AN ESSAY IN COMPARATIVE LITERARY ONOMASTICS BASED ON POLISH AND RUSSIAN BIBLIONYMS

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The article deals with some Polish biblionyms which are translations of the titles of works of Russian and world fiction. The article also examines the Polish nominations of some characters of Russian and Western European literature. Polish biblionyms are compared with Russian originals and with equivalent Russian titles of works of foreign literature. The types of transformation that Russian original titles undergo when translating them into Polish, as well as the differences between Polish and Russian biblionyms, which are translations of the titles of the same works of foreign literature, are analyzed. Among the transformations extensions, transpositions, reductions, grammatical, derivational and syntactic transformations are distinguished. Several types of transformations can be represented in one Polish biblionym (for example, transposition and extension of the abbreviation into the phrase in the Polish translation of the title of I. Babel’s Конармия as Armia konna. Transformation may be due to the differences between the compared languages (for example, the usual, with some exeptions, postpositive place of the adjective attribute in Polish, in contrast to the Russian language, requires a transposition in Polish translations of such titles of A.S. Pushkin’s works as Медный всадник - Polish Jeździec miedziany, Каменный гость - Polish Gość kamienny, Пиковая дама - Polish Dama pikowa. The transformation may also depend on the intentions and preferences of the translator (in particular, the choice of one of the synonyms existing in the Polish language - cf. variants Dom z facjatą and Dom z attyką for the title of a story by A.P. Chekhov Дом с мезонином, or options Dół and Wykop for the title of A. Platonov’s work Котлован. In some cases, the Polish biblionyms reflect the translator’s desire to bring them closer to the title of the original (cf. the translation of A.P. Chekhov’s story title Мальчики as Malcy in the presence of a synonym chłopcy or the use of the Polish word identical to the Czech lexeme wojak and not żołnierz in the title of J. Hašek’s novel about the adventures of Schweik. The replacement of the title of the original or its transformation may be associated with the desire to reveal the content of the work (cf. the translation of the title of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky Доходное место as Łapownicy specifying the source of income for a number of characters - bribes) or give the biblionym a more generalized, symbolic character (cf. replacing the prepositional-case construction with the nominative case form in the title of A.P. Chekhov’s В овраге - Polish Wąwóz). Comparison of Polish biblionyms with Russian original and translated titles of literary works shows the need to compile a dictionary of similar biblionyms, focused on Russianspeaking students studying the Polish language.