Translation of Monosemantic Words

Monosemantic words are comparatively few in number and the bulk of English words are polysemantic. English monosemantic words usually have full equivalents in Russian. There are the following lexical groups of monosemantic words: 1. proper names, 2. geographical names, 3. names of the months and the days of the week, 4. numerals, 5. some scientific and technological terms, 6. names of the streets, 7. names of hotels, 8. names of sports and games, 9. names of periodicals, 10. names of institutions and organizations.

The group of monosemantic words presents considerable variety because of its heterogeneous character.

Rendering of Proper Names in Translation

The function of proper name is purely nominative. They help to distinguish a person, a pet or a place, to recognize them as unique. Thus they have only nominal meaning and are designated by a capital letter.

There are two ways of rendering proper names in translation: transcription and translation.

Transcription is now universally accepted: M ary – Мэри. Phonetic peculiarities, however, sometimes interfere and modify this principle by causing certain departures, e.g. the name of the well-known novelist Iris Murdoch is rendered with the inserted letter (and sound) “p” – Айрис Мэрдок.

Translation or representing a SL word by means of the more or less corresponding corresponding TL characters, that is, in a graphic way, is no longer regarded as an acceptable method of rendering proper names in translation. But tradition has preserved it in some cases and therefore this method still survives, e.g. Lincoln is rendered as Линкольн and Wellington as Веллингтон. O’Henry – О’Генри.

Traditionally, names of prominent people are rendered by their Russian counterparts: Isaak Newton – Исаак Ньютон, Abraham Lincoln – Авраам Линкольн, King James – Король Яков. All these factors explain the existence of double forms of proper names.

A problem by itself is presented by the translation of the so-called token names which reveal some typical features of the character named. Sometimes attempts are made to translate them, in this way following the writer’s intent, e.g. Humpty-Dumpty – Шалтай Болтай, Тяпкин-Ляпкин – Slap-Dash, etc. unfortunately this tendency inevitably conflicts with the principle of preserving the national character of the origin. So Mr Surface in Sheridan’s “School for Scandal” would hardly be recognizable as an English dandy if he were called Вертопрахов.