Translation of the official business English-language terminology of the UN

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Translation of the official business English-language terminology of the UN

Yuliia I. Demyanchuk, Ph. D., Lecturer of German

language, Foreign Languages and Translation Studies

Department, Lviv State University of Life Safety

This research article is devoted to substantiation of the current methods of translation of the official business terminology used by the United Nations (hereinafter referred to as the UN) into Ukrainian and Russian, as well as identification and systematization of regularities of its lexical, semantic, stylistic and linguistic cultural manifestations in English-language official business texts. The variety of the special terminology and basic methods of translation are the main area of research by translators. Therefore, it is important to focus on those methods of translation of the official business terminology that interpret various aspects of special lexical tokens in official business documents (hereinafter referred to as the OBD) to the fullest extent possible. Expansion of discursive practices (such as international organization, politics, information, cooperation, education, language, economic and environmental safety, protection of human rights, military security, environmental protection) broadens the official and business terminology of the United Nations beyond the general structured characteristics, accentuates its linguistic nature and fosters the development of a discourse of the official business terminology of international organizations in general. This research article offers a comprehensive methodology for the analysis of an official business text, as well as the relevant types of translation methods focused on the study of the legal potential of official business terms having a regulatory impact on the OBD.

Keywords: translation methods, UN terminology, official business texts, official business documents, discourse, legal text, international organization, translation problems.

Дем'янчук Юлія Ігорівна, кандидат економічних наук, викладач німецької мови, кафедра іноземних мов та перекладознавства Львівський державний університет безпеки життєдіяльності, Львів, Україна

Переклад англомовної офіційно-ділової термінології ООН

Наукова стаття присвячена обґрунтуванню актуальних методів перекладу офіційно-ділової термінології Організації Об'єднаних Націй (далі ООН) та виявленню й систематизації закономірностей її лексико-семантичних, стилістичних та лінгвокультурних виявів в англомовних офіційно-ділових текстах. Різномаїття спеціальної термінології та основних способів ії перекладу - це основна царина дослідження серед перекладачів. Тому важливо звернути увагу на ті методи перекладу офіційно-ділової термінології, які тлумачать різноманітні особливості спеціальних лексем в офіційно-ділових документах (далі ОДД) найбільш повно. Розширення дискурсивних практик (міжнародна організація, політика, інформація, співпраця, освіта, мова, економічна та екологічна безпека, захист прав осіб, військова безпека, охорона навколишнього середовища) виводить офіційно-ділову термінологію міжнародної організації ООН за межі загально-структурованої характеристики й спрямовує акценти на її лінгвістичну природу, що тим самим сприяє розвиткові дискурсу офіційно-ділової термінології міжнародних організацій загалом. У науковій статті запропоновано комплексну методику аналізу офіційно-ділового тексту, а також відповідні методи перекладу, які орієнтовані на дослідження правового потенціалу офіційно-ділових термінів, що чинять регулятивний вплив на ОДД.

Ключові слова: методи перекладу, термінологія ООН, офіційно-ділові тексти, офіційно-ділові документи, дискурс, правовий текст, міжнародна організація, проблеми перекладу.

Introduction

The current status of the problem of translation of the official business terminology into Ukrainian and Russian is characterized by the fact that approaches to the analysis of the special terminology and aspects of its development and implementation in the OBD are grouped around the linguistic methods of translation. Namely, they laid the foundations for the theory of the official business terminology in the sphere of translation, putting a concept of the communication macro environment into the scientific practice. Actually, E. Coelho wrote about a possibility of combining the official business terminology as a means of communication in the official business discourse, asserting that penetration of the special terminology into various conceptual structures of the OBD predetermines the formation of the communication macro environment (Coelho, 2012). This opinion is popular in the modern translation theories, in particular in the work of T. Vrabel “Lexical Aspects of Translation of the Business Correspondence”, where the scholar construes the communication macro environment as a sphere of legal relations covering the government activities, international relations, jurisprudence, trade, economy, military sphere (Vrabel, 2020). Within the framework of such communication, objectification of the official business terminology fits into the block of the language of diplomacy and law.

We agree that “the translation of official business texts is a process of interpretation” (Leleko, 2011, p.142) and is “relevant for the study of the special official business terminology” (Sonneveld, Loenning, 1994, pp.1-6). According to R. Temmerman, separation of the context of realization of the content of the official business terminology from the OBD is followed by interpreting its content in one of the translation methods (Temmerman, 2000). Having developed the ideas of M. Harvey about the combination of translation methods for the analysis of the official business terminology, what gives a clue to understanding the official business text and plays a significant role in constructing of correct interpretation of the document, he laid the foundations for the theory of potential problems of the translation process (Harvey, 2003).

