CONTRACTIVE AND APPLIED 
LINGUISTICS 
SfSSTflTAMfl UN LIETISKfl 
VflLODNIECIBfl 
RIGA 1998 
L A T V I J A S U N I V E R S I T A T E 
Svesvalodu fakultate 
Sastatamas valodniecTbas katedra 
S A S T A T A M A U N L I E T L S K A 
V A L O D N I E C T B A 
KontrastTvie petTjumi 
VII 
Zinatniskie raksti 
Riga 1998 
U N I V E R S I T Y O F L A T V I A 
Faculty of Foreign Languages 
Department of Contrastive Linguistics 
C O N T R A S T I V E A N D A P P L I E D 
L I N G U I S T I C S 
Contrastive studies 
VII 
Research papers 
Riga 1998 
Sastatama un lietiska valodnieclba. KontrastTvie petljumi. 
Zinatniskie raksti VII / A.Veisberga redakcija. Riga SVK, 1998. 
-196 Ipp. 
Contrastive and Applied Linguistics. Contrastive studies. 
Research Studies VII / Editor A.Veisbergs. Riga: SVK, 1998. 
196 p. 
Krajuma rakstu autori analize dazadu valodas ITmerju 
paradlbas angju, latviesu, skandinavu valodas, tulkojumos. 
Valodu sastatTjums veikts ka strukturala, ta an funkcionala un 
kulturvesturiska aspekta. Atklatas valodu TpatnTbas, arl to 
kopTgas TpasTbas. AplGkota arl valodu mijiedarbTba gan valodu 
kontaktu, gan tulkosanas procesa. 
Krajums domats valodniekiem, tulkotajiem, pasniedzejiem, 
aspirantiem, filologisko specialitasu studentiem. 
The authors of the present volume analyse various 
phenomena of different language levels in the English, Latvian 
and Scandinavian languages as well as translations. The 
languages are contrasted in structural, functional and cultural 
aspects. The reciprocal influence of language contacts and 
translation upon the language change has been viewed. 
The edition is aimed at linguists, translators, lecturers, 
postgraduates and students of philology. 
REDAKCIJAS KOLEGUA. 
Dr.Phil.Hab., prof. A.VEISBERGS (atb.red.), 
Dr.Phil. doc.M.BREDE, Dr.Phil. doc.l.ZAUBERGA 
D. Petkevicas un SIA "JUMI" datorsal ikums 
Gramata iespiesta t ipografi ja SIA "JUMI" 
© SVK, 1998 
Saturs Contents 
Brede Maija Pragmatic Meanings of Discourse Markers 
in Spoken Latvian 5 
Kiraly Donald C. Why Learning is not enough: Second Language 
Acquisition and Translator Education 17 
Korolyova Svetlana Teaching Interpreting to B.A. Students 
of the University of Latvia 41 
Locmele Gunta Compression of Information in Advertising 
Headlines 51 
Lomholts Karstens Skandinavu valodu politika attiecTba pret 
svesvardiem un valodas ietekmes sferu zudums 64 
Naciscione Anita Phraseological Puns in Discourse: 
How do they Come About? 104 
Veisbergs Andrejs Borrowing in English and Latvian 126 
Zauberga leva Place of the Translator in the ModernWorld 164 
ZTgure Veneta Norvegu un latvieSu sakamvardu tipologisko 
TpatnTbu salTdzinajumu 177 
RECENZIJAS REVIEWS 188 
NEWSLETTER 192 

Maija Brede 
University of Latvia 
Pragmatic Meanings of Discourse Markers in Spoken 
Latvian 
Discourse analysis is concerned with the organization of 
language (naturally occurring connected spoken or written 
discourse) above the sentence level with reference to social 
contexts. speaking is strongly governed by rules that dictate 
not only what we say but also how we say i t " (Chaika, 1982: 2). 
Discourse analysis reveals language properties that contribute to 
understanding of the speech situation, the speakers' 
background, their personal identities, etc. 
Of particular interest is interaction between speakers in dialogue. 
Research has proved the role of social factors in determining the 
choice of linguistic means. 
Linguistic elements that help to interpret units of speech and 
establish them as part of discourse are discourse markers 
(DMs). DMs pertain to various aspects of discourse. Such 
markers both reflect and create the interpretive and interactive 
contexts. The study of DMs is important not only for our 
understanding of communicative competence, but also for our 
5 
understanding of meaning and of conversational organization 
(Malmkjaer, 1991: 294). 
DMs have their lexical meanings (occasionally rather neutral and 
vague) and pragmatic meanings. Their pragmatic meanings 
express relations between speech acts. T.A. van Dijk qualifying 
the pragmatic use of connectives underlines the fact that they 
may be accompanied by different phonological and syntactic 
constraints (Van Dijk, 1981: 166). The same applies to various 
markers. Certain DMs are used at the beginning of the sentence, 
singled out from the utterance by a pause and expressed with a 
specific intonation contour. 
The data for the analysis of DMs in spoken Latvian were 
collected by observation and note-taking and by audio-
recording. The material that comprises question-answer pairs 
from radio and TV interviews was transcribed orthographically 
with regard to the role of DMs in forming a tone unit. The 
speakers are journalists and in most cases people who are used 
to speak in public. 
The objective of the present study is to analyse the use of the 
markers ja (yes) and ne (no) that have a clear indication as to 
their semantic meaning. 
Ja has a definite positive meaning, whereas ne a negative 
meaning. They both fall into the category of modal particles 
6 
whose function is to express different modal attitudes of the 
speaker towards reality. In addition to its basic function, i.e. the 
rejection of a previously made statement ne is described as a 
particle that can be used to make the previous part of the 
utterance more precise and emphatic ( MLLVG, I., 1959: 794). 
The DM ja was fixed only in the response part to wh-questions: 
1) - Kur tad Riga dzTvoja sie zvaniki? 
Where did the sextons live in Riga? 
- 4 a |, nu saja te iela ir bijusi kaleji un lejeji. 
Yes, well, in this street there were smiths and 
founders. 
Ja is pronounced with a medium fall and forms a tone unit of its 
own. Nu after a pause introduces the concrete information. So ja 
seems to signal that the speaker understands the question, or 
has already anticipated it, or recognizes the importance of the 
message. 
2) - Cik daudz jus butu ar mieru maksat par dzTvokli? 
How much would you be ready to pay for the flat? 
- Ne vairak ka ceturto daju algas. \Ja. 
Not more than one fourth of my salary. Yes. 
The final ja appears to confirm the already expressed opinion 
and also suggests the importance of the problem. The latter is 
supported by the use of a medium fall of a rather wide range. 
7 
3) - Карёс vel nedarbojas sis ierlces? 
Why doesn't this equipment work yet? 
- v Ja|| . Mums neiet viegli. Nakosnedej gaidam detajas. 
Yes. It's not easy. We are expecting some parts 
next week. 
Ja with a fall-rise is quite expressive to signal some hesitation, 
reluctance before giving a straightforward answer to a question 
that carries negative information. 
4) - Ka jums izdevas to atklat? 
How did you manage to discover it? 
- N Ja , I jautajums irjoti labs. 
Yes, that's a good question. 
The use of ja gives the impression that the question is not so 
easy to answer. Together with the succeeding phrase ja helps 
the speaker to gain some time to formulate the answer 
Also the following sample shows that the speaker chooses the 
marker for a similar purpose. Apart from forming a deliberate 
pause the first ja realized with a low fall suggests both 
recognition and the importance of the problem: 
5) - Vai vajadzeja atnemt raidlaiku "BrTvajai Eiropai" ? 
Was it necessary to deprive "Bfiva Eiropa" of its 
broadcasting time? 
- s Ja,Kja, protams. 
8 
Yes, yes, certainly. 
6) - Zel, tev laikam jaatgriezas darba? 
What a pity, so you've got to get back to work? 
- Ja, pafdies. Es pienemu tavu ITdzjutTbu. 
Yes, thank you. I accept your sympathy. 
Ja functions both for expressing agreement and building up the 
intended joke. 
A common way of checking how the discourse is progressing 
and attracting the listeners' attention anticipating their agreement 
to the expressed idea is the use of ja (right) as a tag after the 
informative part of the utterance. It may also appeal to shared 
knowledge. In all cases ja has been fixed in a separate tone unit 
pronounced with a rise forming the second part of the falling-
rising tone: 
7) - Vai nacas daudz piestradat? 
Did you have to work a lot? 
- Es uzskatu, ka katram cilvekam jebkura profesija 
butu 4 jamacas, | / ja? 
/ think everybody working in whatever profession 
should study, right? 
Ja is excessively used in Latvian; it seems to serve mostly for 
revealing the speaker's individual qualities and feelings such as 
uncertainty, appeal for understanding, or an altogether different 
attitude like insisting on one's personal opinion. 
9 
8) - Vinam bija dota iespeja 4uzdnksteties, | /ja? 
He was given an opportunity to venture this, 
right? 
9) - Jus 4redzat, / ja, | ко te vispar vareja iesakt, | y ja? 
You see, well, what could one do with it anyway? 
The marker ne appears as part of the response to both yes/no 
questions (in most cases) and also to wh-questions. Its 
pragmatic meaning considerably differs from its semantic 
meaning. 
10) - Vai jus tarn piekrftat? 
Do you agree to it? 
- Ne, nu 4 ja ||. Tas ir gluzi pienemami. 
No, well, yes. It's quite acceptable. 
Ja being pronounced with a high fall intonationally assimilates 
the initial ne. The high fall confirms the speaker's intended 
positive answer. This particular use of ne, nu ja has been quite 
often observed in cases when the speaker is sure. Ne may 
actually stand for the negative expression "bez saubam" (of 
course). 
11) - Bija verts stradat atvajinajuma laika? 
Did it pay working in your leave? 
- Ne, 4protams. 
10 
No, certainly. 
12) - Vasara laikam jau koncertejat vairak? 
In summer, most probably, you perform more? 
Ne, nu \protams ||. Ir iespeja uzstaties brlvdabas 
In these issues ne being unstressed joins the following 
"protams" (certainly), and the meaning of the response actually 
is "certainly yes" 
13) - Jums bija kads konflikts ar holandiesiem? 
Ne pronounced with a level tone and followed by a short pause 
suggests a kind of hesitation, reluctant admittance of the fact. It 
may be interpreted as also reducing the effect of the very 
unpleasant fact mentioned. 
14) - Vai sodien ar Latvijas kugnieclbu rekinas? 
Is the shipping of Latvia reckoned with today? 
- \Ne || Noteikti rekinas. 
No, it certainly is. 
The following positive statement suggests that ne actually 
rejects the doubt expressed in the question. 
estrades. 
No, certainly. There's an opportunity to perform 
on open stages. 
11 
15) - Vai presei ir vara sodien? 
Has the press got power nowadays? 
- Ne, nu'presei \gr ibas |, lai to sauc par varu. Bet ta 
varetu teikt. 
No, well, the press wishes to be called a power. 
But we could say so. 
Ne is unstressed and together with nu forms the pre-head of the 
first tone unit. From the following explanation we learn that the 
speaker does admit the very fact. Thus the initial ne stands for 
both ne and ja suggesting uncertainty before the speaker 
formulates his opinion. 
16) - Kadas valodas tev visvieglak kontakteties? 
What languages is it easier for you to speak? 
- \Ne, j ' nu^ yteiksim, | zinamas situacijas ta varetu but 
angju valoda. 
No, well, in certain situations it might be English. 
Ne appears to be a kind of answer to the speaker's personal 
thoughts rather than part of response to the question asked. 
Both markers due to the pauses used create the impression of 
hesitation. 
17) Ко jus gribat teikt tiem latviesiem, kuru situacija ir, 
teiksim, tiesam smaga? 
What would you like to say to those Latvians 
whose situation is, say, really difficult? 
12 
- Ne, nu 4protams ||. Daudziem nav viegli. 
No, of course. Many people experience 
difficulties. 
Since the question carries negative information it may be a 
signal of admitting the negative fact mentioned. 
18) Карёс uznema tiesi sos maksliniekus Makslinieku 
SavienTba? 
Why were exactly these artists admitted to the 
Artists' Union? 
- Ne, nu1 uznema tos, kurus uzskatTja par vajadzlgu. 
No, well, those were admitted who were 
considered appropriate. 
Ne signals of a rather cautious way of expressing oneself. The 
speaker seems to be declining all responsibility, at the same 
time avoiding to cause any antipathy towards himself/herself. 
19) Tavs smaids tiekot vertets visaugstak. Ka tad nu ir? 
They appreciate your smile most of all. Well, what 
can you say about it? 
- Ne, nu 4 smaids ir kaut kas, kas neko nemaksa. 
No, well, a smile is something you don't have to 
pay for 
Ne together with the following nu is unstressed and clings to the 
first stressed word of the actual part of the answer It appears to 
diminish the effect of praise as expressed in the question. This 
13 
use demonstrates more some personal quality of the speaker 
(like bashfulness and modesty) than direct communication with 
the interlocuter. 
Another sample of a diffident attitude on a speaker's part is the 
following: 
20) Ко jus sakat, kas jus Tsti esat? (after the interviewee 
has mentioned several occupations) 
What are you saying, what are you in fact? 
- Ne, nu 'tas ir manas darbvietas. 
No, well, these are my working places. 
21) - Aija , vai jus pati nerakstat? 
Ne seems to echo with the negative form of the verb in the 
yes/no question. In Latvian this type of question suggests the 
person is anticipating a positive answer. A pause after the 
marker and an emphatic high fall at the beginning of the actual 
answer make one consider that here ne serves just to fill the 
pause. 
The following seems to be a most difficult case of ja and ne to 
interpret: 
22) - Jus jau stradajat ar pieaugusiem? 
No, I have worked a little in this field. 
14 
You already work with the adults? 
- 'Ja, \ne. Es darbojos kulturas centra ar grupu. 
Yes, no. I work in the culture centre with a group. 
The yes/no question has been put in a form that does not leave 
doubt as to a positive answer In the run of the interview it is 
approved. So whether ne points to some personal debate or just 
unclear thinking is left to be guessed. 
Ja retains its affirmative character irrespectively of the concrete 
context. This logically explains why ja has almost exclusively 
been fixed in a separate tone unit. In comparison the intonation 
patterns of ne vary to a much greater extent. Occasionally ne is 
attached to the following part of the utterance in which case it is 
unstressed. In a single tone unit it carries one of the falling 
tones, usually the low one. Pragmatic meanings of ne 
considerably differ from its lexical meaning. These range from 
doubt and uncertainty to a distinctly expressed positive meaning. 
The meaning of uncertainty is also supported by ne as a verbal 
pause filler 
As to the position of ja and ne in the utterance there are no 
special restrictions although in most cases they occur sentence 
initially as the first reaction to the question asked. Among the 
collected samples there are no issues with ja and ne in the 
middle of the utterance. 
15 
The present material does not leave doubt that the list of 
pragmatic meanings of the markers discussed remains open and 
needs further investigation. 
References 
Chaika, E. (1982) Language: the Social Mirror. Cambridge: 
Newbury House Publishers. 
Van Dijk, T.A. (1981) Studies in the Pragmatics of Discourse. 
The Hague, New York, Paris: Mouton Publishers, 
pp. 163-175. 
Malmkjaer, K. (1991) The Linguistic Encyclopedia. London, 
New York: Routledge. 
Musdienu latviesu literaras valodas gramatika. (1959) Riga: 
LPSRZA Izd.l. 
Stubbs, M. (1984) Discourse Analysis. Basil Blackwell. 
16 
Donald Kiraly 
Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz 
Why Learning is not enough: Second Language 
Acquisit ion and Translator Education 
The initial impetus for this article came from an introductory 
course in Latvian that was held at the School of Applied 
Linguistics and Cultural Studies of the University of Mainz, in 
Germersheim, Germany, during the summer semester of 1996. 
This course, which was ostensibly designed to follow the 
principles of the 'Natural Approach' created by Tracy Terrell, was 
a controversial undertaking, leading to a considerable amount of 
discussion among students and instructors concerning the 
relative merits of different types of foreign language instruction. 
This article, which is an expanded version of a paper presented 
at the 3 r d Conference on Translation Competence, held in 
Germersheim in May, 1997 presents a case for using 
naturalistic, experience-based methods for introductory foreign 
language instruction in translator training programs. 
Foreign language learning is indisputably an important aspect of 
the training of professional translators. Ideally, claim some 
scholars, students should enter university-level translator training 
programs already having a solid grasp of the foreign languages 
they will translate into and out of. In reality, of course, this is not 
17 
always practical. In Germany, for example, most students enter 
translator training programs directly after completing secondary 
school, where they have typically studied one or two of the major 
Schulsprachen, i.e. English or French, for between seven and 
nine years, and some may have had a few years of Spanish or 
Russian. If, however, they choose to study Dutch, Arabic, 
Portuguese, Chinese, modern Greek, or Polish, for example, all 
of which are offered as major or minor languages for translation 
studies at the FASK, students have little choice but to begin 
learning the language upon entering the translator training 
program itself. These students will be expected to become 
'competent' users of the foreign language as well as 'competent' 
translators out of (and possibly into) that foreign language. 
Before reporting on our recent Natural Approach experiences at 
the FASK, I would like to set the stage by taking a closer look at 
some types of 'competence' students will need to acquire as they 
progress from being novice language learners to translation 
students and finally language mediation professionals. 
Competence and competencies 
Traditionally, translation studies has seen the 'translation 
competence' that graduate translators must have as being a sum 
of partial competencies comprising mother tongue competence; 
foreign language competence; specialized subject matter 
18 
competence and some sort of transfer competence - or skill for 
using the source and target language competencies to transfer 
meaning from one language or text to another. (Neubert,1994) 
In Pym's view, this traditional conception of translation 
competence is too broad to be of much use as a goal for 
translator training programs as it includes a variety of aspects 
that are not specifically translation related. Instead, Pym 
proposes the term 'translational competence' as a specific 
translation-related competency, comprising two essential 
features: 
• The ability to generate a target-text series of more than 
one viable term (TT1, TT2 TTn) for a pertinent source 
text (ST). 
• The ability to select only one definitive TT from the 
series, quickly and with justified confidence. (1991:541) 
As Pym explains: 
Together, these two skills form a specifically translational 
competence to the extent that their union concerns 
translation and nothing but translation. There can be no 
doubt that translators need to know a fair amount of 
grammar, rhetoric, terminology, general knowledge and 
strategies for getting paid correctly but the specifically 
translational part of their practice is strictly neither 
19 
linguistic nor commercial. It is a process of generation 
and selection, a decision process that should take place 
almost automatically. 
Regardless of how we cut up the 'competence' pie, it seems to 
be an inescapable fact that some sort of monolingual language 
competence in each of two respective languages must underlie 
translational competence. This understanding is reflected, for 
example, in the memorandum on 'Professional training and the 
profession', put together as desiderata for graduates of 
translator education programs by the German national 
association of interpreters and translators (BDU): 
The first-language skills required include the ability to 
master and correctly use that first language in a manner 
appropriate to the style, subject-matter and addressee 
and in the appropriate cultural register, as well as the 
ability to discuss language (metalinguistic competence). 
(BDU: 4) 
With respect to foreign language competence, the memorandum 
goes on to stipulate that: 
"The foreign language skills of graduate translators and 
interpreters must match the first-language skills described in 
Section 3.2.1, whether or not the foreign languages in 
question are offered as school subjects." (1986: 4) 
20 
From the BDU perspective, it is clearly the correct and 
appropriate use of both the mother tongue and the foreign 
languages that are of primary importance, with metalinguistic 
competence being included as an additional competency. One 
might, in fact, go a step further and ask when translators really 
need metalinguistic competence the ability to "discuss 
language" - in the course of their professional activities. Such an 
ability might prove useful in defending one's translation solutions 
vis a^  vis a critical client, but it is doubtful whether it is involved 
very much at all during the actual translation process. As think-
aloud protocol studies of mental translation processes have 
started to demonstrate, much of what goes on in the translator's 
mind is intuitive in nature (Kiraly, 1990). This suggests that the 
generation and selection processes Pym describes as being at 
the heart of the translator's activity are based not on the 
application of memorized and stored rules, but on the heuristic 
application of intuitions about grammatical accuracy, 
translational viability, stylistic appropriateness, etc. 
