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Grzegorz Szpila L
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Instytut Filologii Angielskiej
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FALSE FRIENDS IN ENGLISH AND POLISH A CONTRASTIVE SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
lThe principal objective of this paper is to present a fraction of the English and Polish llexicons which contains lexemes labelled false friends in the linguistic terminology. lThe presentation of this type of vocabularywill involve indicating the main fęaturęs of i false friends, discussing classificatory methods and putting forward an analysis of false cognates in English and Polish based on semantic criteria. The tertn fal,se .friends (also Jitlse cognates, .faux amis) denotes lexemes in two or more languages of the same origin whosę graphic or phonetic form, or both, are similar or even identical, but which differ, slightly or considerably in their meaningsl. The classic example of a falsę friends pair in English and Polish l,s the pair dress - dres.The English lexeme dress męans 'a one-piece garment for a woman or girl that covers thc body and extends down over the legs'z. Its false equivalent in Polish dres means 'a tracksuit' in English. 1to The arralysis of falsę friends consists in comparing two or more languages in order establish siruilarities and differences between these lexemes. It seems obvious then the existcnco tll'lalse friends in the languages being compared comęS into light ]that when those languagcs cnter into contact, i.e., in the process of teaching foreign lanI BuaBes, compiling bilingual dictionaries, or in the process of translating from one lanI guagę into another. In any comparison of lexemęs, whether it is drawn in one lexical system, or between two languages, the analysis renders similarities and differences, according to rwhich we can classify the lexemes into various groups. To such groups belong sets of synonyms, antonyms, or homonyms. In the same way an examination of false friends i should establish semantic relations between them.
I I am aware that this definition may cause controversy among linguists. Howevcą I hcrc on the nature ofsuclr objections. 2
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lltr.r ltrltr r lrr ltrr'r.It parts ol'speech lexemes may rępresent in thę pairs o1-|itlsc: lilr.rr,l., llr,rl 1rlrrl,lr trt iS cłlused by the English lexemes only. Due to conversion, lhc sltlltr. lr,1 111 ,,1 ,rll l lr1,lish lalse friend may functitlll as a lroun, a verb, or an adjective. Thc li rll, rrv 11, 1,.\,,, r(.r'lay lunction aS nouns or vcrbs clcpcntling on thęir use in the syntac:lie sltttr lttl |.,; !'(tttlion, m'ttndate, rent.The lcxclrlcs ltlt'ul łv'ltl ('oncrete can be nouns ()l ltrl;t.t llvcs' As the analysis is carried out regarcllcss łll'sytllaclic context, we have trl s;lt.t.rly lltc parts of speech we compare. Thę clroicc is itlwirys tlotennined by the płl.l tll s1lccch of the Polish false friend, whose fonn reprcsctlls tltlly tlllc part of sp"e"ir, lrellct. ilr lllc casę of the pairs local _ lokal and concrclc ktlttlłtt'l, tlrc lwo Englisłr lexclll,.ls slltlulcl be treated as nouns' not adjectives, Since tlrc lrtllisll lt.xctltcs arąnouns. To account for any semantic relations holcling br:lwr.:crr lhe false friends in olc pair means to classiĘ them as to the naturę of thęir sirllillrrilics lrIltl differences. There are a few possible ways of classifying false friends, whicll, lrowt.vt.r, tlisclose certain drawr
backs. False friends derive from one source, and this means that tlrr:y lurvr. tlrt: silrnc ctymological origin. They have, in the process ofbeing adaptecl to tho langrrirgr:, r'llrrpgc<1 their meanings to a lesser or greater extęnt. The etymological criterion llrctltitttlctl irl thę definition accepted in this presentation is a decisive one in collecting false fiiends pairs. Here are Somę pairs to illustratę the point3: divąn _ dywqn
English pal < Turkishp/a l, pral; Polish pal < Ltttin lxtlus English ląck < Scandinavian Lak: Polislr luk < Arabic lakk English fa c e t < F r ench ftt c e t e ; P oli sh.f h t' e t < Latin fa c e t u s (cf., however, the p air faseta - facet) t
The latter arę not treated as false cognates in this presentation. We could also analyse falsę friends conceming English loanworcls in the Polish language, which explains the ęxistence of some faux amis. All these borrowings have changed their meanings after the assimilation. To such loanwords belong the following lexemes:pamJlet, koktajl, dres,which form pairs with their English false equivalents: pamphlet, cocktąil, dress. That kind of classification wou|d account for only a small part of the total riumber of falsę friends and hence Seems of little use in the treatment of the words in question.
3 The information about word etymology has been obtained from The Oxfttnl Etymologl and Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (see Referenccs).
