І. В. Корунець порівняльна типологія англійської та української мов навчальний посібник Видання друге, доповнене й перероблене вінниця нова книга

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Mr. for mister, Mrs.
Rome was not built in one day, time is money, if you run after two hares you will catch neither
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Specifically English Types of Word-Formation

Among the productive word-forming types completely foreign to Ukrainian is to be pointed out first of all conversion. The latter is performed according to some models of "converting" nouns into verbs or verbs into nouns, adjectives into nouns or nouns into adjectives, which can be seen from the examples below:

1. N>V

a chairman > to chairman a butcher > to butcher a boss > to boss an X-ray > to X-ray

2. V>N

to catch > the catch to look > a look to ride > a ride to know how > (the) know-how

Verbs in English can often be formed as a result of converting other parts of speech as well. Cf. down (adv.) > to down (a plane),- verb

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encore (interj.) to encore - verb, pooh-pooh (interj.) > to pooh-pooh,

- verb, etc.

Note. Ukrainian verbs can also be often formed from other parts of speech - interjections, pronouns, and particles by adding the suffixes -ка-ти. Cf. бах (intey.) - бахкати (verb), гей - гейкати, не - чекати, но - нокати, ти/ви - тикати (не тикайте на мене)/викати, цить

- цитькати, ух - ухкати, штокати (contemptuously), etc.

Likewise English adjectives can easily be converted into nouns, and vice versa, according to the following patterns:

3.A>N 4. N>A

Intellectual (a) > an intellectual (n) maiden (n) > maiden (a)

progressive (a) > a progressive (n) sidelong (n) >sidelong (a)

Ukrainian (a) > a Ukrainian (n) sluggard (n) > sluggard (a)

young (a) > a/the young (n) Zionist (n) > Zionist (a)

Among other specifically English types of word-formation the following should be first of all pointed out:
  1. The sound interchange (i.e. short vs. long): bit - beat, cot - court, kin - keen, live - life, prove - proof, rid - read, sit - seat, etc.
  2. Lexicalisation of some plural forms of nouns like colourco lours (military banner), glassglasses (eye-glasses, opera-glasses), line - lines (poetic works), etc.
  3. The phonomorphological word-formation which is closely con nected with the abbreviation proper. Cf. Mr. for mister, Mrs. (mistress), govt. (government), Sgt. (sergeant), memo (memorandum), demo (dem onstration), D (Lady D) princess Diana, and many others.

Typology of Idiomatic and Set Expressions

The idiomatic and set expressions, i.e. lexically and often structurally stable units of lexicon present a universal phenomenon. Structurally, they may be in all languages 1) Sentence idioms (time and tide wait for no man, на козаку нема знаку); 2) Word-group idioms (Ten Commandments, to be or not to be, десять заповідей, бути чи не бути);

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3) Metaphorically generalised proper names (sometimes geographical names) as Jack Ketch (hangman), Tom Pepper(great Her), Tom Tailor (tailor), Tom Thumb (a small man, a Liliputian), Mrs. Grundy, Tom, Dick, and Harry (перший-ліпший), Nosy Parker (людина, що втручається/суне ніс не в свої справи). Similarly in Ukrainian: Макар Касян, i.e. (ненажера), Чалий (підступна, зрадлива людина); Герострат, Ксантипа (сварлива Сократова дружина), язиката Хвеська, сердешна Оксана and many others. Their transparent metaphorical meaning is indisputable in the contrasted languages.

Presumably common in all languages are also the paradigmatic classes of idioms which may be substantival (the Trojan horse, the sword of Damocles; троянський кінь, дамоклів меч); verbal (to have one's heart in one's mouth, to take the bull by the horns; брати бика за роги, пекти раків); adverbial (by and again, tit for tat; no всіх усюдах, тут і там, скрізь і всюди), etc. Idiomatic expressions in English and Ukrainian and in all other languages may perform common functions in the sentence, namely, that of a) the subject (Hobson's choice is an idiom); b) the predicate/predicative (That was a Hobson's choice for him); c) the object (He translated correctly the idiom "Hob-son's choice " into Ukrainian); d) the adverbial modifier (He will do it by hook or by crook). Similarly in Ukrainian: дамоклів меч ~ ідіома; він утре їм носа; вона не хоче пекти раків; кров з носа, а зроблю це.

