The Professional/It Sentence Loan-Translations In Romanian Language

Abstract

In the present study we are aiming to explain the mechanism of forming, receiving meanings and the relation between languages, of IT Romanian loan-translations, the loan-translations consisting in integral (full sentence loan-translation) or partial (partial sentence loan-translation) of some sentence units in other languages. As this represents a meaning loan, whereby the word from their receiver’s language enriches the content under the influence of the correspondent/the synonym) from a foreign language, through sentence loan-translation are translated, most of the times, the so-called common combinations, mostly scientific terms, or from specialized languages, in this case in the field of informatics. The category belonging to those sentence units are: expressions and set expressions, common combinations, as well as formulas and international clichés. Of course, in this respect, under etymologic aspect, many sentence loan-translations from computer science are explained by “copying” some English phraseological combinations. In order to distinguish between the loan-translation and the mere translation, this study is taking into account the “fidelity” to the foreign model. In the case of loan-translation, it shall comply with the structure, both as the model and the meaning, whereas the translation seeks exclusively the meaning of transposition.

Keywords: IT languageloan-translationtranslationloansentence combinations

Introduction

Imitating the structure of a sentence loan-translation is very frequent in Romanian language and, in particular, in the scientific lexicon, under the overwhelming influence of the French language, in our case, of the I.T. language, under the influence of the English language. The sentence loan-translation, also called “phraseologism” is defined as a “stable combination of two or more words, having unique meaning and referent” (Trif, 2006, p. 149).

From the traditional point of view, the sentence loan-translations refer to international units, expressions, phrases, clichés and formulas. We note, however, some common features of the sentence loan-translations: the stable character of the sentence elements, the frequency in speech and the meaningful unit and also, the expressivity.

As it represents a loan, whereby the word from their receivers enriches the correspondent/synonym content from a foreign language by sentence loan-translation are translated most of the times the so-called common combinations, type combination: determined + determinant, mostly scientific terms, techniques or from specialized languages, in this case in the field of Informatics. To this category belongs those sentence units: expressions and set- expressions, common combinations, as well as formulas and international clichés. Of course, and in this respect, etymologically speaking, many sentence units from computer science are explained by “copying” some English phraseological combinations.

In order to distinguish between simple translation and the sentence loan-translation we should taking into account the “fidelity” to the model. In the case of loan-translation, it shall comply with the structure, both as the model and the meaning, whereas the translation seeks exclusively the transposition of the meaning.

Problem Statement

Research Questions

Our Informatics terminology’ corpus constituted a systematic work. This was motivated by the large number of loan terms of computer terminology in Romanian (over 7500) and also the specifics of our theme, which required their ordering on certain types of loan translations, loans or translations), to actualize the relations among them. Therefore, the material was organized on: 1. loans, derivatives and compound; 2. abbreviations: a. logos, acronyms and truncation; b. alpha-numeric names; c. lexical ellipse; 3. lexical loan translations; 4. semantic loan translations; 5. grammatical loan translations (morphological and syntactic); 6. S entence loan translations ; 7. translations.

The corpus selected and the work established on that material for the present research, brought us to the conclusion that the terms of I.T. language reach an impressive number: 7597 lexical units, regarding, as we already said, both simple words and compounds, derivatives, abbreviations, phraseological structures, translations etc. Of these, we mention that we inventoried 1165 recent lexical units, representing loans and derivative compounds, composed by abbreviation 738 units, 3824 loan translation structures , of which 2646 sentence loan translations , 612 semantic loan translations, 300 lexical loan translations and 266 morphological loan translation structures. Also, translations reach the remarkable number of 1870 lexical units. As you can see, loan translations represent over half of the lexical units in Romanian computer language, i.e. 50.33%, followed by translations (24.62%), loans (15.33%) and abbreviations (9, 72%).

In the present research, as we mentioned before, we are investigating the sentence loan-translations, their mechanism of forming, receiving meanings and the relation between Romanian and English languages; of I.T. Romanian sentence loan-translations, the sentence loan-translations consisting in integral ( full sentence loan-translation ) or partial ( partial sentence loan-translation ) of some sentence units in other languages.

