Eponimical linguistic parts of the language as the object of Russian translation.
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by: mathewpetrenko
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Word Count: 500
It is sometimes claimed that in the text of the Russian translation the proper names in most cases are not given in translation but in transliteration. It might even be seen in real life. And yet, there are quite a few proper names where this rule of thumb does not work.
You may come across particular expressions that are partly a sort of proper names and partly a kind of regular words. The eponymous lexical items are implied here. Prior to going into this issue of eponymics any deeper, let us look and discover the meaning of the word eponym and its derivatives in linguistics. The collection of all words in the English and Russian languages is subdivided into two big groups: appellatives and proper names. The term "eponim" comes from ancient Greek, where it stood for "smth. or smb. giving the name". In theearly days of history eponyms came into existence from the names of real people, war heroes or deities to be later used in the names of settlements, local communities, objects and even positions of power. As the time passed, the notion of “eponym” grew wider to include not only the personal name, but the name of the denoted object as well.
Currently, linguists employ the term “eponym” to refer to a word that has stopped working as a proper name and now functions as a regular regular noun. Therefore, we work with 3 separate components of an eponym:
1. being or object
2. proper name
3. regular word.
Therefore, the Russian interpreters while translating eponymisms have to deal with the problem of formulating an instant assumption about the encyclopedic knowledge of users of the English text and the audience of their Russian translation. The meaning of eponym arises out of the etymological background. As Russian and English languages have different cultural background, there are different explanations of how proper namesturn into eponyms. The primary question related to eponymisms is the matter of their etymological transparency which is a secret peculiarity that relies on the cultural competence and background awareness of Russian native speakers. Here the question pops up: how should a translator handle eponyms? There is no doubt about the fact that such eponymisms as lolita "an underage sexually attractive lady" or a superman “a very strong, very clever and very honest man" are etymologically transparent both to English and to Russian speakers so making Russian translation of them does not lead to any problems.
Similar situation applies also to the eponymisms, which have lost their transparency in both languages. (e.g.: Adonis named after a beautiful young man loved by both Aphrodite and Persephone and murdered by a wild boar, or badminton named after Badminton in SW England, Duke Beaufort’s country seat, where it was played). There is a problem only when an eponym is understandable to native English speakers, but means very little to the Russian audience. As you see, not all eponyms make Russian translators stress their brains. There are a number of eponyms which are quite straightforward to see through.
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