The practical utility of the research consists in the possibility of using its provisions and conclusions in lecture courses and seminars on the theory and practice of translation, lexicology of English language, text linguistics, methods of translation of the official and business terminology of the UN.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and explain methods of translation of the official business terminology of the UN into Ukrainian and Russian.

Theoretical Background

The basis of the UN terminology is a meaningful, comprehensible and reliable translation of the original text that regulates the use of special concepts and terms. Furthermore, each term is correlated with the professional sphere of its use and encourages the choice of the optimal translation option. Such consistency offers to consider unequivocal language units in official business texts of the UN “as distinct elements in the close connection with the special aspects of the content and contribute to its disclosure” (Marchyshyna, 2018, p.142). According to V. Mishchenko (2010. p.4), “the legal terminology of official languages is incorporated into the national legal systems of the UN member states being the source of their meaning”. The researcher emphasizes not only the connection of legal terminological units with the legal system, but also their embeddedness in the national legal system - “a system-bound nature of legal terms”. Thus, A. Clapham (2006) in his famous book “Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors” refers to the terminology of official business documents of the UN as an element of formation of the legal existence that functions “in the field of discourse of jurisprudence”. In his turn, Jacques Lerot (1993, p.448), interprets the official business text of the UN as a text that does not require any additional explanations, since it embodies the paradigm of the expressive objective style in interpretation of ontological principles and their expression by lingual units. Investigating the factors of formation of the official business terminology as a way of getting knowledge about the UN as the international organization, the researcher appeals to the political, international and legal norms regulating the format of the OBD. Other researchers construe the terminology of the UN official business documents as a set of certain informative and communicative elements of the sphere of legal communication reflecting the impact of legal, political, economic and other extralinguistic factors (Griffin, 2008; Donnelly and Whelan, 2017; Beitz, 2011, p. 235; Simonnss and Kristiansen, 2019, p. 410; Sa nchez and Mart inez, 2018, p. 301).

It is common knowledge that an official business text is distinguished by specific content and structural features (Fraser, 1994, pp. 194-208). The content features include: orientation at a specific circle of readers (Marchyshyna, 2019, p.174), observance of stylistic norms (stylistic adjustment), conveyance of the required meaning in line with the official and business characteristics of speech, detailed presentation of the problem, factuality, argumentation, set of constant text categories (Onufriienko, 2012, p. 336, concepts with the concept of the official business text holds a prominent place (Swales, 2004, p.54), terminological saturation (general scientific and special one) (Zmigrodzki, 2005, p. 284). The structural features include: the choice of language tools from terms and terminological compounds to not always assimilated neologisms (Hyland, 2009, pp.188-205), regulated quantity and sequence of components, standardized volume (Temmerman, 2000, p. 276) and implementation of the linguistic experiment (Simonnss, 2019, p. 410).

Methodology

The methodological potential of our study is based on the works of well-known Ukrainian and foreign scholars (C. R. Beitz, Е. Coelho, J. Griffin, Т. Vrabel, M. Harvey, R. Saunders, S. Khomenko, R. Leleko, B. V. Dobrov, N. V. Lukashevych, S. V. Syromiatnikov, J. S. Donnelly, Picciotto, F. Cripps, A. Izurieta, S. E. Parkinson, A. Clapham, M. Machniewski), thereby increasing the scientific interest in the problem of translation of the official business terminology of the UN into Ukrainian and Russian.

Methodological tools of our research consist of linguistic methods of analysis of the official business terminology and are implemented in linguistic aspects of translation, where “the inseparable connection between the language and thinking provides the possibility of communication” (Havrylov, 2008, p.91).

The research focuses on a number of tasks, in particular:

- to establish lexical-semantic, stylistic and linguistic cultural manifestations of the official and business terminology of the UN;

- to characterize special aspects of interpretation of the official and business terminology of the UN;

- to outline the lingual tools of objectification of the official business terminology in official texts of the UN;

- to single out and itemize the actual methods of translation of the official business terminology of the UN into Ukrainian and Russian;

- to identify the main difficulties of translation of the official business terminology of the UN.

The above mentioned research tasks determine methods applied in the study for the analysis of the official and business terminology of the UN.

At the first stage, the methodological principles of applied linguistic, in particular, methods of translation from English into Ukrainian and Russian, as well as discourse analysis, allowed to describe the broad official texts of the UN in which the official business terms having a regulatory impact on the OBD.

At the second stage, by way of the continuous sampling method, we collected all problems of translation of the UN terminology into Ukrainian and Russian.

