False Friends in Terminology Lewis, Kristian
Rasprave Instituta za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje,
01/2020, Letnik:
46, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Every terminology system strives to be as systematic as possible and able to eliminate system errors. In the context of error identification, it is more than obvious that linguistic errors, apart ...from other system errors, occur quite frequently. This paper is focused on the linguistic and translation phenomenon of false friends, especially as a potentially threatening cause of misunderstanding between two terminological systems. The European Union has also addressed this problem to some extent, primarily because of the huge amount of documents translated on a daily basis. This paper analyses 25 corpus-based pairs of Croatian-English false friends and gives recommendations on how to avoid terminological false friends in translation.
Svaki terminološki sustav nastoji biti što uređeniji i isključiti iz sebe pogreške. Kad je riječ o uočavanju pogrešaka u tome sustavu, zamjetno je da se među ostalim sustavnim pogreškama često pojavljuju i jezične. U ovome radu pozornost se posvećuje jezičnomu i prevoditeljskomu fenomenu lažnih prijatelja. Oni se razmatraju kao potencijalni uzrok nesporazuma između dvaju terminoloških sustava. Europska unija također se donekle usredotočila na spomenuti problem, ponajprije zbog velike količine dokumenata koji se svakodnevno prevode. U radu ćemo analizirati 25 parova hrvatsko-engleskih lažnih prijatelja koje smo izdvojili iz korpusa te ćemo predložiti kako izbjeći pojavu lažnih prijatelja pri prevođenju nazivlja.
Aims and objectives:
This study examines second language (L2) bilinguals’ use of words that have the same or similar forms in their two languages but whose meaning extensions differ – that is, false ...cognates. We examine the conditions under which L2 speakers inappropriately use false cognates in the L2. How do frequency of the relevant words in each language and polysemy of the word in the first language (L1) affect L2 learners’ use of such words?
Design:
Fifty Spanish L1–English L2 adults translated 80 words in context from Spanish (S) to English (E). The words involved polysemous Spanish words that had several translations in English, one of which was a cognate form. Words were strictly balanced for L1 polysemy (high versus low), frequency of the S word, frequency of the E cognate form, and frequency of the E non-cognate translation. The words were presented in unambiguous contextual frames that pushed for the non-cognate translation in English.
Data and analysis:
Analyses of variance were used to analyze participants’ translations relative to the variables of Spanish polysemy and the frequencies of the forms in question.
Findings:
The findings show that the relative transparency or opacity of the mapping between the L1 and L2 influences word choice: the use of a false cognate instead of a competing correct lexical item depends on the complex interaction of L1 polysemy and the lexical frequencies of the L1 and L2 forms in the bilingual’s two languages.
Originality:
This study strictly controls for several factors crucial to L2 users’ choice of a word in the L2: polysemy in the L1, frequency of the L1 word, and frequencies of the L2 words involved.
Significance:
When these variables are viewed together, the data reveal a complex interaction showing factors that contribute to the transparency or opacity of the L1–L2 lexical semantic linkages.
We examined to what extent the variation in vocabulary learning outcomes (vocabulary knowledge, learning gain, and rate of forgetting) in English as a second language (L2) in context can be predicted ...from semantic contextual support, word characteristics (cognate status, Levenshtein distance, word frequency, and word length), and student characteristics (prior vocabulary knowledge, reading ability, and exposure to English) in 197 Dutch adolescents. Students were taught cognates, false friends, and control words through judging sentences with varying degrees of semantic contextual support using a pretest/posttest between subjects design. Participants were presented with an English target word and its Dutch translation, followed by an English sentence. They were instructed to judge the plausibility of the sentence. Mixed-efffects models indicated that learning gains were higher for sentences with more semantic contextual support and in students with stronger reading comprehension skills. We were the first to show that Levenshtein distance is an important predictor for L2 vocabulary learning outcomes. Furthermore, more accurate as well as faster learning task performance lead to higher learning outcomes. It can thus be concluded that L2 study materials containing semantically supportive contexts and that focus on words with little L1-L2 overlap are most effective for L2 vocabulary learning.