As Robinson states: 
It seems undeniable that translation is largely an intuitive 
process. Good translators choose words and phrases by 
reference not to some abstract system of intellectualized 
rules, which most of us have never internalized in the first 
place, but rather to "messages" or impulses sent by the body 
21 
a given word or phrase feels right. Intuitively, not just for the 
translator but for all language users, sense is not cognition 
but sensation. (1991. xii) 
If translators only needed a comparative knowledge of language 
forms, perhaps a traditional, grammar-rule-and-vocabulary-list 
approach to foreign language instruction would be sufficient. 
However, if we adhere to the contemporary consensus view that 
professional translation is an act of communication, then it is 
clearly appropriate to consider the applicability of teaching 
methods and approaches that are geared toward the 
development of communicative competence, and not toward 
primarily metalinguistic competence. In fact, it can be argued 
that translators need the full spectrum of communicative 
competence if they are to achieve deep and efficient 
comprehension of source language texts and if they are to break 
away from surface structures to interprete and express text-
based messages confidently and efficiently through the medium 
of a different language. 
Communicative competence and communicative language 
teaching 
The period between 1970 and 1980 was a watershed for 
language teaching approaches that focused on naturalistic, 
experience-based, classroom-centered second language 
22 
acquisition. In particular, the advent of the notion of 
'communicative competence' in the U.S. marked a modern 
theoretical breakthrough in the age-old debate between 
language teaching methods that focus on the rule-based 
learning of language structures, and those that attempt to 
involve the whole learner in the student-centered creation of a 
personal second language competence. 
In 1980, Canale and Swain published their landmark article on 
the nature of communicative competence and its implications for 
second language classroom acquisition. They discerned three 
basic components of communicative competence: grammatical 
competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic 
competence. In Canale and Swain's terms: 
...we understand communication to be based in 
sociocultural, interpersonal interaction, to involve 
unpredictability and creativity, to take place in a discourse 
and sociocultural context, to be purposive behaviour, to 
be carried out under performance constraints and to be 
judged as successful or not on the basis of behavioural 
outcomes." (1980:29) 
If we see this depiction of communication as being clearly in line 
with contemporary views of professional translation as a 
communicative process, then the implications that Canale and 
23 
Swain draw from it for foreign language instruction can be seen 
as particularly appropriate for the teaching of foreign languages 
to future professional translators. In Canale and Swain's words: 
exposure to realistic communication situations is 
crucial if communicative competence is to lead to 
communicative confidence" (1980: 28) 
In Savignon's view, on the other hand, 
...it may be that communicative confidence leads to 
communicative competence...Communicative confidence 
in language learning may be like learning how to relax 
with your face under water, to let the water support you. 
Having once known the sensation of remaining afloat, it 
is but a matter of time until you learn the strokes that will 
take you where you want to go. (1983: 45) 
A synthesis of these viewpoints suggests that communicative 
competence and communicative confidence are intricately 
interrelated supporting each other as the learner gradually 
becomes a member of the speech community of the second 
language. 
The wealth of articles, monographs and conferences on 
translation studies over the past two decades is marked by a 
virtual absence of contributions dealing with the role of second 
language learning and teaching in translator education. This lack 
24 
of research may suggest that there is basic agreement that 
translator education institutions are doing an adequate job of 
teaching foreign languages to their students. I contend, however, 
that it is rather the still pervasive view of translation as an 
interlingual transcoding process that has perpetuated the 
stranglehold of traditional teaching approaches in translator 
education, and that has inhibited a fruitful debate on the 
applicability of communicative teaching methods to translator 
education. 
At the FASK, an informal survey of students has revealed that 
non-communicative methods are used for the teaching of 
virtually all introductory-level language skills courses in those 
languages that can be chosen as major or minor subjects for a 
degree. These courses involve the direct, contrastive teaching of 
vocabulary and grammar rules, extensive rote learning, and 
early translation practice, ostensibly to provide students with the 
basic linguistic tools they will need in order to translate 
professionally between this foreign language and their native 
language. If the outcome is to be competent, self-confident 
language users, however, this type of approach is at odds with 
the overwhelming body of second language teaching research 
generated during the last two decades which points to an urgent 
need for truly communicative student-centered foreign language 
instruction. Ever since the advent of the concept of 
25 
'communicative competence' as the primary goal of foreign 
language learning, the affective and social features of learners 
and learning environments have played a prominent role in the 
planning and implementation of foreign language instruction. 
The tidal wave of research, classroom approaches and 
published methods involving 'communicative' language learning 
that has swept the language teaching profession since at least 
the early 1980s seems indeed to have left the FASK -and 
perhaps many other translator education institutions -
untouched. During the 1995-1996 academic year, an opportunity 
presented itself to finally raise the question at our institution: 
does the communicative foreign language classroom have a 
place in translator education? 
Latvian and the Natural Approach in Germersheim 
An exchange program between the University of Latvia and the 
FASK of the University of Mainz was initiated in 1995 with the 
aim of assisting the former in setting up a translator education 
program. It was planned for a number of instructors from Riga 
to come to Germersheim for a semester each to see how 
translators are educated in Germany, and also to offer some 
courses of their own. FASK instructors would in turn travel to 
Riga for several weeks at a time to teach intensive courses and 
to discuss instructional and curricular matters with their Riga 
26 
counterparts. When it was decided that Instructor A was to be 
the first exchange instructor to visit Germersheim for a longer 
stay during the summer semester of 1996, I was involved in 
proposing courses she might teach. I felt that a good way to 
build a bridge between our two universities was to get students 
interested in the Latvian language and culture, so I suggested an 
introductory course in the Latvian language. However, given that 
students already have the choice of a wide range of languages 
in Germersheim, I was concerned that not many would be 
interested in a language of such limited diffusion as Latvian. 
Having decided to offer an undergraduate seminar in second 
language acquisition studies during that semester, I thought it 
would be a good opportunity for the participants in that course to 
be required to attend classes in a language that would be 
completely new to all of them. This would not only provide them 
with a laboratory within which to study second language 
acquisition, but it would also be a way to ensure that a fair 
number of students would find their way into the Latvian 
language course. As I had had some experience and success 
teaching Spanish with the 'Natural Approach' at an American 
University, and because this approach is related to Krashen's 
controversial theory of language acquisition, which would lend 
itself to study in my seminar, I proposed that Instructor A teach 
an introductory course in the Latvian language using the Natural 
27 
Approach over the course of the semester. She informed me 
that she had no experience using the approach and that she 
was, in fact, a rather traditional teacher who believed in the 
drilling of grammar rules and who basically liked to be in control 
in the classroom two features that do not bode well for a 
Natural Approach class. Nevertheless, she expressed her 
willingness to give it a try. 
It turned out that Instructor A would only be able to remain in 
Germersheim for the first six weeks of the semester - clearly not 
long enough for the students to get an idea of how the Natural 
Approach works or to acquire very much Latvian. I therefore 
found myself twisting the arms of her successors to take up 
where Instructor A left off and continue with the Natural 
Approach course until the end of the semester. Neither Instructor 
В nor С had had any experience using the Natural Approach and 
neither believed it was an appropriate way to introduce 
translation students to Latvian, particularly given the fact that we 
would have only one and a half hours of class per week. For all 
practical purposes then, our semester-long course in Latvian 
using the Natural Approach class in Latvian lasted for only nine 
contact hours, until Instructor A returned to Latvia. As the two 
other teachers clearly felt extremely uncomfortable with the 
approach from the time they took over the course, we agreed 
after two classes that they would switch to what they termed the 
28 
"eclectic" approach they used for Latvian and German courses 
at their home university. They did not specify at the outset what 
this approach would entail, but rather than have the course 
collapse completely, I gave them free reign to teach the course 
as they saw fit. 
The key features of the course as planned with Instructor A, 
based on Natural Approach principles, were to be the following: 
• Teacher talk was to be solely in Latvian and would be 
geared toward providing the students with comprehensible 
input (i and i+1) continuously adapted to their level of 
comprehension as they progressed. 
• The teacher would assume the role of an initiator and 
supporter of communicative experiences rather than that of 
a traditional 'transmission-type' teacher Her main tasks 
would be to provide the students with a) opportunities for 
acquisition by creating real communicative situations in the 
classroom, and b) comprehensible input and feedback for 
the students to work with. 
• The students' affective filter would be kept low by having 
the teacher provide non-judgmental support throughout the 
class, by avoiding metalinguistic explanations, and through 
the creation of a collaborative learning environment in the 
classroom. 
29 
• Acquisition of the phonological, syntactic, semantic and 
pragmatic systems of Latvian would be fostered by 
avoiding contrastive linguistic explanations and by creating 
a desire and a need to communicate spontaneously on the 
part of the learners with their emerging Latvian skills. 
• Reading and writing would be delayed until the learners 
had acquired a grasp of the aural/oral language through 
listening and speaking. 
• Learners would be allowed to delay speech production until 
they were ready to speak. 
• A variety of modes of interaction would be incorporated 
into the class to keep students focused on the input and to 
help them make experiential associations with Latvian 
lexico-semantic elements. Students would be encouraged 
to interact actively with each other and with the teacher, to 
be involved in role-playing activities, language games, and 
pair work as well as small and large group work. 
• Elements of Latvian culture would be presented in context 
to foster the students' interest in the language, culture and 
people of Latvia. 
The very diverse impressions reported by two of the teachers of 
the introductory course in Latvian illustrates the difficulties 
inherent in using a non-traditional method that challenges the 
teacher's most fundamental assumptions about language 
learning. In the July 1996 issue of Pulvertornis, the newsletter for 
30 
the Germersheim-Riga exchange program, the teachers 
reported on their experiences in Germersheim, including their 
reactions to the Natural Approach class: 
Instructor A: 
"I was teaching Latvian with the Natural Approach 
something I had never done before and, moreover, that I 
did not believe in. But it works!" 
Instructor B: 
"It was difficult and strenuous for me as the teacher 
because the "writing" mode of perception was absent. It 
took some time before the students understood their own 
learning capabilities. Some of them became frustrated 
with learning. It was difficult for me to deal with the 
students as if they were little children. As not all of the 
available modes of perception were used, knowledge 
was not permanently stored.... Of course, it is debatable 
whether one should devote so much time to an old 
method in a university-level translator and interpreter 
training program." 
Diaries kept by the students throughout the course revealed an 
almost unanimously positive response to the learning situation 
while Instructor A was teaching, and an almost universally 
negative response to the remainder of the course, taught by 
31 
instructors В and С using their 'eclectic approach' The brief 
explanations in the diaries do not permit an in-depth analysis of 
the reasons for this difference in attitudes towards the two parts 
of the course, but they do suggest that the primary attributes of 
the Natural Approach the development of a collaborative 
community in the classroom, an affectively propiscious 
environment for acquisition, an emphasis on students' needs 
and interests, and the absence of form-focused activities devoid 
of personal meaning for the students, were the key elements 
that made virtually all of the students feel that they were starting 
to acquire Latvian during the initial part of the course. The 
change in the students' attitudes toward Latvian and the class 
was radical following Instructor A s departure. Their diary 
comments revealed that this change was clearly due to the 
elimination of the supportive community, the abrupt raising of the 
affective filter through impersonal, form-focused teaching, the 
intrusion of the written form, and the boring, impersonal nature of 
classroom activities. The 'eclectic approach' used during the 
second part of the course turned out to be traditional, form-
focused instruction in sheep's clothing. The students were 
regularly divided up into groups, not to allow them to exchange 
personal information or to explore means of Latvian expression 
while doing inherently interesting collaborative activities, but to 
drill grammatical structures and memorize vocabulary items. 
32 
Games were played, not as an integrated part of the instructional 
approach, to provide opportunities to experiment with the 
language in a positive affective environment, but as a simple 
diversion from the form-focused, impersonal stress of the 'real' 
instructional activities. 
The Latvian course ended that semester with most students 
feeling as if they had gotten nowhere with Latvian. Unfortunately, 
only three students returned to the Latvian course that fall 
semester, out of the 22 who had participated in the spring. 
Having studied various teaching approaches during their 
seminar, all of the students realized, however, that their Latvian 
class had not been an example of the Natural Approach, even 
though Instructor A came close to providing the essential 
characteristics of a classroom acquisition environment during her 
six-week segment of the course. The frustration that came out of 
the 'eclectic' classroom and the unquenched curiosity about the 
kind of language learning experience that the Natural Approach 
might offer led to the next FASK experiment with acquisition in 
the classroom. 
A Natural Approach course in Spanish 
When a student at the FASK (Gelies, 1997) decided to write her 
master's thesis on the effects of the Natural Approach on 
student's attitudes, three of the original participants in the 
33 
Natural Approach class for Latvian who had also participated in 
the undergraduate seminar on the Natural Approach agreed to 
offer a course in Spanish, their mother tongue, to students at 
Germersheim for a nine-day intensive session between the 
winter semester 1996-97 and the summer semester 1997 The 
prospective participants were informed of the nature of the 
course before signing up: they would be 'living' Spanish for those 
nine days. The research questions for the master's thesis 
involved the students' attitudes toward the Natural Approach 
itself as a language teaching method, and their attitudes toward 
the Spanish language and culture. Sixteen students signed up 
and attended the course for the 50 hours of instruction. 
The level of the participants' communicative competence in 
Spanish at the outset varied considerably. Some had begun 
studying Spanish at Germersheim, some had just completed 
their third semester and had never been to Spain, while others 
had already spent up to nine months in Spain. The course itself 
was an integrated program of communicative language activities 
involving a variety of situational and functional topics, including 
games, role playing activities, sketches, reading and whole-
group discussions, all carefully adapted to the interests of 
college-age students. Most afternoons ended with a dance 
session, during which the participants learned and practiced the 
traditional Sevillanas. On one day, the students were divided into 
34 
groups, with each group being responsible for teaching the rest 
of the class for one hour. 
The most important goals of the course were: making the 
students feel comfortable speaking Spanish; helping the 
students develop their capacity for self-correction; and 
encouraging the students to assume responsibility for their own 
progress. The main tool for accomplishing these goals was the 
development of a true community in the classroom, with each 
student feeling supported by the group and linguistically 
uninhibited in front of the teachers or other students. 
Reactions of some of the students to an anonymous 
questionnaire following the course provide some insight into the 
value they saw in the approach taken in the course: 
Q: How did the course affect your attitude toward the Spanish 
language? 
A: I think I am much more motivated than I was before 
and I no longer have as many inhibitions about speaking 
Spanish. I now feel the desire to learn more so that I can 
express myself better and more quickly. 
A: I find it easier to speak Spanish now, and my reading 
and writing skills are better, too. In particular, my listening 
comprehension and my grammatical knowledge 
35 
improved. (I just can't remember boring, dehydrated 
theory.) 
Q: What is your impression of how the course affected your 
relationship to other course participants? 
A: We formed a community; we worked with each other 
and never against each other. And we got to know each 
other much better over the course of the two week 
period. 
Q: How was the relationship between the teachers and 
students? 
A: At the beginning, there was some distance between 
the teachers and students. This soon turned into a warm, 
friendly relationship. The atmosphere was very pleasant. 
A. Excellent! The teachers were more like partners; real 
friendship evolved among us. With their lively manner 
and perpetual good mood, they were always able to 
motivate us very much. By the end of the course, I had 
no more inhibitions about speaking with them in Spanish. 
Q: How do you feel about the classroom activities you 
experienced during the course? 
A: At the beginning I wasn't very enthusiastic about playing 
games, but since the group worked so well together, I changed 
36 
my mind about games. They addressed all of our senses. 
A: The class was a lot of fun and was also multi-faceted. 
Everything was fun, particularly the games in which we 
had to use the language quickly and spontaneously. We 
learned a great deal by actually using the language. 
These comments are indicative of the overall response to the 
course. Gelies found that all of the participants were pleased 
with the progress they made in Spanish over those nine days. 
She found, in fact, that the course itself, and the communicative, 
student-oriented approach underlying it, was directly responsible 
for a dramatic increase in the students' motivational intensity 
During those nine days, these students, who had previously 
been subjected to semesters of depersonalized, form focused 
instruction, found themselves drawn into the community of 
Spanish speakers and acquirers. 
Implications for translator education - Why learning is not 
enough 
A foreign language course that is based primarily on the overt 
teaching of language structures and that does not provide 
students with extensive opportunities for authentic 
communication in the classroom neglects the students' natural 
acquisitional abilities, and also ignores the fundamental nature of 
translation as a communicative activity. 
37 
By relegating real communicative experience with foreign 
languages to summer courses and stays abroad, we erroneously 
attempt to bypass the visceral, experiential stage of language 
acquisition that is the fertile ground for the development of the 
native speaker intuitions we identify as native language 
competence. No amount of grammar instruction or rote 
memorization of vocabulary can make up for the deep affective 
bond to and feel for a language that come through 
communication by means of that language. By helping our 
students approach the foreign language in a more natural 
manner, we are sure to help them become more competent and 
more self-confident foreign language users. There is every 
reason to believe that they will have a better feel for the 
language and a deeper appreciation for the culture and its 
people, having themselves been actively drawn into the speech 
community. 
Moving towards communicative foreign language instruction in 
translator education programs would be an excellent first step 
towards turning training into a practice-oriented enterprise. It 
would encourage students to begin taking responsibility for their 
own learning; it would help them understand from the beginning 
that translation is a communicative, interpretive process much 
more than it is a recoding process. It would help create a spirit of 
community within the institution and break the mold of the 
38 
traditional effete model of teaching, which treat students like 
empty vessels that need to be filled with knowledge. 
It is time for a fundamental change throughout the institution, 
and the fundamental features of the Natural Approach suggest a 
way. We must set aside our traditional role of "sage on a stage" 
(King, 1993) and assume instead roles of guide, assistant and 
advisor to help our students move toward their own goals as 
language professionals. We must acknowledge that each person 
is a language acquisition expert, that each student's personality, 
previous experiences, interests and talents are powerful tools 
that form the true basis for professional competence. We are 
only here to help. This change in attitude can and must begin 
with second language acquisition. If we were to allow our 
students and ourselves as teachers to become three-
dimensional human beingsin the classroom, it would be very 
hard for the institution as a whole not to change - for the better 
39 
References 
Bialystok, Ellen (1991) "Achieving Proficiency in a Second Language: 
A Processing Description". In: Foreign / Second Language 
Pedagogy Research: A Commemorative Volume for Claus 
Faerch. (Ed.) Sharwood-Smith, M. Multilingual matters, GB, 
pp. 63-78. 
BDU 1986. Memorandum. In: Mitteilungsblatt fur Dolmetscher und 
Ubersetzer5. pp. 1-6. 
Canale, Michael and Merrill Swain (1980) "Theoratical Bases of 
Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching 
and Testing" In: Applied Linguistics 1, pp. 1-4/ 
King, Alison (1993) "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side" 
In: College Teaching pp. 30-35T 
Neubert, Albrecht (1994) "Competence in Translation: A Complex 
Skill, how to Study and how to Teach it" In: Translation 
Studies: An Interdiscipline. (ed) Mary Snell-Homby. John 
Benjamin's Publishing Company, Amsterdam, pp. 411-420. 
Pym, Anthony (1991) A definition of translational competence applied 
to the training of translators. In: Translation: A Creative 
Profession. 12th World Congress of FIT Proceedings. (Ed.) 
M. Jovanovic. Prevodilac, Belgrade. 
Robinson, Douglas (1991) The Translator's Turn. The John Hopkins 
University Press. Baltimore, Maryland. 
Savignon, Sandra (1983) Communicative competence: theory and 
classroom practice. Addison Wesley, Reading, Mass. 
Schmitt, Peter A. (1990) "Was ubersetzen Ubersetzer? Eine 
Umfrage". In: Lebende Sprachen 35, pp. 97-106. 
40 
Svetlana Korolyova 
University of Latvia 
Teaching Interpreting to 
B.A. Students of the University of Latvia 
Over the last few years, there has been a dramatic 
increase in demand for translators' as well as interpreters' 
services. One might assume that because of this situation, 
according to the market laws, there should be an increase in 
supply of such services and consequently an increase in 
production (training) of specialists who can provide them. 