Results and Discussion

A distinctive feature of linguistic researches of the UN official business terminology is a comprehensive methodology of the text analysis offering a theoretical view on its processing and translation. Therefore, we rely in our research on the basic methods of interpretation of the text content that covers mostly neutral vocabulary and does not imply its ambiguity.

According to S. А. Khomenko (2004, p.204), the following methods should be used in the translation of terms and terminological phrases used in the UN documentation:

1. Calquing (loan translation). The essence of this method consists in replacement of constituent parts of a word or phrase by direct equivalents in the language of translation. This approach is used in translation of general terms and names of organizations: Assembly - Ukr. асамблея - Rus. ассамблея; Resolution - Ukr. Резолюція - Rus. Резолюция (CED); Chernobyl Forum - Ukr. Чорнобильський форум - Rus. Чернобыльский форум; community policing - Ukr. громадська поліція - Rus. охрана общественного порядка; Coordination Programme Support - Ukr. координаційна програмна підтримка - Rus. координационная программная поддержка; Cabotage traffic - Ukr. каботажний трафік (плавання між портами однієї держави, без заходу в іноземні порти) - Rus. каботажные перевозки; Constitutional Court - Ukr. конституційний суд - Rus. Конституционный суд (UNE; CED);

2. Equivalence translation. Such translation is carried out at the level that is necessary and sufficient to convey the constant meaning and in compliance with the standards of the translation language: Human Resources Service - Ukr. служба людських ресурсів - Rus. служба управления людскими ресурсами; Intergovernmental Advisory Panel - Ukr. міжурядова консультативна комісія - Rus. Межправительственная консультативная группа; Earth Prize Award - Ukr. нагорода “Планета Земля” - Rus. награда "Планета Земля"; peacekeeping - Ukr. збереження миру - Rus. поддержание мира; redress - Ukr. компенсація - Rus. компенсация; Adaptation Fund - Ukr. адаптивний фонд - Rus. адаптационный фонд (UNE; COD);

3. Transcription. This is a written reproduction of words by means of a certain graphic system with account for their pronunciation: climate - Ukr. клімат - Rus. климат (CED);

4. Descriptive translation. This is a conveyance of meaning by a method of the extended verbal explanation (or interpretation) of terms that do not have a direct equivalent in the language of translation: Helsinki Commission - Ukr. комісія з захисту навколишнього середовища Балтійського моря - Rus. комиссия по безопасности и сотрудничеству в Европе; Freshwater Unit - Ukr. група з питань прісноводних ресурсів - Rus. группа по пресноводным ресурсам (COD; RC);

5. Generalization - extension method. This method is appropriate in cases when the unit of the source language has a smaller number of values than the corresponding unit of the translation language: UN Water-Africa - Ukr. компонент ООН - водні ресурси для Африки - Rus. компонент ООН - Водные ресурсы для Африки (COD); Amazonian Environment Funds - Ukr. Фонд для охорони навколишнього середовища басейна річки Амазонки - Rus. Фонд для охраны окружающей среды бассейна реки Амазонка; Dayton Agreement - Ukr. дейтонське рішення (документ, який зупинив найстрашніший конфлікт в Європі після Другої світової війни) - Rus. Дейтонские соглашения (Общее рамочное соглашение о мире в Боснии и Герцеговине); stabilization mission - Ukr. спеціальна місія з урегулювання конфлікту і стабілізації ситуації - Rus. специальная миссия по урегулированию конфликта и стабилизации ситуации (RC);

6. Antonymic translation. The method consists in expression of a meaning of the lexical unit of an original text through the opposite concept by changing its structure: Revolving Fund - Ukr. оборотний фонд (інформаційний) - Rus. Оборотный фонд (информационный); Water Branch - Ukr. сектор з водних проблем - Rus. Сектор по водным проблемам; Victim's Rights - Ukr. права потерпілих - Rus. права потерпевших (CED);

7. Compensation. This is a method of replacing a language element by any other unit that conveys the same information: “How Eating Less Meat Could Help Protect the Planet From Climate...Nutrition Movement...” (UN OBD 1). Such replacement can be made in any part of the text;

8. Specification. This is a replacement of a word or phrase with a broader meaning by a word or phrase with a narrower meaning: United Nations Framework - Ukr. у рамках ООН (LAA UN; RC) - Rus. в рамках ООН. In this case, it is recommended to narrow the meaning of lexical tokens by introducing abbreviations;

9. Logical development. It is a replacement of a certain term by a concept that dynamically characterizes its features or properties. This method often leads to replacement of the cause of the phenomenon by its consequence, or replacement of the consequence by its reason:

