Rendering Ukrainian Historical Terminology of the Old Rus’ Period into English

Marina Vozna; Liudmyla Slavova

doi:10.33919/esnbu.22.2.2

Authors

Marina Vozna Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine
Liudmyla Slavova Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.22.2.2

Keywords:

historical terminology, translation techniques, culture-specific historical terms, secondary term formation, historical concept, onomastic terminology

Abstract

The article presents a study that focuses on approaches to rendering Ukrainian historical terminology related to the Old Rus' period into English selected en masse from Ukrainian and English academic texts on history, with a special focus on culture-specific terminology. Historical terms for translation purposes are categorised into non-culture-specific historical terminology reflecting universal concepts of historical science, and culture-specific historical terminology. The purpose of the article is to determine specific methods for Ukrainian-English translation of historical terminology of the Old Rus' period. The paper discusses approaches and methods used by English-speaking academics to secondary term formation, taking place when rendering concepts denoting Ukrainian original culture-specific terminology into English. Different groups of historical terms are described with a special focus on onomastic terminology. It is demonstrated that the historical context should be taken into account for the correct designation of a historical concept. Non-culture-specific historical terminology is predominantly rendered by existing equivalents, which were formed through phonological adaptation and/or calque translation. The most appropriate technique for rendering culture-specific Ukrainian historical terminology is shown to be combined renomination, the method that uses both a transcription and a description of a historical concept.

Author Biographies

Marina Vozna, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

Marina Vozna is an Associate Professor at the Department of Theory and Practice of Translation from English at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Author and co-author of seven textbooks in English, Country Studies, Translation, and Terminology and more than 100 articles on theoretical and practical issues of translation and teaching methodology. The areas of her research interest include specialized translation, terminology, translation of culture-specific and ideologically loaded lexis, and teaching methods.

Liudmyla Slavova, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

Liudmyla Slavova, Doctor of Sciences (Linguistics), is the Head of the Department of Theory and Practice of Translation from English at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She is the author and co-author of more than 130 journal articles, book chapters, and textbooks. The scope of her research interests includes translation studies, political discourse, linguistic personality, communicative linguistics, comparative linguistics, methods of teaching.

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