Қазақ
мемлекеттік қыздар
педагогикалық университеті Хабаршы №3 (51), 2014 ж.
47
conform with the original. But the goal is the translation accuracy and adequacy of which are
referred to in this article.
Keywords: translation, equivalent, equivalence, relevance, accuracy of translation,
absolute equivalent, full equivalent.
UDC 81ꞌ25
THE PROBLEM OF SYNONYMS IN TRANSLATION
Z.B. Kulmanovа,
master, teacher
(city Almaty, Kazakh Economic
University named after T.Ryskulov)
Abstract: I seem to say that the problem of synonyms is one of the main difficult ones for
the English language learners. It can be most clearly seen in the colloquial layer of a language,
which, in its turn at high degree is supported by development of modern informational
technologies and simplification of alive speech.
Keywords: problem of synonyms, colloquial layer of a language, modern informational
technologies, simplification of alive speech.
The theme of my qualification work sounds as following: «Problem of synonyms of in the
translation». This qualification work can be characterized by the following: The actuality of this
work caused by several important points. We seem to say that the problem of synonyms is one of
the main difficult ones for the English language learners. It can be most clearly seen in the
colloquial layer of a language, which, in its turn at high degree is supported by development of
modern informational technologies and simplification of alive speech. As a result, a great
number of new meanings of one and the same word appear in our vocabulary. So the
significance of our work can be proved by the following reasons:
a) The problem of synonymy is one of the developing branches of vocabulary nowadays.
b) Synonymy reflects the general trend of enrichment of a language word-stock.
c) Synonymy is closely connected with the development of modern informational
technologies.
d) Being a developing branch of linguistics it requires a special attention of teachers to be
adequate to their specialization in English.
Having based upon the actuality of the theme we are able to formulate the general goals of our
qualification work.
a) To study, analyze, and sum up all the possible changes happened in the studied branch
of linguistics for the past fifty years.
b) To teach the problem of synonymy to young English learners.
c) To demonstrate the significance of the problem for those who want to brush up their
English.
d) To mention all the major of linguists’ opinions concerning the subject studied.
If we say about the new information used within our work we may note that the work studies the
problem from the modern positions and analyzes the modern trends appeared in this subject for
the last ten years. In particular, the new computer-based meanings of some habitual words were
given. The practical significance of the work can be concluded in the following items:
a) The work could serve as a good source of learning English by young teachers at schools
and colleges.
Казахский государственный женский
педагогический университет Вестник №3(51), 2014 г.
48
b) The lexicologists could find a lot of interesting information for themselves.
c) Those who would like to communicate with the English-speaking people through the
Internet will be able to use the up-to-date words with the help of our qualification work.
Having said about the linguists studied the material before we can mention that our qualification
work was based upon the investigations made by a number of well known English, Russian and
Uzbek lexicologists as A.I.Smirnitsky, B.A. Ilyish, N.Buranov, V.V. Vinogradov, O.Jespersen
and some others. If we say about the methods of scientific approaches used in our work we can
mention that the method of typological analysis was used.
Words are felt to be synonymous independently of their contextual relations. Leech makes the
distinction between synonymy and conceptual synonymy. The equivalence of meaning of
synonymy has to adhere to the equivalence of concepts, independently from the stylistic
overtones.
Ex: Steed (poetic) Horse (general) Nag (slang) Gee-gee (baby language)
The concept ‘horse’ is evoked by these words. So these words are synonymous although they are
different in their stylistic overtones. This has been strongly criticized because to prove that we all
have the same concept is very doubted. Our system of conceptualization may be different from
one speaker to other. The most evident example of this is baby language. When a baby says gee-
gee he may be saying it to any animal that moves.
So conceptual synonymy is alright but it has faults and objections.
Warwick says that it isn’t possible to distinguish semantic meaning and factual meaning. Her
lexicographic descriptions are very lengthy because she has into account all knowledge of the
world that is, the habitat, size, appearance, behavior, and relation to people…
Componential analysis of conceptual synonymy.
It is an analysis very popular in the 1970’s and turned itself to be very useful in the
identification of atoms of meaning of words. One of the applications of componential analysis is
in the identification of synonyms, because if two words share atoms of meaning, they are
synonymous.
Ex: John
is a bachelor
John is an unmarried man
Componential analysis serves quite well for the analysis of fairly uncompleted words
(nouns, adjectives, some verbs), but there are whole areas of the vocabulary of the language that
don’t lend themselves for componential analysis.
Barbara Warren makes a distinction between synonyms and variants. She says that we
have synonyms if the words have similar meaning and if they are interchangeable without
affecting meaning in some context or contexts. Variants are words which have similar meaning
but without the interchangeability in some contexts.
Ex: extending Deep far below; profound the surface.
«Deep» and «profound» has always been considered synonyms and it’s true they are
interchangeable but it’s also true that in some contexts one cannot replace the other.
He had a deep / profound understanding of the matter.
This river is deep / profound. They are not interchangeable in this context.
Ex: Sweet: candy dialectal variants
Decease:
pop off stylistic variants
Lady: woman connotative variants
In one context you use one word and in the other you use the other one.
Human 1) lady adult woman 2) female’
The point here is to try and prove that synonyms exist. The result of this research is quiet
distressing. There are no synonyms following Warren’s definition. What Person did was to