“The escalation of conflict in northern Syria has been causing more human suffering and adding new displacement to what is already the largest displacement crisis in the world. UN is providing life-saving protection and assistance to those most in need, especially women and children, but we can't do this alone (UN OBD 2)”

In view of the fact that the process of term replacement is interpreted as “searching for alternatives”, the terminological phrase “human suffering” (Ukr. людські страждання, Rus. человеческие страдания) (FDF) is restructured, and instead we propose to extend the concept by way of replacing its consequence. This phrase is taking on the characteristics of situationality, depending on the context of the international cooperation within the frameworks of peace and security at the global level, and the concept that characterizes its situational features encompasses the understanding of alternativeness and transforms into a “life-saving protection” (Ukr. рятувальний захист, Rus. спасения жизней населения путем обеспечения защиты) (COD; RC). Since the escalation of conflict in Northern Syria (Ukr. ескалація конфлікту в Північній Сирії, Rus. эскалация конфликта в Северной Сирии) (COD; RC) causes human suffering (Ukr. людські страждання, Rus. человеческие страдания), as a result, the UN introduces the lifesaving protection (Ukr. рятувальний захист, Rus. спасения жизней населения путем обеспечения защиты) for those who need it the most.

10. Omission. This is a method of refusal from conveyance of semantically redundant language units in the translated text. The meaning of these units can be easily restored in the text context.

The world's population is expected to increase by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from 7.7 billion currently to 9.7 billion in 2050 and could peak at nearly 11 billion around 2100.

International migration is a much smaller component of population change than births or deaths. However, in some countries and areas the impact of migration on population size is significant, namely in countries that send or receive large numbers of economic migrants and those affected by refugee flows. Between 2010 and 2020, fourteen countries or areas will see a net inflow of more than one million migrants, while ten countries will see a net outflow of similar magnitude (UN OBD 3).

This text fragment is an evidence of how the method of refusal from conveyance of redundant language units in the text changes the way of translation of the key lexical token population (Ukr. населення, Rus. население) (CED). The change of the identification model resulted in the omission of special lexical tokens that are primarily widely used in the official business text of the UN. A broader reproduction of lexical tokens within the linguistic context that contains signs of Ukr. “зростання населення”, Rus. “рост населения” (dramatic growth of the population, largely by increasing numbers of people, increasing urbanization) enables interpretation of the meaning in a more generalized sense:

“This dramatic growth of the population has been driven largely by increasing numbers of people surviving to reproductive age, and has been accompanied by major changes in fertility rates, increasing urbanization and accelerating migration. These trends will have far-reaching implications for generations to come (UN OBD 4).”

In other words, the key role of the lexical token population can be traced in two fragments of the text, where the second fragment captures the expanded meaning of the noun component, since it has the characteristics that are typical of the lexical token - Ukr. зростання, збільшення, Rus. рост, увеличение (growth, increasing) (COD; RC). Thus, the reproduction of redundant language units provides the context with the extensive information aimed at a specific lexical token. With the appearance of additional components in the text, the meaning of the keyword does not change, but looks more illustrative and convincing.

Translation of one-component terms, such as population, increasing offers no particular difficulties, but a detailed analysis of definitions of terminological phrases in the UN documentation containing these lexical tokens denotes syntactic constructions of varying level of complexity. The determinative component or the main word of the phrase acts as a generic concept with respect to the entire term. Therefore, the determinative component in general expresses the main meaning of the term.

At the same time, the interest in the UN official business terminology is expressed in scientific postulates (presentation to a wide audience of readers), where the preference is given to reliable facts and experimentally proved provisions of the termrelevant problem, the study of which is presented in the translation methods. According to S. А. Khomenko (2004, p.204), both the Ukrainian and Russian translations do not need additional explain the UN documentation because they “comply with the strategy of domestication and the use of etymological equivalents” [Slavova, Borysenko 2021: 19].

In view of the fact that the unit of analysis can be represented by units of various syntactic prevalence, multicomponent terms of the UN can be considered as semantically distinguishing compounds in the legal sense. R. Jaaskelainen (1999) divides the process of translation of such multicomponent terms into four levels: the first level envisages the definition of linguistic parts of the multicomponent term and clarification of its meaning; the second level assigns the term to the common or special vocabulary group; the third level gives the possibility to reveal the identified signs of the UN as the international organization; the last level offers the allocation of main collocation components based on the key term.

