general regularities of oppositional reductions. The process of neutralization is
connected with the shifting of the forms of primary time (present and past) from the sphere of
absolute tenses into the sphere of relative tenses.
One of the typical cases of the neutralization in question consists in using a non-future
temporal form to express a future action which is to take place according to some plan or
arrangement. Cf.: The government meets in emergency session today over the question of
continued violations of the cease-fire. I hear your sister is soon arriving from Paris? Naturally I
would like to know when he’s coming, etc.
This case of oppositional reduction is oppositional; the equivalent reconstruction of the
correlated member of the opposition is nearly always possible. Cf.: The government will meet in
emergency session… Your sister will soon arrive from Paris?  When will he be coming?
Another type of neutralization of the prospective time opposition is observed in modal
verbs and modal word combinations. The basic peculiarity of these units bearing on the
expression of time is, that the prospective implication is inherently in-built in their semantics,
which reflects not the action expressed by the infinitive. For that reason, the present verb-form of
these units actually renders the idea of the future. Cf.: There is no saying what may happen next.
At any rate, the woman was sure to come later in the day. But do you have to present the report
before Sunday, there’s no alternative.
Sometimes the explicit expression of the future is necessary even with modal
collocations. To make up for the lacking categorical forms, special modal substitutes have been
developed in language, some of which have received the status of suppletive units. Cf.: But do
not make plans with David. You will not be able to carry them out. Things will have to go one
way or the other.
Alongside of the above and very different from them, there is still another typical case of
neutralization of the analyzed categorical opposition, which is strictly obligatory. It occurs in
clauses of time and condition. Whose verb-predicate expresses a future action? Cf.: If things turn
out as has been arranged, the triumph will be all ours. I repeated my request to notify me at once
whenever the messenger arrived.
The latter type of neutralization is syntactically conditioned. In point of fact, the
neutralization consists here in the primary tenses shifting from the sphere of absolutive time into
the sphere of relative time, since they become dependent not on their immediate orientation
towards the moment of speech, but on the relation to another time level, namely, the time level
presented in the governing clause of corresponding complex sentence.
32
This kind of neutralizing relative use of absolutive tense forms occupies a restricted
position in the integral tense system of English. In Russian, the syntactic relative use of tenses is,
on the contrary, widely spread. In particular, this refers to the presentation of reported speech in
the plane of past, where the Russian present tense is changed into the tense of similarity, the past
tense is changed into the tense of priority, and the future tense is changed in the tense of
prospected posteriority. Cf.: 1) Он сказал, что изучает немецкий язык. 2) Он сказал, что
изучал немецкий язык. 3) Он сказал, что будет изучать немецкий язык.
In English, the primary tenses in similar syntactic condition retain their absolutive nature
and are used in keeping with their direct, unchangeable meanings. Compare the respective
translations of the examples cited above: 1) He said that he was learning German. 2) He said that
he had learned German. 3) he said that he would learn German.
It doesn’t follow from this that rule of sequence of tenses in English complex sentences
formulated by traditional grammar should be rejected as false. Sequence of tenses is an important
feature of all narration, for, depending in the continual consecutive course of actual events in
reality; they are presented in the text in definite successions ordered against a common general
background. However, what should be stressed here is that the tense-shift involved in the
translation of the present-plane reported information into the present0plane reported information
is not a formal, but essentially a meaningful procedure.
Literature.
1.
Ахмедова О.С. Современные синтаксические теории. М., 1963 стр.258
2.
Бархударов Л.С. Структура простого предложения современного английского
языка. М., 1966 стр.321
3.
Бархударов Л.С., Штелинг Д.А. Грамматика английского языка. М., 1973 стр.326
4.
Блох М.Я. Вопросы изучения грамматического строя языка. М., 1976 стр.312
5.
Блумфилд Л. Язык. М., 1968 стр.243
6.
Бурланова В.В. Осиновые структуры словосочетания в современном английском
языке. Л., 1975 стр. 264
7.
Воронцова Г.Я. Очерки по грамматики английского языка. М., 1960
8.
Гальперин И.Р. Текст как объект линвитического исследования. М., 1981. стр. 279
9.
Дольгова О.В. Семиотика неправильной речи. М., 1980 стр. 272
10.
Есперсон О. Философия грамматики. М, 1958 стр.359
11.
Жегадло В.Я. Иванова И.Я. Иофик Л.Л. Современный английский язык. М., 1956
стр.376
12.
Иванова ИЯ. Вид и время в современном английском языке Л. 1961 стр. 296
13.
Иванова ИЯ., Бурланова В.В. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского
языка. М., 1981 стр. 327
14.
Кошева И.Г. Грамматический строй современного английского языка. М., 1978 стр.
219
15.
Корнева Е.А., Кабрина Я.Д. Гузаева К.А. Пособие по морфологии современного
английского языка. М., 1978 стр. 219
16.
Лайонз. Дж. Введение в теоритескую лингвистику. М., 1978 стр.320
17.
Иртеньева Я.Ф. Грамматика современного английского языка (теоритический
курс). М. 1956
18.
Мухин А.М. Структура предложений и их моделиЛ.,1968. стр. 260
19.
Плоткин В.Я. Грамматические системы современного английского языка. К., 1975
стр.252
33
20.
Погепцев Г.Г Конструктивный анализ структуры предложения К. 1971 стр.224
21.
Слюсараева Я.А Проблемы функционального синтаксиса современного
английского языка. М., 1981 стр.357
22.
Смиринцкий А.И. Синтаксис английского языка. М., стр.252
23.
Смиринцкий А.И Морфология английского языка М., 1959 стр 56
Размещено на Allbest.ru
WAYS OF TRANSLATION OF PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
English and Russian passive forms are different both in type of form constructions and in
frequency.
English passive voice is used more frequently due to the various types of construction it occurs
in. Whereas Russian passive voice construction is formed only by transitive verbs requiring a
direct object when used as an active voice structure, English passive is classified into four types
of construction:
a) direct passive: A book was given to him. It has a corresponding Russian passive voice form:
Книга была дана ему.
b) indirect passive: He was given the book. This form is translated by the corresponding Russian
active voice verb in the impersonal sentence: Ему дали эту книгу.
c) prepositional passive: The article was not referred to. – На эту статью не ссылались. The
corresponding Russian impersonal sentence is also with the active verb.
d) adverbial passive: The room hasn’t been lived in. When translated into Russian, the passive
construction is substituted by an active one, sometimes a subject of the sentence is introduced: В
комнате никто не жил/не живет.
Thus, only one type of English passive construction has a direct correspondence in Russian. But
not all English direct passive constructions can be transformed into Russian passive, since the
verb transitivity in English and Russian does not coincide. Cf. to enter the room – войти в
комнату, to join the party – вступить в партию, to follow somebody – следовать за кем-то,
to attend the meeting – присутствовать на собрании, to influence somebody – влиять на
кого-то: The next morning this event was reported by all the papers. – На следующее утро об
этом событии сообщили все газеты.
Care should be taken when translating English parallel passive verbs, since they may correspond
in Russian to the verbs of different cases: He was trusted and respected. – Ему доверяли и его
уважали. In this case the Russian sentence requires repetition of the pronominal object (ему –
его); otherwise, the sentence would sound grammatically incorrect (*Ему доверяли и уважали).
As for passive forms, there are two types in English: be-passive and get-passive. The latter is
mostly used to indicate the starting point of the action: They got married. – Они поженились.
The get-passive is also used to express negative connotation, when the object of the action
undergoes something unpleasant or dangerous: He got hurt. – Он ушибся. (Он обиделся.) He
got injured in a road accident. – Он получил травму во время дорожной аварии.
In Russian there are also two passive verb forms. They derive from the parallel synthetic and
analytical forms: строился – был построен. The difference between the forms is either
semantic or stylistic. As for their meanings, the analytical form denotes a state, whereas the
synthetic form expresses a process: Дом был построен этой бригадой. – Дом строился этой
бригадой. In English this difference is rendered by the Simple and the Progressive forms,
respectively: The house was built by this team. – The house was being built by this team. When
no agent of the action is mentioned, the Russian synthetic verb form can be substituted in
English by the prepositional noun predicative: Мост строится с прошлого года. – The bridge
has been under construction since last year. Or the difference between the forms can be stylistic:
while the analytical form is used in literary or academic works, the synthetic form in colloquial
speech can also denote a fact, not a process, thus corresponding to the English The house was
built by this team.
34
As for the synonymy of the indefinite personal active and passive forms in Russian, the
difference lies in style: the passive form is more formal: George was invited to spend the month
of August in Crome. – Cf. 1) Джордж был приглашен провести август в Кроуме. 2)
Джорджа пригласили провести август в Кроуме.
One challenge of translating is the English “double passive”. It takes place when the main
predicate is used in the passive voice and the following infinitive is also passive: The treaty is
reported to have been signed by both parties. In translation, the predicate can be substituted by
the active verb: Сообщают, что договор уже подписан обеими сторонами. The principal
clause can also be substituted by a parenthetical one: Как сообщают, договор уже подписан
обеими сторонами. Or the passive infinitive can be substituted for the active one, so that the
sentence subject turns into the sentence object: The prisoners were ordered to be shot. – Было
приказано расстрелять пленников. Finally, there might be a substitution by the noun: The
music is intended to be played on the piano. – Музыка предназначена для игры на
фортепьяно.
Literature.
1. Прошина З.Г. ТЕОРИЯ ПЕРЕВОДА (с английского языка на русский и с русского
языка на английский): Уч. на англ. яз. – Владивосток: Изд-во Дальневост. ун-та, 2008 (3-е
изд., перераб.), 2002 (2-е изд., испр. и перераб.), 1999 (1-е изд.). ISBN 5-7444-0957-2
Theme 4. The bases of lexicography. Theoretical and Practical Lexicography. Types of
dictionaries. Infinitive and Infinitive Constructions. Gerund or Infinitive. Syntactical
constructions: “Object + Infinitive”, “Subject + Infinitive”
LEXICOGRAPHY AS A SCIENCE
The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called lexicography. In other words it is the
art and craft of writing dictionaries.
The Erya, from the early 3rd century BC, was the first Chinese language dictionary. The book
organized Chinese characters by semantic groups. The intention of this dictionary was to explain
the true meaning and interpretation of words in the context of older ancient texts.
