Title: | Remarks on the Scope of the Neologistic Influence from English Sources – Translation as a Case in Point |
Author: | Constantin Manea |
Publication: | Annales Universitatis Apulensis. Series Philologica, 11 (3), p. 51-65 |
p-ISSN: | 1582-5523 |
Publisher: | Universitatea „1 Decembrie 1918” |
Place: | Alba Iulia |
Year: | 2010 |
Abstract: | The present paper’s aim is to give relevant pieces of evidence supporting the now widely held opinion that, among other lexical sub-domains, a substantial part of the neologizing lingo that today’s Romanian press employs is, virtually, the result of translation (or rather mistranslation) from sources written – or orally delivered – in English. Translation theories sometimes tolerantly point to the fact that rendering may be (more or less – or rather) literal, in which case translation will be seen as a mere “transliteration” of a text or message originally produced in a foreign language. Such messages will (naturally) be perceived as exasperatingly awkward. But the fact that a whole domain of the target-language – viz. the lexicon of contemporary Romanian – is affected by this phenomenon is really serious. The present contribution aims to substantiate some of the various ways and channels that have lately furthered the said influence, which has – directly or indirectly – generated such neologistic terms, phrases and meanings as locaţie, agonie, eveniment, reabilita(re), focusa(re), prioritiza(re), disponibiliza(re), confuza(t), în încercarea de a…, etc. In the context, phenomena and (analogical) mechanisms such as literal translation, literal taking over, misadaptation, infelicitous or improper equivalence, calque / loan translation are discussed. The idiom – or lingo – of today’s Romanian press is succinctly analyzed and appraised as to the relative weight represented by the significant inflow of English loanwords coming into contemporary Romanian. The main issues under scrutiny were: the derived terms originating in English loans, recorded or not by usual Romanian dictionaries, the compound terms construed starting from an English neologism and an already existing word of the Romanian language, the lexical items which came to be favoured as new realia appeared, the new words coming from English and considered either sheer “barbarisms”, or technical / specialized terms, the various items of Romanian “journalese” which smack of lexical English influence. Some of the said terms correspond to a number of realia typical of the English-speaking world, and are massively circulated worldwide in the contemporary society; part of those terms mirror realia belonging to some obviously specialized fields. Similarly, the author analyzed a number of more recent Romanian terms whose meanings are extended, and / or freshly collocated, under the same Anglo-American influence, including most False Friends (that even high-school students should be aware of); plus a host of expressions coined from Romanian terms adjusted to English semantic-syntactic patterns, and the rather numerous word formation elements and mechanisms established by the Englished “vogue”; also, a pool of terms generated, and widely used, under the influence of English, e.g. a returna, a relaxa, and the quite numerous phraseological structures generated by the same vogue. |
Key words: | neologistic vocabulary / terms / phrases / meanings; literal translation; (mis)adaptation; improper equivalence; calque / loan translation; non-normative approach |
Language: | English |
Links: | ![]() |
Citations to this publication: 1
1 | Florin Sterian | Bibliografia românească de lingvistică (BRL, 53, 2010). Lucrări de lingvistică apărute în țara noastră în cursul anului 2010 | LR, LX (3), 307-453 | 2011 | pdf html |
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