However, we cannot categorically reject the leveling of usual translation models and the idea of the official and business theoretization of terminology, since the official business terminology envisages a differentiation of one-component and multicomponent terms that take on a new dimension: “for example, official business terms of the UN are appearing with an updated interpretation of the special vocabulary” (Griffin, 2008). Therefore, the foundation of the modern terminology that originates under the influence of the international law is presented by differences of a different level - a more accurate statement of constant multicomponent phrases and linguistic cliches (Coelho, 2012). Given the fact that “the problem of processing of multicomponent terms of the UN is closely related to the complex process of translation of attributive vocabulary” (Cripps, Izurieta, 2014), we believe that namely the predominance of terminological phrases reflects the translator's ideas about diplomatic documents of different legal status. In the sentence: Women's equal ownership, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own property and to adequate housing (UN OBD 5), the attribute multicomponent phrase women's equal ownership introduces additional and semantic fragments into the sentence in a form of word combinations equal rights, adequate housing. In this case, the attributive indicators women's and equal are correlated with the subject ownership, and the main component women's ownership forms a structurally semantic center of the sentence. Accordingly, the attributive construction complicates the sentence “by additional meanings and additional connotations caused by the lexical content of components” (Khodakovska, 2012, pp.33-38): equal access, equal control and equal rights. The impact of standard understanding of women's rights is considered to be the main argument for using the method of generalization in interpretation of the multicomponent phrase women's equal ownership as Ukr. “рівні права жінок згідно конвенції” - Rus. “равные права женщин согласно конвенции” ООН (UNE; COD; RC). In this case, fixation of conceptual comprehension of the multicomponent phrase takes place in the OBD texts. Most often, researchers of the official and business terminology of the UN focus their attention on attributive structures that have their place in the vocabulary of the international community speakers and disclose the content of language units without their text embodiment. Thus, for example: arbitrary detention - Ukr. довільне затримання - Rus. произвольное задержание; unilateral coercive measures - Ukr. односторонні примусові заходи - Rus. односторонние принудительные меры; universal periodic review mechanism - Ukr. універсальний механізм періодичного огляду - Rus. универсальный механизм периодического обзора (UNE; CED). According to P. Newmark (1991), an attributive phrase that indicates the inseparable unity of single words and elements of the official business speech is endowed with heuristic potential of interpretation, so the process of its translation inclines the vector of analysis towards the equivalent translation. Taking into account the presented features of the attributive vocabulary in the OBD text and functioning of a multicomponent term outside the text can have different embodiment by means of corresponding scientific methods of translation. The meaning of this vocabulary in the UN official business texts is defined due to the actualized semantics of lexical tokens that designate economic and environmental safety, protection of human rights and military security, and have the lingual status of terminological phrases.

The newest processes of translation of multicomponent UN terms are based on special aspects of the international legal mechanism and embrace not only traditional notions about attributive constructions of varying level of complexity, but also terminological phrases that keep their original meaning as a result of the regular joint use. The aspect angle of reproduction of such word combinations in official business texts of the UN is marked by the semantic indivisibility that “acquires stable terminological meaning and is enriched with concretizing nominations” (McPherson, 2019). As a result, we interpret this type of terms with a special meaning by means of an equivalent translation: Caribbean Environment Programme - Ukr. Карибська екологічна програма - Rus. Карибская экологическая программа; Dry-Zone Sub-Saharan Africa initiative - Ukr. ініціатива з питань засушливих зон Африки до півдня від Сахари - Rus. инициатива по вопросам засушливых зон Африки к югу от Сахары; reinforcing priorities - Ukr. підсилення вагомості пріоритетів - Rus. усиления значимости приоритетов; Cleaner Production Programme - Ukr. програма екологічного виробництва - Rus. программа экологического производства (UNE; CED; RC).

