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It is sometimes claimed that Russian texts are made from English texts in such a way that the proper names are not given in translation but in transliteration. It is not surprising, as experience shows that it is really put into practice. Still, there are quite a few proper namesthat seem to violate this rule of thumb. An example are word combinations thatare partially made of a proper name and the other part of it are common words. Here we mean eponymous word set. Though before setting those limits as well as other complex questions connected with eponymic expressions that may be observed in Russian translated texts, it is necessary to give a bit of attention to the concept of the eponym and how this term functions in the language of linguistics. All words inEnglish and Russian can be segmented into 2 big chunks: proper names and appellative names. The term "eponim" comes from ancient Greek, where it stood for "smth. or smb. giving the name". For our ancestors eponyms originally meant people,deities or great warriors, whose legendary names were used to name cities, tribes and different objects, as well as officers (e.g. archonts, consuls). As the time passed, the meaning of “eponym” grew wider to include not only the some name, but also other objects that shared some metaphorical similiarity. At present, students of linguistics use the word “eponym” to speak of a word that has ceased working as a proper name and now functions as a regular common noun. Thus, we work with three notions of an eponym: 1. an entity or an object 2. proper name 3. common word. Therefore, the Russian interpreters while working with eponymisms face the problem of developing an instant hypothesis about the encyclopedic awareness of users of the English text and the audience of its Russian text. The meaning of eponym comes from the cultural context. As Russian and English languages have dissimilar etymological background, there are different explanations of how proper namesturn into eponyms. The first important issue connected with eponymisms is the subject of their out-of-context transparency which is a secret peculiarity depending on the linguistic competence and background awareness of Russian native audiences. In that case the question arises: should the Russian translator think over such issues? There is no doubt about the fact that such eponymisms as lolita "a sexually attractive young girl" or a superman “a very strong, very clever and very honest man" are obviously understandable both to English and to Russian audiences so performing Russian interpretation of them does not cause any issues. Similar situation can be said about the eponymisms, which have lost their transparency in both languages. (e.g.: Adonis who was named after a handsome young man adored by both Aphrodite and Persephone and murdered by a wild boar, or badminton named after Badminton in SW England, country seat of the Duke of Beaufort, where people started playing it). However, the issue gets more difficult to figure out if a particular eponymism is transparent in English, and therefore it features a bit of symbolic connotation, and the case of Russian languge it fails to excite any response from native speakers who do not link the regular word and its connotation with a suitable eponym. As you see, not every eponym is in the habit of making translators think hard. Those that are hard to “see through”, do not cause any problems in Russian translation at all.
Article Source: http://modirac.com
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