One of the earliest dictionaries known, and which is still extant today in an abridged form, was
written in Latin during the reign of the emperor Augustus. It is known by the title De Significatu
Verborum ("On the meaning of words") and was originally compiled by Verrius Flaccus. It was
twice abridged in succeeding centuries, first by Sextus Pompeius Festus, and then by Paul the
Deacon. Verrius Flaccus' dictionary was an abridged list of difficult or antiquated words, whose
usage was illustrated by quotations from early Roman authors. The word "dictionary" comes
from neoclassical Latin, dictio, meaning simply "word".
The history of compiling dictionaries for English comes as far back as The Old English period,
where we can find glosses of religious books. Regular bilingual dictionaries began to appear in
the 15th century. These dictionaries were Anglo-Latin, Anglo-German, Anglo-French.
The first true English dictionary was Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabetical of 1604, although it
only included 3,000 words and the definitions it contained were little more than synonyms. The
first one to be at all comprehensive was Thomas Blount's dictionary Glossographia of 1656.
In 1721 an English scientist and writer Nathaniel Bailey published the 1st etymological
dictionary which explained the origin of English words. It was called Universal Etymological
English Dictionary. Bailey’s entries are fuller, compared with the glosses in the hard-word
books, and there’re more of them (as many as 60, 000 in the 1736 edition), but his definitions
lack illustrative support, and he gives little guidance about usage.
The history of lexicography is dominated by the names of 3 figures: Samuel Johnson, Noah
Webster and James A. H. Murray. The role played by the first two in the Early Modern English
35
period of the language was very significant. Their influence continues today – directly, in the
case of Webster, through the series of dictionaries which bear his name; and indirectly, in the
case of Johnson, through the tradition which led the Philological Society to sponsor a «new»
English dictionary.
In 1755 an English scientist Samuel Johnson compiled a famous explanatory dictionary which
was called A Dictionary of the English language. Over a seven-year period, Johnson wrote the
definitions of 40,000 words, illustrating their use from the best authors since the time of the
Elizabethans. Although Johnson was fewer entries than Bailey, his selection is more wideranging, and his lexicological treatment is far more discriminating and sophisticated.
The book, according to his biographer Boswell, «conferred stability» on the language – and at
least with respect to spelling (where most of Johnson’s choices are found in modern
practice).The alphabetical section of Johnson’s Dictionary is preceded by a famous Preface in
which he outlines his aims and procedures:
When I took the 1st survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and
energetic without rules: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and
confusion to be regulated… Having therefore no assistance but from general grammar, I applied
myself to the perusal of our writers; and noting whatever might be of use to ascertain or illustrate
any word or phrase, accumulated in time the materials of a dictionary, which, by degrees, I
reduced to method…
The preliminaries also include a short history of the language, with long extracts from earlier
authors, and a grammar, much influenced by the work of John Wallis, with sections on
orthography and prosody. But it is in the Preface, often anthologized as an independent text, that
we find an unprecedented statement of the theoretical basis of a dictionary project. The statement
is notable for its awareness of the realities of the lexicographer’s task, and also for its descriptive
intention – an interesting change of opinion from the prescriptive attitudes Johnson expressed in
his 1747 Dictionary plan. There he had written: «The chief intent is to preserve the purity and
ascertain the meaning of our English idiom». The Preface, by contrast, stresses that his aim is
«not form, but register the language»; and it is this principle which introduces a new era in
Lexicography.
The Johnsonian Method.
This page illustrates several features of the approach Johnson outlines in his Preface:
1. Most of the definitions are appropriate and consistent between entries;
2. He plays special attention to the different senses of a word – five, in the case of eternal;
3. There’s a copious use of quotations to support a definition – 116,000 in all;
4. He routinely identifies parts of speech;
5. He shows the most strongly stressed syllable in a headword by an accent;
6. There’s an openness of approach;
7. He includes topical explanations of some words;
8. A wide range of ordinary words are included alongside technical terms;
9. It includes, in the «hard-words» tradition, many cumbersome Latinate forms, such as cubicula,
estuation, whose status within English was doubtful;
10. His creations are highly selective, chosen more for their literary or moral value than for their
linguistic clarity;
11. Several of his definitions use difficult words, such as reciprocates in estuary;
12. Several of his definitions have become famous for their subjectivity.
Some Johnsonian Definitions.
There’re not many truly idiosyncratic definitions in the Dictionary, but some have become
famous.
LEXICOGRAPHER – a writer of dictionary, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing
the original, and detailing the signification of words.
EXCISE – a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of
property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.
36
OATS – a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the
people.
PATRON – one, who countenances, supports or protects.
PENSION – an allowance made to anyone without an equivalent. In England it’s generally
understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.
His definitions sometimes got him into trouble. He was threatened with libel over excise, and
much lampooned over pension.
So Johnson’s Dictionary was the first attempt at a truly principled lexicography. It portrayed the
complexity of the lexicon and of English usage more accurately than ever before; and his
quotations initiated a practice which has informed English dictionaries ever since. The dictionary
influenced normalization of the English vocabulary but at the same time it helped to preserve the
English spelling in its conservative form.
In 1857 the Philological Society of Great Britain, noting the inadequacies of the English
dictionaries then available, adopted the decision to compile a dictionary including all the words
existing in the language from Anglo-Saxon times.
Twenty six years later in 1884 the first volume was published; it contained words ginning with A
and B. The editor of this dictionary was James A. H. Murray. The aim was to produce a 4volume work in a period of 10 years; but after 5 years, Murray and his colleagues had managed
to complete only the section A-ANT; it was 352 pages, and sold for 62 ½ p in modern money. It
was evident that the dictionary was a much greater work than had been envisaged. Additional
editors were appointed and the last volume was published in 1928, the dictionary was called
NED (New English Dictionary). It contained 12 volumes, comprising 15,487 pages and covering
414,825 lexical items.
In 1933 the dictionary was republished under the title «The Oxford English Dictionary» because
the work on this dictionary was conducted at Oxford. The dictionary contained 13 volumes.
Work on the dictionary recommended in1957, with the appointment of R.W. Burchfield to edit a
new supplement. This appeared in 4 volumes between 1972 and 1986, and included the content
of the 1933 work: it added 5,732 pages to the dictionary, and nearly 70,000 further lexical items.
As it was large and very expensive scientists continued their work and made shorter editions of
the dictionary. The shorter Oxford dictionary contained the same number of entries but far less
examples from literature. They also compiled a Concise Oxford Dictionary. It contained only
one volume and no examples at all.
American lexicography began to develop much later at the end of the 18th century. The most
famous American dictionary was compiled by Noah Webster. In 1828 he published a two
volume dictionary (70,000 words), which was called American Dictionary of the English
language. He tried to simplify English spelling and transcription. The work greatly improved the
coverage of scientific and technical terms, as well as terms to do with American culture and
institutions and added a great deal of encyclopedic information. A new feature was the
introduction of Webster’s own etymologies – though the speculative nature of many of these was
an early source of unwelcome criticism. The spellings were somewhat more conservative than
those used in the 1806 book. Its pronunciations were generally provincial in character – those of
Webster’s own New England. The label «American» in the title is more a reflection of the works
of American authors referred to than of its uniquely American lexicon. Indeed, at one point
Webster observed that «there were not 50 words in all which were used in America and not in
England». On the other hand, nearly half of the words he did include are not to be found in
Johnson’s Dictionary, which added considerable force to his claim that he was giving
lexicography a fresh direction.
Despite its weaknesses and its critics, the American Dictionary made Webster a household name
in the USA. It was fiercely attacked in Britain for its Americanism especially in matters of
spelling and usage; but the work was crucial in giving to US English an identity and status
comparable to that given to the British English lexicon by Dr Johnson.
37
Indeed, it’s difficult to appreciate today the impact which Webster’s Dictionary made at the time,
and just how authoritative the book was perceived to be. After Webster’s death (1843), the rights
were purchased by George and Charles Merriam, and later editions have appeared under the
name of Merriam-Webster. A revision in 1847 was edited by Webster’s son-in-law, Chauncey A.
Goodrich. Several dictionaries within this tradition appeared in the following decades, via the
Webster’s International Dictionary of 1890 to the Webster’s New International Dictionary of
1909, with a second edition in 1934. The 3rd edition appeared in 1961, edited by Philip B. Gove,
based on a collection of over 6 million citations of usage, and dealing with over 450,000 words.
This edition prepared over a 10-year period, took up 757 editor-years, and proved to be highly
controversial. Three supplements later appeared – of 6,000 words (1976), 89,000 words (1983),
and 12,000 words (1986), and a CD is also available. Outside of this tradition, many other
publishers have come to use the «Webster» name for their dictionaries and word-books.
The largest dictionary in the world is "het Woordenboek der Nederlansche Taal (WNT)" (the
Dictionary of the Dutch language). It took 134 years to create the dictionary (1864 - 1998). It
consists of approximately 400,000 words on 45805 pages in 92000 columns.
Literature.
1. David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Second Edition) Cambridge University Press, 2003.
2. Weiner E.S.C., The Oxford Miniguide to English Usage – OUP, 1987.
3. Lyons J., New Horizons in Linguistics – Lnd., 1970.
4. Longman Essential Activator, 1997.
5. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1996.
6. Arnold I.V., English Word – Moscow, 1973.
7. Benson M, Benson E, The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English Language – Amsterdam,
1986.
8. Borisova L.M., Fomenko O.V., Introduction to English Philology – Kolomna, 2004.
TYPES OF DICTIONARIES
Lexicography, that is the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries, is an important branch of
applied linguistics. The fundamental paper in lexicographic theory was written by L.V. Shcherba
as far back as 1940. A complete bibliography of the subject may be found in L.P. Stupin’s
works. Lexicography has a common object of study with lexicology, both describe the
vocabulary of a language. The essential difference between the two lies in the degree of
systematisation and completeness each of them is able to achieve. Lexicology aims at
systematisation revealing characteristic features of words. It cannot, however, claim any
completeness as regards the units themselves, because the number of these units being very
great, systematisation and completeness could not be achieved simultaneously. The province of
lexicography, on the other hand, is the semantic, formal, and functional description of all
individual words. Dictionaries aim at a more or less complete description, but in so doing cannot
attain systematic treatment, so that every dictionary entry presents, as it were, an independent
problem. Lexicologists sort and present their material in a sequence depending upon their views
concerning the vocabulary system, whereas lexicographers have to arrange it most often
according to a purely external characteristic, namely alphabetically. It goes without saying that
neither of these branches of linguistics could develop successfully without the other, their
relationship being essentially that of theory and practice dealing with the same objects of reality.