Also, there are universal methods of translation of multicomponent terms of the UN. For example, the researcher M. Harvey (2003) uses five methods, considering them to be sufficient to define the meaning of language units. The methods of translation offered by M. Harvey focus on the study of the legal potential of official business terms that have a regulatory impact on the OBD. In particular, they include: 1) translation with the use of words and expressions that literally reproduce the vocabulary of the original text: Global Environment - Ukr. світове навколишнє середовище - Rus. мировая окружающая среда; mercury compounds - Ukr. ртутні сполуки - Rus. соединения ртути; Force posture - Ukr. силова постанова - Rus. силовое постановление; Rotterdam Convention - Ukr. Роттердамська конвенція - Rus. Роттердамская конвенция; OzonAction Strategic Information System - Ukr. система стратегічної інформації “Озонактіон” - Rus. система стратегической информации "Озонактион"; multiyear tranches - Ukr. багаторічні транші - Rus. многолетние транши; full accountability - Ukr. повна відповідальність - Rus. полная ответственность; sovereign borders - Ukr. суверенні кордони - Rus. суверенные границы (GLUNI; CEA); 2) translation with the use of the genitive case: risk reduction - Ukr. зниження ризику - Rus. снижение риска; Sustainability Reporting Guidelines - Ukr. інструкції для підготовки звітності з питань стабільного розвитку - Rus. инструкции для подготовки отчетности по вопросам устойчивого развития; consolidated appeal process - Ukr. процес подачі апеляції - Rus. процесс подачи апелляции; global population - Ukr. населення планети - Rus. населения планеты; lump-sum withdrawal - Ukr. одноразове зняття коштів - Rus. единоразовое снятие средств; total fertility rate - Ukr. загальний коефіцієнт народжуваності - Rus. общий коеффициент рождаемости; spillover effects - Ukr. наслідки перекидання - Rus. последствия перекидывания; World Conservation Strategy - Ukr. світова стратегія охорони навколишнього середовища - Rus. мировая стратегия охраны окружающей среды (GLUNI); 3) translation with the use of numerous prepositions: Climate Action Summit - Ukr. Саміт щодо рішучих дій внаслідок зміни клімату - Rus. Саммит по вопросам изменения климата; Operational Support Manual - Ukr. посібник з експлуатації - Rus. руководство по эксплуатации; humanitarian emergency response - Ukr. гуманітарне реагування на надзвичайні ситуації - Rus. гуманитарное реагирование на чрезвычайные ситуации; equities exposure - вплив акцій - Rus. влияние акций (GLUNI; COD; RC); 4) translation by using a group of explanatory words: disfiguring disease - Ukr. хвороба деформування тіла у дітей в Центральній Африканський Республіці - Rus. болезнь деформирования тела у детей в Центральной Африканской Республике (COD; GLUNI; RC); 5) translation with the change of the order of components of the attributive group: variable-geometry wing aircraft - Ukr. крило змінної стрілоподібності - Rus. крыло переменной стреловидности; international human rights treaty - Ukr. міжнародний договір про права людини - Rus. международный договор о правах человека (UNE; GLUNI; RC).

These methods proposed by the researcher (M. Harvey (2003)) correlate with the valuable information that is being classified and transforms the existing information. Thus, the traditional methods of translation are the primary source in the modern linguistic space, but in the discursive practice we also observe the deconstruction of established limits encompassing additional ideas about translation tools. On the basis of a semantic analysis of the terms that represent similar phenomena in English, Russian and Ukrainian, we take into account the official and social context, thus applying the strategy of foreignization while finding a balance between three languages.

Therefore, cognitive and informative functions of the official business text not only ensure actualization of the understanding of multicomponent terminology of the UN, but also serve as an impetus for establishing new semantic links between translation methods in the OBD. Research articles that represent the official business terminology in the English-language official business text also undergo such transformation.

translation official business terminology

Problems of translation of the UN terminology

The need for the high-quality academic translation of official business documents is especially urgent in the period of strengthening political, economic, trade contacts between different countries (Samovar, 1994, p.195), which are usually accompanied by various legal documents and diplomatic communication (Yevinton, 1981, p.134). However, the conveyance of different linguistic phenomena (abbreviations, terminological phrases, idiomatic fixed expressions, colligation changes between lexical tokens) is often accompanied by differences in the choice of a single and correct equivalent (Botvina, 1999, p.264). In our research work, we identified an arsenal of fixed expressions, language constructions and terminological phrases in the process of the analysis of the OBD, which have both a complex semantic structure and a number of available ways to solve the problem of their translation. Such language units reflect the culture and national characteristics of countries that have legal obligations in the world communities, including the United Nations (Parkinson, 2018).

We can trace the use of translation methods in our research using the example of complicated one-component and multicomponent UN terms: “ombudsman” - Ukr. омбудсмен - Rus. омбудсмен; “procurement” - Ukr. закупівля - Rus. закупка; “Monterrey” - Ukr. монтеррі - Rus. монтеррей; “envoy” - Ukr. посланець - Rus. посланец; “misdemeanor” - Ukr. місдимінор - Rus. мисдиминор (UNE; RC). The boundaries of the term are outlined by its content completeness and are supported accordingly in the contextual fragment:

1. Mr. Johnston Barkat headed the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services (UNOMS), as part of the new internal system of administration ofjustice reforms at the United Nations, which was approved by the General Assembly in 2007 (UN OBD 6).

2. The 16th Annual EU-UN Procurement Seminar took place on 1-2 April 2019 in New York City, organized by the European Union Procurement Forum in collaboration with the United Nations Procurement Division (UN OBD 7).

