24 MOSTOVI 1/1986/XXI
David Limon
»FALSE-FRIENDS« AND
SLOVENE-ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Pisec članka, dolgoletni lektor za angleški jezik na filozofski fakulteti v
Ljubljani, v uvodu spregovori na splošno o slabih in neustreznih prevodih,
ki jih vsak dan srečujemo na najrazličnejših področjih. Osvetliti skuša
nekatere vzroke za te težave ter se dotakne tudi pomanjkljive prevajalske
izobrazbe avtorjev. Skupni imenovalec vsem slabim prevodom je pač
nezadostno jezikovno znanje.
Problem ponazori s krajšim zgledom iz neustreznega tiskanega prevoda.
Glavnina prispevka obsega primere t. i. faux-amis (angl. false friends)
izrazov, katerih prevod (v angleščino) se samo zdi enakovreden izvirniku
ali pa le zveni tako, v resnici pa še daleč ni tak. Seznam obsega izraze,
ki je nanje pisec najpogosteje naletel v prevedenih besedilih in ki so nanje
opozorile tudi razprave na podiplomskem prevajalskem tečaju na filozof¬
ski fakulteti v Ljubljani.
It is, unfortunately, ali too easy to find exam-
ples of woefully inadequate Slovene-English
translation. And they can, sadly, be found
in ali areas: from short !iterary extracts
and coffeetable books through to informa-
tion leaflets and publicity materials, espe-
cially those with vvhich the hapless tourist is
bombarded (VVhere else would one find the
classic recommendation: “We are suggest-
ing you the old town nucleos sightsee-
ings”?). Such texts may be the work of in-
suffioiently-trained and hard-pressed young
translators with no more experienced hand
to consult; they may have been produced
by students, or even teachers, trying to sup-
plement their lincomes with a little extra
work; they might simply have been churned
out by over-confident company employees
who assume that an ability to use their mo-
ther tongue and a passing krovvledge of
English, combined with occasional use of
a bi-lingual dictionary, are ali the tools pro-
spective translators need before they can
get down to work. We can already see one
of the roots of the problem taking shape he-
re: that translation is (except, perhaps, in the
field of literature) consistently under-rated as
a škili and that the translator in consistently
under-valued. And a concomitant factor
vvorth mentioning at this juncture is the fre-
quent lack of “quality control” overthe pro-
duct: not only are translations rarely che-
cked for linguistic acceptability by someone
other than the translator, but even the need
for proof-reading before printing is frequent-
ly overlooked.
We might consider, in passing, the question
of how someone who may have studied En¬
glish for many years can produce a poor
English translation. Besides the obvious
point that translation is, in any čase, a very
special skifi with many inherent dangers of
interlingual interference, there is the fact
that the way languages are taught (and this
is not just a criticism of the Slovene sy-
stem!) can produce a fine passive know-
ledge of the language being learnt but stili
provide no real opportunity to develop the
productive skills, especially vvriting. There
are other factors vvhich should be mentioned
MOSTOVI 1/1986/XXI 25
here: lack of contact with the living langua-
ge in real situation; paucity of “authentic"
teaching materials; “institutionalisation” of
errors (that is, those regularly passed on
through generations of teachers and pupils,
such as the use of “until” instead of “by”
or “before”, as in “Do it until the end of the
week” — many of the most common of
these being caused by interference from the
mother tongue); over-generalisation of mis-
applied rules; and so on. The problem can
be placed in a nutsheil thus: frequently, the
translator simpiy does not know the target
language (in this čase English) well enough.
One consequence of this is over-reliance on
bi-lingual dictionaries. Such dictionaries,
especially the generalised variety, are rarely
more than ciumsy aids to the passive under-
standing of a foreign language, based as
they are on rather spurious notions of what
lexical equiva!ence actually is. An intuitive
word-for-word “matching” of entries in mo-
nolingual dictionaries and ad hoc approxi-
mations between superficially equivalent le-
xemes tend too often to be the only rationale
behind the compilation of such vvorks. Mo-
reover, they too often rely on undifferentia-
ted list-type entries which give the user lit-
tle real guidance as to usage, when what
the foreign learner really needs is “genuine
equivalents, together with an indication of
the colloquial restrictions that operate in
specific situational contexts”’.
Let us now compare two supposedly equiva-
lent texts: taken, in this čase, from a “Den-
tol Anti-Plaque” toothpaste tube. The con-
text here demands that, for the English text
to be a successful translation of the Slove-
ne text, it should be functionally equivalent;
it should also, of course, be semantically
equivalent.
Zobna medicina je ugotovila, da so zobne
obloge glavni povzročitelj vseh obolenj zob
in dlesni, ker se v njih razmnožujejo nevar¬
ne bakterije. Dentol anti-plaque učinkovito
' R. R. K. Hartmann, »Contrastive Textology«
(Julius Groos Verlag, Heidelberg, 1980)
odstranjuje te obloge, 12 ur zavira nastaja¬
nje novih ter tako preventivno varuje pred
kariesom in parodontopatijo.
The dental medicine has stated that the pla-
ques present the main cause of ali teeth
and gum diseases as dangerous baeteria
are produced within them.