Besides, idiomatic expressions exist in all languages either as 1) absolute equivalents having all components the same and absolutely identical or slightly different meaning in some languages of a historically, culturally and mostly geographically close region, as is the case with the idiomatic expressions of the European area as the heel of Achilles ахіллесова п'ята, the Trojan horse троянський кінь, the tree of knowledge дерево/древо пізнання, thirty pieces of silver тридцять срібняків, etc. 2) Idiomatic expressions may also exist as near equivalents, i.e. when having in some (usually different) languages one or more components missing or different as in other (contrasted) languages. For example: to kiss the post поцілувати замок, as pale as paper блідий як стіна', grass widow — солом'яна вдова, measure twice, cut once сім раз одміряй, а раз одріж; to know smth. as one knows

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his ten fingers знати щось, як своїх п'ять пальців. Or in Japanese: to live like dog and monkey, i.e. to live as cat and dog; 3) The third common class of idiomatic expressions and not only in the contrasted languages constitute genuine and approximate idiomatic analogies. The latter have in English and Ukrainian similar meaning but different componental structures. Cf. a fly in the ointment, make haste slowly; ложка дьогтю в бочці меду, тихіше їдеш — далі будеш.

National idioms present a separate universal feature pertained to all languages. These idioms are formed on the basis of the component parts/ images characteristic of a definite national community and its language. Thus, only in English exist such idioms as to dine with Duke Humphry, to cut off with a shilling, or to accept the Chiltern Hundreds, and only in Ukrainian such idioms as передати куті меду, впіймати облизня, ставити на карб, пекти раків,утерти носа, etc.

Typologically relevant is also the identification of the group of regular international idioms, which are common, however, only in some groups of geographically closer languages (cf. European, South-Asian, Far Eastern). Nevertheless there scarcely exist universal idioms of the same lexical meaning and the same component structure. This is the result of the historical development of languages which were exerted in different geographical/racial areas to different cultural, religious and other influences. Thus, all European nations and their languages have been influenced by Greek and Roman cultures and by Christianity. As a result, there are many not only words but also idioms borrowed from Greek, Hebrew and Latin (cf. Pandora's box, Herculean pillars, Gordian knot, between Scylla and Charybdis, to cross the Rubicon; 1 came, I saw, I conquered; the Ten Commandments, wise Solomon, prodigal son/to be in (the) seventh heaven and many others). These and the like idiomatic expressions, including several proverbs and sayings, have usually absolute or near equivalents in languages of one culturally and geographically common area. Such common historical, semantic, componental and sometimes even structural equivalents can be seen on the following few examples given below.

It must be pointed out that these and many other international idioms are alien, however, to Chinese, Japanese, Aleutian, Indonesian and other

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Ukrainian

English

German

Italian

блудний син

prodical son

der verlorene Sohn

il figlio prodigo

куй залізо доки гаряче

strike the iron while it is hot

schmiede das eisen solange es heiss ist

battere il ferro quando e caldo

крокодилячі сльози

crocodile's tears

Krokodilstränen

le lacrime di coccodrillo

нема диму без вогню

no smoke without fire

wo Rauch ist, da ist auch Feuer

non ce fumo senza fuoco

гратися з вогнем

to play with fire

mit dem Feuer spielen

scherzare col fuoco

languages whose peoples have been brought up in other historic, cultural and religious (Moslem, Buddhist, etc.) conditions. As a result, there exist no universally equivalent idioms of identical semantic, componental, picturesque or syntactic structure. And yet, because of the existence of many common vital needs of all humans the world over and to a great measure due to many common natural conditions of life, and not in a smaller measure due to common living working conditions, which people practically experience during their everyday activities in different parts of the world, there appeared some correlating/relevant idiomatic expressions of semantically similar/analogous or even common nature even in genealogically and culturally non-related languages. These idiomatic expressions comprise apart from some regular idioms also proverbs/sayings and stable/set expressions. A most fitting language for the рифове would naturally be the one standing farthest from the European languages as, for example, the Japanese language. It has undoubtedly several grammatical and other peculiarities of its own that are not available in all other European languages. Because of this it was found apt enough for contrasting some of its idiomatic expressions with the English and Ukrainian ones. The material for our contrastive analysis was found in the four languages dictionary by Taiji Takashima* containing 800 Japanese idiomatic and stable expressions and their English, German, French and in some cases even Latin semantically correspondent idiomatic and set counterparts. The result came out as was naturally expected: only some seven to eight idiomatic and set expressions

' See: Taiji Takashima. Fountain of Japanese Proverbs. The Hokuseido Press: Tokyo, 1981, 377 pages.