It is quite obvious that the statement proves to be true as 
concerns translators: the University of Latvia has introduced a 
B.A. programme on translation, students can get a thoroughly 
organised, extensive training which includes both theoretical and 
practical courses, at the end of their studies they have an 
opportunity to obtain a translator's certificate to justify the 
acquired qualifications. Several educational establishments, e.g. 
Valodas Centrs in Riga, and presumably not only in this city, 
offer translator's training courses. It might be difficult to assess 
the quality of such training as trainees in most cases have only 
practice classes, take no tests or get no evaluation at the end of 
their course, and the theoretical part is completely ignored in 
41 
such courses. Still the very fact of these courses existence is 
very optimistic as it shows that society has started treating 
translation as an occupation which needs formal training. 
However, the situation with interpreters does not fully 
correspond to the logical prognosis. Despite an enormous 
increase in the service demand and supply, so far, no special 
training programmes in interpretation have been offered, the 
only exception being an M.A. programme in translation and 
interpretation at the University of Latvia. In my opinion, there are 
several possible explanations of this fact. 
To begin with, there is a widespread belief that any 
bilingual person is in a position to become a self-proclaimed 
interpreter. The consequences of this public fallacy we can 
commonly observe when one has to listen to a simultaneous 
interpretation from Latvian into Russian, e.g. the sittings of 
Saeima broadcasts on LTV-2. To the best of my knowledge, 
there are no teaching centres which offer formal training 
programmes for Latvian-Russian-Latvian interpreters or 
translators, as a result of this the quality of Latvian-Russian-
Latvian interpretation is quite often pretty low. Unfortunately, it 
shoiJId be stressed that quality is not the major factor that counts 
for commissioners who tend to opt for lower prices. Therefore 
most interpreters would probably agree to Pinchuk's view that an 
'adequate translation will always be one that has been produced 
42 
with just enough expenditure of time and energy to meet the 
needs of the customers. It should not be of a higher quality than 
he requires if this will introduce a higher cost'(1977- 206) can be 
referred also to interpretation. Another reason which explains the 
absence of interpretation courses is of practical character; the 
shortage of teachers able to take up the job as well as the lack 
of necessary facilities, etc. All these factors play against those 
who could be interested in acquiring certain interpreting skills 
through formal training. 
Some efforts to change the situation can and must be 
taken. In the present article I am going to describe my first 
awkward experience in teaching interpreting to second year 
University students. The basic motive for my decision to 
introduce or rather try out interpreting was the wish to satisfy the 
students' curiosity. It happened so that all of my second year 
students were keen on trying themselves as interpreters, but 
were afraid of doing it in a real life situation. On the other hand, 
being quite aware of the fact that our interpreting classes would 
be more process than result oriented, I still believed that they 
would serve some pedagogical goals, e. g. activating special 
vocabulary, developing comprehension and presentation skills. I 
did not doubt to start with community interpreting since this kind 
of job is commonly offered to our students and is considered to 
be the simplest one among different kinds of interpreting. It does 
43 
not depend so much on natural talents and intellectual abilities, 
so it could be introduced even to weaker students, who might 
have failed to be selected as interpreter trainees in other 
circumstances. Besides that, I had at my disposal the teaching 
aid 'Improve Interpreting Skills' worked out at the Moscow State 
Institute of International Relations by G.Yudina The book is 
arranged in the form of bilingual dialogues on certain topics, 
supplied with vocabulary lists, possible versions of interpretation 
and interpreting exercises. Although, on the whole, the book is 
morally outdated there are separate dialogues that could be 
used in my particular situation. Due to their conversational 
character exercises can be easily transformed into role plays, 
and the fact that students are supposed to work both into and 
from their mother tongue not only helps them memorise and 
activate special vocabulary, but also adds much to simulating an 
authentic atmosphere of community interpreting. 
The classes were organised the following way: after 
having given a brief introduction into the nature and purpose of 
interpreting, making references to my personal experience, I 
asked the students to choose two speakers, an English and a 
Russian one, for acting out a dialogue and two interpreters, an 
English-Russian and a Russian- English one, to serve the former 
two. The interpreters had an option whether to take notes or not, 
but no special instructions concerning note-taking were given. 
44 
The interpreters were also allowed to put questions to the 
speakers in case they had failed to catch or understand some 
information, though they hardly ever used that opportunity either 
because the speakers were comprehensible enough or, 
perhaps, the interpreter students were afraid of looking not very 
intelligent in front of their groupmates. After having a dialogue 
supplied with an interpreting performed, first the speakers and 
then the interpreters themselves and the observers ( the rest of 
the group) were asked to give their comments on the 
interpreters' performance. Students were expected to assess not 
only the adequacy or faithfulness of interpretation but also the 
way interpreters presented themselves, their behaviour Besides 
that, interpreters were requested to specify the difficulties and 
describe the emotions they experienced while interpreting. All 
those procedures aimed at students' sensitizing the specific 
features of interpreting as a type of communication. It should be 
noted that despite the fact that the students were quite satisfied 
with the activity and considered it to be useful, all of them, with 
no exception(l), felt embarrassed when acting 'in public' as 
interpreters and even as speakers. The psychological distress 
my students suffered made me search for some other ways of 
organizing classes where interpreting would not imply public 
performance resulting in a psychological discomfort of students. 
45 
Thus, I decided that an acceptable option would be voice-
over. Although voicing-over does not belong to either community 
or court, or consecutive, or simultaneous, i.e. any kind of 
interpreting, it involves the activity characteristic of interpreting in 
general, and namely, an oral target version presentation of an 
oral source speech. Voicing-over made it possible to solve two 
major tasks: to overcome students' psychological discomfort, as 
our intertpreters become as if impersonal, 'just the mouths', and 
cease to feel speaking in public; and to make students work 
against time limits. As opposed to community interpreting where 
timing was not particularly specified, the voicing-over activity 
envisaged strictly set time limits, since the duration of the target 
speech was not expected to exceed that of the source speech. 
Therefore students had no choice but be fluent, make no pauses 
caused by hesitation, and be as laconic or as little redundant as 
possible. There was another positive factor in the activity; when 
performing voicing-over students had no problems speaking in 
the first person, i.e. they fully associated themselves with the 
speaker, while in community interpreting this objective was hard 
to reach. For some psychological reasons, e.g. because the 
speakers were sitting next to them and everybody could see who 
the true T was, the interpreters could not distance themselves 
from their personalities without being confused about receivers' 
46 
reaction, so, the student interpreters found it extremely difficult to 
speak in the first person. 
The voicing-over classes were organised the following 
way: students had an opportunity to watch a video tape ( I chose 
a video guide to Britain which also included authentic dialogues) 
and were requested to take notes during the first playback. After 
having watched an episode about 3 5 minutes long, students 
were asked to give the gist of an episode, single out key words 
and specify most important details which should be preserved in 
the target version. This time more attention was paid to the 
lexical contents. Separate terms and set phrases had been 
interpreted in group before an actual voicing-over began. Then 
students were offered to watch the episode for the second time 
to check on their own whether they had managed to grasp all the 
important pieces of information and the speaker's mode, and to 
verbalise in mind at least some of the target sentences. Finally, 
two or three students were asked to volunteer for the 
interpreting, and the real voicing-over began. Students insisted 
on having a turned-down original sound preserved, so that they 
were able to match their voicing-over with not just mute picture 
but, to a certain extent, with the original speaker and background 
sounds. Then the analysis and assessment stage followed. The 
students' feedback proved that most successfully performed the 
task those who did not use their notes during the interpreting but 
47 
tried to provide a relatively spontaneous simultaneous 
interpretation.That particular condition allows me to state that the 
kind of voicing-over could be used as a preparatory step for 
initial simultaneous interpreters' training. 
One more type of interpreting activity I took up with my 
students was consecutive interpreting. The major pedagogical 
aim of that activity was to activate students' special vocabulary. 
However, in the process of teaching I acknowledged that there 
were some other aims of equal pedagogical importance. Classes 
were arranged in such a way that students did not only have to 
act as interpreters they were also expected to prepare and 
deliver their own speeches. Here I would like to refer to Daniel 
Gile's statement that "interpreters and translators must have 
good command of their active working languages. In top-level 
interpretation and translation, in particular, this requirement is 
set at a very demanding level. Technical translators are required 
to be able to write publishable texts, that is, to have professional 
writing skills besides being able to perform the translation from 
one language to the other... Likewise, conference interpreters 
are required to be able to make speeches at a linguistic level 
commensurate with that of the personalities they interpret, be 
they diplomats, scientists, politicians, artists, or intellectuals" 
(1995:5). The important component of consecutive interpreting 
classes was speaker's presentation. All students were supposed 
48 
to deliver speeches, either in their mother tongue or in their first 
language, on a certain topic but particular subjects being chosen 
by students themselves. That assignment aimed at the 
develpment of both language and presentation skills. 
As concerns interpretation, more attention was given to 
note-taking techniques, students were informed about different 
approaches to note-taking. Their possible advantages and 
disadvantages were discussed by students. Later on, two or 
three consecutive interpreters were chosen for each speaker 
Having listened to a speaker's presentation, the first interpreter 
was asked to start his/her job while other students appointed for 
interpreting the same speaker were requested to wait outside 
the classroom. As soon as the interpretation versions had been 
listened to, all the students had an opportunity to discuss 
interpreters' performance and compare the notes both 
interpreters and mere observers had taken. In the end students 
tried to define the strategies that helped them perform 
interpreting more adequately. 
In conclusion, I would specially point out that the last type 
of interpreting classes was not welcomed by every student. 
Some students were particularly reluctant about delivering 
speeches not to mention providing interpretation itself. 
Obviously, this fact has not only psychological but also 
pragmatic reasons as some students do not see any practical 
49 
application for consecutive interpreting as one of their skills. 
Thus, in my opinion, there should be a special selection of 
students for consecutive interpreting which would essentially 
increase training efficiency. 
Summary 
There has been a dramatic increase in translator and interpreter 
service supply and demand in Latvia over the last few years. 
However, there is almost no opportunity for those who would like 
to get formal interpreter training. The situation should and must 
be changed. Several ways of introducing interpreting can be 
applied at the University. They are community interpreting, 
voicing-over and consecutive interpreting. 
References 
Chernov, G. (1987) Osnovy Sinhronnovo Perevoda, Moscow: 
Vyshaya Shkola. 
Gile, D. (1995) Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and 
Translator Training, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John 
Benjamins. 
Pinchuk, I. (1977) Scientific and Technical Translation, London: 
Andre Deutch, 
Yudina, G. (1976) Improve Interpreting Skills, Moscow: IMO, 
50 
Gunta Locmele 
University of Latvia 
Compression of Information 
in Advertising Headlines 
In the environment of state-of-the-art technologies that 
have dramatically influenced the speed of life, issues of 
language economy are viewed by linguists as a matter of 
considerable interest (Leech, 1973; Arnold, 1986). Language 
economy via compression of information refers to the coding 
side of the communication process: a sender codes a message 
selecting only the essential and eliminating the incidental 
(Arnold, 1973:58). 
Advertising, given its extremely pragmatic nature, 
demonstrates its own specifics of compression. The 
compression of information in the headlines of English magazine 
advertisements is the subject of interest of this paper Over 1000 
advertisements from English, American and Australian 
magazines over the period from 1979 to 1997 were examined to 
reveal the techniques of compression of information in the 
advertising headline (AH). 
Compression of information in advertising headlines has 
an extralinguistic aspect. First, extra-textual information is 
needed - compression is possible only if the addressee already 
possesses background knowledge. 
51 
Second, compression is caused by the necessity of 
eliminating noise1 in the communication channel, since noise 
increases the reluctance of the addressee to perceive the 
message. 
Third, compression of information in the headline 
(especially in the headlines of mini-ads) is due to financial 
constraints -- the necessity of paying for an advertising space in 
magazines. 
The above features, specific to the extralinguistic context 
of the functioning of advertising headlines, have their impact on 
the character of language economy in the latter. M.Sizov (Sizov, 
1981: 7) suggests two ways of understanding language 
economy: 
In its broad sense language economy refers to the efficiency of 
communication and does not necessarily imply usage of brief 
language forms; 
In its narrow sense language economy is directly linked to the 
physical brevity of language forms. 
In advertising language we mainly deal with the concept of 
economy of language in its broad sense: brevity here is not a 
stylistic factor. Economy of language is gained by the 
1 The term "noise" is borrowed by linguists from communication science. Two 
types of noise — linguistic and extralinguistic — are recognized (Kiselyova, 
1978). Advertising has to handle extralinguistic noise: skepticism about 
advertising in general and a new product in particular, competitive information 
- advertisements of competitors, etc. 
52 
compression of information, which shows both in short and in 
long AHs. The advertisement for a tele-tracer has a headline: 
"Hello. I'm not home right now. But my Sony Tele-Tracer knows 
exactly where I am. I've programmed it to automatically call me 
and play back every message I get as soon as I get it. So leave 
your name and number. I'll get back to you sooner than later. 
Bye" (Newsweek, 1986, Oct.. 9). Although we have a coupling 
of several types of compression here: phonetic ~ reduction of 
the linking verb (the form I'm) and of the auxiliary verbs (I've, I'll), 
and syntactical - omission of the preposition at ("I'm not home"), 
the main manifestation of the compression is a targeted, precise 
choice of words and constructions which are aimed at achieving 
maximum pragmatic effect. 
Language economy in its narrow sense can be found in 
the headlines of mini-ads. 
Due to the tendency to compress information and to the 
graphic and compositional peculiarities of the AH, as well as the 
interplay between the AH and the illustration, AH is recognised 
as a form of block language (Straumann, 1935: 21; Leech, 
1972: 90). The functioning of block language is preconditioned 
to some extent by savings both in time (a need to transmit and 
53 
receive the information quickly) and in space. The language 
blocks are instantly visually perceived. 
AHs demonstrate compression on all levels: phonetic, 
morphological, lexical and syntactic. The largest share in the 
field of the AH compression is taken by phonetic compression. 
The material analyzed showed a lot of reductions of verbal 
forms, both auxiliary and linking. 
A reduced negative word not is used very often, adding 
to compression in the AHs like "If you weren't born with a silver 
spoon in your mouth, it's time you experienced the feeling" 
(Good Housekeeping, 1979, May: 241) an advertisement for 
silver tableware. Two types of the phonetic compression of the 
negative forms in combination with the linking verb occur in the 
AH: a phonetic reduction of the negative word not on the one 
hand: "Miniskirts aren't the only way to feel young. Eat a tuna 
melt" (Better Homes and Gardens, 1995. Oct.: 117) an 
advertisement for a fat-free cheese and a more emphatic 
usage of a phonetically reduced linking verb to be and a full form 
of the negative verb not on the other: "We found the real Alaska. 
It's not a place you just happen to stumble across." 
(Smithsonian, 1995 Oct.. 43) an advertisement for the 
holidays in Alaska. 
54 
The cases of phonetic reduction of the conjunction and in 
the AH are of interest here: 
1) "There's not a surface in your home that can't be Brite 
n'clean" (Good Housekeeping, 1979, May: 258) an 
advertisement for a furniture polish; 
2) "Does your diet look as good as this?...it can do with 
Sweet'N Low" (Good Housekeeping, 1979, May: 277) an 
advertisement for a sweetener; 
3) "Set for a cool'n'fresh picnic" (Woman's Own, 1984, 
June: 50-51) - an advertisement for a picnic set. 
By means of the phonetic reduction of the conjunction 
and in the model adj. + and + adj., occasional formations are 
produced enhancing a relaxed unofficial atmosphere typical of 
colloquial style. The occasional nature of the forms is verified by 
the unsecured position of the apostrophe in written language: 
the apostrophe is used after the element n (Brite n'clean), before 
the element n (Sweet'N Low) and on both sides of the element n 
(cool'n'fresh), which is the most precise way to indicate the 
reduction. 
The headline "Waddayaneed?" (The Australian Women's 
Weekly, 1983, March: 241) is the most pronounced example of 
' A fancy spelling of the word bright is made to serve the function of attracting 
the interest of a potential customer. 
55 
the phonetic compression among the AHs examined. This AH is 
given to the advertisement for an insecticide. 
W e conclude from the analysis of the AH that the 
phonetic compression is widely used in the AH. It serves the 
purpose of making the AH colloquial. Geoffrey N. Leech states 
that advertising style makes use of the elements of both 
colloquial and formal styles (Leech, 1972: 74). This can be 
explained by the fact that in general advertising should reach out 
to a heterogeneous mass audience. The elements of colloquial 
style help to create intimacy, a relaxed atmosphere of a friendly 
talk; the elements of the formal style are used in the 
advertisements aimed to reach more conservative customers. 
The latter may be exemplified by the advertisement for bags of 
classic design where the target audience is a conservative 
customer who knows the value of classic goods. If the usage of 
the full form of the auxiliary verb will in the headline "Send for the 
free Coach Catalogue. You will discover an American Classic" 
(Smithsonian, 1995, Oct.. 18) can be explained not only by a 
"conservative taste" but also by an emphasis it adds to the 
statement, the text leaves no ground for further doubt: it does 
not contain even a single phonetically reduced structure. 
Headlines with unreduced auxiliary verbs are by no means wide­
spread in commercial advertising: the reduced forms outweigh 
56 
the full ones considerably, thus proving the populist nature of the 
commercial advertising. 
Syntactic compression is obtained by means of a 
compressed positional structure of the sentence or ellipsis. Due 
to the ellipsis, i.e. a purposeful omission of the subject and the 
linking verb in the AH "Not just a pretty face" (Good 
Housekeeping, 1979, May: 27) (the advertisement for stockings) 
the AH gains both a flavor of mystery and a relaxing atmosphere 
which is the objective the copywriter tries to accomplish. 
A particularly high degree of the compression of 
information is reached in the AHs where ellipsis is combined with 
aposiopesis (break-in-the-narrative). Thus intimacy is added to 
the AH "Heard the one about...?" by the omission of the subject 
and auxiliary verb (ellipsis) (Woman's Realm, 1985, Aug.:25) 
(the advertisement for a consultancy company) - the copywriter 
creates an atmosphere of a friendly talk. Aposiopesis applied to 
the part of the headline generally left for the name of an 
advertised article, serves the function of inciting curiosity and 
adds mystery to the headline. Due to the coupling of the figures 
of speech this headline serves the function of information 
compression - it contains a larger amount of implied information 
than it explicitly conveys. 
Besides traditional types of compression there is a type 
of compression in the AH which we'll arbitrarily name a semantic 
57 
compression. The informative satiation of an AH increases in 
cases when one seme of the lexical meaning of a word is 
activated in an AH, and at the same time, another immaterialized 
seme is implied and activated when the reader goes through all 
constituent parts of the advertisement. E.g. the advertisement of 
'Gourmet' plates and dishes has a headline "'Gourmet' smoked 
glass. Its beauty is its strength. (Good Housekeeping, 1979, 
May: 45) where the seme "power" which is present in the 
intensional meaning (Nikitin, 1983: 24) of the word strength, is 
activated. Further in the text another implicitly present seme of 
the intensional of the lexical meaning of the word strength, 
"ability to resist" is activated: the plates and dishes are made of 
fireproof glass. 
Semantic compression in the AH is closely related to 
lexical compression. Shortening is the most widely used type of 
lexical compression in the AH. All types of shortening are used in 
the AH: clipping, ellipsis and blending, as well as initial 
abbreviation and acronyms. 
Clipped words are widespread in the AH. There are 
clipped words already existent in the language as ad, veg, fax 
(results of the back-clipping), or phone (the result of the front-
clipping) and fridge (the result of the combined clipping: 
apheresis + back-clipping). The above clipped words are not a 
novelty, however, the usage of such colloquial forms helps 
58 
compress the information in the AH and adds to its 
expressiveness. 
Besides conventional curtailed words nonce-words such 
as, e.g. knit (the result of the final clipping from the noun 
knitting) in the headline of the advertisement of knittings 
"Dashing new knits for autumn." (The Australian Women's 
Weekly, 1983, March: 150), are used in the AH. 