The method of specification or calquing in Russian and Ukrainian allows to outline the meaning of one-component terms of the UN in accordance with the semantic structure of its components presented in the language system: a set of features embracing such components as names of positions (for example, Ukr. “уповноважений представник по вирішенню конфліктних ситуацій на конфіденційній основі” - Rus. “уполномоченный представитель по решению конфликтных ситуаций на конфиденциальной основе” - ombudsman, Ukr. “посланник Генерального Секретаря ООН з питань молоді” - Rus. “посланник Генерального Секретаря Организации Объединенных Наций по делам молодежи” - envoy (United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth) (UN OBD 8; RC). Combinations of certain features are embodied in the terminology of the UN that originate from the OBD and acquire special importance in interpretation of its components. They are constructed and assimilated through the international economic and environmental security, protection of human rights and military security.

Objectivation of the UN terminology is carried out primarily with account for the official business interpretation and peculiarities of embodiment. According to R. Kothari (2004), there are four possible options of their additional interpretation. The first option is the physical borrowing of a foreign language term that provides for the compliance with certain rules of transcribing or transliteration. For example, it is advisable to use this method for translation of such UN terms as: “ombudsman”- Ukr. омбудсмен - Rus. омбудсмен - (an official assigned to control the observance of legal rights and interests of citizens by executive authorities and officials) (UNE; RC); “Monterrey”- Ukr. монтеррі - Rus. монтеррей - (solving of problems related to the financing of development: global events at the conference in Monterrey) (RC); “misdemeanor” - Ukr. місдемінор - Rus. мисдиминор - (a category of the least dangerous crimes bordering on administrative offenses) (UNE; COD; RC).

The method of borrowing allows to outline the meaning of unequivocal terms of the UN, therefore it can be considered as justified on the one hand. But on the other hand, taking into account the interpretation of “complicated one-component UN terms” (Albakry, 2004), we can notice doubts in traditional methods of translation and automated formation of collocations.

The second option is the semantic calquing of a foreign language term, what becomes possible if it appeared as a result of the automatic semantic conveyance: “Transformation” - Ukr. трансформація - Rus. трансформация, “Conference” - Ukr. конференція - Rus. конференция, “Organization” - Ukr. організація - Rus. организация, “Consensus” - Ukr. консенсус - Rus. консенсус (COD).

The third method is the verbal translation where it is necessary to take into account the trends of term formation in different languages: “Central Global Forum” - Ukr. центральний глобальний форум - Rus. центральный глобальный форум (RC), “flexibility mechanism” - Ukr. гнучкий механізм - Rus. гибкий механизм (UNE; RC). By the way, this is the most typical method of translation, popular in those OBD that promote traditional methods of translation. The influence of the OBD on formation of the verbal translation consists in the fact that it allows to convey certain English terminological word combinations by means of foreign- language complex terms, providing the possibility for the unrestricted translation.

The fourth principle is the translation of a foreign-language term by means of equivalent translation and descriptive expression. The inclusion of legal acts into the OBD is caused by the dominance of the special terminology, as a result the translation represents the most accurate choice of equivalents: “Interim Administration Mission” - Ukr. тимчасова адміністративна місія - Rus. временная административная миссия (the interim mission of the UN in Kosovo according to the UN Resolution dated June 10, 1999) (UN 9; RC). Based on the analysis of the multicomponent phrase singled out from the UN legal act, it acquires the terminological status owing to the descriptive expression and supporting reference to the official business document of the UN.

The analysis of cases of uncertain terms shows that these problems are partially solved by methods of descriptive translation, such as in case of these singled out one-component UN terms: Medevac - Ukr. санітарна евакуація, що охоплює евакуацію медичних випадків між рівнями надання медичної допомоги в тому числі евакуація потерпілих - Rus. санитарная эвакуация, охватывающая эвакуацию медицинских случаев между уровнями оказания медицинской помощи в том числе эвакуация пострадавших; Carlog - Ukr. система електронного управління машинами, комунікацією - Rus. система электронного управления машинами, коммуникацией; casevac - Ukr. евакуація потерпілих, які отримали травми та надання першої медичної допомоги, а також підготовка потерпілих для отриманна додаткової медичної допомоги - Rus. эвакуация пострадавших, получивших травмы и оказания первой медицинской помощи, а также подготовка пострадавших для получения дополнительной медицинской помощи; lift - Ukr. стратегічна пропускна здатність повітря/моря - Rus. стратегическая пропускная способность воздуха / моря; vet - Ukr. перевірка військових та поліції - Rus. проверка военных и полиции (GLUNI). Thus, singled out one-component terms from the OBD embody both traditional ideas about features and peculiarities formed in the UN and the newest features of certain reconsidered terms that do not have an equivalent translation in Ukrainian and Russian languages.

