Proper Names Translated into Russian.
by: mathewpetrenko Total views: 32 Word Count: 525
You may come across some expressions which are in part a kind of proper names and partially a kind of common phrases. Here we mean eponymic word set. But before setting those limits as well as various related problematic questions connected with eponymic phrases functioning in Russian translations, it is a good idea to give a little attention to the notion of the eponym and the way it works in the language of linguistics. The collection of all words in both English and Russian is divided into two big groups: appellatives and proper names. The term "eponim" originates from the Greek language, where it meant "smth. or smb. giving the name". For ancient people eponyms were people, gods or heroes, whose legendary names were employed to name villages, families and various objects, as well as governmental positions (e.g. archonts, consuls). As the time passed, the notion of “eponym” expanded to include not only the some name, but also other objects that shared some metaphorical similiarity.
Nowadays the term "eponym" is more frequently employed with reference to common words which have been singled out in a context on the principle of showing a single lexical item from the category of proper names to the category of common lexical units with an immediate allocation of metaphorical lexical meaning. Hence, we work with 3 individual components of an eponym:
1. being or object
2. proper name
3. regular word.
When a translator works with an English text, they should assume the background knowledge of the English text intended audience and the level of awareness of the Russian audience. The meaning of eponym comes from the cultural background. Differences between those implications in the English and Russian languages lead to different possibilities of appellativization of proper names. The primary issue connected with eponymisms is the subject of their etymological transparency which is a secret peculiarity that relies on the linguistic competence and background awareness of Russian native audiences. There is a question here: how should an interpreter handle eponyms? Surely such eponymisms as lolita "an underage sexually attractive lady" or a superman “a man with exceptional physical or mental ability, with strong integrity" are obviously understandable both to English and to Russian audiences so performing Russian translation of them does not lead to any issues.
Similar situation can be said about the eponymisms that have lost their clarity in both languages. (e.g.: Adonis who was named after a lovely young man adored by both Aphrodite and Persephone and killed by a boar, or badminton named after Badminton in the South West of England, Duke Beaufort’s country seat, where it was played). There is a difficulty only when an eponym is understandable in English, but means very little to the Russian audience. Evidentely, not every eponym causes difficulties. You will obviously come across a number of eponyms that are pretty straightforward to understand.
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