There are instances of already existent clipped structures 
providing a basis for the nonce-words. Thus the nonce-word, the 
phrasal verb tux in in the AH of the dinner-jackets and evening 
dresses advertisement "Tux in" (Woman, 1984, Apr: 35), is 
formed by conversion from the noun tux (tuxedo). Due to the 
usage of the nonce-word - the verb, economical from the point 
of view of the usage of the language resources (clipping), the AH 
gains more dynamism (the verb has a seme "movement") and 
the mysteriousness of the headline is enhanced. 
AHs have abundant shortenings by means of ellipsis. 
Again there are two types of elliptical abbreviation or clipping: 
those already existent in the language (e.g. electrics from the 
word combination electrical equipment) and nonce-words. The 
latter demonstrate a greater capacity to compress the 
information. 
The substantivized elliptical shortening weekly (from the 
word-combination weekly paper) takes part in nonce-word 
59 
formation in the AH "If you aren't reading Newsweek, you aren't 
reading America's fastest growing newsweekly" 
(United, 1986,Oct.. 82). The nonce-word newsweekly 
demonstrates capacity for information compression: it transmits 
the information about the title of the advertised magazine: 
"Newsweek" conveys the information that it is published once a 
week, and implies a positive judgement that the published news 
to him is by no means outdated. 
Blends demonstrate a special capacity for the 
compression of information in the AH. Blending is one of the 
means of creating nonce-words in advertising. The bulk of the 
blends in the AH are transformable into attributive phrases 
(restrictive type). The blend Fruitea in the AH "Get Fruitea!" 
(Woman's Realm, 1985: 37) is coined on the pattern N + N (fruit 
+ tea). The headline contains compressed information about the 
taste of the tea advertised: it has a fruit flavor. 
The brand name Femfresh is coined on another pattern: 
Adj. + Adj. (additive type,) feminine + fresh. The advertisement of 
the beauty care product Femfresh has a headline 
"Femfreshness" (Woman's Own, 1984, May: 7). The nonce-word 
Femfreshness is formed from the brand name Femfresh by 
adding the suffix -ness. A high degree of compression is 
obtained by blending and suffixation: the headline contains the 
information not only about the product's name, but also about 
60 
femininity and freshness, the qualities obtained by a woman who 
buys the product. 
There are blends coined on the pattern Part.I + Adv. in 
AHs, e.g. the text of the furniture advertisement has a headline 
"Lookingood" (Ideal Home, 1983, June: 20-21) which 
emphasizes the beauty of the furniture advertised. 
The analysis reveals a high frequency of usage of 
attributive chains nonce attributive combinations, in the AH. 
The information transmitted is compressed by means of 
attributive chains - a large amount of information is conveyed by 
minimum language means. The attributive chains make the AH 
compact and easily perceived visually. "Lay-Flat, Stay-Flat 
Floorings" (Good Housekeeping, 1979, May: 36) - the attributive 
combinations in the headline of the advertisement promoting a 
linoleum convey compressed information about the advertised 
product and make the headline easily memorable. The extensive 
usage of the attributive chains in the AH is inspired by the 
necessity to compress information and to find new efficient ways 
of persuading potential customers. It is also explained by the fact 
that they are easily understood by a linguistically untrained 
recipient (Shamelashvilli,1982: 17). 
The analysis of all types of the compression of 
information in the AHs reveals the tendency of the different types 
to converge, i.e. it is by interacting that the types of information 
61 
compression produce the desired outcome - the impact upon the 
recipient. 
Compression of information in the AH serves the purpose 
of eliminating incidental pragmatic noise in the communication 
channel. Besides the economy of space, compression of 
information performs an expressive function. The analysis 
revealed the typical forms of information compression in the AH: 
phonetic, syntactic, semantic and lexical. In addition 
convergence of the different types of compression can be 
pointed out. The tendency to compress the information interacts 
with a tendency to plenitude. Compression in the AH is not 
necessarily equivalent to brevity. Brevity is not a stylistic factor of 
the language of advertising. 
References 
Arnold, I. (1986) The English Word. Moskva: Vysshaya shkola. 
Arnold, I. (1973) Stilistika sovremennogo angliyskogo yazika. 
Leningrad: Prosveschenye. 
Kiselyova, L. (1978) Voprosi tyeorii rechyevogo vozdeystviya. 
Leningrad: Izdatyelstvo Leningradskogo Universiteta. 
Leech, G. N. (1972) English in Advertising. London: Longman. 
Nikitin, M. (1983) Leksicheskoye znacheniye slova. Moskva: 
Vishaya shkola. 
62 
Sizov, M. (1981) Kratkostj как harakteristika gazetnogo stilya 
sovremennoga ahgliyskogo yazika i yazikoviye sredstva 
yeye realizatsii. Moskva. 
Shamelashvilli, M. (1982) Funktsionalno-stilisticheskiye i leksiko-
grammaticheskiye osobennosti gazetnih zagolovkov. 
Moskva. 
Straumann, H. (1935) Newspaper Headlines. A study of 
Linguistic Method. London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 
63 
Karstens Lomholts 
University of Latvia 
Skandinavu valodu politika att ieclba pret svesvardiem 
un valodas ietekmes sferu zudumu 
Saja raksta sniegts tikai Skandinavijas ziemelgermanu, proti, 
indoeiropiesu valodu situacijas apraksts, nepieversoties 
grenlandiesu, samu un somu valodai. Sadas izveles pamata ir 
divi apsverumi. Pirmkart, ziemekjermanu valodam ir seviskas 
iespejas integret citvalodu vardus, jo Tpasi no citam germanu 
valodam, ka angju un vacu valodas, pielagojot aizguto vardu un 
morfemu izrunu un rakstlbu savai valodai (sk. Par un pret 
norvegiskosanu). Otrkart, kops 18. gadsimta pastav valodas 
politikas tradTcija abas salu valodas (islandiesu un feriesu 
valodu) tuvinat senskandinavu valodai un tad a veida arl vienu 
otrai, un kops 19. gadsimta saskatlt lielas ITdzTbas visu trls 
austrumskandinavu valodu starpa, uztverot tas ka pamatu 
kulturas, politikas un komunikacijas vienotlbai, pamatu, ко 
nepieciesams stiprinat (sk. Skandinaviskais arguments). 
Skandinavu valodu politika pret svesvardiem un valodas 
lietojuma sferu zudumu skatama visnotaj plasa spektra, sakot ar 
mazakajam valodam, ka feriesu (apm. 50 000 runataju) un 
64 
islandiesu (apm. 250 000), un beidzot ar lielakajam - danu (apm. 
5 miljoni), zviedru (apm. 8 miljoni) un norvegu valodu (apm. 4 
miljoni). 
Politiskas situacijas sakara minams tas, ka Danija un Zviedrija ir 
Eiropas SavienTbas dallbvalstis, savukart Feru salas, Islande un 
Norvegija nav iesaistTjusas saja valstu savienTba. Tas, ka Feru 
salas nevienu brTdi nav velejusas iekjauties ES vai tas 
prieksteces Eiropas Kopienas sastava, liecina par relatTvi izteiktu 
Feru salu pasparvaldes pakapi Danijas karalistes ietvaros. 
Eiropas SavienTba visu dallbvalstu valsts valodam joprojam ir 
oficialo valodu statuss, un visu so valodu starpa notiek 
tulkosana, turpretl liela daja svarlga sagatavosanas darba, kas 
notiek pirms gala lemumu pienemsanas, norisinas ieverojami 
mazaka valodu skaita. 
Valodas planosana un politika 
Jedziens valodas politika jeb valodas kopsana, kuram pozTtlvaka 
pieskana, Skandinavija dazados laikos ir definets joti atskingi, no 
d3nu valodas skaidrojosa vardnlca Ordbog over det Danske 
Sprog minetas definlcijas - "centieni sekmet vai sargat valodas 
tTrlbu, daijumu, izteiksmTbu u.c." (ODS, 546. sleja) ITdz liela 
skandinavu valodu vesturnieka Petera Skautrupa skaidrojumam 
- "tiesa iejauksanas valodas formas un lietojuma vai ieteikumi to 
65 
izmainai" (Skautrup: 58. Ipp.) Pirma defimcija ir no zinatniska 
viedokla apsaubama, jo taja lietota virkne lingvistikas joma 
neskaidru vardu, kuri visi ir ar pozitlvu nokrasu, un vards "tTrlba" 
kas ka velamu paradibu raksturo centienus neielaist valoda 
svesvardus. 
Danu valodas komisijas (Dansk Sprognaevn) pasreizejais 
priekssedetajs Eriks Hansens valodas politiku definejis ka 
"programmu, kas attiecas uz valodas labklajTbu, nosauc 
Udzeklus velama rezultata sasniegsanai un ir saistTta ar praksi" 
Vins gan uzskata, ka s i prakse var izpausties arl neka 
nedansana. (Hansen, 1991: 31). 
Valodas planosana var but ekstraverta un nodarboties ar 
statusa planosanu, proti, nosacTt valodas funkcionalas sferas, 
piemeram, kada mera ta izmantojama ka macTbu valoda. Ta var 
arl tikt formuleta ka prasTba, lai valsts iegadatas datorsistemas 
nodrosinatu iespeju elektroniska pasta vestules lietot valsts 
valodas alfabetu. Ekstraverta valodas planosana biezi vien 
regule attieclbas starp divam vai vairakam valodam kadas 
teritorijas ietvaros, kura zinamos aspektos darbojas pasparvalde, 
piemeram, Eiropas SavienTbas, valsts vai pavalstu / novadu 
ietvaros. 
66 
Valodas planosana var but arl intraverta un nodarboties ar 
valodiska veseluma planosanu, proti, ar valodas strukturam, 
piemeram, ortografiju, leksiku, vai ar standartizaciju un 
modernizaciju. 
Valodas politika ir tas valodas planosanas veids, kuru Tsteno ar 
politisku Udzekkj starpnieclbu sakot no likumdosanas un 
oficialas iestades un skolas ieverojamiem normatTviem ITdz 
finansialiem publikaciju vai petnieciska darba pabalstiem 
Valodas politika var but pilnTga, aptverot visas valodas sferas, 
vai dajeja, proti, versta uz atseviskam jomam, piemeram, uz 
citvalodu Tpasvardu pareizrakstlbu vai vardu krajuma attlstlsanu. 
Turklat ta var but tiesa, piemeram, formuleta pareizrakstTbas 
likumu veida, vai netiesa, piemeram, ka tada likuma neesamlba, 
kurs aizliegtu firmam un veikaliem nosaukumos lietot citvalodu 
vardus un raksfibu. 
Visbeidzot, valodas politiku iespejams Tstenot vai nu 
prieksrakstu, vai ieteikumu forma. ST Tstenosana var notikt, 
izmantojot veselu virkni konkretu Udzekju, sakot no sankcijam 
parkapumu gadijumos, tadam ka soda naudas vai nenolikti 
eksameni, turpinot ar obligatu apmaclbu un rokasgramatu 
67 
izstradasanu un beidzot ar iedzTvotaju iniciatTvu finansialu 
atbalstu un valsts iestazu pienemtiem noradTjumiem valodas 
joma. 
Ekstravertas un intravertas valodas planosanas starpa ir 
dialektiskas attiecTbas. Ja kada valoda atseviskam paradfbam 
trukst apzlmejumu (vai an tie ir relatlvi mazzinami, vai citada zina 
gruti lietojami), valodas lietotaji, runa pieskaroties attiecTgajam 
temam, sliecas izmantot citu valodu. LTdz ar to notiek valodas 
lietojuma sferas zudums. Savukart tas, ka valoda kada noteikta 
joma tiek mazak lietota, nes ITdzi sis valodas attTst'fbas 
aizkavejumu saja pasa joma. 
Valodas lietojuma sferu zudums 
Saja raksta ar valodas lietojuma sferu zudumu apzlmeta 
paradTba, kad kadu valodu vai valodas formu pilnlgi vai dajeji 
izspiez kada cita, piemeram, samazinot Eiropas SavienTbas 
parrunu valodu skaitu, kadai valodai izspiezot citu viena vai 
vairakas izglTtTbas sistemas jomas vai valodai netiekot lietotai 
kada noteikta zinatnes nozare. 
Rakstu valodas lietojuma sferas saruksanu veicinaja telefona 
izplatTba. Telefons Java pasta iznesasanu samazinat no 
vairakam reizem diena ITdz vienai, kas savukart samazinaja 
68 
rakstiskas komunikacijas formas izmantojamlbu. LTdz ar 
jaunajam iespejam, ко sniedz Internets un elektroniskais pasts, 
skiet, ka rakstu valoda atkal tiek lietota vairak, tomer tikai tajas 
valodas, kuras iespejams rakstTt ar jaunajiem komunikacijas 
ITdzekliem. Tatad tehnologiska attlstlba var nest sev ITdzi aizvien 
lielaku kadas valodas lietojuma sferas samazinasanos. 
Feriesu (Feru salu) valoda 
Ka rakstu un ITdz ar to arl ka normeta valoda feriesu valoda ir 
visjaunaka no skandinavu valodam. Feriesu filologijas 
pamatlicejs V U. Hammershaibs savus pirmos feriesu rakstu 
valodas paraugus iesniedza publicesanai 1846. gada. Tas 
rakstTba butiski atskiras no izrunas, jo ir pietuvinata islandiesu 
valodai, kas tika uzskatTta par mazaka mera vienkarsotu neka 
feriesu valoda un par sagu kulturvalodai tuvak stavosu. 1854. 
gada Hammershaibs publiceja feriesu valodas gramatiku, 1886. 
gada pirmo feriesu literaturas antologiju. Leksikas zina 
Hammershaibs bija purists vins centas izvairlties no 
sarunvaloda biezi sastopamiem citvalodu cilmes vardiem 
(Larsen: 53). 
19. gadsimta beigas feriesu studenti Kopenhagena nodibinaja 
tautisku apvienTbu, kuras svarlgakais uzdevums bija no jauna 
"celt goda feriesu valodu" Tika izdots pirmais laikraksts feriesu 
69 
valoda, daudziem ta bija pirma iespeja ieraudzlt savu valodu 
rakstos, gandrlz visiem autoriem pirma iespeja rakstiski 
izteikties sava dzimtaja valoda. Daudzi rakstltaji lietoja 
aizguvumus no dazadam valodam, tomer dazi mekleja tiem 
aizstajejus no tautasdziesmam vai islandiesu valodas. Ar l velak 
feriesu puristi, rodoties nepieciesamTbai pec jauna varda, ka 
avotam prieksroku devusi sagu valodai vai musdienu islandiesu 
valodai (Larsen; Poulsen, 1985). 
Feriesu valoda kjuvusi par oficialu valodu salTdzinosi nesen. 
BaznTcas ritualu teksti tika partulkoti tikai pirms 2. pasaules kara, 
un pirmais pilnlgais BTbeles tulkojums iznaca 1961. gada 
(Larsen). Musdienas feriesu valoda ir ar likumu atzTta par Feru 
salu pamatvalodu. Feriesu parlamenta, Lagtinga, pienemtos 
likumus publice gan feriesu, gan danu valoda, bez tarn 
atseviskus normatlvos aktus, kuri attiecas vienlgi uz Feru salu 
iedzlvotajiem, izzirjo tikai feriesu valoda, un daudzi uznemumi un 
iestades uzskata par dabisku un passaprotamu lietu, ka vinu 
rakstveida zinojumi ir feriesu valoda (Poulsen, 1986). 
Pamatskola feriesu valoda tagad ir kjuvusi par macTbu valodu, 
tacu jau gimnazijas ITmenT liela daja macTbu gramatu satopamas 
tikai danu valoda. LTdz ar to daudziem feriesiem vel aizvien par 
tehniskam lietam ir vieglak izteikties danu, nevis feriesu valoda, 
70 
tapec ka feriesu tehnisko terminologiju vini zina sliktak vai nezina 
vispar, vai ta vienkarsa iemesla del, k a sada terminologija nav 
izveidota (Poulsen, 1986) 
Aptuveni 60% no Feriesu valodas komisijai telefoniski 
uzdotajiem jautajumiem ir par to, kadu feriesu vardu vai vardu 
savienojumu lietot attieclga danu analoga vieta. Tas nozTme, ka 
pastav stipra velesanas attlstlt un lietot feriesu valodu (Poulsen, 
1986: 62). Par so velesanos liecina arl tas, ka jaunvardi izplatas 
loti strauji, pat vairakus gadus pec tarn, kad valoda ieviesies 
attiecTgs svesvards. Ta, 1985. gada datorus apzTmejoso 
svesvardu vieta tika ieteikts jaunvards telda, un jau pec gada 
lietoja gandrlz tikai so jaunvardu. LTdzTgi helikopteru apzTme ar 
tyrla, un ar bingja censas aizstat feriskoto konteynari 
(konteiners), kura citvalodu sufikss -ertapat ka citos aizguvumos 
aizstats ar feriesu -an. Bingja ir mantots vards ar nozTmi "kaste 
graudu glabasanai" paralelforma vardam bing ar tadu pasu 
nozTmi, savukart bing jau ilgi lieto ka jaunvardu aizguvuma silo 
(elevators) vieta (Poulsen, 1989: 55). 
Lietojuma sferu zudums 
LTdzas citu valodu ietekmei izglrtTbas sistema musdienas ir 
paradljies jauns ietekmes Udzeklis televlzijas veidola. Tikai 
nelielu daju no raidlaika aiznem vietejie raidijumi vai tadi, kam ir 
71 
feriesu subtitri. Liela daja parraizu ir danu valoda, ar danu 
subtitriem vai tikai angju valoda (Poulsen, 1989). 
Piecu gadu ilga angju okupacija 2. pasaules kara laika feriesu 
valoda atstaja loti maz pedu. Tomer nav ne mazako saubu, ka 
kops sesdesmitajiem gadiem Feru salas angju valoda ieguvusi 
augstu prestizu. Ir diskzokeji, kas pieskir savai valodai 
amerikanisku akcentu, vairakums jauno firmu un kugu iegust 
angliskus nosaukumus. Jaundibinata Feru salu aviosabiedrlba 
pec tarn, kad tika sankots atverts konkurss par labako 
nosaukumu feriesu un angju valoda, ir ieguvusi nosaukumu 
Atlantic Airways. Daudzi berni sak runat angju valoda, vel 
nesakusi apgut to skola, un tarn celonis ir tikai un vienlgi 
televTzjja. Tomer vairakums angju cilmes aizguvumu (it Tpasi 
tehniskas dabas) feriesu valoda ienak ar danu valodas 
starpniecTbu, ta sacTt, tiek "pasniegti uz paplates" (Poulsen, 
1989: 52). 
Feriesi ne pa jokam baidas no tas affistTbas, kas piemekleja 
Orkneju un Setlendas salas, kuras 1469. gada karalis Kristians I 
iekllaja Skotijai. Orkneju salas runata skandinavu valoda izzuda 
18. gadsimta vidu, Setlendas salas ta pastaveja Ti'dz 19. 
gadsimta sakumam, kad to nomainlja angju valoda. Tadej feriesi 
72 
velas padarlt savu valodu laikmetam atbilstosu un saglabat tas 
lietojumu (Poulsen, 1989: 49). 
Islandiesu valoda 
Feriesu valodas politikas sastavdaja ir bijusi tuvinat savu valodu 
islandiesu valodai, turpretT islandiesu valodas politikas 
sastavdaja ir saglabat Islandes valodisko viendabTbu: sinhroniski 
- tikpat ka visiem iedzTvotajiem islandiesu valoda ir vinu dzimta 
valoda un nepastav Tsti dialekti un sociolekti; diahroniski 
islandiesu valoda gadsimtu gaita ir mainTjusies tik maz, ka 
Islandes jaunatne joprojam spej lasTt un saprast savu kulturas 
mantojumu, islandiesu sagas (tas ir vecaka pierakstlta literature 
Skandinavija un tiek uzskatltas par sava laikmeta bagatako 
literaturu Eiropa) (Arnason; Kristinsson, 1997; Ragnarsdottir 
224; Vikor: 55-58). 