Depending on the internal structure of the sentence loan-translations or the recorded translations, we notice the following patterns:

3.1. Noun + preposition + noun, the last component originating in:

• Romanian: biţi de date, câmp de date, ansamblu de date, bază de date, motor de căutare, motor de filtrare, pachet de servicii, sistem de calcul, sistem de operare, etc.

• English: cameră pentru chat, cameră web serviciu de e-mail, serviciu de roaming, televiziune prin satelit, adaptor de fax, serviciu de e-mail, reţea digitală, placă video, cameră video, text video, etc.

3.2. Noun + noun in the genitive  : independenţa datelor, distribuire a datelor, modificarea adresei, prelucrarea imaginii, securitatea datelor, analiza datelor, analiza erorilor, analiza imaginii, etc.

3.3. Noun + adjective:

• both components are of Romanian origin: postă electronică, curier electronic, editare asistată, director rădăcină, director curent, echipament inteligent, fereastră activă, reţea locală calculator electronic, fişier electronic, etc.

• one of the components is of foreign origin (usually English): cameră web, card personal, comunicare online, jargon chat, joc multiplayer, publicaţie online, resurse online, server online, servicii online, sistem surround, sistem chat, etc.

3.4. Noun + preposition + noun + adjective : ecran cu cristale lichide, reţea cu acces multiplu, revenire la poziţia anterioară, reţea cu interconectare integrală, reţea cu conexiuni aleatorii, director în poştă electronică, serviciu de mesagerie instant, etc.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to observe the “fidelity” to the foreign model, for the sentence loan-translations. In the case of loan-translation, it shall comply with the structure, both as model and the meaning, whereas the translation seeks exclusively meaning transposition. We can, however, refer, sometimes, to the same phenomenon of giving some new meanings (Hristea, 1984, p. 149) strictly technical, to common words, only that here the new meaning is transmitted in more words with a structure of its own, which together have acquired this effect, resulting a sentence unit.

The sentence loan-translation are translated, most of the times, the so-called common combinations, mostly scientific terms, or from specialized languages, in this case in the field of informatics. The category belonging to those sentence units are: expressions and set expressions, common combinations, as well as formulas and international clichés. Of course, in this respect, under etymologic aspect, many sentence loan-translations from computer science are explained by “copying” some English phraseological combinations.

Research Methods

5.1. The basic method used in our approach will be that of the etymological analysis , by applying the criteria for the identification of the external and internal etymology at the same time. Thus, the criteria for the reconstitution and etymology verification of some words will be used in certain situations, even if the work is not one of comparative-historical re-enactment of the words of the language, but only for the classification by the etymological origin already established by specialists.

5.2. In order to achieve the desired results, the descriptive method was useful. This involves research, systematization and classification of the material gathered. The method of analysis and synthesis , and the inference method, taken from the formal logic, there are other methods used by us.

5.3. The research for the specialized vocabulary in relationship with the common one will be based on the adoption of the methods of linguistic analysis, supplemented with textual analysis. The methodological perspective is provided by the Romanian vocabulary description for better knowledge, through the analysis of general and special dictionaries, for the definitions of terms.

Findings

The number of IT terms recently created in Romanian language after English, by derived affixes and through its own elements of composing reveals an increased capacity of the Romanian language to form words, through the internal means.

From the prospect of morphology , the category of units with noun value is best represented the loan-translations, followed by the verb and the adjective.

In terms of stylistic-functional aspect, the denotative character of the sentence loan-translations regards a lack of expressiveness, by contrast the semantic ones more easily migrate from the specialized language towards the common language.

