By Ways of Word-for-Word or Loan Translation

When the componental parts making up the units of the nation­ally specific lexicon are at the same time the main transparent bear­ers of their proper sence, expressed through their meaning, a faithful translation of such sense units may be achieved either by way of word-for-word translation or by way of loan translation. Each of these ways can be well exemplified in English and Ukrainian.

A.Translated word-for-word are the specific national units of lexi­con as first (second, third) reading перше (друге, третє) читання (офіційне внесення законопроекту в англійський парламент); sec­ondary grammar school (середня граматична школа); стінгазета wall newspaper; студентське наукове товариство Students' Sci-

entific/Research Society; щоденник^учнівський) student's everyday record book, etc.

B. The denotative meaning of many units of the specific na­tional lexicon may be rendered by way of loan translating as well. Thus, from English: Salvation Army (USA, Gr.Britain) Армія порятунку; the Order of the Garter/of the Bath орден Підв'зки/Лазні; гле Order of St. Michael and St. George орден св.Михаїла і св.Георгія; fan club клуб прихильників/уболівальників (артиста, спортсмена тощо); from Ukrainian: орден Ярослава Мудрого the Order of Yaroslav the Wise/Yaroslav the Wise Order; орден св. княгині Ольги Київської the Order of St. Olga Princess of Kyivan Rus'. The denotative meaning of these and many other English/Ukrainin spe­cific units of national lexicon of the kind, thus translated, will undoubt­edly be correctly understood by the target-language speakers. And yet neither of the two ways of translating can often provide an exhaus­tive expression of all the extralingual details of meaning inherent in most of the units in the source language. Thus, the aim and purpose of issuing our «wall newspaper», which was a regular practice in all state institutions of the former USSR, as well as in this country today, would scarcely be understood by the British or Americans. Neither do most of our people understand the whole complexity of meaningful semes pertained, for example, to the British Order of the Bath. Hence, such culturally biased notions are to be given a more detailed explica­tion in the target language.

A considerable number of specific units of the national lexicon, both in English and in Ukrainian, consist of the component parts with seemingly transparent lexical meaning. But when conveyed verbally or word-for-word, however, they may lose their proper meaning to­gether with their nationally specific nature. That happens, because the real connotative meaning inherent in the semes, bearing the na­tional peculiarity, can not be achieved via these methods of transla­tion. For example, the «House of Lords» when translated as будинок лордів completely perverts the real meaning of the collocation as «House» here, like in the «Upper House» (or simply the «House» when capitalized), always preserves the connotative meaning of палата. Likewise with the «House of Commons» where both compo­nents are also endowed with a nationally peculiar meaning and can not be translated as будинок простих людей, but only as «Палата громад».

This method of translating is also widely employed when deal­ing with former Sovietisms as «Герой Соціалістичної Праці»,

«соціалістичне змагання», etc. Here too the verbal translating of «праця», «змагання» like other notions of the kind would completely distort the proper sense of the collocations which they are compo­nents of. The variant *Hero of Socialist Work* would also be inad­equate stylistically, because the componental part «work» belongs to the neutral style lexicon. Similarly in case with the former term «so­cialist competition» in which the noun component had nothing to do with the meaning or «competition» proper. Therefore, a faithful trans­lation of the kind of units of lexicon is predetermined by the correct choice of equivalent units for the semes bearing the national peculiar­ity. The latter may be expressed both verbally or word-for-word and by means of translation loans, which should be resorted to when verbal translating ruins the national peculiarity of the source language cul­turally biased units. The number of English genuine translation loans in Ukrainian, as well as Ukrainian in English, is considerable. So is the number of verbal and word-for-word translations, as can be seen from some of the examples below: English: cornflakes кукурудзяні пластівці; English Industrial Revolution промисловий перевороте Англії (18-19 століть); skyscraper хмарочос; supermarket універсальний магазин (універсам); brain washing промиваная мізків (ідеологічна обробка); oat-flakes вівсяні пластівці (геркулес). Ukrai­nian: карбованець karbovanets', гривня hryvnia, Верховна Рада Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's Parliament), Герой України Hero of Ukraine; заслужений діяч мистецтв України the Merited Worker of Arts/ Ukraine's Merited Worker of Arts; голова районної/обласної Ради народних депутатів, Chairman of the District/Region Rada of People's Deputies; медаль за трудову доблесть the Medal for Labour Distinction; орден Богдана Хмельницького 1,11,111 ступеня the Or­der of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (First, Second, Third Degree).

It is worth mentioning that some of the above-given and other Ukrainian units of the kind may be translated into English either as asyndetic structures or as syndetic (prepositional) word-groups. The latter are absolutely predominant in conversational English, while the former are more common in written (or official) language: заслужений учитель/артист України the Honoured Teacher/Artist of Ukraine or Ukraine's Honoured Teacher/Artist; медаль «За трудову відзнаку» the medal for Labour Distinction or the Labour Distinction Medal. But: герой України Hero of Ukraine.

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