Pirmais BTbeles tulkojums islandiesu valoda tika iespiests 1584. 
gada, un, atskirlba no Norvegijas un Feru salam, danu valoda 
Islande ta arl netika ieviesta ka baznlcas valoda (Vikor). 18. 
gadsimta aizsakto speclgo purisma tendencu rezultata 
islandiesu valoda ir pavisam nedaudz aizguvumu. GandrTz visi 
jaunvardi tiek darinati no pastavosa valodas materiala (Jonsson). 
Tautas interese par savu valodu ir tik liela, ka sai interesei ir pat 
komercialas izpausmes - pienotavas nu jau pahs gadu uz piena 
73 
pakam iespiez Islandiesu valodas komisijas (islensk malnafnd) 
valodas ieteikumu seriju. AcTmredzot marketinga specialisti 
uzskata, ka islandiesu valoda vairo preces vertlbu islandiesu 
acls (Kristinsson, 1997). 
Kaut an islandiesu valoda ir notikusas zinamas izmainas 
(gandnz visas pirms reformacijas), neskiet, ka tarn par pamatu 
varetu but arejas ietekmes (Vik0r: 55-57). Tacu islandiesu 
attieksme pret cittautu personvardiem ir mainijusies. Agrak par 
normu uzskatlja lietot attiecTga varda islandiesu variantu. Velak 
tos transkribeja, rakstTbu iespejami tuvinot originalvalodas 
izrunai. Tagad tie visbiezak tiek lietoti originalrakstlba, turklat 
noverojama pieaugosa tendence tos vairs nedeklinet saskana ar 
islandiesu valodas locljumiem. Tomer karajnama parstavju un 
pavestu vardus vel aizvien lieto to islandiskaja forma 
(Ragnarsdottir: 239). Citas skandinavu valodas si attlstlba ir 
gajusi vel talak - tajas censas cittautu personvardus izrunat ar 
attiecTgas svesvalodas fonemam. Piemeram, darju valoda 
cittautu personvardu formas lieto pat attieclba uz karajnamu 
parstavjiem - kong Carlos af Spanien (Karloss, Spanijas karalis) 
un prins Charles (princis Carlzs). Tomer uz senaka laika citvalstu 
kara|iem joprojam attiecina tradicionali daniskos apzlmejumus, 
piemeram, Karl den Store (Karlis Lielais). 
74 
Lietojuma sferu zudums 
Islandiesu valodas lietojuma sferai paslaik, jaunajiem medijiem 
versoties plasuma, draud sasaurinasanas. Visietekmlgakais ir 
Kulturas un izglTtTbas ministrijas 1993. gada lemums par to, ka 
ministrijas rlclba esosie datorsistemu programmaturai atveletie 
Udzekji investejami tadas programmaturas izstradasanai, ко 
iespejams lietot ar IBM saderlgos datoros. Tomer tajos lietota 
operetajsistema nav tulkota islandiesu valoda, tapat ka nav 
tulkota teksta apstrades programma Word for Windows (Vikar 
46-47). 
Jauns Kulturas un izglTtTbas ministrijas zinojums norada uz faktu, 
ka pamatskolu datorvide ir angju valoda. Tas var bremzet 
islandiesu valodas lietosanu vesela nozare, ITdz ar to kavejot 
valodas attTstTbu saja nozare, un visbeidzot novest pie ta, ka 
bernu acTs dzimta valoda zaudes prestizu un viniem zudTs ticTba 
tas izmantojamTbai, un tas savukart var ierobezot iespeju 
izteikties dzimtaja valoda vispar (Vikor: 50. Ipp.) 
Pretpasakumi valodas lietojuma sferu zudumam 
Gan skola, gan majas aizvien biezak lieto CD ROM gan 
macTbu merkiem, gan spelem, tacu tie pieejami gandnz tikai 
angju valoda. Тарёс Valodas komisija iesaka investet ITdzekjus 
CD ROM un Interneta materialu izstradei islandiesu valoda. 
75 
Islandes datorapvienTbas terminologijas komisija gatavojas 
1998. gada laist klaja datorterminologijas krajuma 2. izdevumu. 
Islandiesu valodas komisija paredzejusi 1997 gada pabeigt 
valodas vardu banku, un tad bus iespejams ar Internets 
starpnieclbu uzskirt komisijas izsradatos vardu sarakstus, to 
starpa an specifisku terminologiju (Kristinsson, 1992). 
Valsts savukart ir aizliegusi parraidit radio un televTzijas 
programmas, kuram nav tulkojuma, tas notika pec tarn, kad 
1991. gada tika transletas CNN un SKY tiesas parraides par 
Persijas Пса un ar Padomju SavienTbas sabrukumu saistTtajiem 
notikumiem. (Dazi Tpasi iesaka izmantot subtitrus, kas jautu 
labak iepazlt jaundarinatos vardus un demonstretu to, ka 
islandiesu valoda var izteikt visu.) Tapat ir aizliegtas reklamas 
slikta islandiesu valoda un svesvalodas, tomer atjaujot raidTt 
dzinglus svesvalodas (Arnason; Kristinsson: 1992). 
Luzums valodas viendabfba 
Pirmas plaisas islandiesu valodiskaja veseluma izpauzas, 
valodas lietotajiem izmantojot atskingus stilistiskos un formalos 
Umenus atkarlba no runas situacijas. Ta, svesvardus lieto 
neformalas sarunas, savukart mantotas cilmes vardu materialu 
izmanto oficialas situacijas. Izradas, ka Islandes radio darbinieki 
sava starpa lieto tadus vardus ka feida (pakapeniski pavajinaties 
76 
(par skanu) - no angju darbTbas varda fade) islandiesu skyggja 
(aizenot) vieta un studio islandiesu hljodstofa (skanu telpa) vai 
myndver (attela telpa) vieta, kaut arl pie mikrofona vini dod 
prieksroku islandiskajiem variantiem. Diez vai kads pie ieslegta 
mikrofona lietos klaji aplamo f/wpareiza sjonvarp (televizors) vai 
cede geislaspilari (kompaktdisku atskarjotajs) vieta, tomer 
privates sarunas tas tiek darlts. 
Filologi brldina, ka pastav dubultvalodas attTstlbas draudi, kur 
formala rakstu valoda, kam janodrosina islandiesu saikne ar 
pagatni, kjus sastingusi un svesatna, nebus lietojama atbilstosi 
modernas sabiedrTbas vajadzTbam un vairs nebus izmantojama 
jutu izteiksanai (Kristinsson: 1997). 
Norvegu valoda 
Vairaku gadu desmitu neapstndami lielakas valodnieciskas 
domstarpTbas Norvegijas sabiedrlba izraisijas 1996. gada, un tas 
bija saistltas ar atsevisku aizguvumu pareizrakstlbas tuvinasanu 
norvegu valodas ortografjjas principiem. 1996. gada janvarT 
Norvegu valodas padome (Norsk sprakrad) pienema lemumu 
jaut norvegiskot nepilnus piecdesmit aizguvumus, kuru lielaka 
daja bija angju cilmes vardi. Tas nozTmeja atjauju tos rakstTt 
atbilstosi norvegu rakstlbas principiem (Sandoy: 23). 
77 
Tautiskosana un norvegiskosana 
Jedzienu norvegiskosana (norvegisering) attiecina uz 
svesvardu pareizrakstTbas tuvinasanu visparejiem norvegu 
valodas rakstTbas principiem. Ar vardu tautiskosana 
{fornorskning) apzTme to purisma paveidu, kas nodarbojas ar 
esoso valodas vardu materialu. Musdienu norvegu valoda gan 
vairs nav iespejams iedvest jaunu elpu senos norvegu vardos, 
pieskirot tiem citu lietojuma nozTmi, ka tas, piemeram, notiek 
islandiesu valoda, kura telefonu sauc simi varda "aukla" 
izmirusa varianta. Tomer izdevies ieviest norvegiskus 
aizstajejvardus, kuri ir vai nu kalki, vai arl skaidrojosi jedzieni, 
piemeram, kollisjonspute ("avarijas spilvens") aizstajis vardu 
airbag (drosTbas spilvens), ferdskriver ("cejojuma rakstltajs") 
flightrecorder (melna kaste (lidmasTna)), un paredzams, ka 
svesvardu handout (izdales materials) bus iespejams aizstat ar 
stetteark ("palTglapa") un overhead (kodoskops) ar skriftkaster 
("teksta metejs"). 
Sada attieksme pret iespejamiem aizstajejvardiem, pec Helges 
Sandei domam, norada uz to, ka versanas pie vesturiska / 
tautiska mantojuma nerod atsauksmi, savukart sinhroni viegli 
izprotami aprakstosie jedzieni aclmredzot apele pie pedagogiski 
demokratiskiem uzskatiem (Sandoy). 
78 
Par un pret norvegiskosanu 
Norvegiskosanai ir joti senas tracflcijas. Par pirmo 
pareizrakstlbas reformu, kas veda uz attalinasanos no ieprieks 
izmantotas danu rakstu valodas par labu norvegu rakstu valodas 
izveidei, patieslba uzskatams 1862. gada lemums ieviest 
norvegisku, proti, izrunai atbilstosu, svesvardu pareizrakstlbu 
(Sand0y: 27). 
1996. gada Norvegu valodas padome pienema lemumu ieteikt 
nepilnas piecdesmit aizgutu vardu paralelformas (tika ieteikti arl 
gandrTz divdesmit iespejami aizstajejvardi). Kulturas 
departaments noraidlja piecpadsmit ieteiktas jaunas 
pareizrakstlbas formas, tacu parejas apstiprinaja. Medijos 
paradljas speclga pretreakcija, vairaki simti avlzrakstu un lasTtaju 
vestuju, tikpat ka visi versti pret izmainam, kuras nereti tika 
apzTmetas ar vardiem "komiskas" un "smieklTgas" 
Puristam Gustavam Indrebe laika starp abiem pasaules kariem 
bija citi argumenti pret norvegiskosanu. Vinaprat, aizguvumi butu 
"jaapzlmogo ar kauna zlmi" proti, ar savu svesatno rakstTbu, lai 
tos varetu atskirt Udz brldim, kad tos, pamazam aizvietojot ar 
norvegismiem, pilnTba izskaustu no valodas. Tas sasaucas ar jau 
19. gadsimta beigas mineto argumentu, ka siem vardiem nebutu 
japieskir norvegiska pareizrakstlba, lai tos butu grutak lietot 
(Sandey, 23). 
79 
Sos abus ar norvegiskosanu saistltos argumentus musdienas 
liek lieta preteja nometne. SobrTd tiek uzskatlts, ka 
originalvalodas rakstlba norada uz starptautisko koplbu un 
veicina sapratni, kas iet pari valstu robezam. Turklat vardus, kuri 
ir zinami no svesvalodam, esot vieglak uzrakstTt pareizi, ja tos 
tapat raksta norvegu valoda. Norvegiskotas pareizrakstlbas 
piekriteji savukart iebilst, ka vieglak iemacTties vardu 
pareizrakstlbu ir tada gadTjuma, ja tos raksta regulari ka 
norvegu vardus, un ka berni skola vispirms iemacas rakstlt sos 
vardus ka norvegu teksta daju un tikai velak tos sastop angju 
tekstos (Sandoy: 33-34). 
Ka sociallingvistisks arguments tiek uzsverts tas, ka norvegiskojot 
zudls daja no prestiza, kas saisffls ar speju uzrakstTt yoghurt 
(jogurts) (ar paralelformu jogurt) pareizi, un valoda kjus 
demokratiskaka, ja rakstlba atbildTs izrunai (Sand0y: 33). 
G-ermanu valodu kopTbas dej vairakumu angju cilmes svesvardu 
iespejams pilnlgi integret valoda, izdarot izmainas 
pareizrakstlba, kas norvegisko vienu vai vairakas varda dajas, 
piemeram, inn-sid-аг (savs cilveks), kur sobrld izmanto 
norvegisko dantaja sufiksu -ar, tos tapat iespejams integret tajos 
gadTjumos, kad viss vards ir atpazTstams ar jau pastavosa varda 
starpnieclbu, piemeram, lietvards bok (gramata) dajeji izskaidro 
80 
jauno norvegu darblbas vardu boke (rezervet), kas ir angju book 
kalks (Sandoy: 38). 
Izrunas pretestlba 
Svesvardu aizgusanas rezultata norvegu valoda ir paradljusas 
pavisam nedaudzas jaunas strukturas, piemeram, divskanis /ai/ 
darblbas varda faite (clnTties), kam pamata angju fight (Sanday: 
39-40). Grutak akceptejama skiet rakstlba, kura izpauzas varda 
izrunas norvegiskojums, jo Tpasi attiecTba uz patskaniem. 
Apstiprinato formu starpa bija рапкаг (panks) no angju punk, 
sjak (soks) no chock un servis (serviss) no service. Pie izteikti 
negatTvas reakcijas, ar kadu tikta uztvertas sis jaunas 
paralelformas, varetu but vainojams arl tas, ka tas izskatas pec 
kapitulacijas aplamas, neizgUtotas izrunas prieksa, pec 
atteiksanas izrunat vardu "pareizi" proti, angliski. 
Valodas lietojuma sferu zudums 
Pirms uzvirmoja viesulis ap aptuveni piecdesmit vardu 
pareizrakstlbas norvegiskosanu, astondesmitajos gados sev 
uzmanTbu pieversa angju valodas dominance Norvegijas naftas 
rupnieclba. Nav neka neparasta taja, ka naftas rupnieclbas 
uznemumos iekseja sarakste norvegu starpa notiek angju valoda 
(Venas, 1991: 38). Sis attTstTbas kulminacija pienaca 1989. 
gada, kad tiesas procesa, kas izskatlja darba attiecTbas, 
81 
atseviskas dajas noriteja angju valoda, jo darba nemeja 
advokatu birojs nespeja sagadat nepieciesamo dokumentu 
tulkojumu norvegu valoda. Lietas iznakums bija tads, ka Tieslietu 
ministrs atbilde uz Norvegijas parlamenta, Stortinga, 
pieprasljumu pauda domu, ka biznesa zinama mera ir 
nepieciesams veikt dokumentaciju angju valoda, ka tiks 
parskaffli noteikumi, kas paredz dotacijas tulkojumu veiksanai, 
un ka tiks arl apsverta nepieciesamTba apmaksat svesvalodas 
apmaclbu tiesnesiem (Venas, 1993: 25-26). 
So valodas lietojuma sferu zudumu, ka arl angliskas cilmes 
aizguvumu popular i t ies rezultata Norvegijas valodas padome 
1989. gada sanema subsidjju tarn, lai r'fkotu Aksjon for spraklig 
milj0vern, kampariu, kura norisinajas galvenokart medijos un 
kuras merkis bija celt valodas apzirju norvegu vardu lietojamlbas 
aspekta. Akcijai bija joti liela atsauclba, tomer bija dzirdams arl 
pa kritiskai balsij, to starpa visparfgas valodnieclbas profesors 
Evens Hovdhaugens versa uzmanTbu uz to, ka neviena valoda 
nemirst tapec, ka uznemusi sevl svesvardus (tada gadTjuma 
angju valodai butu jabut mirusakai par mirusu, nevis dominejosai 
valodai starptautiskaja sazina), turpretl nopietns drauds valodas 
pastavesanai var but valodas lietojuma sferu zudums (Venas, 
1991). 
82 
Danu valoda 
Arl danu zeme pareizrakstlbas normesana ir izraisTjusi visasakas 
jaunako laiku debates par valodas pareizlbu. Kad Danijas 
valodas komisija (Dansk Sprognaevn) 1985. gada gatavoja 
izdosanai jaunu pareizrakstlbas vardnlcu, izraisTjas ta sauktais 
"majonezes kars" Valodas komisija bija vardnfca ieviesusi 
vienpadsmit francu cilmes svesvardu paralelformas, to starpa 
iesakot formu majon&se (majoneze) blakus Udzsinejai 
mayonnaise. Pret to asi reageja plasi iedzTvotaju slani, to starpa 
toreizejais izglTtTbas ministrs un citi, kas savulaik bija skola 
iemacTjusies francisko rakstTbas formu (Hansen & Lund: 107-
112). 
Prieksvesture 
Dariu valodas tTnsanas tendences sastopamas jau 17 gadsimta, 
kad renesanse deva impulsu centieniem padant danu valodu par 
pilntiesTgu literaturas un kulturas valodu, kurai bija jabut spejTgai 
funkcionet neatkangi no latTnu valodas. 18. gadsimta purismu 
veicinaja apgaismTbas laikmeta ideali, kas vestTja, ka zinTbam 
jabut formuletam valoda, kuru saprot izglTtots pilsonis; saja faze 
purisms liela mera smelas iedvesmu no vacu domatajiem, tadej 
sakotneji bija versts galvenokart pret relatTvi nedaudzajiem 
aizguvumiem no francu valodas. LTdz ar 19. gadsimta 
83 
romantismu aktuals kjuva skandinaviskums, kas sniedza jaunu 
motivaciju valodas tTrltajiem, un to pamatTgi pastiprinaja 
Slesvigas-Holsteinas kari gadsimta vidu danu un vaciesu starpa, 
kuru rezultata valodas tTritaji versas pret aizguvumiem jo seviskj 
no vacu valodas (Lund). 
Jau kops 18. gadsimta puristi ir tikusi ar l kritizeti, un lielaka daja 
vinu ierosinato jaunvardu valoda ta arl nav iedzTvojusies. Fizikis 
H. K. Ersteds (1777.-1871.) pirmais formuleja skaidrus 
nosacijumus, kuri jaievero, darinot jaunvardus, lai tiem butu 
izredzes izkonkuret svesas cilmes vardus. Cita starpa, tie 
nedr'fkst but (relatlvi) gari vai gruti izrunajami. Turklat tiem 
attieclgais prieksmets vai paradTba jaapzlme, nevis jadefine vai 
jaapraksta. Sadu iemeslu dej vins radTja jaunvardu brint 
(udenradis), kas atvasinats no darblbas varda brasnde (degt), 
nevis vandstof ("udensviela"). Ka vel vienu pamatojumu 
jaunvardu konkuretspejai virjs mineja to, ka tie nedrlkst but 
maldinosi, tapec vins izvelijas lietot ilt (skabeklis), kas atvasinats 
no lietvarda ild (uguns), nevis surstof ("skabviela"). Ta ka sie 
vardi irTsi, tie viegli iekjaujas salikterjos un tos izmanto arltalakai 
varddarinasanai atvasinot, piemeram, darblbas vardu ilte 
(piesatinat arskabekli) (Jacobsen, 1973: 19-35). 
84 
Pieredze rada an to, ka neieviesas vardi, kuru sastava ir arhaiski 
elementi. Tas attiecas, piemeram, uz kuldvarp varda 
revolutioneer (revolucionars) vieta un adbyrd gestus (zests) 
vieta. Izskaidrojums var but tads, ka sie vardi valodas lietotajam 
ir svesi un gruti, savukart tadi jaunvardi ka energipolitik 
(energetikas politika) un magtpyramide (varas piramTda) tiek 
uztverti ka izprotami un viegli lietojami vardi, jo elementu nozTme 
valodas lietotajiem ir ieprieks zinama (Hansen, 1985: 70). 
Valodas politika 
Danu valodas komisija ir vienlga oficiala Danijas iestade, kuras 
galvenais uzdevums ir Tstenot un popularized praktisko valodas 
politiku. STs komisijas svarlgakais uzdevums ir registret un 
analizet valodas izmainas. Galvena verTba tiek pieversta 
informatTvajam darbam, konsultacijam un instruesanai. Valodas 
komisija gada atbild uz apmeram desmit tukstosiem jautajumu. 
Viena vienlga joma tomer tiek veikta preskriptTva darblba 
komisija izstrada pareizrakstlbas vardnTcas, un tajas fiksetas 
normas jaievero valsts un pasvaldTbu iestades, ka arl skolas, 
kuram ir eksaminacijas tieslbas. Attieclba uz izmainam 
pareizrakstTba valodas komisija noverte izrunas un rakstTbas 
attTstTbas tendences, sastata tas ar galvenajiem pareizrakstlbas 
principiem un pavisam nedaudzas izmainas apstiprina ka 
pareizas lietosanai rakstu valoda (Hansen, 1991). 