The term dictionary is used to denote a book listing words of a language with their meanings and
often with data regarding pronunciation, usage and/or origin. There are also dictionaries that
concentrate their attention upon only one of these aspects: pronouncing (phonetical) dictionaries
(by Daniel Jones) and etymological dictionaries (by Walter Skeat, by Erik Partridge, “The
38
Oxford English Dictionary"). For dictionaries in which the words and their definitions belong to
the same language the term unilingual or explanatory is used, whereas bilingual or translation
dictionaries are those that explain words by giving their equivalents in another language.
Multilingual or polyglot dictionaries are not numerous, they serve chiefly the purpose of
comparing synonyms and terminology in various languages.
Unilingual dictionaries are further subdivided with regard to the time. Diachronic dictionaries, of
which “The Oxford English Dictionary” is the main example, reflect the development of the
English vocabulary by recording the history of form and meaning for every word registered.
They may be contrasted to synchronic or descriptive dictionaries of current English concerned
with present-day meaning and usage of words. The boundary between the two is, however, not
very rigid: that is to say, few dictionaries are consistently synchronic, chiefly, perhaps, because
their methodology is not developed as yet, so that in many cases the two principles are blended.
Some synchronic dictionaries are at the same time historical when they represent the state of
vocabulary at some past stage of its development.
Both bilingual and unilingual dictionaries can be general and special. General dictionaries
represent the vocabulary as a whole with a degree of completeness depending upon the scope
and bulk of the book in question. The group includes the thirteen volumes of “The Oxford
English Dictionary” alongside with any miniature pocket dictionary. Some general dictionaries
may have very specific aims and still be considered general due to their coverage. They include,
for instance, frequency dictionaries, i.e. lists of words, each of which is followed by a record of
its frequency of occurrence in one or several sets of reading matter. 5 A rhyming dictionary is
also a general dictionary, though arranged in inverse order, and so is a thesaurus in spite of its
unusual arrangement. General dictionaries are contrasted to special dictionaries whose stated aim
is to cover only a certain specific part of the vocabulary.
Special dictionaries may be further subdivided depending on whether the words are chosen
according to the sphere of human activity in which they are used (technical dictionaries), the
type of the units themselves (e. g. phraseological dictionaries) or the relationships existing
between them (e. g. dictionaries of synonyms).
The first subgroup embraces highly specialised dictionaries of limited scope which may appeal
to a particular kind of reader. They register and explain technical terms for various branches of
knowledge, art and trade: linguistic, medical, technical, economical terms, etc. Unilingual books
of this type giving definitions of terms are called glossaries. They are often prepared by boards
or commissions specially appointed for the task of improving technical terminology and
nomenclature.
The second subgroup deals with specific language units, i.e. with phraseology, abbreviations,
neologisms,
borrowings,
surnames,
toponyms,
proverbs
and.
sayings,
etc.
The third subgroup contains a formidable array of synonymic dictionaries that have been
mentioned in the chapter on synonyms. Dictionaries recording the complete vocabulary of some
author are called concordances, they should be distinguished from those that deal only with
difficult words, i.e. glossaries. Taking up territorial considerations one comes across dialect
dictionaries and dictionaries of Americanisms. The main types of dictionaries are classified in
the accompanying table.
Types of dictionaries
Unilingual
Bilingual or multilingual
General
Explanatory
dictionaries English-Russian, Russian-English, etc.
irrespective of their bulk
and multilingual dictionaries
Etymological,
frequency, Concentrated on one of the distinctive
phonetical, rhyming and thesaurus features of the word
type dictionaries
Special
Glossaries of scientific and other Dictionaries of scientific and other
special
terms;
concordances1 special
terms1
Dictionaries
of
abbreviations,
39
antonyms, borrowings, new words,
proverbs, synonyms, surnames,
toponyms, etc.
Dictionaries of American English,
dialect and slang dictionaries
Dictionaries
of
abbreviations,
phraseology, proverbs, synonyms, etc.
Dictionaries of Old English and Middle
English with explanations in Modern
English
Finally, dictionaries may be classified into linguistic and non-linguistic. The latter are
dictionaries giving information on all branches of knowledge, the encyclopaedias. They deal not
with words, but with facts and concepts. The best known encyclopaedias of the English-speaking
world are “The Encyclopaedia Britannica” and “The Encyclopaedia Americana”. There exist
also biographical dictionaries and many minor encyclopaedias.
English lexicography is probably the richest in the world with respect to variety and scope of the
dictionaries published. The demand for dictionaries is very great. One of the duties of school
teachers of native language is to instil in their pupils the “dictionary habit”. Boys and girls are
required by their teachers to obtain a dictionary and regularly consult it. There is a great variety
of unilingual dictionaries for children. They help children to learn the meaning, spelling and
pronunciation of words. An interesting example is the Thorndike dictionary. Its basic principle is
that the words and meanings included should be only those which schoolchildren are likely to
hear or to encounter in reading. The selection of words is therefore determined statistically by
counts of the actual occurrence of words in reading matter of importance to boys and girls
between 10 and 15. Definitions are also made specially to meet the needs of readers of that age,
and this accounts for the ample use of illustrative sentences and pictures as well as for the
encyclopaedic bias of the book.
A dictionary is the most widely used reference book in English homes and business offices.
Correct pronunciation and correct spelling are of great social importance, because they are
necessary for efficient communication.
A bilingual dictionary is useful to several kinds of people: to those who study foreign languages,
to specialists reading foreign literature, to translators, to travellers, and to linguists. It may have
two principal purposes: reference for translation and guidance for expression. It must provide an
adequate translation in the target language of every word and expression in the source language.
It is also supposed to contain all the inflectional, derivational, semantic and syntactic information
that its reader might ever need, and also information on spelling and pronunciation. Data on the
levels of usage are also considered necessary, including special warnings about the word being
rare or poetical or slangy and unfit to be used in the presence of “one’s betters”. The number of
special bilingual dictionaries for various branches of knowledge and engineering is ever
increasing. A completely new type are the machine translation dictionaries which present their
own specific problems, naturally differing from those presented by bilingual dictionaries for
human translation. It is highly probable, however, that their development will eventually lead to
improving dictionaries for general use.
The entries of a dictionary are usually arranged in alphabetical order, except that derivatives and
compounds are given under the same head-word. In the ideographic dictionaries the main body is
arranged according to a logical classification of notions expressed. But dictionaries of this type
always have an alphabetical index attached to facilitate the search for the necessary word.
The ideographic type of dictionary is in a way the converse of the usual type: the purpose of the
latter is to explain the meaning when the word is given. The Thesaurus, on the contrary, supplies
the word or words by which a given idea may be expressed. Sometimes the grouping is in
parallel columns with the opposite notions. The book is meant only for readers (either native or
foreign) having a good knowledge of English, and enables them to pick up an adequate
expression and avoid overuse of the same words. The Latin word thesaurus means ‘treasury’. P.
Roget’s book gave the word a new figurative meaning, namely, ‘a store of knowledge’, and
40
hence ‘a dictionary containing all the words of a language’. A consistent classification of notions
presents almost insuperable difficulties. Only relatively few “semantic fields", such as kinship
terms, colour terms, names for parts of human body and some others fit into a neat scheme. For
the most part, however, there is no one-to-one correlation between notions and words, and the
classification of notions, even if it were feasible, is a very poor help for classification of
meanings and their systematic presentation. The system of meanings stands in a very complex
relationship to the system of notions because of the polysemantic character of most words. The
semantic structure of words and the semantic system of vocabulary depend on many linguistic,
historical and cultural factors.
POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF GREAT BRITAIN
The British monarchy clearly has great powers of survival; it is certainly the oldest
institution of government in the United Kingdom. It existed some four hundred years before
Parliament and three centuries before the first courts of law, and an almost unbroken line of
kings and queens can be traced back for over a thousand years. Queen Elizabeth II herself is
descended from the Saxon monarchs who united England in the ninth century and from William
the Conqueror, whose victory at the Battle of Hastings brought the Normans to power in 1066.
She has reigned for over forty years, epitomizing the role of a constitutional monarch in an age
of republics and presidents. The only break in the continuity of the monarchy occurred over three
hundred years ago, when in 1649, the defeat of Charles I at the swords and guns of Oliver
Cromwell's parliamentary army led to Britain becoming a republic. In 1660 Charles's son,
Charles II, was restored to the throne and Britain has remained a monarchy ever since.
Not, however, that it has remained unchanged, the late sixteen hundreds saw the
establishment of a limited constitutional monarchy and though considerable executive power
continued to be wielded through much of the eighteenth century, the next one hundred years,
including the hugely influential reign of Queen Victoria, saw the monarch's active role in politics
reduced to the point where it can accurately be said "The Queen reigns but she does not rule".
The development of the royal style and the titles reflects the union of the kingdoms of England
and Scotland in 1707, the union with Ireland in 1801 and, in the second half of the twentieth
century, the transformation of the old British Empire into today's Commonwealth.
The Queen's title in the United Kingdom is: "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories
Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith."
Parliament is the legislature and the supreme authority. It consists оf three elements —
the Monarch, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. These meet together only on
occasions of ceremonial significance. The House of Commons consists of 650 MPs, who are
directly elected by voters in each of Britain's 650 parliamentary constituencies. The House of
Lords consists of hereditary peers and peeresses — men and women who hold titles of nobility
which can be passed on to their sons and, in some cases, daughters; life peers and peeresses —
distinguished citizens who are given peerages and who hold their titles only during their own
lifetimes; and two archbishops and 24 senior bishops of the Church of England.
Parliament has the following functions:
— passing, or abolishing, laws;
— voting on taxation, in order to provide the means for carrying on government;
— debating government policy and administration and any other major issues.
The House of Lords cannot normally prevent proposed legislation from becoming law if
the House of Commons insists on it, and it has little influence over legislation involving taxation
or expenditure. The limitations on the power of the Lords reflect the convention that nowadays
the main legislative function of the non-elected House is to act as a chamber of revision which
does not seek to rival the elected House of Commons.
41
Although in law the executive is headed by the Queen, she reigns today a constitutional
monarch. She is Britain's head of State but has few absolute powers. Instead, according to wellestablished conventions, the Queen acts on the advice of government ministers. As members of
the legislature, government ministers are answerable to Parliament for the activities of their
departments and for the general conduct оf national policies. They take part in debates in
Parliament and can be questioned by MPs. The executive also includes elected local authorities
which administer many local services.
