Translator s False Friends What are they In

Translator’s False Friends

What are they? In the art of translation, we come across numerous obstacles. The most frequent translation difficulties are of semantic nature. (sema = meaning) 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 (склонен) to take this formal similarity for the semantic proximity and to regard the words that look alike as permanent equivalents.

Their history 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 SL word literally into the TL.

“Translator’s false friends” are words similar in sounds but different in meanings: conductor – not кондуктор, but дирижер; herb – not герб, but лекарственная трава; computer silicon chips – not компьютерные силиконовые чипсы, but кремниевые чипы компьютера. Misleading words are mostly international, or it is better to say that they are pseudointernational.

The pseudointernational words can be classified in two main groups. First, there are words which are similar in form but completely different in meaning. Here the risk of making a bad mistake is very great whenever the translator fails to consult his dictionary. Let’s consider such English words as "decade, complexion, lunatic”. E. g. : (1) It lasted the whole decade. (2) She has a very fine complexion. (3) Well, he must be a lunatic. The respective Russian words «декада, комплекция, лунатик» are pseudointernational and cannot be used in translation. (1) Это продолжалось целое десятилетие. (2) У нее прекрасный цвет лица. (3) Да он, должно быть, сумасшедший.

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The second type of translators’ false friends are those which have more than one common and other different meanings. которые лишь в одном или двух значениях совпадают с русскими словами, но расходятся в остальных. К таким словам относятся 2:

Home task: 1/ learn by heart theory about translator’s false friends;