Equivalent counterparts or equivalents

Preliminary notes. When speaking about translational equivalents and equivalence in general one is supposed to take into account the dual nature of this particular term. Firstly, equivalence is understood as the utmost linguistic degree of the TL item proximity to the original in all possible aspects. Secondly, the Functional Correspondence Theory considers the term “Equivalent” as a regular, identical and equipollent TL counterpart. In the frame of this topic the latter approach is taken.

By their lexical composition equivalent counterparts are mostly often found among proper and geographic names and various scientific and technological terms: George Джордж, James Джеймс, London Лондон, Berlin Берлін, distributorship оптовий розподіл, anisotropy анізотропія, microelectrode мікроелектрод, serradella (бот.) серадела посівна, lacebark (бот.) плагіантус березовий. Nevertheless, as studies show unambiguity in the meanings of counterparts could not be absolute, with the exceptions occurring even amidst proper names that would be discussed later on.

Equivalent counterparts play a perceptible part in the translation process, namely at the comprehending stage. It is these items that activate the translator’s mind since they are being discerned and recognised the earliest. So they trigger off the whole process of subsequent stages of verbal signs decoding serving as initial identified midmost points in the vast sea of the SL textual material.

Equivalent or singular counterparts are the most stable translational options that always or almost always do not depend on the context. Therefore, we make the assumption that they belong rather to the sphere of language while variant and contextual counterparts belong to the sphere of speech.

Translation practice reveals that compound words and word combinations possess equivalent counterparts more often than single words, the latter being chiefly polysemantic in the English language. Henceforth we’ll consider in the greatest degree polysemantic lexemes that are to be divided for the sake of convenience into variant and contextual counterparts.