The “ideograph” and the 漢字 hànzì McDonald, Edward
Translation and interpreting studies,
10/2018, Letnik:
13, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Abstract
In the Anglophone sphere, according to popular and most academic understandings, the term “ideograph” is regarded as an unproblematic synonym of 漢字
hànzì
‘Chinese character.’ On ...graphological grounds, i.e. as applied to writing systems, it can easily be shown that the concept of “ideograph” is both theoretically incoherent and practically unfeasible (
McDonald 2016
); while historically it is clear that the notion was founded on an imperfect understanding of Chinese characters as a writing system, and grew out of a European obsession with the notion of a “universal character” at a particular historical moment (
Mungello 1985
;
Saussy 2001
). Nevertheless the concept has become deeply embedded in European understandings of Chinese language and culture, to the extent that it is, in effect, a valuable conceptual possession of Western modernity (
Bush 2010
), and promoted alike by those with a detailed knowledge of Chinese writing, such as H. G.
Creel (1936)
, as by those in blissful ignorance of it, like Jacques Derrida (
1967
/1976). In the Sinophone sphere, while for most practical purposes, as well as in a large proportion of scholarly work, more grounded understandings of Chinese characters as a writing system operate either implicitly or explicitly, the traditional emphasis on characters as a link between civilization and the cosmos (
O’Neill 2013
), as well as a long tradition of pedagogical “just so stories” about the construction of individual characters (e.g.,
Zuo 2005
), provide a key point of contact with Western notions of the “ideograph” as symbolizing not a word, but an idea or an object. The situation may thus be described involving a type of inversion of the phenomenon of
faux amis
or “false friends,” where two
different
words are understood as being more or less synonymous; or alternatively as an example of Lydia
Liu’s (2004)
notion of a cross-lingual “supersign” where two comparable terms exercise an influence on each other across linguistic and cultural boundaries. This article will attempt to trace the genealogy of these complex and overlapping notions, and see what differing understandings of Chinese characters have to tell us
about notions of cultural specificity, cultural production, and cross-cultural (mis-)communication in the contemporary globalized world.
El presente estudio se centra en los falsos amigos, palabras de forma similar pero distinto significado, existentes entre el inglés y el español. En él se analizan ocho parejas de falsos amigos ...prestando especial atención a su etimología y las derivaciones semánticas desde su étimo común hasta sus actuales acepciones en cada lengua. Los términos escogidos son algunas de las formas menos estudiadas, debido a su menor frecuencia de uso o a su pertenencia a algún tema considerado tabú. Además, con la ayuda de diccionarios etimológicos se han podido presentar estos términos desde un enfoque diacrónico, desde el cual escasamente se han investigado este tipo de voces, y al que apenas se ha recurrido tradicionalmente en su enseñanza. En este trabajo, no obstante, se sostiene que el enfoque diacrónico es la mejor manera de entender sincrónicamente estas palabras y, por lo tanto, con él se puede evitar su estudio memorístico en forma de listas. De este modo, en la búsqueda de un enlace entre ambas lenguas, encontramos la explicación a los significados de estas voces y, con ello, un método significativo por el que hacer más fácil y eficaz su adquisición o enseñanza. Pretendemos que este esbozo pueda servir de ayuda a los investigadores que en el futuro pretendan trabajar en estas nuevas alternativas.
The aim of this paper is to establish how the French adverb visiblement has evolved, and to find the most accurate translations of this adverb in Spanish. Dictionaries tend to give literal ...translations, whereby visiblement is translated as visiblemente. A diachronic analysis of this adverb will enable us to see whether they are indeed false-friends. In Old French and in Pre-classical French, it was used as a clause element adverb, before being used as a disjunct adverb from the 17th century onwards. Eventually, it goes on to appear by itself, or, accompanying an affirmative, like oui, in the 20th century. We will demonstrate that the adverb undergoes a process of pragmaticalisation as described by Dostie (2004), with the adverb becoming more subjective, going from a literal sense, to a disjunct or pragmatic adverb. Nevertheless, in Spanish, since Old Spanish until nowadays, there are almost no examples other than its use as a clause element adverb. That’s the reason why we cannot propose a literal translation of the adverb.