Semantically, we note the formation of families’ sentence loan-translations whose richness contributes to the diversification of the vocabulary and phraseology. On the one hand, there are in the Romanian language, some phraseological combinations from the same noun-determiner (followed usually by an adjective or phrase with function of determinative adjective): cameră digitală, cameră pentru chat, cameră video, cameră web sau sistem de operare, sistem leasing, sistem surround , etc. On the other hand, we find some anglicisms in the construction of sentence loan-translations or translations, and these are not forming a phraseological family:

• the adjective digital: cameră digitală, casă digitală, comunicare digitală, fotografie digitală, etc.

• the noun file (fișier): fişier audio, fişier video, fişier portabil, fişier online, fişier MPEG, etc.

• the adjective online: comunicare online, publicaţie online, fişier online, cameră online, cumpărături online, etc.

• the adjective portable (portabil): DVD portabil, player portabil, CD portabil, calculator portabil, etc.

• the adjective video: cameră video, fişier video, video-mail, etc.

• the noun web: cameră web / webcam, web-design, pagină web, programtor web, site web, server web, motor de căutare web, administrator web, etc.

Morphologically , the most sentence loan-translations are nouns, regardless of whether we are referring to the loan-translations, translations or groups in the English etymological form. The sentence units representing loan-translations or translations behaves like any Romanian unit, in declension, in the first term of the group being the one who receives the articulation or the plural ending - pachete soft, magistrale A.T., aparate fax, camere video . The second term agreement, usually an adjectival component shall be without exception in gender, number and case: reţele locale, modificarile datelor, fereasteă active, fibre optice, directoare prestabiliet, cărţi electronice , etc. Regarding the constructions with a preposition, the agreement is no longer needed: motoarele de căutare, operatorii de site, camerele de chat, viteze de transfe r, etc. and when in the nominal structure of the second-term there is an invariable loan, whether or not this is a foreign abbreviation: pachete soft, memorii ROM, marcaje „cache”, magistrale AT, calculatoare laptop, camere video, camere web, departamente IT, fişierelor audio, jocuri multiplayer , etc. If, instead, the foreign term is on the first position, it can take the neuter plural endings, due to the specific character of xenisms of these structures: -uri: DVD-uri portabile, HDD-uri externe, laptop-urilor personale; -e: player-elor portabile, computer-elor portabile , etc.

Functionally , many sentence loan-translations have little expressiveness, having denotative meaning, due to the fact that they belong to the domain of Informatics which, like any language, is stylistically restricted.

One can also notice that certain terms of a specialized language to another or to the common language; for example, motor encountered mostly in the technical language, forms specialized loan-translations in I.T. field: motor de căutare, motor de filtrare , iar analiză/analysis , used especially in mathematics or chemistry develops specialized meanings in I.T. loan-translations. The metaphor is still preferred in I.T. language or in media terminology: cameră pentru chat, independenţa datelor, director rădăcină, fereastră activă, casă digitală, sistem de operare, – serviciu de e-mail / de IM / de mesagerie instant / de roaming, server wi-fi, curier electronic , etc.

Conclusion

The number of recent I.T. sentence loan translations is growing and represents a natural characteristic in the evolution of Romanian language. 

The units we inventoried represent a fairly wide percentage taken from the specialized dictionaries to prove the Romanian language ability to capitalize, on the one hand, its denotative values, on the other hand, the expressive ones, many of them passing from the specialized language to the common language.

Regarding the units etymologically, most of these represents foreign sentence loan translations taken from a foreign model - especially English, in agreement with the international trend of “anglicizare” of the language. 

Another part, less represented are the translations or adaptations, sometimes preferred due to the languages differences in spelling, the words order or the structure between Romanian and English languages. 

Also, the inventory is made up of hybrid constructions which have an English word or even a phraseological combinations taken from I.T. vocabulary, in the etymological form from English, which are increasingly used in other Romanian specialized contexts in areas such as media, political, economic, banking, etc.

The negative influence of translations into many variations of the same term in the textbooks or specialized magazines, usually, raises big problems in the accurate understanding by those unfamiliar with the English language. As a way of enriching our vocabulary, the loan translation plays a much more important role than is admitted, but this role is not sufficiently known and recognized in the treaties or in explanatory dictionaries of the Romanian language;

References

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