Dentol anti-plaque efficiently removes these
plaques and for 12 hours prevents the ap-
pearance of new ones and thus preventively
protects against caries and periodontal di¬
seases.
There are many clear reasons why this is not
a successful translation: ungrammatical use
of the definite article on twe occasions; the
use of “state” for »ugotoviti«; treating “pla-
que” as a countable noun on three occasi¬
ons; inappropriate use of the verb “pre¬
sent”; the use of “produce” for »razmnože¬
vati«; the word order of the second senten-
ce; and so on — it vvould not be difficult
to add further points. I vvould, hovvever, like
to focus on just two lexical items in the Slo-
vene text: »medicina« and »preventivno«.
The noun »medicina« if often translatable
by the English “medicine”; in this context it
is not — it cannot collocate with the adjec-
tive “dental” (»zoben«), An appropriate
translation of this text vvould probably begin
thus: “Dental research has shovvn that..
Similarly, the adverb »preventivno« cannot
be translated by “preventively” here: “pre¬
ventive^ protects against” (»varuje pred«)
is not an acceptable collocation (nor, in-
deed, is “preventively” a suitable equiva-
lent for »preventivno« in such contexts as
»preventivno cepiti«), A suitable translation
here vvould be: “and thus protects against”.
(»ter tako preventivno varuje pred ...«) —
or perhaps “helps protect against..
This is the translation problem I shall be
dealing with in the rest of this article: the
mis-translation of lexical items from the SL
(source language), using TL (target langua¬
ge) items vvhich sound and/or look as if
they should be equivalent in this particular
26 MOSTOVI 1/1986/XXI
context (or even, in some cases, in ali con-
texts), but which in fact are not. In Britain,
these items are often knovvn by the French
expression “faux amis”; we shall use the
English expression “false-frieds”.
To take a classic example: the French adjec-
tive “sympathique” is a “false-friend” for the
English learner because in most contexts it
is not a translation equivalent for the En¬
glish “sympathetic”. And to take the two lan-
guages we are dealing with here: “sympa-
thetic is in most contexts not a translation
equivalent for »simpatičen«. So, in the con-
text of Slovene-Engtish translation we can
label »simpatičen« and “sympathetic” as
“false-friends” (although interestingly, for
the Slovene learner of French, “sympatique"
is not a “false-fried”).
Below, a number of Slovene vvords which
can be gerarded as “false-frieds” are given;
they are listed in thematic groups in order
to make clear the kinds of contexts in which
they occur. Beside them are suggestions
for appropriate English translations: these
are pragmatic equivalents only, and should
not be regarded as “synonyms” or transla¬
tion equivalents irrelevant of context. The
words listed have been selected on an em-
pirical basis: those which, in my experien-
ce, are sources of error for students of En¬
glish (some of these are actually not “trans¬
lation problems” as such, belonging more
to informal, spoken registers) and those (the
more “specialized” vocabulary) vvhich emer-
ged as problems during discussion on the
faculty’s postgraduate translation course.
energy: production and conservation; electrical goods
MOSTOVI 1/1986/XXI 27
klimatiziran
antena
fen
aparat
interna (telefon)
economics, trade, business,
konvertibilni trg
subvencija
participacija
reprodukcija
reprodukcijski material
rezervni deli
inventura
kontrolor
šef
non-stop
propaganda
politics, !aw, administration
proces
predsednik
predsednica
šef države
aparat
manifestacija
manifestirati
laburist
laburisti
health
nataliteta
recept
krema
air-conditioned
(television) aerial
hair-dryer
»brivski aparat« — (electric) razor/shaver
»telefonski aparat« — telephone
extension
indrustry
hard currency areas/market
subsidy (e.g. of rent or prices)
grant (a lump sum given by governmet etc)
(financial) contribution
production, manufacturing
semi-manufactures
špare parts, spares (informal)
stock-taking
supervisor (industriy)
auditor (financial)
boss
»šef oddelka« — head of department
(not really used in Britain: normally one sees only a sign
with “Opening Hours ...”)
publicity (material), advertising
trial
chairman, chairperson (becoming more widely accepted)
chairwoman, chairperson
(“president” for the head of a country, of a company,
of a court)
head of State
»birokratski aparat« — (the) bureaucracy
»državni aparat« —(the) administration,
state administration
a gathering
demonstration, parade (to commemorate sthing)
demonstrate (for or against sthing)
Labour Party member/supporter
the Labour Party (or its mebers and supporters)
(the) birth rate
(doctor’s) prescription
(»recept za kuhanje« — recipe; the English word “receipt"
is translatable by »račun«)
oinment
(“cream” usually cosmetic)