•Balanced bilingual children demonstrate cognate facilitation in both languages.•Semantic-to-orthographic feedback is used from the beginning of reading acquisition.•Cognate effects are driven by ...language proficiency rather than by print experience.•No processing differences for homographs between languages of balanced bilinguals.•Balanced bilingual children resemble bilingual adults more than child L2-learners.
We investigated whether beginning bilingual readers activate orthographic as well as semantic representations in both of their languages while reading in one of them. Balanced bilingual third graders who were learning to read concurrently in German and English completed two lexical decision tasks, one in each language, including cognates, false friends, and matched control words. Results showed a processing advantage for cognates over controls in both languages, indicating that the facilitation effect is driven by the level of balanced language proficiency rather than by experience with print. Except for lower accuracy scores in German, false friends did not differ in their processing from controls, pointing to the presence of semantic-to-orthographic feedback already in the beginning of reading acquisition. Confirming assumptions by the bilingual interactive activation plus (BIA+) model as well as the revised hierarchical model (RHM), findings suggest that in their strategy to resolve orthographic ambiguity, balanced bilingual children are more comparable to bilingual adults than to child second-language (L2) learners.
This study examined young emergent bilinguals’ cognate and false cognate knowledge and vocabulary outcomes on four early‐language assessments in English and Spanish. Findings revealed that children ...were able to use shared phonology of words—before they had developed extensive knowledge about their orthography—to recognize and produce cognates. In addition, children were not confused by the similar phonology in semantically different words when recognizing and producing false cognates. This indicates that children who are just beginning to acquire literacy may also possess a “bilingual advantage” when identifying cognate items as do their older peers.
This paper presents five of the initial items of a semantic study of confusable terms and false friends present in the lexis of music in English and French. All forms are also given in Italian, ...German, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. The object of study is a series of texts from corpora provided by New Sketch Engine, a product of Lexical Computing Limited. In the commentary section, the semantic variance between the different items within the same topic is studied. The approach is essentially synchronic, with priority being given to the examination of current usage. Diachronic considerations are also included where it has been possible to explain, or at least hypothesize how the meaning of the various terms has evolved. The main practical application of the paper is to provide a tool for reducing ambiguity in the area of music terminology. It will be of potential interest to all those concerned by the study and practice of music and the language of music in countries where the languages referred to in this study are in use.
Ovaj rad
predstavlja tekuće istraživanje
elemenata glazbene terminologije koji se čine sličnima na engleskom i francuskom jeziku, ali zapravo imaju drugačija značenja. Svi termini također su dani na talijanskom, njemačkom, španjolskom, ruskom i kineskom jeziku. Korištenje pojmova na svim jezicima koji su obuhvaćeni opravdano je uzorcima teksta
preuzetima
iz priznatih zbirki uključenih u “New Sketch Engineˮ, ali kritički komentari bitno su ograničeni na engleski i francuski.
Studija je u osnovi sinkronizirana: prioritet se daje ispitivanju trenutačne upotrebe. Dijakronijska razmatranja također su uključena gdje je bilo moguće predložiti kako je došlo do semantičke varijacije između pojmova čija je etimološka izvedba slična.
Proper knowledge of a language requires being aware of such interlingua interference as “false friends of a translator”. The research conducted with higher school students revealed the fact of ...misunderstanding and their being confused when dealing with the stratum of terminology under consideration. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to consider ‘false friends of a translator’ in physics field taking account of their similarities or differences in the pronunciation, meaning and spelling in English and Russian. For realizing this aim the authors empirically surveyed two groups of higher school final-year students to contribute to their language development through good knowledge of terms. The research was conducted on the base of comparison, observation and empirical methods and the teaching-practicing-controlling approach. The results obtained show that proper educating the future specialists to the use of the lexical units under consideration correctly can improve their language knowledge for their professional growth. The results can be used in language teaching practice, in making dictionaries for special purposes, as well as for making some possible contribution to terminology science.
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