Difficulties in Translation English Poultry Terms into Ukrainian

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this article is to single out some specific problems of English terms translation used in poultry farming into the Ukrainian language, special attention paid to polysemic and homonymous poultry terminological units.

The research material is about 700 English zootechnical terms of the poultry farming field. The words were selected from the relevant English texts on the corresponding professional topics (scientific articles and didactic materials, manuals for specialists). The research is methodologically based on the systemic-structural approach, so it enables synchronous analysis of linguistic phenomena that are based on connections and relationships between these elements. The analysis of the paradigmatic terminological relations is based on the principles of semantic fields and the thematic organization of terminology. Descriptive and comparative methods are also applied.

The review of the relevant scientific literature confirmed the ambiguity in interpretation of homonymy and polysemy in terminology. Problems in the translation of homonymous and polysemic poultry terms are identified and possible ways of solving the problems are proposed. The types of terminological homonymy and polysemy of simple units and abbreviations are described. It has been found out that the most difficulties arise in the translation of intra-industry simple terms.

The analysis of the notion “term” has shown that terms can be scientific and technical words used only in certain field, as well as widely used words that have commonly known meanings; when translating polysemous and homonymous terms, intra-industry ones are the most difficult to interpret adequately, since their translation completely depends on the context. The translation of a homonymous or polysemic term requires good knowledge in the poultry farming field as well as clear understanding of the English term volume, awareness of the relevant Ukrainian terminology is necessary. Obviously, the most adequate way to translate a term is to convey it using the equivalent available in the language of translation. In general, the terms that are formed from Greek and Latin languages have clear equivalents. In the terminological apparatus of poultry farming, most of these words refer to the anatomy of industrial birds and the process of their breeding.

The most frequent translation transformations used in translation of poultry terms are: transcription, transliteration, calque and descriptive translation. We believe that it is best to use transcription, transliteration ("Ayam Cemani" – Ayam Cemani (exotic breed of chickens)), calque translation (Broad Breasted White – broad-breasted white goose (breed of geese)) when translating names of breeds of industrial poultry. Descriptive translation method is most often used when working with verb terms: "to mate" – to cross breeds, "to sex" – to divide the brood by sex, "to go broody" – to hatch eggs, "to hatch" – to incubate eggs, hatch, "to breed" – to keep animals for the purpose of producing young animals in a controlled way.