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out of 800 coincide in their componental structure and meaning, i.e. are complete equivalents in these four languages. This makes only about 0,01% of their total number in the dictionary. These equivalents are as follows:



In English

In Ukrainian

In Japanese transcription

1 . The more the better 2. Time is money 3. There is no rule without exception 4. History repeats itself 5. A drowning man will catch at a straw 6. If you run after two hares, you will catch neither

Чим більше, тим краще Час - це гроші Правил без винятків не буває Історія повторюється І за соломинку вхопиться, хто топиться Побіжиш за двома зайцями, не впіймаєш жодного

Tata masu-masu benzu Toki wa kane nari Reigai no nai kisoku wa nai

Rekishi wa kurikaesu Oborum mono wa wara ото tsukama Nito о ou-mono wa, itto ото ezu

7. Rome was not built in one day 8. Money begets money

Рим був побудований не за один день Гроші йдуть до грошей

Roma wa ichi-nitchi ni shite nasaru Kane ga kane о umu

Some of the above-given stable and idiomatic expressions are undoubtedly direct borrowings from the European languages. The first and most evident of them is, of course, Rome was not built in one day, time is money, if you run after two hares you will catch neither and some others. Therefore, their Japanese origin can in reality be doubted. Still more doubted can be their wide circulation in spoken/colloquial Japanese.

There exist, however, a comparatively larger number of near equivalents in the three contrasted languages. These are idiomatic expressions, proverbs or sayings containing one or more common component and having close to identical or similar meaning in English, Ukrainian and Japanese. For example, the English and Ukrainian idiom habit is a second nature has in Japanese a somewhat different semantic and componental equivalent: Habit becomes nature Narai sei to naru. Therefore, one component (the second] is missing in Japanese. Similar omissions or non-coincidences can be observed in some other near equivalents of the contrasted languages. Cf. the Japanese idiomatic expression shiro hire to in which means to call white black (as in Ukrainian називати біле чорним), whereas in English one says to talk black into white. Similar slight differences are observed in other Japanese and European idiomatic expression. Cf. in Japanese: Migi no mimi kara hideri no mimi — to go in at the right ear and out at the left or in English go in at one ear and out at the other, which is in Ukrainian в одне вухо влітає, а з другого вилітає.

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All in all, therefore, the number of absolute or nearly absolute idiomatic expressions, having in each of the contrasted languages the same or almost the same semantic and componental structure, may rise to ten or even to a few more. Nevertheless, it gives scarcely any ground for a serious assumption as to the existence of universal idiomatic expressions of the same meaning, nothing to say about their componental and structural identity.

And yet the environmental and social conditions of life and regular vital needs may define and even predetermine not only the behavior of people, but also their ways of thinking in different parts of the world. Consequently, it may be assumed that some near idiomatic equivalents and analogies may still come to being (and exist) in absolutely different languages. Moreover, one can come across some near equivalents and still more across genuine idiomatic analogies, which are sense units similar only in sense in genealogically not related languages.

As has been pointed out, near or incomplete idiomatic equivalents have usually one or more components common in the counter-opposed idioms/stable expressions in each of the three contrasted languages. One can easily ascertain this when comparing the few examples below of some closest componentally and semantically idiomatic near equivalents of the English, Ukrainian and Japanese languages.



In English

In Ukrainian

In Japanese (as presented in English componental translation)

1 . To lead a cat and dog life 2. To cut ones coat according to one's cloth 3. Love and reason do not go together 4. The early bird catches the worm 5. As clear as day light

Жити як кіт із собакою По своєму ліжку простягай ніжки Любов сліпа (сліпа любов)

Хто рано встає, тому Бог дає Ясно, як Божий день

(Live) like dog and monkey The crab digs a hole according to his shell Love is beyond consideration

The early riser gains three mon (money unit) Clearer than seeing fire