The Judiciary determines common law and interprets Acts of Parliament. It is
independent of the legislature and the executive. The House of Lords is the final court of appeal,
but in practice appeals are heard by peers who are senior judges or who have held high judicial
office. Other peers do not take part in the judicial work of the Lords.
For over 150 years Britain's system of parliamentary democracy has been based on
organised political parties competing to form governments. Political parties are neither registered
nor formally recognized in law, but the system depends on the existence of at least two parties in
the House of Commons, each of which is capable of forming a government. Most candidates in
elections and almost all winning candidates belong to one of the main political parties.
Candidates who are members of smaller political parties or groups, or who do not belong to any
party, may also stand. Since the Second World War (1939-45) the great majority of MPs have
belonged to either the Conservative or the Labour party.
Elections to the House of Commons, known as parliamentary elections, (term the basis of
Britain's democratic system. Unlike heads of Government in Мине countries, the Prime Minister
is not directly elected by voters, although he or she is an elected Member of Parliament — an
MP. Instead, the Prime Minister depends on the support of a majority of his or her fellow elected
representatives in the House of Commons. These MPs back the Government because they are
members of the party which the Prime Minister leads, although on some occasions governments
have been made up of coalitions of more than one party. Most government ministers are MPs
who belong to the governing party; the remainders are members of the same party in the House
of Lords. MPs who belong to the other political parties are usually opposed to the Government of
the day. The leader of the party which wins most seats at a general election, or which has the
support of a majority in the new House of Commons, is by convention invited by the Monarch to
form a government. He or she becomes Prime Minister and chooses the ministers who will
together form the Government.
Literature.
1. Алимов Вячеслав Вячеславович, Артемьева Юлия Вячеславовна Общественнополитический перевод: Практический курс переводa: Учебное пособие. Изд. 3-е. — М.:
Книжный дом ≪ЛИБРОКОМ≫, 2009. — 272 с.
Theme 6. Phraseology and idiomaticity of English language. The peculiarities of
translation of phrasal verbs. Modal verbs and their equivalents. Modals in questions and
negatives. Modals in past tense.
PHRASEOLOGY AS A SUBSYSTEM OF LANGUAGE
Phraseology means the branch of linguistics dealing with stable word- combinations
characterized by certain transference of meaning.
Despite differences of opinion, most authors agree upon some points concerning the
distinctive features of phraseological units, such as:
Integrity (or transference) of meaning means that none of the idiom components is
separately associated with any referents of objective reality, and the meaning of the whole unit
cannot be deduced from the meanings of its components;
42
Stability (lexical and grammatical) means that no lexical substitution is possible in an
idiom in comparison with free or variable word-combinations (with an exception of some cases
when such substitutions are made by the author intentionally). The experiments conducted in the
1990s showed that, the meaning of an idiom is not exactly identical to its literal paraphrase given
in the dictionary entry. That is why we may speak about lexical flexibility of many units if they
are used in a creative manner. Lexical stability is usually accompanied by grammatical stability
which prohibits any grammatical changes;
Separability means that the structure of an idiom is not something indivisible, certain
modifications are possible within certain boundaries. Here we meet with the so-called lexical and
grammatical variants. For examples: "as hungry as a wolf (as a hunter)", "as safe as a house
(houses)" in English, «как (будто, словно, точно) в воду опушенный», «оседлать своего
(любимого) конька», «раскидывать умом (мозгами) Раскинуть (пораскинуть) умом
(мозгами)» in Russian.
Expressivity and emotiveness means that idioms are also characterized by stylistic
colouring. In other words, they evoke emotions or add expressiveness.
On the whole phraseological units, even if they present a certain pattern, do not generate
new phrases. They are unique.
Interlanguage comparison, the aim of which is the exposure of phraseological
conformities, forms the basis of a number of theoretical and applied trends of modern linguistic
research, including the theory and practice of phraseography. But the question of determining the
factors of interlanguage phraseological conformities as the main concept and the criterion of
choosing phraseological equivalents and analogues as the aspect concepts is still at issue.
The analysis of special literature during the last decades shows that the majority of
linguists consider the coincidence of semantic structure, grammatical (or syntactical)
organization and componential (lexeme) structure the main criteria in defining the types of
interlanguage phraseological conformities/disparities with the undoubted primacy of semantic
structure.
Comparing the three approaches discussed above (semantic, functional, and contextual)
we have ample ground to conclude that have very much in common as, the main criteria of
phraseological units appear to be essentially the same, i.e. stability and idiomaticity or lack of
motivation. It should be noted however that these criteria as elaborated in the three approaches
are sufficient mainly to single out extreme cases: highly idiomatic non-variable and free (or
variable) word- groups.
Thus red tape, mare's nest, etc. According to the semantic approach belong to
phraseology and are described as fusions as they are completely non-motivated. According to the
functional approach they are also regarded as phraseological units because of their grammatical
(syntactic) inseparability and because they function, in speech as word-equivalents. According to
the contextual approach red tape, mare's nest, etc. make up a group of phraseological units
referred to as idioms because of the impossibility of any change in the 'fixed context' and their
semantic inseparability.
The status of the bulk of word-groups however cannot be decided with certainty with the
help of these criteria because as a rule we have to deal not with соmplete idiomaticity and
stability but with a certain degree of these distinguishing features of phraseological units. No
objective criteria of the degree of idiomaticity and stability have as yet been suggested. Thus,
e.g., to win a victory according to the semantic approach is a phraseological combination
because it is almost completely motivated and allows of certain variability to win, to gain, a
victory. According to the functional approach it is not a phraseological unit as the degree of
semantic and grammatical inseparability is insufficient for the word-group to function as a wordequivalent. Small hours according to the contextual approach it is literal meaning. If however we
classify it proceeding from the functional approach is a word-groups which are partially
motivated is decided differently depending on which of the criteria of phraseological units is
applied.
43
There is still another approach to the problem of phraseology in which an attempt is made
to overcome the shortcoming of the phraseological theories discussed above. The main features
of this new approach which is now more or less universally accepted by Soviet linguists are as
follows:
1. Phraseology is regarded as a self-contained branch of linguistics and, not as a part of
lexicology.
2. Phraseology deals with a phraseological subsystem of language and not with isolated
phraseological units.
3. Phraseology is concerned with all types of set expressions.
4. Set expressions are divided into three classes: phraseological units (e.g. red tape,
mare's nest, etc.), phraseomatic units (e.g. win a victory, launch a campaign, etc.) and borderline
cases belonging to the mixed class. The main distinction between the first and the second classes
is semantic: phraseological units have fully or partially transferred meanings while components
of, phraseomatic units are used in their literal meanings.
Phraseological and phraseomatic units are not regarded as word- equivalents but some of
them are treated as word correlates.
Phraseological and phraseomatic units are set expressions and their phraseological
stability distinguishes them from free phrases and compound words.
Phraseological and phraseomatic units are made up of words of different degree of
wordness depending on the type of set expressions they are used in. (cf. e.g. small hours and red
tape). Their structural separateness, an important factor of their stability, distinguishes them from
compound words (E.g. comparing blackbird and black market).
Stability of use means that set expressions are reproduced ready-made and not created in
speech. They are not elements of individual style of speech but language units.
Lexical stability means that the components of set expressions are either irreplaceable
(e.g. red tape, mare's nest) or party replaceable within the bounds of phraseological or
phraseomatic variance: lexical (e.g. a skeleton in the cupboard – a skeleton in the closet);
grammatical (e.g. to be in deep water – to be in deep waters); positional (e.g. head over ears –
over head and ears), quantitative (e.g. to lead somebody a dance- to lead somebody a pretty
dance), mixed variants (e.g. raise (stir up) a hornets' nest about one's ears- arouse (stir up) the
nest of hornets).
Semantic stability is based on the lexical stability of set expressions. Even when
occasional changes are introduced the meaning of set expression is preserved. It may only be
specified, made more precise, weakened or strengthened. In other words in spite of all occasional
phraseological and phraseomatic units, as distinguished from free phrases, remain semantically
invariant or are destroyed. For example, the substitution of the verbal component in the free
phrase to raise a question by the verb to settle (to settle a question) changes the meaning of the
phrase, no such change occurs in to raise (stir up) a hornets' nest about one's ears.
An integral part of this approach is a method of phraseological identification which helps
to single out set expressions in Modern English.
The diachronic aspect of phraseology has scarcely been investigated. Just a few points of
interest may be briefly reviewed in connection with the origin of phraseology has scarcely been
investigated. Just a few points of interest may be briefly reviewed in connection with the origin
of phraseological units and the ways they appear in language. It is assumed that almost all
phrases can be traced back to free word-groups which in the course of the historical development
of the English language have acquired semantic and grammatical process of grammaticalization
or lexicalization.
Cases of grammaticalization may be illustrated by the transformation of free word-groups
composed of the verb have, a noun (pronoun) and Participle II of some other verb into the
grammatical form- the Present Perfect in Modern English. The degree of semantic and
grammatical inseparability in this analytical word-form is so high that the component has seems
to possess no lexical meaning of its own.
44
The term lexicalization implies that the word-group under discussion develops into a
word-equivalent, i.e. a phraseological unit or a compound word. These two parallel lines of
lexicalization of free word-groups can be illustrated by the diachronic analysis of, e.g., the
compound word instead and the phraseological unit in spite (of). Both of them can be traced
back to structurally identical free phrases.
There are some grounds to suppose that there exists a kind of interdependence between
these two ways of lexicalization of free word-groups which makes them mutually exclusive. It is
observed, for example, that compounds are more abundant in certain parts of speech, whereas
phraseological units are numerically predominant in others. Thus, e.g., phraseological units are
found in great numbers as verb-equivalents whereas compound verbs are comparatively few.
This leads us to assume that lexicalization of free word-groups and their transformation into
words or phraseological units is governed by the fewer phraseological units we are likely to
encounter in this class of words.
Very little is known of the factors active in the process of lexicalization of free wordgroups which results in the appearance of phraseological units. This problem may be viewed in
terms of the degree of motivation. We may safely assume that a free word-group is transformed
into a phraseological unit when it acquires semantic inseparability and becomes synchronically
non-motivated.
The following may be perceived as the main causes accounting for the less' of motivation
of free word-groups:
When one of the components of a word-group becomes archaic or drops out of the
language altogether the whole word-group may become completely or partially non-motivated.
For example, lack of motivation in the word-group kith and kin may be accounted for by the fact
that the member-word kith dropped out of the language altogether except as the component of
the phraseological unit under discussion. This is also observed in the phraseological unit under
discussion.