28 MOSTOVI 1119861XX!
tankati to put (some) petrol in (the car)
recreation, tourism, catering, etc
(some of the terms used here may not be applicable to the American system)
MOSTOVI 1/1986/XXI 29
kolega
študijsko leto
Filozofska fakulteta
gimnazija
disertacija
negativna/pozitivna ocena
fonolaboratorij
boks
štipendija
the arts
kultura
kulturen
kulturna manifestacija
fellovv-student, (in informal speech) college/university
friend
(“colleague" is usually reserved for someone you work
with)
(as a term of address there is no English equivalent —
students are addressed as “Mr” or “Miss” plus surname,
or by first name only)
academic year
(»šolsko leto« — school year)
Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (depending
on what departments it contains)
grammar school (although not an exact equivalent)
(Master’s or Doctoral) thesis
(we do not talk about “negative” or “positive” marks, but
about people failing or passing — the latter with a high
or low mark: the lovvest mark with vvhich you can pass is
the “pass mark”)
language lab (oratory)
booth (in language lab)
grant (normally from public funds)
scholarship (a special avvard, possibly from industry or
some public body)
(depends very much on context)
»filmska kultura« — the fitm industry
»likovna kultura« — the fine arts
»glasbena kultura« — mušic
(the word “culture” is much more restricted in use than
its Slovene equivalent — usually
it is used on a more abstract, generalised level)
(paraphrase often unavoidable here as in English we do
not talk about “cultural vvorkers”,
“cultural monuments”, etc
e.g. »kulturni delavci« — people who work in the arts
»kulturni spomeniki« — artistic and historical monuments)
»kulturna skupnost« — Arts Council
(although really outside the scope of this list,
»skupnost« is another interesting example of a word vvhich
can be translated in a variety of ways, depending on
context: e.g. »zavarovalna skupnost« — insurance
company, »pedagoška skupnost« — education council,
etc)
celebration (»proslava«)
parade (»parada«)
festival, e.g. »gledališka manifestacija«
— drama festival
30 MOSTOVI 1/1986/XXI
teza
kritika
plastičen
idejen
kriminalka
sinhronizirati (film)
sinhroniziran
kinooperater
maska
maska, masker(ka)
fotograf
fotografski aparat
fleš
harmonika
publicist
lektorirati
theme/subject (e.g. at symposium)
(film, book) reVjevv
vivid (description, portrayal of character)
intellectual (content — »vsebina«, problem, etc)
conceptual (approach, etc)
(murder) mystery, detective story, criminal (adj.)
story/film
dub
dubbed
projectionist
make-up
make-up artist
photographer, photographer’s (shop)
camera
flashlight, flashbulb
accordion
journalist and/or vvriter
check (a text)
jobs
modni kreator
maneken(ka)
arheolog, fiziolog
ginekolog, etc
(fashion-)desinger
dummy (in a shop window)
model, male model
archeologist, physiologist, gynaecologist, etc
food, etc
keks
toast
čips
puding
solata
konserva
konserve
keramika
kombajn
biscuit
(“cake” is »kolač« or »torta«)
(in cafes etc) toasted sandvvich
crisps
(“chips” are “pommes frites”)
(“pudding” covers a wide range of dishes in England
and could cover such things as »mlečni riž«,
»prekmurska gibanica« and so on; Slovene “puding”
vvould best be described as some kind of “dessert",
e.g. “fruit dessert", or perhaps as “mousse”)
(the most common kind of salad in England is “lettuce":
»glava solate« in “a head of lettuce”;
»mehka solata« and »ledenka« are also kinds of lettuce,
the latter sometimes called “crispy lettuce”)
ti n
tinned food(s), (or pl. “tins”)
pottery, crockery (cups, plates, etc)
combine harvester
MOSTOVI 1/1986/XXI 31
various nouns, adjectives,
fantazija
aktualen
simpatičen
tip
primitiven tip,
primitivec
fenomenalen
famozen
fajn
soliden
sklerozen, sklerotičen
kondicija
eksistenca
manifestacija
manifestirati
evidenca
evidenčni karton
evidentirati
eventualen
eventualno
uniformirati
kontrolirati
adverbs, verbs
imagination (»bujna fantazija« — vivid imagination)
topical, relevant (see discussion above)
niče (the most general, neutral possibility)
likeable (person)
kind (face, manner)
(there are, of course, other possibilities, depending on
context)
person, kind (of person, man)
(sometimes the context demands some rather different
expression; “type" may be possible in certain contexts)
(pejorative) yob, moron
»fenomenalen otrok« — child prodigy
»Dosegli so fenomenalen rezultat« — excellent
»Bilo je fenomenalno« — really good, very good
extraordinary, extremely good
»Famozno smo se imeli.« — “We had a great time.”
»Fajn se imejte!« — “Have a god time!”
“Enjoy yourselves!”
reliable (product, person)
very satisfactory, good (result, performance)
(in everyday speech) forgetful, absent-minded
»Nimam nobene kondicije.« — 'Trn not fit.”
‘Trn out of shape.”
»Ali imaš kaj kondicije?« — “Are you fit?"
life, living
expression (of) (as in »setanek je manifestacija
prijateljstva med narodi« or »zunanja manifestacija
čustev«)
express (»manifestirati politične nazore«)
data
file, records (e.g. health)
record, check (information)
possible
(paraphrase usually unavoidable: e.g. "if it happens
to...”, “should it happen that...”; or more formally —
“in the event of...”)
make uniform
check (documents, papers, passports, tickets,
tyre pressure)
measure, take (e.g. blood pressure)