Archaic words of the English language: types, functions and translation

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

ARCHAIC WORDS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: TYPES, FUNCTIONS AND TRANSLATION

Ahieieva-Karkashadze V.O.

Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University

Abstract

The word-stock of any language is constantly in increasing state of changes. Words can fully change their meaning or completely drop out of the language. At the same time new words appear and can replace the others. It is also possible that these replaced words exist in the language for a short period of time and disappearing they live no trace in the language. Words pass three periods of aging.

The first stage is when a word becomes rarely used. This group of words is called obsolescent, and they are in the stage of gradually going out of common usage.

The second step is when words go out of the language completely but they are still recognized by the English speaking community.

These words are called obsolete. And, finally, the third step is when a word becomes archaic proper, and is no longer recognizable in the modern English language. To this group of words also belong words that have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable. Scholars, except archaic words, also single out the existence of historical words. These words are historical terms used for reflecting definite periods in the development of any society. The main difference between historical words and archaic words is that historical words cant be replaced by modern synonyms, while archaic words can. As for the function of acronyms, one of the main functions of this group of words is their capability to maintain exactness of expression.

The secondary function is that they can produce the necessary satirical effect. Within the general functions of archaic words, scholars also single out the stylistic functions. These functions are based on the temporal acceptance of events they describe. Unlike the Ukrainian language, archaic words of the English language are divided into several types archaic words proper, obsolete words and obsolescent words. As for the translation, this group of words presents difficulties, because the translator while rendering «the old words» from one language into another one may miss the coloring ofa word, national peculiarities that each word contains or even author's characteristics that form the uniqueness of the source language text.

Key words: archaic words, obsolete words, obsolescent words, translation, functions, types.

Анотація

Словниковий склад будь-якої мови знаходиться у постійному руслі змін. Слова можуть повністю змінювати своє значення, або повністю виходити із ужитку, іншими словами, повністю зникнути з мови. В той же час в мові з'являються нові слова і своєю появою замінюють вже існуючі. Цілком можливо, що слова зі старішим значенням і вже замінені в мові більш новими, існують в мові ще певний проміжок часу і, зникнувши, не залишають по собі в мові жодних слідів. Загалом, лексичний склад будь-якої мови проходить три етапи старіння.

Перший етап полягає у використанні слова рідше. Ця група слів в англійській мові називається obsolescent. До її складу входять слова, що поступово виходять із ужитку.

Другий тип представлено словами, що вийшли із ужитку, але вони все ще є зрозумілими для читача. До цієї групи також входять слова, що з плином часу змінили свою словоформу, а тому стали незрозумілими для читача. Зазначена група слів в англійській мові називається obsolete. І, нарешті, третя група застарілої лексики представлена власне архаїчною лексикою, тобто групою слів, які стали абсолютно незрозумілими для читача. Окрім вищезазначених типів, науковці також виділяють історизми. Історизми (або історична лексика) представлена термінами, що використовуються для зображення певного історичного періоду. Тому цей тип лексики також називають історичними термінами.

Розмежування архаїзмів та історизмів базується на можливості їх заміни синонімами. Історизми замінити синонімами неможливо, в той час як архаїзми мають синонімічні відповідники в сучасній мові. Архаїзми, як і будь-який інший прошарок лексики, виконують в мові певні функції. Головною функцією архаїзмів в мові є збереження точності вираження. До другорядної функції архаїзмів дослідники відносять створення необхідного сатиричного ефекту при передачі інформації. Вони також виконують стилістичну функцію. Архаїзми становлять труднощі для перекладу, оскільки можуть втратити національну специфіку або колорит.

Ключові слова: архаїзми, застаріла лексика, переклад, функції, типи.

Formulation of a research problem

With the time everything in our world changes, obtains new information and meaning. Everything happening in our life has the tendency to change or to be forgotten, or to stay alive only on the book pages. Different peoples accept or interpret the picture of the world absolutely different. The common in this process is only the fact that it happens with the help of mother-tongue and the reflection of this picture in it. This reflection defines the formation of cultural phenomena and the perception of realities characteristic only for a particular language. With this tendency some groups of new words appear, while another group of words goes out of usage. The latter presents a kind of barrier both for translators and readers. And this group of words is called archaic.