85 
Lielaka atskirlba starp norvegu valodas politiku no vienas puses 
un danu un zviedru valodas politiku no otras puses ir ta, ka 
Norvegu valodas padome uzskata, ka izmainam oficialos 
normatlvos ir iespejams un dazkart pat nepieciesams iet pa 
prieksu rakstu valodas attlstlbai sabiedrlba, un tapec ta, 
piemeram, izsaka vairakus priekslikumus svesvarda rakstibai, 
pirms vel cilveki sakusi so vardu rakstTt dazados variantos, 
turklat ta uz savu iniciatlvu piedava aizstajejvardus (Sandoy: 35). 
Danu jaunvardi 
Danija ir veikta preclza jauno vardu registracija un izstradata 
statistika: 
Pias RTberas Petersenas gramata Nye Ord i Dansk 1955-75 
registre vardu krajuma pieaugumu divdesmit gadu perioda, un 
taja iekjauti aptuveni 4 500 si perioda svarlgako jaunvardu, 
neaptverot specifisku profesionalo terminologiju. 
No sT vardu klasta tikai 450 ir tadi, kuros ietilpst viens vai vairaki 
elementi, kas valoda ieprieks nav bijusi sastopami. Aptuveni 
90% ir darinati vai nu ka kalki, vai an ka atvasinajumi vai 
salikteni, kam par pamatu nemts danu valoda eksistejoss 
valodas materials. Parcelumos no citam valodam parsvara 
izmanto tulkojumus, piemeram, daselatter ("konservu smiekli") 
86 
atbilst angju canned laughter (smieklu fonogramma, 
"iekonserveti smiekli") (Hansen, 1985). 
Aizguvumos no norvegu un zviedru valodas parasti ir minimalas 
izmainas izruna, ortografija un loclsana. Ta, no norvegu valodas 
aizguti treekprocent (ienakumu nodokja likme) un markedsforing 
(marketings), savukart no zviedru valodas tilvalgsfag 
(fakultatlvs prieksmets). Nav tikpat ka nevienas skandinavu 
morfemas, kura butu ienakusi danu valoda no jauna, iznemums 
seit ir piemeram, sufikss -is aizguvuma no zviedru valodas 
kendis (plasi pazTstama persona) (Hansen, 1985). 
Lielaka daja musdienu danu valodas jaunvardu, kuriem ir svesa 
cilme, nakusi no angju valodas. Vairak neka puse aizguvumu no 
angju valodas ir kalki. Tas attiecas pat uz 18% no 315 angju 
cilmes primarajiem vardiem (proti, vardiem, kas sinhrona 
skatTjuma nav salikteni), piemeram, afskraekkelsesvaben 
("iebiedesanas ierocis"), kas celies no deterrent (iebiedesanas 
ITdzeklis), un langtidsleje ("ilglaicTga Ire") - no lease (noma). No 
aptuveni 390 aizguvumos izmantotajiem angju valodas 
saliktegiem 72% ir tulkoti, piemeram, febrev ("tejas aploksne") -
no tea bag (tejas maisins). So tendenci, iespejams, var skaidrot 
ar to, ka angju salikteni parsvara ir diezgan gari un to 
originalformas - neparocTgas lietosanai danu valoda, ka an ar to, 
87 
ka tos vieglak tulkot, proti, kalkot, neka nesaliktus vardus, 
piemeram, lobby (lobijs), rock (roks), squash (kirbis) u.c. 
Aizguvumiem no angju valodas, atskirTba no citu valodu 
aizguvumiem, raksturlgs tas, ka liels vairums vardu tiek parnemti 
tiesi, nepielagojot ne izrunu, ne rakstlbu. Dazi Tpasibas vardi pat 
netiek loclti saskana ar danu valodas likumlbam, piemeram, fair 
(godlgs), cool (sar. kolosals), un daziem lietvardiem netiek 
mainTtas angliskas daudzskaitja galotnes: checks (ceki), chips 
(cipsi), slogans (saukji) (Hansen & Lund: 116-117). 
Par vesturiskajam tendencem profesors Hansens raksta sadi: 
"Danu valodas vesturei, skiet, cauri vijas izteikta tendence - tas 
valodas vardus, kura doming aizguvumu avotu starpa, var 
pamemt neparveidotus. Viduslaikos sadi bez tulkojuma tika 
parnemti vacu valodas vardi; 17 un 18. gadsimta tada pasa 
veida tika parnemts liels skaits francu valodas vardu, un saja 
gadsimta ta nu ir angju valoda, kas sniedz ieverojamu skaitu 
netulkotu vardu. (Hansen, 1985: 69-70) 
Danija aizvien vairak izplatlta angju valodas prasme, iespejams, 
ir izskaidrojums tarn, ka atseviski aizguvumi no angju valodas 
pedejos gadu desmitos ieverojami biezak tiek izrunati ar 
fonemam, kuras danu literaraja valoda nepastav. Tas attiecas uz 
88 
sakumfonemu Ы varda weekend (nede|as nogale) un apikalo /г/ 
vardu savienojuma all right (labi). 
Valodas politika attiecTba pret jaunvardiem 
Gadljumos, kad Danu valodas komisijai tiek lugta konsultacija 
attiecTba uz kadu apzTmejumu, ka svarlgs arguments par labu 
ieteiktajam vardam tiek uzlukots tas, ja vardu veido danu valoda 
ieprieks zinami elementi. Ta radies, piemeram, bredlserred 
(platekrans) angju widescreen vieta un havanlaeg ("juras iekarta") 
- off-shore installation (arzonas iekarta) vieta. Tomer japiezTme, 
ka neviens no valodas komisijas ieteiktajiem vardiem nav ieguvis 
tadu izplatTbu, lai butu iekjauts gramata Nye Ord i Dansk 1955-
75. Saskarja ar profesora Erika Hansena vertejumu, danu valoda 
varddarinasana notiek diezgan nepardomati vietas, kur rodas 
nepieciesamlba pec jauniem vardiem, ka laikrakstu redakcijas, 
parlamenta, radio un televlzijas darbinieku vidu, ka arl jebkuru 
citu profesionaju vidu (Hansen, 1985). 
Personiskaku attieksmi pret danu valoda ienakosajiem 
svesvardiem Danu valodas komisijas priekssedetajs ir sniedzis 
gramata Kulturens Gesandter. Fremmedordene / dansk 
(Kulturas sutni. Danu valodas svesvardi). Taj a, ka izriet no 
gramatas nosaukuma, tiek apgalvots, ka lielaka daja svesvardu 
89 
ITdz ar tehnikas un kulturas attlstTbu ir nakusi no citam Eiropas 
valstlm, lielakaja vesturiska laika daja no Vacijas. 
Tiek minets arl, ka pat tad, ja laba tiesa gadljumu svesvardi 
ienakusi valoda ka sinonlmi jau pastavosiem vardiem, parasti 
izveidojas "darba dalTsana" taja nozlme, ka rodas nozTmes 
nianses vai stilistiskas iezTmes, kas tos atskir, un tada veida 
valoda kjust gan niansetaka, gan daudzveidTgaka. Savukart 
arkartlgi reti ir gadljumi, kad svesvards izspiez no valodas senu 
danu cilmes vardu. Piemeram, vards populser (populars) norada, 
ka kaut kas bauda vispareju atzTsanu, bet folkeligt (tautisks) 
nozlme, ka kaut kas ir pievilclgs plasam tautas masam. Trofast 
(uzticlgs) ir viennozTmTgi pozitTvs tikumTbas apzlmejums, 
savukart loyal (lojals) ir neitrals apzlmejums, kas attiecinams 
vienTgi uz uzvedlbu. Indpakning (iepakojums) apzTme planus, 
mTkstus materialus, ka paplru, audumu vai plevi, bet emballage 
(iepakojums) attiecas arl uz pudelem, metala un plastmasas 
skardenem, utt. (Hansen & Lund: 15). 
Valda uzskats, ka danu valoda neattTstas vai nepastav 
norobezoti no apkartejas pasaules, tiesi tapat ka danu kultura 
veidojusies nevis atskirti no arpasaules, bet gan mijiedarblba ar 
lielaku Eiropas meroga veselumu, un taja atseviski elementi, 
piemeram, kristietlba, ienakusi ka aizguvums no citiem 
90 
kontinentiem. Tapat tiek uzsverts, ka danu valodai raksturlga 
tiesi tada svesvardu izvele, kada ta ir, un arl so svesvardu 
saspele ar pasmaju vardu krajumu ir tikai danu valodai 
raksturlga (Hansen & Lund: 28). 
Valodas lietojuma sferu zudums 
Danija reakcija uz valodas lietojuma sferu zudumu ir fldzTga ka 
Zviedrija, lai gan Danija ta ir mazak izteikta un attiecTba uz 
Eiropas SavienTbu senaka un ITdz ar to nepiesaista vairs tik 
daudz uzmanTbas (Hansen, 1992). 
Zviedru valoda 
Zviedrijas varas iestazu politika attiecTba pret svesvardiem vai 
an sadas aktTvas politikas neesamTba - atbilst Danijas situacijai. 
Tomer Zviedrijas iestasanas Eiropas SavienTba notikusi nesen, 
un ar to saistTta nacionalas valsts parveide ir novedusi pie 
nepieciesamTbas formulet valodas politiku. 
Jauna situacija nozTme, ka aizvien lielaku skaitu svangu politisku 
lemumu pienem ne vien geografiski talak no katra atseviska 
pilsorja, vairakam valstTm iesaistoties necaurredzama spele, bet 
tas turklat notiek svesvaloda. Profesori Ulfs Telemans un 
Margareta Vestmana brldina no ta, ka zviedriem naksies 
pieredzet, ka vini nav pietiekami zinTgi, radosi un atjautlgi saja 
svesvaloda, kas tomer bus vinu vienTga balss arenas, kuras tiek 
91 
pienemti tie ekonomiskie un politiskie lemumu, kas savulaik tika 
pienemti zviedru valoda Zviedrija (Teleman & Westman: 11). 
Politikas un sazinas eiropeizacijas un globalizacijas procesa 
zviedru valodas sferu zudumam par labu angju valodai ir ne tikai 
politiski iemesli; vairaku lielu zviedru firmu internacionalizacija 
nozlme, ka uznemuma vadlsana lielakoties norisinas angju 
valoda (lai nerastos nepieciesamlba pec tulkojumiem sazina ar 
arzemju nodajam); savukart zinatnes internacionalizacija 
nozlme, ka krietna tiesa zinatniskas petniecTbas darba, 
piemeram, tehnologiju, dabaszinatnu, mediju un sabiedrTbas 
zinatnu joma tagad norit angju valoda. Lai sagatavotu nakamas 
zinatnieku paaudzes starptautiskai sadarbTbai, daja macTbu 
gimnazijas ITmenT jau patlaban notiek angju valoda (Hagerfelth). 
Paredzams, ka tas novedTs pie feriesu situacijas, proti, ka 
gimnazijai domatas macTbu gramatas atsevisl^os prieksmetos 
vairs netiks izdotas dzimtaja valoda (Teleman & Westman, 1997 
9). Iespejams, ka skoleni macTbu procesa kjus pasTvaki, jo 
viniem bus gutak formulet savu domu. ^oW biezi, runajot ar 
skolasbiedriem, piemeram, par fiziku, vini vislabpratak sarunas 
risina angju valoda, tapec ka nav parliecinati par zviedru valodas 
terminologiju (Hagerfelth: 43). 
Ir pilnTgi drosi angju valoda ka macTbu valoda gimnazijas 
novedTs pie ta, ka nakamam paaudzem bus grutak izteikties par 
92 
sabiedrlbu (par ekonomiku, vesturi, politiku, dabu un vidi utt.) 
zviedru valoda, ja vien vini nesasniegs dzimtas valodas Umeni 
angju valoda, kas tomer joprojam bus mazak nianseta un 
nedrosaka ka ieprieks bijusi vinu dzimta valoda. MainTsies arl 
vieteja kultura, jo notiks demokratisko procesu un darblbu 
vajinasanas (Teleman & Westman). 
Reakcija uz valodas lietojuma sferu zudumu 
Debates par skandinavu valodu lietojuma sferu zudumu jaunaja 
Eiropa ir vel tik svaigas, ka ir izvirzrti pavisam nedaudzi 
priekslikumi, ко butu iespejams veikt, lai radltu drosTbu valodam 
un ITdz ar to arl cilvekiem, kuriem ta ir dzimta valoda. Telemans 
un Vestmana uzsver nepieciesamlbu attTsffl terminologiju 
dzimtaja valoda un nodrosinat tas apguvi, lai zviedri an turpmak 
spetu dzimtaja valoda run at par visam temam, to starpa par 
dabaszinatnem, nebanalizejot sakamo (Teleman & Westman: 18). 
Abi zinatnieki uzskata arl, ka mazajam valstlm japastiprina tulku 
un tulkotaju izglltosana - gan tadej, lai joprojam butu iespejams 
ar dzimtas valodas starpnieclbu piedalities starptautiskos 
forumos, gan tadej, lai pasmaju konferences utml. kuras notiek 
svesvalodas, varetu piedalities ikviens, un, visbeidzot, tadej, lai 
butu iespejams kvalificeti popularized kulturas veikumus. 
93 
Atseviski zviedru un darju politiki censas jau sakumstadija 
ietekmet lemumu par Eiropas SavienTbas mazo valodu funkcijas 
mazinasanu, piedavajot tadu oficialo valodu skaita reducesanas 
veidu, kura, virjuprat, vislabak butu nemtas vera skandinavu 
valodu intereses - vini piedava Eiropas SavienTbai pariet nevis uz 
cetram pamatvalodam (angju, francu, vacu un spanu), bet gan 
uzreiz uz vienu kopTgu valodu, proti, angju valodu. Sadam 
ieteikumam pamata ir divi apsverumi. Pirmkart, skandinavi 
relatlvi labak prot angju valodu (un neviena cita valoda nespetu 
darboties ka vienlgais starpvalstu komunikacijas Udzeklis). 
Otrkart, tad, ja debates risinatos viena valoda, kurai visi spejTgi 
izsekot, nevis cetras, notiktu lemumu pienemsanas procesa 
demokratizacija (Teleman & Westman: 12). 
Profesors Eriks Hansens, attieksme pret svesvardiem 
visliberalakais skandinavu valodu komisiju priekssedetajs, 
uzskata, ka jaunais spiediens no arpuses ietekmes zviedru un 
danu attieksmi pret savu valodu un ka tas laika gaita novedTs pie 
uzskatamas un aktlvas valodas politikas. Vins arl doma, ka sis 
arejais spiediens var kjut par katalizatoru skandinaviskas 
koplbas izjutai (Hansen, 1992). 
94 
Skandinaviskais arguments 
Kops pagajusa gadsimta sakuma, kad Skandinaviju sasniedza 
romantisma interese par nacionali vesturiskajam saknem, 
skandinaviskums ir bijis valodas politikas debasu sastavdaja. 
Kad sis arguments tiek celts gaisma, medz uzsvert, ka 
skandinaviskajai koplbai ir liela vertlba gan kulturas, gan 
politikas un ekonomikas aspekta (Sandey: 34). Musdienas ta tiek 
akcenteta ka komunikacijas koplba - danu, norvegu un zviedru 
valoda runajosie var ar lielakam vai mazakam grutTbam saprast 
cits citu (dazkart grutak iet ar mutvardu komunikaciju zviedru un 
danu starpa, Teleman: 70-72). Ja skatamies no gaisas puses, 
tad tarn var pievienot faktu, ka visi feriesi un islandiesi jau skola 
ir macljusies danu valodu un ka visiem somiem skola bijusi 
zviedru valoda (Bunkus: 98-99). Seit gan piebilstams, ka feriesi, 
islandiesi un somi principa vienlldz labi varetu sava starpa 
sazinaties kada cita svesvaloda un tada veida but UdztiesTgi ar 
saviem sarunu partneriem. Tomer nav ne mazako saubu, ka 
austrumskandinavu valodu koplba tiek uztverta ka tiklab 
ekonomiska, ta cilveciska vertlba, kuru sis tautas nekada zina 
negribetu skatTt mazinamies. 
Aizvien pieaugot nepieciesamTbai paplasinat vardu krajumu, 
butlba pastav divas iespejas: vai nu koplgie jaunvardi spes 
satuvinat sis piecas valodas, vai an, iekjaujot valoda dazadus 
95 
vai, iespejams, vienadus jaunvardus ar stipri atskingam 
rakstlbam, valodas vel vairak attalinasies cita no citas 
(Westerberg). 
Skandinavu valodu komisjju attieksme pret skandinaviskumu, 
izvirzoties jautajumiem par jaunvardiem un par svesvardu un 
citvalodu Tpasvardu pareizrakstTbu, ir divejada. No vienas puses 
tas min koordinacijas velamfbu skandinavu valodu starpa, un 
gadljumos, kad tas pastiprina ieteikuma speku atbildes uz tarn 
adresetajiem jautajumiem, tas nereti atsaucas uz attiecTga varda 
lietojumu citas skandinavu valodas (Bunkus). No otras puses tas 
apgalvo, ka nacionalas tradlcijas un principi ir jaliek pirmaja 
vieta, jaunos vardus galvenokart pielagojot ikvienas atseviskas 
valodas galvenajam likumTbam, kuras katra valstT ir citadas. Tas 
attiecas gan uz tadiem svesvardiem ka interview (intervija), ко, 
piemeram, darju valoda raksta interview, bet norvegu valoda 
tagad var raksffi an ka intervju (Sandoy: 34-35), gan arl uz 
vietvardiem, ka Moldova, kas pec Padomju SavienTbas 
sabrukuma danu un norvegu valoda ir ienakusi ka endonlms 
Moldova, turpretl zviedru valoda paturets eksonlms Moldavien, 
par pamatojumu minot iemeslu, ka sT forma joprojam domine 
medijos (Schack, 1993: 86). Atseviski cilveki ironize parfaktu, ka 
jaunie angju cilmes svesvardi nu butu tie, kas stiprinatu 
skandinavu koplbu (Sandoy: 35). 
96 
Purisma speks 
Ja cilveks ir gatavs nodoties pratojumiem par faktoriem, kas 
nosaka to apjomu un veidu, kada valodu ietekme citas valodas, 
skiet, ka skandinavu valodu gadljuma ir divi faktori, kuriem ir 
butiska loma. Viens ir attiecTgaja valoda runajoso skaits, jo 
feriesu un islandiesu valoda, ka minets ievada, runa salldzinosi 
nedaudz, turpretT danu un zviedru valoda - relatTvi vairak cilveku. 
Otrs faktors varetu but jautajums par attieclga valoda runajosas 
tautas neatkarlbas ilgumu vai pakapi, jo Danija un Zviedrija ir 
bijusas neatkarlgas valstis praktiski visa vesturiska laika rituma, 
turpretT Norvegija pilnlgu neatkarTbu ieguva tikai 1905. gada, 
Islande - 1944. gada, un Feru salas sT raksta saceresanas brldT 
aizvien vel nav pilnlgi neatkarlgas. Atbilstosi Feru salas un 
Islande noverojami vislielakie centieni izvairTties no svesvardiem, 
daudz mazaki tie ir Norvegija, savukart Zviedrija un Danija netiek 
Tstenota uz svesvardu izskausanu versta valodas politika. 
Pierjemums par saiknes pastavesanu starp valodas pakjausanos 
citu valodu ietekmei un tautas neatkarlbas ilgumu vai pakapi 
kjust vel ticamaks, ja aplukojam izmainas, kadas notikusas danu 
valodas kultura, - jau nodaja par danu valodas tlnsanas vestun 
minets vacu dimes svesvardu aizvietosanas vilnis danu valoda 
laika, kad norisinajas abi Slesvigas-Holsteinas kari danu un 
97 
vaciesu starpa. Abi ieprieks minetie faktori ir apvienojami viena -
jautajuma par to, cik liela mera valodas lietotaji izjut, ka vinu 
identitate un kolektlva izdzlvosana ir apdraudeta no arpuses. 
