WHY AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION IS HARMFUL FOR LANGUAGE, THINKING AND STABILITY OF GEOPOLITICAL CODE

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of computer-translated texts being widely used by mass media. Because of editors striving for cost and time efficiency a lot of unedited or superficially edited machine-translated texts are published today. As a result people get accustomed to reading texts that violate basic rules of composition and textuality, so they stop feeling that such texts deviate from the norm and perceive them as regular. In this way a new usage is being gradually formed, contradicting standard norms of Russian grammar and combinability. This new usage leads to the erosion of the very notion of text as a structural and semantic whole. The absence of such basic categories as cohesion, coherence, logical and structural completeness gives the general readers the impression that a text is just an arbitrary collection of sentences united only by a common topical area. The article describes the destructive effect of these processes upon the mentality of native speakers, shows how they hamper the formation of a consistent conceptual and linguistic world-image. Since a nationally specific world-image is a basis of national culture, its erosion affects the stability of the national geopolitical code, of which the national language is an integral part. Therefore, linguistic safety of the country is directly involved. That is why it is necessary to specify the requirements to any translated text, irrespective of the way in which the translation was made, for it to be acceptable for mass publication either on-line or in press. It is necessary to develop and introduce a quality standard.