According to studies of V. von Humboldt, each nation is separated by a layer of its own language and culture. You can get out of this layer only by moving to another layer. However, such an experience is to some extent possible when we try to penetrate the secrets of the «soul» of another language. «Language is a continuous activity of the spirit that seeks to turn articulated sound into expression». To decode successfully foreign texts the translator needs not only the excellent knowledge of grammar, phonetics, stylistics, vocabulary of a foreign language, but also additional knowledge about the culture and history of the source language, especially when it comes to the translation of fiction. Thus, the professionalism of the translator is due.

Non-equivalent words, especially archaic ones, are characterized by the complexity of rendering, for example being used in the fiction. The frequent mistakes made when translating texts containing archaisms are the loss of color, national peculiarity, author's characteristics and other subtleties that form the uniqueness of a fiction for readers. The translator faces the problem of rendering archaic words quite often. Archaic words belong to the incomparable elements of the language, denoting concepts alien to the other cultures. The always represent a special complexity in the process of translation.

Analysis of the latest recent research into this problem proved that while translating archaic words translator has not only to render the meaning of words but also to reflect the history of culture of the language in his translation. That is why the forming of meanings in the source language and in the target language is different. The theoretical basis of the research is presented by the scientific works of Vynogradov V.S., Vynokur G.O., Kazakova T.A., Komissarov V.N., Kochergan M.P., Latyshev L.A., Fedorova A.I. and others who studied the questions of non-equivalent words, their function and peculiarities of translation. As it was mentioned above, archaic words belong to the group of non-equivalent words and present the difficulty for translation that is why our research is true nowadays.

The main task of the article is to analyze the linguistic features of archaic words in the English language, the functions they perform, to study the existing types of archaic words in the modern English language and to compare the approaches to their translation.

Statement regarding the basic material of the research

The word-stock of any language constantly goes through different periods of its development. Some groups of words become rarely used, hard to be recognized, or they may even go out of everyday usage. Sometimes the word is hard to recognize because it changes its sound-form or spelling. In all the above-mentioned cases we talk about a kind of «aging» words. It is a well-known fact that the English and the Ukrainian languages according to their morphological characteristics belong to different types of languages. This aspect is also reflected in the vocabulary. Thus, if we talk about the aging of words in the Ukrainian language, we talk only about two types of words archaic words and historic words. According to I.S. Alekseeva's studies, historic words are not singled out as a separate group. The scholar defines them as a type of archaic words [1].

As for the English language, scientists define three types of aging words. They are: obsolete words, obsolescent words and archaic proper words.

The group of obsolete words is presented by words that are still recognized by the English speaking reader, but at the same time these words went out of usage, for example: «nay» (which means «no»), «methinks» (which means «it seems to me»). lexical composition translating archaism

The group of obsolescent words is presented by, first of all, such words as «thoug», «thee» and their forms «thy» and «thine»; the ending -eth; pronoun «ye» and the corresponding verbal ending -est. In general, scholars define obsolescent words as the one that were borrowed from the French language (and they still may be observed in the English literature). This category is also presented by the words that are going out of usage.

And, finally, the third group is archaic proper words. In this type we observe the words that have fully gone out of usage. Despite the other two groups of words, this group is also full of words that have been completely changed. That is why they can't be recognized by the modern reader. For example, the word «troth» changed into «faith», and «losel» became «lazy fellow».

Though we speak about the existence of three types of aging vocabulary of the English language, we still may say that the features peculiar to this or that type of vocabulary is not very clear. That is why it is sometimes of difficulty to distinguish one type from another one. It is especially actual if we talk about obsolete and obsolescent words.

We have already mentioned the difference in aging words of two languages English and Ukrainian, and explained the reason why it is so. But both English and Ukrainian scholars have one concept in common. And this concept is the presence of historic words (which are sometimes in linguistic literature distinguished as historic terms). They are terms that describe a specific period of the development of any society. To define whether this or that word belongs to archaic or historic word is easy. To do that it is necessary to find the equivalent (or the modern synonym). If it is possible to substitute a lexical unit with the synonym from modern language, then we can state that this is an archaic word. If we cannot do that, then we have a deal with a historic word. This distinguish is actual for both English and Ukrainian languages.

The common for both languages is also the source where these words can be found. There is a misconception that archaic words exist only in the literature. But we can easily single out acronyms and historic words in the language of official documents (business letters, all the types of statutes, diplomatic words ect.), for example: aforesaid, hereby, herein, after named and so on. The function of archaic words in the language of official documents is the only one to help to observe the accuracy of the expressions that are necessary in this style. Being used in the literature, including poetry, this layer of vocabulary performs another function to add satire. This effect is achieved by using anticlimax.