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ttl littlili.tlt
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Onę more method of classilicatiorl lirils ltl llc lrll1llcrltt:Illcrl ilt tltt: ltttltlysts tll l;tl:it' friends. This is the classification of f-alse liicncls into sctnanlic licltls. Iltctc ittt' lt'rv false friends which might form a sęmantic fięld. F'ronr al]l()l'lg lllc crlllct:lt:rl 1litits wc could show some to belong to thę same Sęmantic fields. To illustratc rlty 1lrlltll. wc ('illl enumerate the following sęmantic fields into which to classify soIrrc lŁtlsc liicrltls: l( )( )l )
- chipslczipsy, cocktaillkoktcil,
macaronilmakaron, pastulpusl(t,
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CLQTHES - dress l dres, costumel kostium, s hawll szal; PROFESSIoN ą ltt l lł l:; i l t l t'l kompozytor, curatorlkurator, confectionerl konfekcjoner, machinist/mu'sz1łni,sltt, 1lttll licistlpublicysta. Since it seems impossible to establish more clearly dclincirlctl irrrrl unambiguous fields, that type of classification must be abandoned. Thę bęst method of classifying false friends that seems adequate, comprchctlsivt' and exhaustive is the one employed by Lipczuk (1988:387-393) in his analysis rrrrtl classification of German and Polish false friends of Latin origin. The method is l'xtsctl on the assumption that therę exist certain męaning relations bętwęen the two clcllrr-:trls ofęach pair offalse friends. Lipczuk suggested four kinds ofsuch relations, set tccllrlical terms for them and classified thc collected lexęmes into thę four categorios. 'l'ltt: suggested classification may be usecl with ref'erence to English and Polish falsę liicrrtls and, what is of'substantial ilnportance, accounts for all thę collected material. The lbur categories undęr which all false friends in English and Polish cittt llt' classif-recl are charactęrised by four kinds of meaning relation: a) relation of exclusivcness b) relation of privativeness c) relation of inclusiveness d) relation of equipollence Thę first group includes those pairs of false friends between thę elements
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orsPirilsrnixerl witlrollrt'l irrl'.rt'rlir'nls,srrllr;r'r
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fruit juice, lemonade, or cream'. Apart from that meaning the English word can mean 'a dish consisting of small pieces of food, typically served cold at the beginning of a meal as an hors d'oevre'. The Polish lexeme koktajl can also denote 'a milkshake' or
banquet'. This group is not so numerous as the previous one. It includes: academic _ ąkądemik, cocktąil - koktajl, cabinet - gabinet, cąvalier - kawaler, civil - cywil, discriminątion - dyskryminacja, divan - dywan, etiquette _ eĘkieta, local - lokal, mandate mandat, operator - operątor, studio - studio, wagon - wagon. The third group includes the lexemes the relation between which is of inclusive character. One element of each pair includes in its meaning the sense of the other lexemę. To illustrate this type of relation we can analyse the meanings of the lexeme macąroni in English and the lexeme makąron in Polish. Both lexemes refers to a kind of food made from dough, boiled in water. The lexeme mącąroni denotes that food which is pipe or fube-shaped, whereas the food ref'erred to by the lęxeme mąkąron in Polish may have diffęrent shapes. The word mącąroni means a specific type of pasta such as fedellini, vermicelli, mezzani, etc. The Polish lexeme may be renderęd in English aspasla bęcausę it denotes all diffęrent types of that food. Thę other example may be the pair parasol - parasol.In English a thing calledparasol protects (or is supposed to) only from sunshine, while a thing called parasol in Polish may protect from both sunshine and rain. Summing up, we could say that lexical items belonging to that category are characterised by more general reference in Polish and more specific reference in English as the above examples show. The last group of false friends (as scant in number as the previous onc) is characterised by relation of equipollence. The only difference betwccn thc lcxcrncs in these pairs is thęir contextual use in respective languages. Tlrirt gr
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basisofthcirs('llrilllll, t'l,rl''lrrr'"",rvltlt:ltscclltstlrcbcsl tt'rtitttttt'()t"l'tt't'ltt)trlrtttll descriptiort rll lrtl',r' ll r lr rtl t tlttlvrtlt'ltcc'
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Referenccs BrtickIlcrA.(l933):Słowniketymologicznl,.ją';,',|,kttlntl'sl,t,'l:,,.Wilt:;zltw;tl'WN, trlt'kliltyt'lt l:rttlrlttittttjw w tt'litr Lipczuk n. tisss):.'o r żnicach semantyczrry,'lt w zilhtr'sir' polsko-niemieckiej",Języki obce w 'S":lłttL" \ lt{-/ l() l ()tll'' onionsC.T.(ed.).(l966): Th'eoxfonl l)it'Itłlttttt'|'tlI I'"tt;'.lt'';ltl','!l'ttttlltly,l',l.tlrrtltllt: ()(Jl'. ( Pearsall J. (1998): The New ox/bnt l)i.,!1.,,t.!,'|,tl| 1,,'ttyltslt, )xlillrl: l lll, Witrszirwir: l)WN. Szymczak M. (ro
linlszywi przy.iacictc w relacji angielsko-polskiei Kontrastywna analiza semantyczna
StreszczenTe
językictlt lrtt1ilr Powyzszy artykuł omawia zjawisko falsiekwiwalencji leksykalnej pomiędzy jest pojecie /a lse f)'irtt'l't ttt skirri i poiskim na poziomie leksem w. W artykule definiowane kontrirslywttv ujęciu w w ekwiwalent przctlslirwione są sposoby prezentowania fałszywych ra opierir l;I'; kt polskich, i w angie]skich leksem Arrttlr. 1lr'zr.:tlst,,*ia-analiźę semantyczną tltl sit'lltt' stosunktl pozostająw jakich leksemy te w ,1o"'"nio*ych, r(lżtltlr'itlriclt tclirt:iach