When as a result of a change in the semantic structure of a polysemantic word some of its
meanings disappear and can be found only in certain collocations. The noun mind, e.g., once
meant 'purpose' or 'intention' and this meaning survives in the phrases to have a mind to do
something, to change one's mind, etc.
When a free word-group used in professional speech penetrates into general literary
usage, it is often felt as non-motivated. To pull (the) strings (wires), e.g., was originally used as a
free word-group in its direct meaning by professional actors in puppet shows. In Modern
English, however, it has lost all connection with puppet-shows and therefore cannot also be
observed in the' phraseological unit to stick to one's guns, which can be traced back to military
English, etc.
Sometimes extra-linguistic factors may account for the loss of motivation, to show the
white feather - 'to act as a coward', e.g., can be traced back to the days when cock-fighting was
popular. A white feather in a gamecock's plumage denoted bad breeding and was regarded as a
sign of cowardice. Now that cock-fighting is no longer a popular sport, the phrase is felt as nonmotivated.1 As a matter of fact, a person who attended a university where Gamecock was the
athletic symbol of the school did not know this phrase, therefore use of this phrase would only
confuse the hearers, not convey proper communication.
d) When a word-group making up part of a proverb or saying begins to be used a selfcontained unit it may gradually become non-motivated if its connection with the corresponding
proverb or saying is not clearly perceived. A new broom, e.g., originates as a component of the
saying new brooms sweep clean. New broom as a phraseological unit may be viewed as nonmotivated because the meaning of the whole is not deducible from the meaning of the
45
components. Moreover, it seems grammatically and functionally self-contained and inseparable
too. In the saying quoted above the noun broom is always used in the plural; as a member-word
of the phraseological unit it mostly used in the singular. The phraseological unit a new broom is
characterized by functional inseparability. In the saying new brooms sweep clean the adjective
new functions as an attribute to the noun brooms, in the phraseological unit a new broom (e.g.
Well he is a new broom!) the whole word-group is functionally inseparable.
e) When part of a quotation from literary sources, mythology or the Bible begin to be
used as a self-contained unit, it may also lose all connection with the original context and as a
result of this become non-motivated. The phraseological unit the green-eyed monster (jealousy)
can be easily found as a part of the quotation from Shakespeare "It is the green-eyed monster
which doth mock the meat it feeds on" (Othello, II, i. 165). In Modern English, however, it
functions as a non-motivated self-contained phraseological unit and is also used to denote the
T.V. set. Achilles heel - 'the weak spot in a man's circumstances or character' can be traced back
to mythology, but it seems that in Modern English this word-group functions as a phraseological
unit largely because most English speakers do not connect it with the myth from which it was
extracted.
1. The final criterion in the semantic approach is idiomaticity whereas in the functional
approach syntactic inseparability is viewed as the final test, and in the contextual approach it is
stability of context combined with idiomaticity of word-groups.
The concept of idiomaticity is not strictly defined. The judgments as to idiomaticity are
passed sometimes within the framework of the English language and sometimes from the outside
- from the point of view of the mother tongue of the investigator.
It is suggested here that the term idiomaticity should be interpreted as an interlingual
notion and also that the degree of idiomaticity should be taken into consideration since between
the extreme of complete motivation and lack of motivation there are numerous intermediate
group.
Each of the three approaches has its merits and demerits. The traditional semantic
approach points out the essential features of all kinds of idiomatic phrases as opposed to
completely motivated free word-groups. The functional approach puts forward an objective
criterion for singling out a small group of word-equivalents possessing all the basic features of
words as lexical items. The contextual approach makes the criterion of stability more exact.
All the three approaches are sufficient to single out the extreme cases: highly idiomatic
phraseological units and free word-groups. The status of the bulk of word-groups possessing
different degrees of idiomaticity cannot be decided with certainty by applying the criteria
available in linguistic science.
The distinguishing feature of the new approach is that phraseology is regarded as a selfcontained branch of linguistics and not as a part of lexicology.
Literature.
1. Smith L. «Words and Idioms».1928
2. Smith L. «Words and Idioms». 1976
3. Collins V. «А Book of English Idioms» 1981
4. Смирницкий А. «Лексикология английского языка» М.,1996
5. Arnold I.V. The English Word . M. 1986.
6. Кунин А.В.Англо-русский фразеологический словарь, М., 1956
7. Смирницкий А.И. Лексикология английского языка. М., 1956.
8. Виноградов В.В. Лексикология и лексикография: Избр. Тр. - М.: Наука, 1986.
9. Hornby A. The Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Lnd. 1974.
10. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. М., 1955
11. Aмосова Н. Н. Основы английской фразеологии Л. 1963.
12.www.bohemika.com – Phraseological combinations and fusions.
46
13.www.schwabe.ch – Phraseological Units.
14.www.corpus.bham.ac.uk – the Determination of Phraseological Units.
15. http://www.ranez.ru/article
SOME WAYS OF TRANSLATING ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS INTO RUSSIAN
Though not pretending completeness, I hope the readers will find this article helpful in
understanding the essence of some semantic correspondences in the English and Russian verbal
systems. It is common knowledge that in order to provide an adequate translation, the translator
must be able to sense nuances in the semantics of both the source-language and target-language
texts. English phrasal verbs (e.g. give up, break in, fall out) are of great interest to me in this
respect because they possess quite a number of semantic, grammatical and stylistic peculiarities,
sometimes making their accurate translation into Russian difficult. Of course, in dealing with the
translation of such lexical units into his or her native language, the translator can consult the
appropriate bilingual dictionary, but what about the profound comprehension of why this or that
phrasal verb is translated only this and not any other way?
To get a good idea of English phrasal verbs' semantic nuances, let us first look at their
conceptual features. In theory, phrasal verbs are generally considered to be idiomatic
combinations of a verb and an adverbial particle. The exact status of the latter is still being
debated, scholars being divided on whether it is an adverb, prepositional adverb, postpositional
prefix, special part of speech, etc. However, here we are interested only in the features of
adverbial particles.
In general, the main function of phrasal verbs is conceptual categorization of reality in the
speaker's mind. They denote not only actions or states as "ordinary" verbs do, but also specify
their spatial, temporal or other characteristics. This ability to describe actions or states more
precisely, vividly and emotionally is determined by the adverbial components of phrasal verbs.
By combining with these elements, verbs of broader meaning are subjected to a regular and
systematic multiplication of their semantic functions. While the English verb has no consistent
structural representation of aspect, adverbial particles either impart an additional aspective
meaning to the base verb (e.g. the durative verb sit merges with the particle down into the
terminative phrasal verb sit down) or introduce a lexical modification to its fundamental
semantics. In most cases adverbial elements denote the general spatial direction of the action or
express its qualitative or quantitative characteristics, like beginning (set out), duration (bum
along),
completion
(think
out),
intensity
(hurry
up),
and
so
on.
Obviously, such semantic peculiarities of English phrasal verbs must influence the process of
their translation into the Russian language, which has a highly developed system of verbal
prefixes. In addition to their function that is analogous to that of English prefixes, Russian verbal
prefixes resemble English adverbial particles in their semantic functions, also indicating various
qualities of actions and states. Like adverbial particles in English, Russian prefixes are lexically
strong. For example, the Russian prefix "раз-" denotes 1) division into parts (раскрошить); 2)
distribution, direction of action in different directions (разъехаться); 3) action in reverse
(разминировать); 4) termination of action or state (разлюбить); 5) intensification of action
(расплясаться) [The Oxford Russian Dictionary]. Thus, in translation from English into
Russian, the meaning of the English adverbial component of the phrasal verb is mostly conveyed
by using the Russian prefix that reflects the character of the described action or state most
accurately. To a greater degree, this refers rather to nuances of semantics than grammar.
When dealing with translation of English phrasal verbs or pre-analysis of their adverbial
elements' meaning, one should always keep in mind their astounding polysemy, which
sometimes borders on homonymy. Compare the following: take in 4 (to receive sb in one's home
with welcome, as a guest) and take in 12 (to deceive sb) (Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs).
It holds true for Russian prefixes as well, the same ones rendering different shades of meaning in
different uses (see examples above). That is why it seems almost impossible to create a
47
consistent rigid system of lexical correspondences between English adverbial particles and
Russian
prefixes,
without
encountering
numerous
debatable
problems.
Strictly speaking, proper translation of English phrasal verbs to a high degree depends on the
context in which they are used, which suggests the appropriate interpretation of the described
action. Having stated the specific characteristics of the action denoted by a certain phrasal verb,
one can seek a Russian counterpart prefix, which is the closest in rendering the same idea and
meets the lexical and grammatical requirements of translation into the target language.
For example, the sentence "The attack had gone across the field, been held up by machine-gun
fire from sunken road, encountered no resistance in the town, and reached the bank of the river"
[E. Hemingway, A Way You'll Never Be] should be translated as «Атака развертывалась на
лугу и была приостановлена пулеметным огнем с дорожной выемки, не встретила
отпора в городе и закончилась на берегу реки». According to the Longman Dictionary of
Phrasal Verbs, in the above context the phrasal verb hold up has the following meaning: 2. to
delay (sth or sb). The Russian prefix "при-" adequately renders the idea that the attack was
delayed just for a while.
The sentences "There was a little fire there. Nancy built it up, when it was already hot inside"
[W. Faulkner, That Evening Sun] have the following translation: «В очаге еще были горячие
угли, она их раздула, и пламя вспыхнуло". The adverbial particle up in the phrasal verb build
up imparts the idea of increasing the size of the fire and shows the intensification of the action.
According to the definition given in the Oxford Russian Dictionary, the most appropriate
Russian prefix should be "раз-", indicating the intensification of action.
For the sentence "Three or four times while I was going through their envelopes, I was tempted
to get up and make a formal protest to M.Yoshoto" [J. D. Salinger, De Daumier-Smith's Blue
Period] the best translation would be "И когда я просматривал их работы, меня не раз так и
подмывало вскочить и обратиться с официальным протестом к мосье Йошото", as there
is a proper semantic correspondence between the adverbial element through in the phrasal verb
going through and the Russian prefix "про-" in the verb "просматривал", both denoting
exhaustive action.