There is one more classification of archaic words proposed by Guliaeva M.V According to this classification, archaic words are divided into lexical and semantic. Lexical archaic words, in their turn, are subdivided into: lexical archaic proper words (for example, the word «foe»), lexical word-forming words and lexical phonetic archaic words (for example, «gaol»). To the group of semantic archaic words the scholar refers the aging meaning of words present in the modern active vocabulary. For example, the verb «hark» (which now means «to make somebody listen») was used for defining hunting with dogs [7].

Galperin I.R. states that the future of all the archaic words is not the same. Some of them turn into dialectal words with limited usage. The others become foreign in mother-tongue or get into active vocabulary again [6].

In modern stylistics studies archaic words are also divided into real archaic words and stylistic archaic words. Real archaic words are presented by words used as living words during the specific period in ancient works. And the words used for adding stylistic coloring are considered to be stylistic archaic words.

Outdated words represent a certain difficulty for the translator, since they have already come out of common use. In the process of translation Vinogradov V.S. identifies two stages of work. The first is to comprehend the text of the original language, and the second is to reproduce it in the translation language. The stage of perception of the text includes the perception of the work; the translator comprehends and feels the text, that is, perceives specific words, phrases, or sentences. When the meaning is defined, you can proceed to the second stage of the translation process reproduction of the original form in the language of translation. By accepting the semantic and emotionally expressive information that is attached to the phrase to be translated, the translator reproduces this information in an effort to preserve its full meaning [4].

The problem of the translation of archaic words is as follows: the author recreates a specific historical era, using its language, describing its culture and the realities of that time. In this process, the translator should use dictionaries to achieve adequate translation. Adequacy should be understood not only as the correspondence of this lexical unit, which is under translation, but also its context. It is necessary to translate not individual words, but thoughts expressed not only in one, but also in a few words. Therefore, it would be logical to consider a minimum «translation unit» not a word, but a phrase or even a semantic group of words that has a specific opinion.

There are two categories of dictionary matches: equivalents and variant matches. Since the equivalent is the only permanent and equivalent match, then if there is an equivalent, the translator must choose it. However, the use of the equivalent should not be used in each case. It happens in order to avoid repeating the same word or to reproduce a stylistic color; it is more expedient to abandon the existing equivalent and to find a replacement for it in the form of a synonym in the target language text.

When translating aging words, the same techniques are used as when translating non-equivalent lexical units: transcription, transliteration, descriptive translation, translation comment, analogue (equivalent). When translating currency names, units of measurement their matches in the translation language can be given. Archaic is synonymous with modern words. Therefore, most often they should be translated with the help of modern equivalents if they do not perform other functions than the nominative one in the text. If there is no direct match in the translation language, descriptive translation is used.

Based on the idea of a comprehensive description of translation activities in one model, Komissarov V.N. proposed a theory of equivalence levels. It is based on the assumption that the equivalence relationship is established between similar levels of content of the original texts and translation. One of the tasks of the translator is to transfer the content of the original as much as possible and, as a rule, the actual commonality of the content of the original and the translation is very significant [8].

It is necessary to distinguish between potentially achievable equivalence, which means the common content of different texts, which allows the difference between the languages in which these texts were created; and real translation equivalence the real semantic proximity of the original texts and translation, which is achieved by the translator in the process of work. In each individual translation, semantic proximity to the original is achieved in different degrees and in different ways. The possibility of complete preservation of the content of the original is limited in a certain way by the skill of the translator and other subjective factors, but, above all, inevitable differences in the systems of the source and target languages (objective factor). Therefore, translation equivalence can be based on the preservation and loss of various elements of the content contained in the original.

But many linguistic units and language phenomena and forms of words, phrases and sentences do not have separate meaning, and most often sound or phoneme, morphological, lexical and structural equivalents in the translation language. That is, these linguistic units or phenomena in the translation language do not have equivalent matches at the same level of stratification of language units. They are untranslatable in the truest sense of the word. So, along with translatability, there is also such a phenomenon as untranslatability.

Difficulties that are common in the translation of realities and archaisms: the absence of a match in the translation language (equivalent, analogue); the need to convey not only the substantive meaning of reality, as well as its color (connotation).