Vairak neka sesdesmit gadu garuma Danijas filologi un 
pedagogijas specialise centas atcelt likumu, kas noteica lietvardu 
rakstlsanu ar lielo sakumburtu. Atcejot so likumu (kuram nav 
tikpat ka nekadas nozlmes attiecTba uz teksta izpratni), vienas 
dienas laika tika izskausta, rupji rekinot, tresdaja k|udu, kuras 
darji piejava rakstos. Tomer so reformu, kas nozlmeja 
attalinasanos no vacu pareizrakstlbas un tuvinasanos citu 
skandinavu valodu pareizrakstlbai, bija iespejams Tstenot tikai 
1948. gada, pec piecus gadus ilgas vacu okupacijas Danija 
(Lund: 82). SpecTgo antidanisko jutu rezultata, kuras pavadTja 
cTrju par nacionalo neatkarlbu 15. un 16. gadsimta mija, zviedru 
valoda sobrld ir daudz sarezgltaka locTjumu sistema neka danu 
valoda, jo zviedru rakstu valoda konsekventi ieviesa tas 
nereduceto patskanu galotnes, kuras jau bija izzudusas danu 
valoda un daudzos zviedru valodas dialektos un pamazam 
izgaisa arl no zviedru rakstu valodas (Vikor: 49). 
Vel vienu faktoru, kuram, iespejams, ir nozlme purisma sakara, 
min Ari Pauls Kristinssons, pratodams, карёс islandiesu vidu tik 
izplatlta velme pec purisma vairs neliekas esam harmonija ar 
98 
vinu pasu valodas praksi: "Iespejams, tiesi visas parmainas 
[sabiedrlba] ir tas, kas praslt prasa pec kada stingra pieturas 
punkta esamTba, piemeram, pec valodas politikas." (Kristinsson, 
1997° 54). Tadej var domat, ka pie pieaugosas plaisas starp 
valodas politiku, kuru iedzTvotaji velas, un iedzTvotaju personlgo 
praksi ir vainojams tas, ka valodas politikai tiek uzticets 
uzdevums garantet eslbas kontinuitati, uzdevums, kas varbut 
parsniedz valodas iespejas un kas brldl, kad valodas lietotaji 
pasi lieto valodu, netiek uztverts ka seviski aktuals. 
Bibliografija 
Arnason, Kristjan (1991) Sprogrogtsaktion "Malraakt 1989" In: 
Sprog i Norden 1991. pp. 26 - 36. 
Bunkus, Andreas (1997) Det skandinaviska argumentets 
roll i spraknamndernas radgivning. In: Sprog i Norden 
1997 pp. 98-105. 
Hansen, Erik (1985) Orddannelse pa hjemlig grund. In: Sprog i 
Norden 1985. pp. 65 - 70. 
Hansen, Erik (1991) Sprogpolitik. In: (red.) Jujgensen, J. 
Normann: Det danske sprogs status ar 2001 
Kebenhavnerstudier i tosprogethed 14. Kobenhavn: 
Danmarks Laererhojskole, pp. 31 - 42. 
Hansen, Erik (1992) Det danskes sprogs fremtid. In: Sprog i 
Norden 1992. pp. 84 - 89. 
Hansen, Erik & Lund, Jern (1994) Kulturens Gesandter 
Fremmedordene i dansk. Kobenhavn: Munksgaard. 
99 
Hagerfelth, Gun (1993) Internationalisering i den svenska 
gymnasieskolan. Bilingual education eller 
amnesundervisning pa frammande sprak. In: Sprog 
Norden 1993. pp. 36 - 46. 
Jacobsen, Henrik Galberg (1973) Sprogrogt Denmark i 
1930erne og 1940erne: Dansk Sprognaevns skrifter 6. 
Kobenhavn. 
Jonsson, Baldur (1985) Islandsk ordbildning pa inhemsk grund. 
In: Sprog i Norden 1985. pp. 5 -12. 
Kristinsson, Ari Pall (1992) Islandsk sprogrogt over for en ny 
verden. In: Sprog i Norden 1992. pp. 18 - 28. 
Kristinsson, Ari Pall (1997) Konservativt sprogvaern i et samfund 
under store omvaeltninger. In: Sprog i Norden 1997 pp. 
43 - 54. 
Larsen, Kaj T (1975) Lidt om faerask sprogrogt. In: Sprog 
Norden 1975. pp. 53 - 56. 
Lund, Jorn (1991) Statsstyring, markedsmekanismer og 
brugsbehov. In: Sprog i Norden 1991. pp. 69 - 92. 
Ordbog over det Danske Sprog, XXI sej. (1943) Kobenhavn: 
Gyldendal. 
Petersen, Pia Riber (1984) Nye ord i dansk 1955 75. 
Kobenhavn: Dansk Sprognaevns skrifter 11 
Poulsen, Johan Hendrik W. (1985) Огбадегб a heimljgum stedi. 
In: Sprog I Norden 1985. pp. 45 - 56. 
100 
Poulsen, Johan Hendrik W. (1986) Faeroske sprogsporgsmal. In: 
Sprog I Norden 1986. pp. 60 - 64. 
Poulsen, Johan Hendrik W. (1989) Engelsk pavirkning pafaerosk. 
In: Sprog i Norden 1989. pp. 46 - 56. 
Ragnarsdottir, Gudny Asta (1996) The Icelandic Translator and 
Purism. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. 4:2. 
Copenhagen, pp. 223 - 233. 
Sandoy, Helge (1996) Fornorskning og norvegisering. Norsk 
sprakrokt i 1996. In: Sprog i Norden 1997 pp. 23 - 42. 
Schack, Jorgen (1993) Udenlandske stednavne i den sproglige 
radgivning. In: Sprog i Norden 1993. pp. 81 - 87 
Skautrup, Peter (1968) Det danske sprogs historie, IV 
Kabenhavn: Gyldendal. 
Teleman, Ulf (1987) Om grannsprakfdrstaelse Hinder och 
mojligheter. In: Sprog i Norden 1987 pp. 70 - 82. 
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nationell sprakpolitik? In: Sprog i Norden 1997 pp. 5 - 22. 
Vikar, Lars S. (1993) The Nordic Languages: Their Status and 
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No. 14. Oslo: Novus Press. 
Venas, Kjell (1991) Aksjon for sprakleg miljovern. In: Sprog i 
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1993. pp. 1 3 - 3 2 . 
101 
Westerberg, Kjell (1993) En samnordisk termbank - nu vigtigare 
an nagonsin.ln: Sprog i Norden 1993. pp. 95 -101. 
Summary 
A wide variety of policies towards foreign words is applied to the 
Scandinavian languages, ranging from the total rejection of 
words of foreign origin which is characteristic of Icelandic to the 
acceptance of an ever increasing number of loans which is 
common to the three continental languages. On the 
Scandinavian language councils policies part of the five vary 
from mere registration and analysis of new material found in the 
language to systematic evolvement of new words based on old 
material and initiatives to penalize the use of foreign words. A 
corresponding divergence is seen in public response to linguistic 
changes, ranging from widespread Feroese and Icelandic 
enthusiasm in the generation and acquisition of new local words 
to the continental general indifference, which is interrupted only 
by occasional protest at the normalization of the spelling of 
loanwords. As one of several countermeasures against foreign 
words, obsolete words and suffixes are given new leases of life 
in Feroese and Icelandic as they are employed to cover new 
concepts. This approach has proved unworkable on the 
continent where in recent years the focus of attention has been 
on the adaptation of the spelling of a few French loanwords in 
Danish and some English loanwords in Norwegian to local 
principles. 
102 
Also attitudes and policies towards the loss of domain varies 
greatly. At one end of the spectre are recent Icelandic 
prohibitions of advertisements in foreign languages and 
transmission of foreign television broadcasts without translation. 
Icelandic language is, however, under increasing preasure in the 
field of information technology as few educational programmes 
and games on CD-Rom are offered in Icelandic, and as most 
computer programmes are in English (even those used in 
primary-school computer-classes). On the continent no move 
has yet been made to counteract loss of domain. In Norway this 
has been felt most acutely in the oil sector where English is 
increasingly used as the vehicle of communication between 
Norwegians, even legal proceedings have been hampered by 
the fact that the documents in case were in English. In Sweden 
some high schools have started teaching certain subjects in 
English, and research and the publication of research especially 
in the natural and social sciences are already dominated by 
English. This may lead to a situation where people find it difficult 
to express themselves adequately on certain topics in their 
mother tongue. Sweden's recent admission to the EU, where 
part of the democratic process takes place in languages other 
than Swedish, has raised the questions how or whether it is 
possible to ensure continued participation by Swedish specialists 
and the population at large in democratic debates and decision­
making without sacrificing Swedish as a language of education 
and specialization. 
103 
Anita Naciscione 
University of Latvia 
Phraseological Puns in Discourse: How do they Come 
About? 
This paper will consider phraseological pun as part of the 
process of change and development of phraseological units 
(PUs) in discourse. 
In general stylistics a pun or word-play is broadly characterized 
as an ambiguity. It involves the use of a polysemous word to 
suggest two or more meanings or the use of homonyms (Wales, 
1995: 384-5). Leech (1969: 209) calls pun a foregrounded 
lexical ambiguity. A lot of interest has been focused on lexical 
puns (see Nowottny, 1962: Ch. VII; Redfern, 1984; Alexander, 
1997- Ch.4). Fill (1992) deals with pun in compound words with a 
figurative meaning which he calls "idiomatized complex words" 
In phraseology pun has received much attention and is well-
known. Punning on PUs is a specific case of wordplay. Its 
stylistic effect does not lie in the presence of the PU, but in the 
relation between the PU and the corresponding free combination 
of words with their literal meanings. This use emerges as 
another type of cohesion as it can be explained only by the 
relevant interrelationship. For instance: 
104 
to take one's leave of somebody 
105 
Polonius: My lord, I will take my leave from you. 
Hamlet: You c a n n o t , sir, t a k e a n y t h i n g 
f r o m m e t h a t I w i l l m o r e w i l l i n g l y 
p a r t w i t h a l - except my life, except my life, except 
my life. 
W. Shakespeare. Hamlet 
This is a classical example of phraseological pun where the PU 
is followed by an abrupt return to the direct meaning of the 
component(s). Naturally there are different theoretical 
approaches and terms used. In phraseological research this 
stylistic pattern has been called in a number of ways: pun, dual 
actualization1 wordplay 2 literalization, and others. The term "dual 
actualization" seems to be appropriate from the semantic point 
of view, as it is the duality, the two-dimensional quality of the 
narrative that characterizes this instantial use. 
My interest lies in the involvement of phraseological pun in 
discourse as a particular case of stylistic instantial use where 
two interpretations can be assigned to it: direct and figurative. 
The salient feature of this pattern is the juxtaposition and 
contradistinction of the figurative meaning of the PU and the 
literal meaning of a component or components. As PUs are 
figurative, stable combinations of words they easily lend 
themselves to word-play, for every figurative component 
invariably has a literal meaning at the same time. This is a 
technique of double exposure, to use a photography term, which 
seems to convey the essence of this pattern where two pictures 
appear on top of one another without coinciding. Thus figurative 
items contrast with literal, non- figurative language. The dual 
perception results in a dual reading of the lines. 
The pattern of phraseological pun may take on varied forms in 
discourse. It may be only one phraseological component which is 
used in its direct meaning and repeated in the subsequent or 
the preceding sentence(s) at least once. The literalized 
component assumes dual significance and is loaded with 
meaning. 
birds in their little nests agree 
"Birds in their little nests agree, she said, smiling 
She knew nothing at all about birds. 
L.I.Wilder. Little Town on Prairie 
Or the whole PU may undergo literalization, creating an 
analogue, a parallel construction which is an identical non-
106 
figurative structure reminding of the PU in form but having no 
figurative meaning. 
a skeleton in the cupboard 
Phraseological pun offers a cognitive insight into the process of 
the creation of a phraseological image, and the secret of literal 
use vs literal use lays bare the semantic structure of the PU, it 
uncovers the image. The identification of dual actualization is the 
perceptual process of demetaphorization. It is a linguistic 
procedure that is reverse to image creation which PUs undergo 
in their formation stage. The process of demetaphorization 
reveals the mechanism of figurative language. The PU is turned 
into an image-free combination of words which entails an abrupt 
shift in topic. In the following example the use of cuffs brings out 
the direct meaning of sleeve which is in a logically contiguous 
relationship with cuffs: 
Jack: 
Jenny: 
Bernard What guilty secret? 
Some skeleton in the cupboard. 
(handing him back his glass): No.no, 
a b o d y i n t h e g a r d e n . 
G. Cooper. Everything in the Garden 
107 
to have something up one's sleeve 
Again that indefinable mockery, as if he had something 
up his sleeve. Soames looked mechanically at t h e 
f e l l o w ' s c u f f s - b e a u t i f u l l y l a u n d e r e d , 
w i t h a b l u e s t r i p e , at his holland waistcoat, 
and his bird's-eye tie - a regular dandy. 
Galsworthy. The White Monkey 
It is of both practical and theoretical interest to distinguish 
between phraseological pun and extended metaphor. Redfern 
argues that wordplay incites us to think, see and hear on more 
than one level, or at least with only a slight time-lag, the time 
needed to see the connection (see Redfern, 1984: 97). In case 
of extended metaphor the figurative meaning is sustained and it 
stays figurative by acquiring new sub-images which all pertain to 
the main image upon which the PU is based while in case of pun 
there is a sudden return to direct meaning in one or several 
components of the base form. In discourse these semantic shifts 
may be meandering and wavering in between the two semantic 
levels. The previous example is a clear-cut case of pun while the 
following one illustrates the use of both the techniques 
extended metaphor and phraseological pun in one instantial 
application: 
108 
to kill two birds one stone 
109 
Beryl: Oh, good, I can kill two birds with one stone 
a n d y o u ' r e o n e o f t h e m , Jenny. 
Bill: J e n n y a b i r d ? 
Cooper Everything in the Garden 
It is essential to explore dual actualization in dialogue. For one 
thing this pattern is typical of all dialogues, including prose and 
drama dialogue, as well as oral discourse. The study of dialogue 
is also of considerable value as it enables us to follow the 
access 3 and perception of dual actualization over turn 
boundaries and longer stretches of text. In dialogical discourse 
the remark containing a pun may be a witticism (see the first 
example) which shows the ability of the interlocutor to perceive 
the two levels of meaning and create a pun or, on the contrary, a 
failure to access which means a failure to recognize and see 
beyond the literal meaning of a string of words. Recall failure 
may also mean that the right phraseological item cannot be 
identified as it does not exist in the mental dictionary4 of the 
character 
on the rocks 
Lanny: On the rocks? Or as it comes? 
Ruth: R о с к s ? W h a t d o y o u k n o w a b o u t 
r o c k s ? 
Lanny: We've got r o c k s . But they are frozen stiff in the 
fridge. 
H.Pinter. The Homecoming 
The traditional pattern of taking turns in dialogue lends itself to 
dual actualization very well. In the next dialogue the interjectional 
PU "hear, hear!" is an unattended verbal stimulus and the recall 
failure emerges as the leading element. When asked to say it 
again, Bilbo himself gets confused and flustered trying to save 
the situation. He echoes the word "hear" as a transitive verb in 
its direct meaning. Flustered acts like a cue signalling a shift in 
the semantic level: 
hear, hear! 
"Hear, hear ! " said Bilbo, and accidentally said it aloud. 
" H e a r w h a t ? " they asked turning suddenly towards 
him and he was so flustered that he answered, 
" H e a r what I have got to say!" 
J.R.R.Tolkien. The Hobbit or there and 
Back Again 
110 
In longer dialogues the context infrequently wavers between the 
literal and figurative levels of meaning, shifting focus and 
creating a pervasive parallelism of metaphoric and direct 
meanings. In the next example the interactive dimension of the 
dialogue is based on a clash, an ambiguity arising from using the 
same combination of words in a way that is pregnant with 
meaning: 
blood is thicker than water 
Gentleman: We are of the same stock, you and I. 
Blood is thicker than water, we are 
cousins. 
Woman: / am afraid I am as much in the dark as 
before. You said also that b l o o d i s 
t h i c k e r t h a n w a t e r . No doubt it is; 
but what of it? 
Gentleman: The meaning is quite obvious. 
Woman: Perfectly. But I assure you I am quite aware 
that b l o o d i s t h i c k e r t h a n 
w a t e r . 
Gentleman: (sniffing: almost in tears again) We will leave 
it at that, madam. 
B.Shaw. Back to Methuselah 
i l l 
The dialogue also includes the cue: The meaning is quite 
obvious, as well as the author's disambiguating comment in the 
stage directions sniffing: almost in tears which give instructions 
to the actor to enact the pun. These prop-words help to bring out 
the dual function to the reader or the audience. The absence of 
recollection obviously indicates the absence of the PU in the 
long-term memory 5 of the character. The words "we will leave it 
at that" signal a painful dismissal of hope to get the thought 
across. 
In dialogue dual actualization may not only provide a cohesive 
link across turn boundaries, but also encompass some of the 
author's narrative. The duality of the semantic structure of the 
text is extended: 
a scarlet woman 
"No gentleman who cares for his good name can be seen 
with the scarlet woman of Lyme" 
And that too was a step; for there was a bitterness in her 
voice. He smiled at her averted face. "I think t h e o n l y 
t r u e s c a r l e t t h i n g s a b o u t y o u a r e y o u r 
c h e e k s". 
Fowles. The French Lieutenant's Woman 
112 
The identification of a pun calls for an insight into both the 
semantic levels and their interrelationship. The meaning of a 
phraseological component is identified as some unambiguous 
words are rendered salient in the context. In this case it is the 
word cheeks which has a metonymic link with the second non-
figurative component woman. 
A continual implication of the figurative and direct meanings 
creates a phraseological web which sustains the parallel levels 
of meaning and reinforces the overall dual perception: 
to go West 
Desert said slowly: 
"The moment I believe that I s h a l l g o E a s t." 
"E a s t?" 
"Not so stale as going West, but much the same - y o u 
d o n ' t c o m e b a c k . 
Galsworthy. The White Monkey, Ch II 
In the next chapter the pun is picked up again nine pages later, 
continuing the web of alternating phraseological and non-
phraseological meanings. The same semantic pattern persists: 
A voice behind her said: 
Well, Fleur, a m I g o i n g E a s t ? " ... 
"You're very silly, Wilfrid!" 
113 
"Anything you like, a m I g o i n g E a s t?" 
"No, Sunday morning - eleven o'clock at the Tate. 
We'll talk it out." 
If she were going to keep Wilfrid, she must be 
nice to Michael 
Yes, he (Wilfred) was dear! But would she break 
her heart if he went E a s t o r West 
tomorrow? 
J.Galsworthy. The White Monkey, Ch. Ill 
The discoursal properties of phraseology secure an environment 
in which a pun may be based not only on the figurative and literal 
meanings, but also on the polysemy of one PU 6 Polysemy in 
phraseology is a comparatively rare phenomenon, but when it is 
exploited in discourse it may achieve a striking effect. Let me 
have a closer look at the use of the PU "Good morning!" which is 
a very common PU (too common to achieve notice in core use). 
In this context it is highlighted and carried to stylistic lengths, 
including instantial conversion which is infrequent in the 
discoursal use of phraseology. 
good morning! 
"Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he m e a n t i t . 
The sun was shining, and the grass was green ... 
114 
" W h a t d o v o u m e a n ? " he (Gandalf) said. 
"Do you wish me a good morning or mean that it is 
a g o o d m o r n i n g whether I want it or not, or 
that v o u f e e l g o o d t h i s m o r n i n g , or 
that it is a g o o d m o r n i n g t o b e g o o d 
о n ?" 
Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a little 
cross. 
"Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want 
any adventures here, thank you! "By this he 
meant that the conversation was at end. "What a lot 
of things do you use 'good morning!' for" said 
Gandalf. " N o w y o u m e a n t h a t v o u 
w a n t t o g e t r i d o f m e , and that i t 
w o n ' t b e g o o d t i l l I m o v e o f f to 
think that I should have lived t o b e g o o d -
m o r n i n g e d b у Belladonna Took's son as if I 
was selling buttons at the door!" 