English phrasal verbs can be highly idiomatic, their meanings being unpredictable from the sum
of their constituents' meanings (e.g. take in (to deceive), lay down (to build), let on (to tell a
secret). In such cases, where the context or professional experience fail to reveal the sense of a
phrasal verb, a good explanatory or bilingual dictionary can be of great help to the translator. For
example, for a person who is not a native speaker of English, in the sentence "He liked to break
in his assistants slowly" neither the context, nor the adverbial element of the phrasal verb hint at
the real meaning of the combination break in. According to the Longman Dictionary of Phrasal
Verbs, the phrasal verb break in has the following "unexpected" meaning: 4. to help (smb) to
become accustomed (to work, etc.) . The Russian edition of this very dictionary (Английские
фразовые глаголы. Англо-русский словарь, Russkiy Yazyk Publishers, Moscow, 1997) treats
this meaning in the same way: 4. вводить (кого-л.) в курс (новой работы и т.п.).
I think that a thorough study and consequent understanding of semantic correspondences in the
English and Russian verbal systems can be quite a powerful tool in the translator's arsenal.
MODULE 2.
THEME 7. The basic principles of translation of coherent text, free and set expressions in
its structure. The general principles of terms translation. The formation of terms in
Modern English language.
The Subjunctive Mood. Ways of rendering the Subjunctive Mood in Russian.
TRANSLATION(S) AND TEXT
We are aware that Venuti's call for resistive translation refers primarily to certain literary and
cultural texts. We apologize for using his argument as a foil for our own. Venuti is correct in his
analysis of the potential for harm in translation, and he focuses, as we do, on the effects of the
translation process on textual form. Too many theorists focus on the translation process alone.
48
They act as if process could be separated from text. The text is the central defining issue in
translation. Texts and their situations define the translation process. We cannot generalize about
translation without speaking of specific texts embedded in specific situations.
There is no single translation process. There are many translation processes. Translation is an
intersection of situation, translator competence, source text, and target text-to-be. There are
translation situations where the destructive impact of translation on cultural values is not
important. There are other situations where it may be the central issue. Some translation is
critical and interpretive; it is not pragmatic. This kind of translation is driven by different
motivating factors. The messages and forms of the texts are more closely connected. Other texts
participate in practical communication. They exchange primarily value-free technical, scientific,
and commercial information. The foreignness of the source text is not a benefit in these
translations. Because most practical texts have a user orientation, the foreignness of the source
text is an obstacle to overcome.
The translation situation always determines the set of translation strategies to be used.
Translation appears to be a single process, but it actually refers to a set of situation-specific
processes. Here we have another paradox of translation.
Venuti makes the case himself when he says "as conceptual fields in which a translation is
produced, fluency and resistancy . . . are determined by the particular conjuncture where they are
developed and used, and their ideological significance is not only defined in relation to that
conjuncture, but influenced by the ideology of the source-language text that they process"
(Venuti 1986, 191).
There are common features which all the possible translation processes share. There are also
differences which distinguish them. Some differences are related to variations in the translation
situation. Others are caused by the diverse information contents of source texts. Authors may
have different intentions and readers can have different needs. There are always cultural
differences in linguistic and conceptual systems. Finally, there are differences in what people
expect translations to look like. One of the goals of translation studies should be to describe the
varieties of translation that result from real combinations of these translation variables.
Translation scholars need to look at real translation practice.
Translation reality is rarely studied. Instead, we have studied armchair conceptualizations of
translation. What translation scholars need to do, and have started to do over the past decade, is
focus on the varieties of translation that actually exist. They need to look at what happens to
source texts during translation and describe the influence of cultural, linguistic, and textual
factors on the processes and results of translation.
Translation studies today is a cluster of overlapping perspectives. There is no unified way of
approaching the study of translation. Practitioners and scholars stake out certain territories and
construct their own isolated understandings of translation reality. Many of these perspectives are
non-empirical. They are derived from disparate sources. Some come from models in other
disciplines. Others come from metaphors and introspection. Each perspective emphasizes a
different aspect of translation. Translation invites and recommends a variety of theoretical and
methodological responses.
For instance, a scholar may focus on the source text in its sociocultural setting. This sourcecentered perspective will focus on the domestication of the source text by the target language.
The translator plays the role of linguistic lion tamer. From this perspective, resistive translation
makes sense. The utility of resistive translation dissipates when the perspective shifts. Resistant
translation cannot be proposed as a universal strategy, but there are translation situations and
translation needs which call for it. The utility of resistive translation rests primarily on textideological considerations, not pragmatic ones. The use of the technique is situation dependent.
It requires a translation situation which places social concerns (gender, class, ethnicity) and
awareness of the other (opacity of the text) above other concerns (readability, acceptability,
informativity). A major problem with resistive translation is that by denying fluency and, by
extension, the textuality of the target, the resistive translator runs the risk of producing non-texts
49
which can seem very much like bad translations. How do we tell the difference? One possible
answer is that resistive translation produces "something that cannot be confused with either the
source-language text or a text written originally in the target language." The translation contains
a "use of language that resists easy reading according to contemporary standardsthat will make
visible the intervention of the translator . . . " (Venuti 1986, 190). Venuti's idea of a discrete "use
of language" implies that even resistive translation produces a systematic textual effect. It
produces an ''unnatural," but usable, text for a trained and attentive reader.
We must understand what a text is before we can think about translating one. The way we
translate must proceed from a consideration of the source text and the translation situation.
Because there are many texts and many potential reasons to translate them, there are many ways
to translate. This volume is called Translation as Text because translation does not pre-exist.
Translation is not brought to the text and then applied to it. It is a textual process that starts with
the source text and is managed by the translator to produce a target text. The translator manages
translation as a textual process meant to induce one text from another. In most cases of technical
and commercial translation, the text that is induced should be a fluent text in a target language.
In other cases, it may be an opaque resistive text, induced as a special response to a particular
conjuncture of translation variables. Translation variables are primarily textual variables. The
translator must learn to account for these variables in the process of translation. In the third
chapter of this volume we turn to a detailed explanation of the textual variables that influence
translation.
Thus, unnaturalness and necessity, loss and gain, destruction and harmony, integration and
difference, are all properties of translation. They define its essential paradoxes. The study of
translation should include an account of how these seemingly incompatible and divergent
properties are mediated in the target text. Because translation is simultaneously a process and a
result, there is a product whose success or failure can be evaluated. We can judge how the
translator has responded to the demands of the translation situation. The translator always has
choices to make. He or she has to cope with cultural difference and linguistic incompatibility.
Translators have to master the difficulties of navigating messages to a foreign linguistic shore.
The history of translation is full of examples of great triumph and shameful failure in this
endeavor.
Literature.
1. Neubert, Albrecht.; Shreve, Gregory M. Translation As Text Translation Studies, Kent State
University Press, 1992 – 171p.
THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TERM TRANSLATION
§1. Translation factors
A term is a word or expression denoting a concept in a particular activity, job, or profession.
Terms are frequently associated with professionalisms.
Terms can be single words: psychology, function, equity; or they may consist of several words:
computer aided design system – система автоматического проектирования.
Terms are considered to have one meaning in one field. Therefore, they are context-free words,
whose meaning does not depend on the context: cod – треска, herring – сельдь, squid –
кальмар in any context.
Contrary to this belief, terms may have more than one meaning, since they can be understood
differently in various schools and varies technologies: e.g., the grammatical term verb is
considered to belong to morphology in the Russian school of linguistics, so it is translated as
глагол. In the American school of linguistics it is often understood as a syntactical concept
expressing a part of the sentence; therefore, in this case it corresponds to the Russian сказуемое.
This gives rise to the problem of term unification. A translator must be very careful about terms
expressing the same notion in different languages. One notion should be designated by a single
term throughout the whole text.
50
Different fields of knowledge ascribe different meanings to one and the same term. For example,
лист in the publishing field corresponds to the term sheet (author’s sheet); in biology, it is a
leaf; in technique, it is a plate; in geology, it is lamina. Similarly, the term drive is equivalent to
different Russian terms, since it has different meanings in various fields: привод (in mechanics),
органы управления (in the automobile), сплав (in forestry), горизонтальная горная
выработка (in mining), дисковод (in the computer), etc.
Term homonymy is sometimes due to the fact that words of general stock assume a technical
meaning, thus becoming terms: for instance, memory – память, cell – ячейка памяти, driver –
драйвер, управляющая программа (in computers). Also, terms of one field are borrowed by
other fields, like variant and invariant were borrowed into linguistics from mathematics.
Such term homonymy challenges translation. A translator must know the exact meaning of term
in this or that field, as well as its combinability, for the nearby attribute or another word may
specify the term and affect its translation: антикоррозийное покрытие – corrosion-resistant
coating, дерновое покрытие – sod-matting, дорожное покрытие – road pavement, покрытие
крыши –roofing, маскировочное покрытие – camouflage cover, пенное покрытие – foam
blanket.
To do accurate translation, it is necessary not only to know the meaning of the terms but also to
link them with other words in speech. Erroneous word combination can cause difficulties in
understanding the text. For example, the word combination прозвонить цепь cannot be rendered
by its calque *to ring through the line. Its equivalent is to test the line. Therefore, translators
always put high value on dictionaries containing word equivalents along with phrases and
illustrating sentences.
Terms in dictionaries are usually arranged in alphabetical and keyword order. To find a word
combination, it is necessary to look up a keyword, which is usually a noun. For example, to
translate a compound term barking machine, it is necessary to look up the term machine. Its
vocabulary entry will give the attributive group corresponding to корообдирочный станок,
корообдирка.
Term translation may also depend on the regional character of the language. For example,
антенна corresponds to aerial in British English, to antenna in American English; ветровое
стекло (автомобиля) – windscreen (British English), windshield (American English);
багажник (автомобиля) – boot (British), trunk (American).
Term form depends on the people using it. P. Newmark suggests three levels of term usage:
1) Academic. This includes transferred Latin and Greek words used in academic papers
(phlegmasia alba dolens);
2) Professional. Formal terms used by experts (epidemic parotitis, scarlatina);
3) Popular. Layman vocabulary, which includes familiar alternative terms (mumps, scarlet
fever).
In science, terms are neutral, non-expressive. Medical students feel no particular ways, whatever
terms they use. But when a term is transferred to another register, it takes on a stylistic and
emotional coloring. In common everyday situations, people feel abhorrence for pox, in Russian
called дурная болезнь, and other things.
Term translation depends on the register it is used in. In science, translators tend to translate as
precisely as possible. Absolute equivalence of terms is a requirement in scientific translation. In
other registers, term translation depends on the receptors background, and on the function the
term plays in the text.