The task of the translator is to translate the text from the original language into the translation language in such a way as to ensure clarity of information and readability for the recipient

While translating archaic words, the translator must convey by means of the translation language that atmosphere, emotionality and information potential that is laid down in the original. And for this, it can go in two ways: to bring the original time closer, that is, to resort to historical period or to modernize the text, and thereby to remove the time of the original. The most important translation strategy, in our opinion, is the «golden middle», the mixing of these two methods. The original work in the process of translation is included in the living modern artistic consciousness. Skillful use of archaic words is not only not harmful, but is simply necessary, indispensable and invaluable when translating old texts, because it is the most important means of artistic influence and an important arsenal of expression of content.

Thus, equivalence is the preservation of relative equality of meaningful, semantic, stylistic and functional-communicative information contained in the original and translation. Among the elements of archaic use the following: outdated words, outdated verbal structures, words in outdated meanings, archaic grammatical forms of words, historicism. Thus, the reproduction of the atmosphere of "antiquity" involves not only the definition of the corresponding linguistic era, but also a careful choice of means of turning words into archaic in relation to a particular work. This approach assumes the maximum equivalence of the original and the translation text.

Conclusions

Considering the main features of archaic vocabulary of the English language, we can make the conclusion that this group of words is of little use. Their meaning is not always understandable for both reader and translator that is why we may talk about difficulties appearing while rendering them from one language into another one. Studying the peculiarities of archaic words we can conclude that both the process of the so-called aging and the process of renewing of vocabulary occur in the English language simultaneously. Archaic group of words can be subdivided into: actually lexical archaic words that is, words that are outdated in all their meanings; lexical and word-forming archaisms that differ from the synonymous word of the modern language only by the word-forming element; lexical and phonetic archaic words, differing from modern variants with only a few sounds; lexical and semantic archaic words that have lost their individual meanings.

Actually lexical archaic words are of great number in the English language. They can be subjected to further systematization by highlighting words close in time to transition them into the passive reserve, or by delineating. This can be done with the words that are devoid of ties with the modern nominations.

When analyzing the stylistic functions of words, it is necessary to define historicisms and archaic words. This differentiation depends on the causes of aging word-stock of a language. Words are considered to be archaic when they call the existing realities but at the same time they are superseded for some reason for active use by synonyms. The functions of archaic words are absolutely different, that is why the great attention in the article is paid to the definition of the concept «archaic» words. This term binds different notions and the various ways of word-stock development. All the time we may observe the process of losing and the process of appearing words in the language. Some words go out of use for one reason or another one, or they may generally «fall out» of the language. The other groups of words appearing in the language begin to play an important role in live communication, gaining a gradually strong place in the language. On the one hand, the word can «become too old» by itself, that is, to be forced out of the living use by another synonymous word or a group of words; on the other hand, it can «old» in the sense that the object marked by this word falls out of living use. In this case supersede of a word with synonyms, its replacement by the other words doesn't occur. Archaisms include words and expressions that are outdated and are not used in modern language because they have corresponding «modern» synonyms. On the other hand, archaisms include words that have no synonyms because the concepts expressed by these words have ceased to play any role in the modern life of any society in general. These words do not disappear from the vocabulary of the language; they are only limited in their use by the field of historical novels, essays and researches on the history of the relevant periods. In spite of the fact that in modern linguistic sciences we can find the theoretical explanation for such language phenomena as archaic words, still some aspects of their research need more studies. One of the most actual is how to define whether the word belongs to the category of archaic words but not historical term or dialectal word, and in accordance to this classification to find the right way for rendering this word from one language into another one.

References

1. Алексеева И.С. Введение в переводоведение: учебное пособие для студентов филол. и лингв. фак. высш. учеб. заведений. СПб.: Филологический факультет СПбГУ М.: Издательский центр «Академия», 2004. 352 с.

2. Арнольд И. В. Стилистика современного английского языка. М.: Высшая школа, 1980. 296 с.

3. Виноградов В.Є. О языке художественной прозы. М.: Наука, 1980. 360 с.

4. Виноградов В.Є. Язык художественного произведения. // Вопросы языкознания, 1954, № 5. C. 14

5. Виноградов B.C. Лексические вопросы перевода художественной прозы. М.: Изд. Моск. Ун-та, 1978. 173 с.

6. Гальперин И Р. Проблемы лингвистической стилистики. М.: Высшая школа, 1969. 278с.

7. Гуляева, М.В. Архаизмы в оригинале и переводе / М.В. Гуляева // Межкультурная коммуникация в пространстве всемирного наследия: менеджмент и социокультурное проектирование. 15-16 октября 2008 г. / Самарская гос. академия культуры и искусств.

8. Комиссаров В.Н. Теория перевода. М.: Высшая школа, 1990. 253 с.

Размещено на Allbest.ru