Proper nouns in lexicography and translation teaching

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of how proper nouns function in intercultural communication. Proper nouns are discussed in terms of translation teaching and bilingual lexicography. This paper is to draw young translators’ attention to proper nouns, familiarise them with translation techniques and potential problems with proper noun translation that can result in certain gaps and lexicographic inconsistencies. The lexicographic material of Polish proper names translated into Russian is used to discuss that issue. The author of the study focuses on the Polish toponyms and their derivatives. The paper provides numerous names of places and regions that have their well-established Russian counterparts and toponyms whose counterparts are optional, unstable or even unreliable. The practice of translating proper nouns and the principle of transcription are studied on the basis of Polish cities/towns with their derivational bases ending with -ow, e.g. Krakow, Rzeszow, Augustow. Referring to dictionary data, maps, translated and parallel texts, the paper also indicates different ways of writing the same toponyms in Russian. Translating place names that are noun-adjective or adjective-adjective compounds, e.g. Biała Podlaska, Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Nowy Sącz can be questionable. It emerges that lexicographers’ guidelines on the declension of that type of proper nouns are ambiguous. By referring to other works on that subject, the author indicates certain methods to overcome the problem of troublesome declension of such compounds in Russian. The ways certain names of Polish voivodships are written in Russian can be arguable. For example, the Podlaskie voivodship can be written in three different ways in Russian. Derivatives of place names can become a starting point for studying productive adjectival suffixes in Russian, regular derivation and loan translation. That issue is also discussed, for instance, in case of adjectives that are included in compound names of national parks.