The linguistic format of the official business text is focused on emphasizing of the importance of the presented information, while the argumentation of its significance can be carried out with the help of “deeply meaningful terminology that is analyzed and motivated, and filtered through the logical analysis by a translator” (Hornby, 2006, p.221). A. B. Bushev (2010, p.243) has a congruent opinion on the subject of reflection in the official business text as “the fact that terminology shows its socio-political significance in the text”. The researcher summarizes that such terminology has inherent features of homonomy and polysemy of lexical units and syntactic constructions. For example, the terminological phrase “numerous abuses” can be translated not only as Ukr. “численні зловживання” - Rus. “многочисленные злоупотребления”, but also as Ukr. “надмірне насильство” - Rus. “чрезмерное насилие” (RC). The term “political manoeuvres” has two equivalents: 1) Ukr. політичні маневри, Rus. политические маневры; 2) Ukr. стратегія, Rus. стратегия (FDF; RC). When interpreting multivalent terms that often do not coincide with the context of official business documents of the UN, first of all it is necessary to focus on their broad reproduction in other sociopolitical spheres (Skibinska, 2009, pp.13-27).

The problems of translation of the UN terminology (from English into Ukrainian and Russian) and its extraction from the official business text can be reduced to the following key positions: 1) the problem of choice of “successful term” (translation equivalent) and conveyance of its special form; 2) the problem of text segmentation; 3) the problem of a lack of synonymous series; 4) the problem of borrowing and calquing of foreign-language lexical units; 5) the problem of establishing of the functional identity; 6) the problem of reflection of the adequate content of the official business text and emphasizing the importance of such research.

The impact of translation methods on interpretation of the UN official business terminology is presented in Table 1:

Table 1.

The impact of translation methods on interpretation of the UN official business terminology

As the analysis of the illustrative material shows, translation methods presented in the OBD embody some uncharacteristic features of the traditional idea about the UN terminology that is divided into variations depending on the methodology of the research and linguistic units of the analysis. The influence of translation methods on formation of the key problematics (translation of the UN terminology) consists in its violation of the established standardization and provision of the possibility of existence of a fixed term outside the scope of the official business text.

Concluding Remarks

Theoretical foundations of research of the special terminology in official business texts of the United Nations are based on the following conceptual framework: 1) objectification of a term by linguistic means reveals the meaning of the analyzed concept fixed in the language system being a logical complement and unification of the special legal vocabulary at the international level; 2) actualization of a term in official business texts is carried out within the framework of official business text fragments, where one can trace the inextricable connection between the context of the term and its reflection in a particular international environment; 3) broadening of the content of certain terminological units of the UN seems to be a logical process of penetration of the special terminology into other spheres of socio-political life, where new terms form and replace or supplement the existing ones, thus creating new official business terminology; 4) integrity of the translated terminological units is ensured by a combination of both identifying features of the official business text and grammatical characteristics, which as a result are manifested in methods of the lexical semantic transformation.

Thus, the conducted analysis allowed to identify the most urgent difficulties in the scientific and practical sense typical of the translation of the special terminology of the UN in English-language official business texts. In general, the idea about universal principles consists in a combination of the individual approach encompassing linguistic, translation, professional aspects in the linguistic practice and the differentiation of all methods of lexical-semantic transformation in the OBD. Based on the functional approach, official business texts are considered as those playing a certain informative or content-conceptual role, what fosters the in-depth study of the equivalence translation. This leads to another important conclusion according to which methods of translation of simple and complex terms of the UN are intended not only to identify and position them in an official business text, but also to reveal the factors of formation of lexical-semantic integrity of the complex terminology and to determine further functional-stylistic features of the United Nations as the international organization by selecting an adequate equivalent for each conceptual group. Moreover, the thorough study of actual methods of translation of the official business terminology contributes to the development of the lexical-semantic structure of the terminology in general. Among them, we can note in particular the equivalent and descriptive methods of translation that are focused on the latest challenges facing the translators. The emergence of new UN terminology is largely caused by the transformation of key lexical-semantic compounds that are repeated in the text of the OBD and form the newest naming units. The results of the data analysis suggest that the Ukrainian translation is similar to the Russian one, where the special UN terminology is unambiguous. Here, a term has no connotative meanings and no synonyms. Regardless of the text, terminological units are translated by using their full or absolute equivalents. However, after a detailed research, we found that the translation of the UN terminology is not always a problem-free process, because different official business documents can contain the same language unit that has a broad or narrow meaning depending on the context.

The study lays the foundation for the research of special terminology of the UN and basic methods of translation in the realm of universal grammar, theories, approaches and practice of translation, which play a key role in modern political life, administrative division and everyday life.

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