81’16-027.511=111
ELAEVA E.
Ufa State University of Economics and Service (Ufa)
Language is not only unique to humans and diverse but there are also common features between languages. About five thousand languages are spoken in the world today but there is a basic unity that underlies their diversities. Many of the world’s languages show similar principles. 'Language universals' are a set of principles which describe systematic patterns in languages – in other words they describe what the world's languages have in common. These language universals classify entire languages into categories which are then based on shared properties. There exist three approaches to explaining universals. These are namely the monogenesis, the innateness including other psychological explanations and the functional and pragmatic explanations. The term monogenesis means that there is a genetic origin which holds true for all languages of the world. The hypothesis is that there once existed and ancestor language from which all the languages of the world developed. This would also implicate that each of the universals have been part of the ancestor language and that they have passed on through all the stages the language went through. Authorities who speak about innateness are simply arguing that in the absence of any alternative coherent explanation for language universals, innateness is the only possibility that can be. Instead of serving to deepen our understanding of language universals, the absence of any possibility of testing innateness as an explanation serves rather to divert researchers from considering alternatives that may be testable [1]. The last approach is the one of the functional and pragmatic explanations. The argument concerning this approach is that through certain universals language becomes more functional. This contradicts the numerous instances where language seems to be dysfunctional. “The existence of synonyms seems to be a needless luxury and even more clearly the existence of homonyms…” [2].
There are so many linguistic features which the languages of the world share. Some are basic, such as the notion of ‘sentence’ or ‘verb,’ some are complex, such as Wh- movement. The rules which all languages have in common, with either very few, or no exceptions are called absolute universals. Let’s consider the following statements.
• All languages are equipped with the grammatical structures needed to give orders, negate a thought, and ask a question.
• All languages use verbs which reflect the past, present, or future.
• All languages possess a finite set of phonemes (sounds) including vowels and consonants which are strung together to form words.
• All languages share the basic categories of words, such as nouns, verbs, description words, relative clauses, and a method for counting.
• All languages use pronouns.
• All languages include any blend of or subcategory of the basis five colors: red, blue, yellow, black and white. The colors which are included in every language are red, white, and black [3].
To sum up, we must say that Language Universals are unique in starting with the assumption that the best way to approach these and related questions is through a dialogue between a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, computer science and biology.
1. Comrie 1981: 24. The languages of the Soviet Union
2. Comrie 1981: 25. The languages of the Soviet Union
3. Chomsky, N. (1988). Language and problems of knowledge. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press
MYSTERY AND DIFFICULTY OF TRANSLATION
УДК 81’25=111
FAZYLOV A.
Ufa State University of Economics and Service (Ufa)
Even a professional translator is faced a number of objective difficulties that have to be considered. Many people believe that translation as transfer of words one language into another language cannot be precise and good. There are many reasons for that [1]:
1) The discrepancy between material objects or their verbal expressions. In general, the reality in which we live is different from the one in which speakers of others language live;
2) The discrepancy between a number of meanings of the same words in different languages;
3) Different collocability and idiomatic expressions;
4) The un-translatable dialect words and jargon;
5) Untranslatable realiae.
Meanwhile, the translation hide a few pitfalls. Among them are false friends of a translator. They are words similar in sound and spelling to the words of the target language, but very different in meaning. Once of perfume company Clairol introduced in Germany its deodorants, using Slogan “Mist Stick”. It turned out that the German word “Mist” is slang for “manure”.
Significant challenges for the translator are also the proper names. For example, the Russian name of the U.S. state of Texas is –Техас- is neither a translation (otherwise it would be “Тексас”), nor transcription (“Тэксес”). It is a historical form of translation.
Moreover, the translation in general, and in the translation of proper names in particular, we are faced with a problem of euphony. Coca-Cola Company could’t find the brand name to sell their products in China for long time. The Chinese pronounce____ the name of the drink is “kekukela” meaning “Bite Waxy Tadpole”. The company had to go over 40 thousand options before choosing the name “Koka Kole”, which means “Happiness in the Mouth”.
It is worth nothing that there are a number of historical errors that it is impossible to correct. They have become part of the language and part of history. For example travelers who were the first to visit Australia asked Aboriginal people “What is that animal?” And those, without understanding them, answering in their own language, We do not understand”, which sounded like “kangaroo”. And travelers decided that this name of the animal.
We must be very attentive to the author’s text when we translate poetry. But in the process of translation there appear such obstacles like phonetic, vocabularystylistical and grammatical differences [3].
All these have an influence on the translation. The sentence passed through various traditions, attitudes and minds can be different from the original [2].
For the dame reasons, automatic translator can translate text only literally. There is still of work to modernize translation programs. Every year new programs appear and old programs are modernized, but they can’t still reproduce every sense of the text.
1. Заикин Е. Трудности перевода // 02 июня 2010. http://blog.perevedem.ru/2010/06/02/trudnosti-perevoda-i/
2. Вартанян Э.А. Путешествие в слово, 1976.
3. Трудности перевода поэтического текста (пять переводов стихотворения П. Валерина «Марина»), Кокорина А.В., 21-09-2011.
ORNAMENT AS PEOPLE’S MOST CLASSICAL LANGUAGE
УДК 7.04:81
