Primordial English phraseological units

 

In most cases phraseological units of the English language are primordial English phrases, which authors are unknown. We could give some wide-spread examples of such phrases, which were created by people: bite off more than one can chew – «взять в рот больше чем можешь проглотить» , that is in the Russian language means «взяться за непосильное дело, не рассчитать своих сил, орешек не по зубам, дело не по плечу»; in for a penny, in for a pound – «рискнул на пенни, рискуй и на фунт», which can be translated into the Russian language in two ways – «назвался груздем, полезай в кузов; взялся за гуж, не говори, что не дюж»; pay though the nose – in Russian it can be also translated into two way, «платить бешенные деньги ; платить втридорога etc.»

    Primordial English phraseological units are connected with traditions, customs and English popular belief, but also with actual, legendry, historical facts. We would like to give some examples connected with each point mentioned above.

1. Phraseological units connected with traditions and customs of English people:

Baker’s dozen – «чертова дюжина» (according to old English custom, people who sells bread received thirteen loaves of bread instead of twelve, and thirteenth loaf was not paid by sellers at that); good wine needs no bush – «хорошее вино не нуждается в ярлыке», that translates into Russian translates as хороший товар сам себя хвалит (according to old custom, innkeepers hung out one ivy bush, which meant there was some wine on sale).

 

2. Phraseological units connected with actual:

Put somebody in the cart – which is translated into Russian «поставить кого-либо в тяжелое положение» (cart was a carriage in which criminals were delivered to execution yard or were driven over the town with a shame); a strange bedfellow (It is a part of proverb «adversity makes strange bedfellows» in the Russian language it means « в нужде с кем не поведешься ». In middle ages in England, especially in XVI – XVII centuries there were not much single beds, so same-gender people slept together).

3. Phraseological units connected with names:

The phraseological unit according to Cocker which can be translated into the Russian language as « правильно , точно , по всем правилам » (E. Cocker – the author of arithmetic book); Tom, Dick and Harry which in Russian means « всякий , каждый , первый встречный » (these were very popular names in England)

4. Phraseological units connected with popular belief:

A black sheep translates into Russian as « позор в семье » (according to old popular belief, a black sheep was a stamp of devil); an unlicked cub which in the Russian language means « молоко на губах не обсохло » (there was the belief when bear cubs were born a female bear licks them into shape)

5. Phraseological units connected with historical facts:

As well be hung for a sheep as a lamb – «если суждено быть повешенным за овцу, то почему бы не украсть заодно и ягненка» (the old English law was that if you stole a sheep you would be hung).

At this point we noticed that proverbs in English have only one meaning, we cannot change or add any word, but we could translate these proverbs into Russian in two or more ways without any changing in their meaning. And with this we want to say that the Russian language is a very rich language with words and word-meanings, while translators and interpreters translate Russian proverbs by naming the sense of the proverb, they do not translate every word, which could be unknown to foreigners.

We have found a big problem, connected with the translation of these phraseological units. For example, if we did not know how to translate «according to Cocker» into the Russian language, we would translate it literally and we received «согласно Кокеру». But in the Russian language it does not mean anything. And we understand it as Cocker said something, but not as right.

So, we need to read all phraseological expressions which we are interested in, and when we see the difference in translation from English into the Russian languages, we need to learn them by heart. It will make easier to translate these expressions later.

 

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