§2. TRANSLATION TECHNIQUE
The main ways of translating terms are as follows:
1. Transcription (for loan terms): display – дисплей, algorythm – алгоритм, phenomenon феномен. Care should be taken not to overuse this technique. Terms may not survive in the
borrowed form, as happened with the computer term hardware whose loan equivalent хардвер is
no longer used in computer science, but has given way to its explanatory substitution:
электромеханическое оборудование, техническое обеспечение.
51
2. Transliteration: carbide – карбид, function – функция. Normally, terms are transliterated or
transcribed when a target language lacks a certain notion and borrows it a short foreign form.
Many international loan terms are of Greek or Latin origin. This facilitates mutual understanding
among specialists: arthrogryposis – артрогрипоз, osteodystrophy – остеодистрофия,
hematoma – гематома.
However, when using this technique a translator should be aware of ‘false friends’, that is words
similar in form but different in meaning, for example: benzene in chemistry is equal to бензол,
not бензин, the latter corresponding to benzine, gasoline. Likewise, мутиляция = отторжение
части тела или органа - rejection, mutilation – увечье, калечащее повреждение;
hemeralopia – дневная слепота (ухудшение зрения при дневном свете), гемералопия =
ночная (куриная) слепота – nyctalopia.
A translator of science texts must use only standard terms, avoiding slang or colloquial words.
For instance, brown coal – бурый уголь (not *коричневый уголь); natural gas – природный газ
(not *натуральный газ); airplane – самолет (not аэроплан); машинное масло – engine oil
(not *machine oil).
3. Calque, half-calque: this technique is often applied to translating compound terms or term
phrases: preanalysis – преданализ; structural system analysis – структурный системный
анализ; address field – поле адреса; one-dimensional – одномерный.
This translation technique, even more than transcription or transliteration, may be detrimental to
the correctness of the meaning, for it can lead to “false friends”: letter-of-credit is not письмо
доверия but аккредитив; песочные часы – not *sand clock but hour-glass; цветные металлы
– not *colored metals but non-ferrous metals. Transparent inner form of the word can cause no
less trouble with translation equivalents: gooseberry – крыжовник (not гусиная ягода),
quicksilver – ртуть (not быстрое серебро), bear’s onion – черемша (not медвежий лук).
4. Translating a word and using it as the term: mouse – мышь, net – сеть, memory –
память. Gradually, specialists get accustomed to these terms and use them widely in speech.
5. Explicatory (descriptive) translation and expansion. This technique is used for verbalizing
new objects, not existing in the target language, for example, open housing – жилищная
политика равных возможностей, tripos – экзамен для получения отличия в Кембридже. It
is desirable that a translator avoid translating a descriptive by a transliterated (technical) term for
the purpose of “showing off” knowledge. However, the descriptive technique is justified by the
lack of an appropriate technical term in the source language. In English-to-Russian translation, a
more explicit character of the Russian language can necessitate the descriptive technique:
radarproof – защищенный от радиолокационного обнаружения, conflict of interest –
злоупотребление служебным положением.
6. Reduction takes place when one word or a smaller number of words verbalizes a notion:
computer engineer – электроник, счет прибылей и убытков компании - earnings report. To
make sure that the term is standard, it is necessary to consult the dictionary as often as possible.
7. Analogue substitution: cold cereal – сухой завтрак, play school – детские ясли. This
technique is used for a receptor’s convenience when corresponding similar standard terms exist
in the target language.
§3. TERMS IN FICTION AND MAGAZINES
Analogue translation is given preference in a more popular text, such as one in literary or
magazine register. When it comes to the selection between a loan form and its analog, authors
would prefer a form clearer to the receptor. For example, whereas medical professionals would
use the word летальный, journalists and writers would rather write смертельный to render
lethal. Similarly, the equivalents to the term hemostasis would be split for two registers:
гемостаз used in medicine, and остановка кровотечения used for a common receptor.
To comment on the meaning of a new or unknown term, a translator must explain it: runaways –
предприятия, переведенные на другую территорию или за границу.
In fiction, terms and professionalisms can function as the speech record of a character showing
his or her vocation, education, breeding, environment and sometimes even psychology. For
52
example, in A. Hailey’s The Final Diagnosis, medical terms in the speech of the heroes
characterize their profession, some of their traits as well as their experience and sometimes
sufferings: “Goleman spoke carefully. ‘The nurse student – the one who had her leg amputated. I
dissected the limb this morning. You were right. I was wrong. It was malignant. Osteogenic
sarcoma without a doubt.’ ” Russian literature is famous for A. Checkov’s speech portraits, the
example being noncom Prishibeyev’s self-portrait: “Я не мужик, я унтер-офицер, отставной
каптенармус, в Варшаве служил, в штабе-с, а после того, изволите знать, как в чистую
вышел, был в пожарных-с, а после того по слабости болезни ушел из пожарных и два года
в мужской классической прогимназии в швейцарах служил…”
Another function of the term in fiction is to create a technical overtone, showing the
surroundings in which the plot develops. For instance, in his novel Wheels, A. Hailey depicts a
large automobile plant. J. Grisham in his A Time to Kill describes the court of law. Use of the
appropriate mechanical and law terms facilitates this.
To preserve this function it is not necessary to translate each term by its precise technical
equivalent. What is important is to keep the professional overtone of the text, so that it is
possible to translate some terms and reduce those that are irrelevant to the content.
A well-considered substitution of the term may be required if the term is unknown to both the
translator and the receptor. An extract from Ilf and Petrov’s Двенадцать стульев can illustrate
the idea: Елена Станиславовна имела о плашках в 3/8-х дюйма такое же представление,
какое имеет о сельском хозяйстве слушательница хореографических курсов им. Леонардо
да Винчи. The word плашки denotes a rare plumbing tool, not normally known to a non-expert.
So it can be substituted with another name. In this case the translator uses the transformation
called differentiation.
If used in its connotative poetic meaning, the term may be substituted with a word associated
with another poetic image. For instance, in a lyrical text about spring the Russian черемуха can
be translated into Japanese by sakura, into English by cherry-tree.
If the term is used in fiction to create a contrast between a neutral and colloquial vocabulary, the
translator’s aim is to preserve the contrast: Вот сделаю тракцию и начну зуб тянуть. (Чехов)
I’ll do the traction and will start pulling out the tooth.
Literature.
1. Прошина З.Г. ТЕОРИЯ ПЕРЕВОДА (с английского языка на русский и с русского
языка на английский): Уч. на англ. яз. – Владивосток: Изд-во Дальневост. ун-та, 2008 (3-е
изд., перераб.), 2002 (2-е изд., испр. и перераб.), 1999 (1-е изд.)
ISBN 5-7444-0957-2
FALSE FRIENDS OF TRANSLATOR
There are words in the source and target languages which are more or less similar in form.
Such words are of great interest to the translator since he is naturally inclined to take this formal
similarity for the semantic proximity and to regard the words that look alike as permanent
equivalents.
The formal similarity is usually the result of the two words having the common origin,
mainly derived from either Greek or Latin. Since such words can be found in a number of
languages, they are referred to as “international”.
As a matter of fact, very few international words have the same meanings in different
languages. In respect to English and Ukrainian we can cite the words like the English
“parliament, theorem, diameter” and their Ukrainian counterparts „парламент, теорема,
діаметр“. In most cases, however, the semantics of such words in English and in Ukrainian do
53
not coincide and they should rather be named “pseudo-international”. Their formal similarity
suggesting that they are interchangeable, is, therefore, deceptive and may lead to translation
errors. For that reason they are often referred to as the translator’s false friends.
The term ‘translator’s false friends’ (les faux amis) was introduced by the French theorists of
translation M. Koessler and J. Derocquigny in 1928. This term means a word that has the same
or similar form in the source and target languages but another meaning in the target language.
Translators’ false friends result from transferring the sounds of a source language word literally
into the target language. P. Newmark calls them deceptive cognates, as their meanings are
different and they can easily confuse the target text receptor.
Misleading words are mostly international, or it is better to say that they are pseudointernational.
They are loan words that can be borrowed from the source text but have developed their own
meanings in the target texts. For example, interview = ‘a series of questions in a formal situation
in order to obtain information about a person’; интервью = a journalist’s questioning some
public figure in order to be published in mass media’. Or they can have the same origin of the
third language (mainly Greek and Latin) and be borrowed both into the source and target
languages: aspirant = ‘a person who has great ambition, desires strongly, strives toward an end,
aims at’; аспирант = ‘a graduate student’. Sometimes the form similarity can be accidental:
herb = ‘an aromatic plant used in medicine or as seasoning’; герб = ‘an object or representation
that functions as a symbol’.
Reference to some ‘false friends’ can be found in some dictionaries, like a special dictionary of
‘false friends’ or Cambridge International Dictionary of English.
‘False friends’ could be called interlanguage synonyms, homonyms and paronyms.
Interlanguage synonyms are words that coincide in one or more meanings. However, beside
similar meanings, they have some special meanings. For example, concert – концерт. Both
words have the meaning of ‘a musical performance’, but the English word has the second
meaning: ‘agreement in purpose, feeling, or action’. The Russian one has acquired a generic
meaning of ‘any performance (reciting, drama extracts, etc.)’. Thus they can be equivalents in
only the first meaning and somewhat erroneous in their second meaning.
Interlanguage homonyms are words that have no common meanings, like accord – аккорд. The
English word means ‘agreement, harmony; a settlement or compromise of conflicting opinions; a
settlement of points at issue between the nations. The Russian word is more specific, meaning
‘musical chord’.
Interlanguage paronyms are words with similar but not identical sound, and with different
meanings. The case can be illustrated by example – экземпляр. The Russian word denotes ‘a
copy’, whereas the English indicates ‘a representative of a group as a whole; a case serving as a
model or precedent for another that is the same or similar’.
When compared in the source and target texts, translators’ false friends can differ semantically,
syntactically, stylistically, and pragmatically.
Semantic difference presupposes the following oppositions:
generic vs. specific meaning: actual (real, existing in fact) – актуальный (topical); моторист
(air-fitter; machinist) – motorist (one who drives or travels in an automobile).
monosemantic vs. polysemantic: галантный (couth) – gallant (1. Showy and gay in appearance,
dress, or bearing a gallant feathered hat; 2. Stately, majestic; 3.high-spirited and courageous
gallant soldiers; 4. Attentive to women, chivalrous, flirtatious.)
different connotation (positive vs. negative): aggressive (determined to win or succeed) –
агрессивный (inclined to act in a hostile fashion)
Structural difference leads to different word combinations: comfortable – комфортабельный
have the same meaning ‘producing a feeling of physical relaxation’. But in English this word is
combined with the noun income (comfortable income), and in Russian this combination is
impossible – the English expression has the equivalent of хороший доход. Likewise,
sympathetic – симпатичный, but sympathetic strike – забастовка солидарности.
54
impossibility of calque translation: ходячая энциклопедия – walking library. In this case
idiomatic meanings are expressed by different structures.
multi-component phrase vs. one-word structure: аудитория читателей – readership, readers.
Stylistic difference results in stylistic overtone of the words:
neutral vs. emotionally colored words: ambition (stylistically neutral) – амбиция (often
negative); protection (neutral) – протекция (bookish)
modern vs. archaic: depot – депо (in the meaning of ‘a building where supplies are kept’)
common word vs. term: essence – эссенция (vinegar).
Pragmatic difference implies the different associations a word carries for various groups of
people, nations, etc. For example, when saying “Моя мама родилась через два года после
революции”, a Russian person will definitely mean the Russian Revolution of 1917. S/he might
be misunderstood by an American for whom the word ‘revolution’ is associated with American
Revolution. The same with the common Russian expression после войны: Он поступил в
институт сразу после войны. Probably, it will take time and effort for an American to
associate the event with World War II, since America also knew the Korean and Vietnam wars in
this century.
Literature.
1. Прошина З.Г. ТЕОРИЯ ПЕРЕВОДА (с английского языка на русский и с русского
языка на английский): Уч. на англ. яз. – Владивосток: Изд-во Дальневост. ун-та, 2008 (3-е
изд., перераб.), 2002 (2-е изд., испр. и перераб.), 1999 (1-е изд.)
ISBN 5-7444-0957-2
Environmental Problems in Today’s World
Man should carefully study the impact of his activity on the surrounding nature. The
ecological problem is not simply the environmental pollution problem, but the problem of
turning man's uncontrolled impact on nature into a purposeful and planned interaction with the
latter.
Some scientists say that human civilization will perish as a result of environmental
pollution and depletion of non-renewable natural resources.
The rational utilization of resources and the conservation of nature are a matter of state
policy in many countries. All the problems concerning the interaction of man and nature are now
of international importance.
The pollution of the Ocean by one particular country affects fishing in the other countries.
The Chernobyl disaster was felt in Belorussia, Tula region and even in Scandinavia. So many
ecological problems are global problems and can be solved by efforts of all countries.
The ecological problem is one of the pressing problems of our days. It is closely linked to
the problems of economic growth, progress in science and technology, natural resources, energy
and food supply. An increasing influence on nature and the application of new technological
processes may cause catastrophic results.
The accumulation of C02 in the atmosphere, as well as of aerosols, has increased globally
by 20 %. The formation of C02 layer around the Earth may transform our blue planet into
enormous greenhouse and may cause an increase in temperature and raise the level of water in
the oceans. The pollution of the environment through chemical, physical and biological agents,
together with he increases in ionizing radiation produce mutagenic influence and cause genetic
defects.
A modern economy is impossible without the concentration of chemicals. We may say
that life without chemistry is impossible at present.
On the one hand, chemical industry is making life easier, more comfortable, on the other,
it is associated by many people with the environmental pollution. For instance, modern
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agriculture needs fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides. These chemicals help solve the problem of
feeding the population on the Globe. But at the same time these chemicals may destroy the flora
and fauna. They yield new types of waste products that pollute air, water and soil.
One kilogram of polymer constructional material can replace 4 to 5 kg of ferrous metals,
the production of one ton of plastic parts requires 2 to 3 times less energy than for the production
of metal parts. Such features of polymers as their long durability and resistance to high
temperature are needed for the structural materials. But the same qualities may make plastics the
cause of environmental pollution. Plastics contribute to our waste disposal problem, because they
are non-degradable and remain undecomposed indefinitely. Of all domestic wastes the greatest
trouble is given by plastics. They cannot be burned, they only melt and release a smoke which
poisons the air. Higher concentrations of heavy metals in the soil pollute it, result in disappearing
some species of plants and animals. So chemistry should work out environmentally safe
chemical products, low-waste or waste-free technology, watersaving methods new recycling
processes, and create new ways for waste utilization. Some waste can be treated by microbes,
because some microbes may be considered as a chemical plant. This is a new trend in
technology.
Not long ago scientists have grown microbes that are, destroy the plastic. Some plastics
may be exposed to UV radiation. The polymer chains that form plastics do not normally break
apart when exposed to UV light. If light-sensitive linking molecules are inserted, the polymer
chains unzip in sunlight and the plastic disintegrates.
The most promising way to solve the problem of clean air is to improve technology,
because the cleaning systems are complex and costly.
In conclusion, it may be summarized that environmental protection is a solution of waste
disposal problems and educational activity among people.
Literature.
1. Алимов Вячеслав Вячеславович, Артемьева Юлия Вячеславовна Общественнополитический перевод: Практический курс переводf: Учебное пособие. Изд. 3-е. — М.:
Книжный дом ≪ЛИБРОКОМ≫, 2009. — 272 с.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN TODAY’S WORLD
Some people say that we should invest money in ecology projects, while others believe
that
nature
is
doing
well
by
itself.
The earth is the only planet that people can live on, but nowadays they seem to be doing
everything to make their home unfit for living. Industrialization has brought us into conflict
with the natural environment. Our pl^get is in danger; air, water and land pollution have
disastrous
consequences
which
threaten
human
life
on
Earth.
I strongly feel that the more money is invested in ecology projects, the better our lives are
going to be. People have technologies to make our planet cleaner: we can control pollution,
recycle waste materials, protect rare animals and plants and install antipollution equipment.
We need more disaster-prevention programs in order to control environmental pollution, fight
the destruction of wildlife and preserve woodlands. There should be more organizations like
Greenpeace that will help protect the animal world and stop environmental degradation. Such
organizations influence public opinion and help form a correct attitude to nature. There
should be more newspaper articles, TV-programs and science-popular films about ecological
problems.
They
help
people
become
environment-educated.
However, many people still believe that nature is doing well by itself. They use natural
resources and pollute the environment, but they don't think how awful the consequences may
be. I'm sure that nature can't do without our help. If we want to breathe fresh air, to drink
clean water and to eat healthy food, we must stop polluting the environment.
To conclude, ecological problems concern everybody and there are ways to solve them.
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People must always remember that the earth is our home and it depends on us what it will be
like.
Many people think that they can't solve the world's environmental problems on their
own and that the government and big companies must care about these problems.
However, others say that individuals can do much to help the environment.
Our planet is in danger: air, water and land pollution have disastrous consequences which
threaten human life on Earth. Most people are convinced that something must be done to stop
pollution,
but
they
don't
know
if
they
can
help.
In my opinion, much can be done by an average citizen. People have to be smart about such
things as driving a car or using electricity. Whenever we drive a car, we are adding
greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. To make our planet cleaner and to use less energy we
can try carpooling. That is when three people ride together in one car instead of driving three
cars to work. We can also use public transport, ride a bike, or walk. People can save
electricity by turning off lights, our TV-set and computer. We can use less washing up liquids
to keep the water clean. We can also plant trees, collect litter and recycle cans, bottles, plastic
bags and newspapers. Besides, we can buy products that don't use much energy.
But a lot of people still think that there is little they can do to help the environment. They are
sure that it is the duty of the government and big companies to make our planet cleaner: to
recycle waste materials, to protect rare animals and plants, to install antipollution equipment
and so on. But they are wrong. Everybody must take part in reducing pollution.
To conclude, if we want to be healthy, to drink clean water and to breathe fresh air, we should
take care of the environment and help improve our lives on Earth.
There is a lot of discussion about the destruction of rain forests. Some people don't
care about this problem, while others feel that the rain forest must be preserved.
Nowadays rainforests occupy a relatively small area. One can find them in South America
and Indonesia, in Thailand and Sri Lanka. Worryingly, rainforests are disappearing at an
alarming rate owing to deforestation, river pollution and soil erosion. Quite a lot of people
still don't know what effect the destruction of the rainforest may have on the world climate.
To my mind, tropical rainforests are very important for our planet because they are home to a
great variety of plants, insects, birds and animals. Tropical rainforests are called the "world's
largest pharmacy" because a lot of natural medicines have been discovered there. More than
half of the world's species of plants and animals are found in rainforests. They also offer a
way of life to many people living in and around the forest. What is more, rainforests are the
lungs of our planet because they produce a significant amount of the world's oxygen.
Unfortunately, rainforests continue disappearing. Some people say that we need more land for
agriculture and more trees for timber. They continue killing animals and picking up herbs and
rare flowers. Rainforests also have value as tourism destinations. But the increasing number
of tourists may damage the local environment. I strongly feel that people must be careful with
nature.
To conclude, if people want to be healthy and to live happily on Earth, they must preserve
rainforests. I think that governments must work together with environmentalists to fight
deforestation and to prevent the disappearance of "the lungs of our planet".
Everybody understands that we should recycle our waste. However, most people
continue
disposing
of
it
in
the
usual
way.
Recycling is an important issue nowadays. Unfortunately, people have always polluted their
surroundings. The development of big industrial cities has led to the concentration of huge
amounts of waste into small areas. Disposal of waste has become a major problem. When
rubbish is burnt, this pollutes the atmosphere. When it is buried in landfill sites, it can cause
pollution of water supplies. So the obvious solution of this problem is recycling.
I strongly feel that everybody can help recycle waste by collecting litter and by sorting
rubbish into different categories. Paper, glass and plastic can be sold to recycling companies.
Recycled waste can be made into new products and it can help save natural resources. Some
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waste can also be used to produce electricity or to make soil for growing fruit and vegetables.
In my opinion, it would be great if recycling centres paid people for the rubbish they brought
in.
But in spite of all the advantages of recycling, there is still a lot of waste everywhere. Many
people don't want to sort their rubbish. Some areas still have plenty of landfill space and no
recycling centres. They find it rather expensive to transport materials for recycling to big
cities. To my mind, there must be more recycling centres not only in big cities, but in small
towns as well. Besides, people should be educated about the importance of recycling.
In general, recycling is good for the environment. What is more, it is an interesting and
profitable business. If everybody made a small effort to improve their local environment,
pollution would be reduced gradually and the global situation would improve.
Literature.
1. Юнева С.А. Открывая мир с английском языком. 150 эссе для ЕГЭ. – Москва:
«Интеллект-Центр», 2011. – 88с.
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