J.R.R.Tolkien.The Hobbit or There and 
Back Again 
The term dual actualization seems to be particularly appropriate 
when we come up against cases of simultaneous dual-purpose 
realization of both phraseological and literal meaning in 
115 
discourse where the PU is not reiterated, nor are its 
components. The semantic cohesion of text is attained by a dual 
vision backed by a network of prop-words as in the following 
example from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. 
to blere somebodys ye 7 
With this chanoun I dwelt have seven yeer, 
And of his science am I never the neer 
Al that I hadde, I have y-lost ther-by; 
And got wot, so hath many mo than I. 
Ther I was wont to be right fresh and gay 
Of clothing and of other good array, 
Now may I were an hose upon myn heed; 
And wher my colour was both fresh and reed, 
Now is it wan and of a leden hewe, 
Who-so it useth, sore shal he rewe. 
And of my swink yet blered is mvn ve. 
Lo! which avantage is to multiplye! 
That slyding science hath maad me so bare, 
That I have no good, wher that ever I fare; 
And yet I am endetted so ther-by 
Of gold that I have borwed, trewely, 
That whyl I live, I shal it quyte never. 
Lat every man be war by me for ever! 
116 
What maner man that casteth him ther-to, 
If he continue, I hodle his thrift y-do. 
So helpe me god, ther-by shal he nat winne, 
But empte his purs, and make his wittes thinne. 
G.Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales, G, 720-41 
The PU to blere somebodys ye is recurrent in Chaucer's works, 
it occurs four times, presenting both core use and instantial use 8 
This example is from The Canon's Yeoman's Tale. Here we see 
two meanings packed into one PU: a simultaneous actualization 
of both the figurative meaning of the PU and the direct meaning 
of its literal counterpart. The cohesive relationship between the 
two meanings is secured by the proximity of words which sustain 
both the semantic levels: 
(1) the direct meaning of the phrase, set off by the contrast of 
my colour was bothe fresh and reed and now is it wan and of a 
leden hewe, and the description of the trade of alchemists in the 
preceding Prologue to the Tale in which we find out that blowing 
into fire has discoloured his face (CT, G, 664-7); 
(2) the figurative meaning of deceit, set off by slyding science 
hath maad me so bare, have no good, endetted of gold, 
empte his purs, and make his wittes thinne, as well as the 
insinuations of delusion and failure in the Prologue to this Tale 
(we fayle of our desyr, yet it is fals and others). The dual 
117 
perception is clearly signalled by all these prop-words which 
make access possible. The burden of disambiguation, however, 
rests with the reader. 
The following example is notable not only for its discoursal 
features but also because it reveals the cognitive complexity of 
some of the processes of thought and reason. As Count Dionys 
is a non-native speaker Lady Daphne tries to give him a 
verbatim interpretation of the PU 9 by commenting on its 
meaning. His facial expression, acting like a cue, clearly shows 
that this PU is not part of his mental lexicon. Comprehension is 
also encumbered by the fact the PU first does not appear in core 
use but in a zeugmatic construction. However, after her 
literalized explanation he is capable of taking up the thread and 
extending the word-play by replacing "bee" by" ladybird" the 
insect of his family crest: 
to have a bee in one's bonnet 
"I suppose" she mused, "it is as bad to have y o u r 
b e e i n y o u r s h i r t a s in your bonnet". 
He looked at her with round eyes. 
"Don't you know what it is to have a bee in your 
bonnet?" she said. 
"No". 
118 
"To h a v e a b e e b u z z i n g a m o n g y o u r 
h a i r ! To be out of your wits," she smiled at him. 
"So!" he said. "Ah, the Psaneks have had a 
l a d y b i r d in their bonnets for many hundred 
years. 
"Quite, quite mad" she said. 
...But with my wife I was quite sane for ten years. 
Now give me the madness of the ladybird. The world I 
was sane about has gone raving. The ladybird I was 
mad with is wise still 
"But surely you are funny, with y o u r f a m i l y 
i n s e с t." 
" M y f a m i l y i n s e c t ? Now you want to be 
rude to me" 
D.H.Lawrence. The Ladybird 
It is revealing to follow how the lady reacts in an attempt to 
explain the base meaning of the metaphoric PU by comparing 
the stinging effect of such an idea on one's mind with that of a 
bee trapped under one's hat. This instantiation is cognitively 
insightful as it uncovers the anatomy of phraseological pun and 
discloses its semantic make-up. It, as it were, dissects to allow 
us to gain a close-up of the process of demetaphorization and 
enables us to understand and interpret change of PUs in 
119 
discourse. Interestingly, the pun is picked up again some 50 
pages later towards the end of the story in an explanation of the 
silly obsession with the family crest. Moreover, the extension of 
the pun goes hand in hand with the metaphoric umbrella use of 
"the ladybird" in the title of the story, thus acquiring a discourse 
dimension. 
Intradiscoursal10 preference of an instantial pattern is an 
interesting phenomenon and cognitively a challenging area for 
discourse stylistics. Its interpretation calls for a thorough 
consideration of the discoursal aspects of the whole of the work. 
A good example is a story from the collection The Thurber 
Carnival featuring the world of Thurber's childhood. 
to cry out one's heart 
I came into the house one rainy dusk and asked where 
Frances was. "She is, said our cook, "up in the front 
room crying her heart out." The fact that a person 
c o u l d c r y s o h a r d t h a t h i s h e a r t 
w o u l d c o m e o u t o f h i s b o d y , a s 
p e r f e c t l y s h a p e d a n d g l o s s y a s a r e d 
v e l v e t p i n c u s h i o n , was news to me. For 
some reason I had never heard the expression, so 
common in American families whose hopes and dreams 
run so often counter to attainment. I went upstairs and ... 
120 
M v s e a r c h f o r h e r h e a r t took some fifteen 
minutes. I tore the bed apart and kicked up the rugs and 
even looked in the bureau drawers... 
J.Thurber. The Secret Life of James Thurber 
Punning on the common image of a heart shaped as a red 
pincushion offers a glimpse of the enchanted world of idiom of 
Thurber's early boyhood. The reiteration of this pattern creates a 
surrealistic landscape of his secret vision and comprehension of 
the world. There are many wonderful and grotesque figures 
brought to life by his imagination: one lady who was all ears. 
another one was always up in the air, a man who lost his head 
during a fire, but was s t i l l a b l e t o r u n o u t o f 
t h e h o u s e v e i l i n g and a man who left town under a 
cloud a l l w r a p p e d i n i t a n d i n v i s i b l e and 
many others. The imaginative world of his childhood is conjured 
up through a sustained literal perception of phraseological 
images building up a surrealistic realm of their own. 
Phraseological pun permeates not only The Secret Life of James 
Thurber, but also Thurber's other works, especially his fables 
contributing to their coherence and cohesion, and linking them 
transtextually through instantial use. The recurrence of 
phraseological pun and the continual return to it throughout 
Thurber's writing acquire a transdiscoursal quality by reaching 
121 
beyond the level of one discourse. The pervasive presence of a 
PU-based pun as the dominant stylistic pattern is a striking 
feature of his works, also appearing in his own illustrations. Both 
intradiscoursal and transdiscoursal realization of an instantial 
pattern clearly shows the role of phraseology in the web of 
discourse. The sum it up, in this article pun is viewed as one of 
the means of verbal creation through phraseology, as a way to 
explore experience beyond the possibilities offered by a PU in 
core use. Discourse analysis sheds light on the double exposure 
and the cohesive links effected by the instantial use of 
phraseological pun. 
Notes 
1 The term "dual actualization" was first introduced by Boldireva (1967). See also 
Dubinsky (1985). 
2 The translation of pun as a particular type of wordplay on idioms is explored in 
Veisbergs (1986; 1996) and in greater detail in Veisbergs (1997). 
3 Psycholinguistic research on lexical ambiguity is uncertain whether in word recognition 
the more common meaning is accessed first and discarded in case it is inappropriate 
(see Kess 1992: 224 - 225). Hirst argues that all meanings of the ambiguous lexical item 
are accessed during the first 200 milliseconds of the search, after which the appropriate 
meaning is chosen, and the other meanings are discarded (Hirst 1987' 93). 
4 On the mental lexicon see Kess (1992: Ch.4). 
5 On storage in long-term and short-term memory see Eysenck ([1993] 1995: Ch.4). 
122 
8 This pun is addressed in Straume's paper on the stylistic use of PUs in English 
children's nonsense literature. She suggests the term "multiactualization" to denote 
punning on a polysemous PU (1987- Ch.11) 
7 The PU to blear somebody's eyes is obsolete in Modem English. The Middle English form is 
to Were somebodys ye, meaning "to deceive somebody" See the glossary to Skeat's edition of 
Chaucer's Complete Works (1973: 15). The earliest registered example of this PU in Whiting 
(1968:167) goes back to al300. 
8 Core use -СТ, H, 252; СТ, A 4049; instantial use -CT, A 3865; CT, 720-41 
9 See Strassler (1982; 122-5) on the avoidance of obscurity in core use. 
1 0 I use the term "intradiscoursal' to denote the reiteration of a pattern within the 
framework of one text and "transdiscoursal" to mean pattern connections across a 
number of works by one author. Cf. "intertextuality" "intratextuality" and "transtextuality" 
in Orr(1997- 97). 
References 
Alexander, R.J. (1997) Aspects of Verbal Humour in 
English.Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. 
Boldireva, L.M. (1967) Stilisticheskije osobennosti 
funktsionirovaniya frazeologizmov. Unpublished PhD 
Dissertation. Moscow: M.Torez Institute. 
Chaucer, G. [1340] (1973) Complete Works (ed. W W Skeat). 
London: Oxford University Press. 
Dubinsky, E.M. (1985) Lingvostilisticheskiye osobennosti 
dvoinoy aktualizatsii frazeologicheskih edinits. Unpublished 
PhD Dissertation. Moscow: M.Torez Institute. 
Eysenck, M.W. [1993] (1995) Principles of Cognitive 
Psychology. East Sussex: Erlbaum (UK) Taylor & Francis. 
123 
Fill, A. (1992) "Visions and Revisions: A Type of Pun Based on 
Idiomatized Complex Words" in Blank C , Kirschner Т., 
Gutch D., Gilbert J. (eds.) Language and Civilization: A 
Concerted Profusion of Essays and Studies in Honour of 
Otto Hietsch, vol.2. Frankfurt-on-Main:Peter Lang: 551-563. 
Hirst, G. (1987) Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of 
Ambiguity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
Kess, J.F (1992) Psycholinguistics. Psychology, Linguistics and 
the Study of Natural Language. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: 
John Benjamins Publishing Company. 
Leech, G.N. [1969] (1993) A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. 
London and New York: Longman. 
Nowottny, W. (1962) The Language Poets Use. London: The 
Athlone Press. 
Orr, L. (1997) "Figurative and Thematic Isotopy and the Problem 
of Narrative Transtextuality" in Second LALS Conference. 
Freiburg: University of Freiburg. 
Redffern, W. (1984) Puns. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 
Strassler J. (1982) Idioms in English: A Pragmatic Analysis. 
Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. 
Straume, L. (1986). "Occasional Stylistic Use of Phraseological 
Units in English Children's Nonsense Literature" in Konkurss 
na luchshuyu rabotu molodih spetsialistov 1986/87 
uchebnovo goda. Moscow: University of Moscow. 
Veisbergs, A. (1986) Dinamicheskiye aspekti latishskoy 
frazeologii. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Riga: University 
of Latvia. 
124 
Veisbergs, A. (1996) Idiom Transformation, Idiom Translation 
and Idiom Dictionaries. Symposium on Lexicography VII: 
Proceedings of the Seveth Symposium on Lexicography, 
May 5-6, 1994 at the University of Copenhagen. Tubingen: 
Max Niemeyer Verlag. 
Veisbergs, A. (1997) "The Contextual Use of Idioms, Wordplay, 
and Translation" in D.Delabatista (ed.): Essays on Punning 
and Translation. Manchester: St.Jerome Publishing. 
Wales, K. [1989] (1995). A Dictionary of Stylistics. London and 
New York: Longman. 
Whiting, B.J. (1968) Proverbs, Sentences and Proverbial 
Phrases from English Writings Mainly Before 1500. 
Cambridge, Mass.. Harvard University Press. 
125 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
University of Latvia 
Borrowing in Engl ish and Latvian 
All languages borrow words from other languages usually by 
absorbing the lexical material or translating it (translation loans). 
English (if viewed as a purely Germanic language) vocabulary is 
of about 70-75% borrowed stock. There are few borrowings in 
Icelandic, Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian (despite having 
undergone a stronger German impact) but there are languages 
with a very high percentage of borrowings: in Armenian only 
23% of the words are of native origin and in Albanian just 8%. Of 
neologisms in Modern English borrowing contributes 7.5% of 
new word formation (Cannon, 1987 279). 
Borrowing comes as a result of language contacts. Both 
English and Latvian have had extensive direct contacts with 
different languages at different periods of history. Apart from 
these there have been indirect contacts through intermediary 
languages as well as cultural contacts. 
English has borrowed massively from French, Latin and Greek, 
significantly from Italian, Spanish, Danish and Dutch and less 
from the numerous other languages it has come into contact 
126 
with. Borrowing continues steadily. Thus 1029 words from 84 
languages entered English between 1987 and 1989. Of these 
French accounted for 25%, Spanish and Japanese each 8%, 
Italian 6.3%, Latin 6 .1%, Greek 6%, German 5.5% and 77 other 
languages contributed 1-39 items each (Cannon, 1987 - 90-91) 
Words undergoing borrowing can be assimilated fully or partially 
or can for a long period retain their original alien character. This 
can be reflected in both spelling and/or pronunciation, as well as 
in morphological differences from the native patterns. The speed 
of assimilation and its degree depends on the length of period 
during which the word has been used in the language, its 
importance in communication and its frequency. 
Borrowings in English, unless fully assimilated, may show some 
formal signs of their non-native origin: 
• Phonetically they can retain their stress on the final or 
second to last syllable: police, machine, bourgeois, 
soprano, macaroni, raison d ' e t r e , elite. One can also see 
transition forms like ga rage with its various pronunciation 
and stress variants. Graphically unassimilated elements 
would retain diachritic marks not characteristic to English: 
cafe, cliche, blase, soiree, etc. 
127 
• Loans may exhibit strange letter combinations, e.g. Italian 
viola, addio, ciao, Greek psychiatry, pneumatic (both 
phonetically adapted), German waltz. There are some letters 
and letter combinations which point to the source languages 
of the loans: 
• initial v — Latin vertebra or French vase, 
• j — Hindi jungle, 
• x -- Greek xylophone, Latin existence, 
• g — if pronounced dz Latin gesture, 
• z — Latin zero, German zinc, 
• kh - Turkish khan, Urdu khaki, 
• pn - Greek pneumo-, 
• ps -- Greek psychology, 
• ph - Greek philology, 
• eau — French beau, 
• ch French chef, Greek architect but can be also Anglo-
Saxon child, etc. 
Morphologically unassimilated words sometimes retain 
their original grammatical forms, e.g. plural: Latin formula -
formulae, genius - genii, appendix - appendices, vertebra -
vertebrae, Greek crisis - crises, thesis - theses, criterion 
criteria, phenomenon phenomena, bacterium bacteria, 
128 
German delicatessen (sg and pi) (from French delicatesse), 
Italian graffito - graffiti. 
Loans may retain variants of spelling for a considerable time: 
mujahidin :: mujahedin, leitmotif :: leitmotiv, fiord :: fjord. 
Full assimilation can be seen in many of the early borrowings 
that are not perceived as such, e.g. loans from French brush, 
forest, push, pork; Latin mile, chalk, street or various fully 
disguised adaptations as cockroach from Spanish cucaracha. 
Folk (popular) etymology - the thoughts of the ordinary people 
about the origins, forms and meanings of the words often 
results in changes: penthouse in Middle English was pentice 
from Old French apentis, crayfish comes from Old French 
crevice and rhyme coming from Middle English rime would 
have remained such, but was affected by analogy with borrowing 
from Greek rhythm. 
Yet the largest morphological impact on English has been left 
by borrowed affixes, mainly from French, Latin or Greek, which 
replaced the original Germanic ones. Large terminological layers 
of English are enriched by words made from Latin and Greek 
morphemes: meta- metabolism, meta-language, meta-
culture, meta-program, metalinguistic; tele-, video- , etc 
129 
These cannot be regarded as true borrowings as the 
compounds/derivatives have never existed in the classical 
languages. The influence of affixes from other languages has 
been rather minimal and rare, e.g. Russian or Jewish -nik: 
kolhoznik, kibbutznik, beatnik, peacenik. English derivational 
affixes are also added to borrowings thus grammatically 
assimilating them: bolshevik, bolshevism, bolshevist. 
Numerous hybrids come about. 
And finally borrowings undergo also semantic assimilation. Most 
Latin borrowings have changed their meaning in English. 
Polysemantic words are normally borrowed only with one 
meaning and further meanings developing in the receptor 
language already may be different, e.g. move borrowed from 
French mouvoir, has developed a whole range of meanings 
non-existent in French. It should be mentioned that during the 
borrowing stage loans normally come with just one meaning. 
Sometimes the newly borrowed word is very close to an existing 
word or a meaning of a different word, however the additional 
specific shade of meaning may dictate the necessity of 
borrowing. Thus apparat and apparatchik were borrowed by 
English from Russian while there was a word of the same stem 
already in the language apparatus, and bureaucracy and 
bureaucrat covered the general meanings of the two words. 
130 
The list of borrowed words as well as donor languages in English 
is endless. We look only at the more important ones and the 
loans mentioned in no way point towards the proportion of loans 
from the respective language. Nouns make up the highest 
proportion of transfers. English does not seem to follow the 
apparently logical notion that words from related languages are 
more easily borrowed and assimilated, that the Roman alphabet 
facilitates borrowing. Thus one could expect a strong German 
element in English, but it does not exceed a hundred words in 
the basic stock, while much more distant and different languages 
like Arabic, Chinese and even Russian have yielded larger 
numbers of words to the basic English stock. 
• Latin is one of the most significant sources of loans in 
English. Borrowing has taken place in three periods. The first 
was the time when Anglo-Saxon tribes were still on the continent 
and came into contact with Roman civilization. These are mainly 
words of commerce borrowed through oral communication. As a 
result the words are short and simple: 
wine - vinum cheese -- caseus 
pound - pondo butter butyrum < Gr. bouturon 
cup - cuppa, cupa pepper - piper < Gr. peperi 
dish -- discus onion — unio -onis 
131 
When the Germanic tribes arrived in Britain the Celtic tribes had 
also been in contact with Romans and some words (mainly place 
names) were reborrowed from them: 
street strata via (paved way); port portus; minster 
monasterium; fountain - fontana, fons, -tis; -cester (like in 
Chester, Gloucester, Leicester, Worcester) - castra (camp). 
The second period is connected with introduction of Christianity 
(6-7th centuries) when many words (around 500 by year 1066) 
connected with religion were borrowed: 
candle candela; monk monacus; priest presbiter; 
saint - sanctus, 
but also many everyday words were borrowed: 
lake - lakus; muscle - musculus; sickle -- secula; castle -
castellum. 
And the third period is that of the Renaissance (15-16th 
centuries) when mostly abstract scientific words were borrowed 
through written texts. 
Whole groups of words with certain suffixes were assimilated: 
-ate -ute -ant/ent 
aggravate attribute evident deduce 
exaggerate contribute transparent compel 
132 
frustrate 
locate 
narrate 
constitute incident 
arrogant 
accident 
permit 
admit 
separate 
educate 
Many unchanged forms were borrowed: maximum, idea, crisis, 
formula, superior, area, referendum, inertia, media, 
complex, series, status, video, audio; whole phrases vice 
versa, viva voce, de jure, post mortem, veni, vidi, vici, etc; 
abbreviations e.g., i.e., etc. 
Many of the words were adapted through French: agent, 
colossal, contemplate, sex, similar, illiterate, memory, 
moment. 
Separate words were borrowed also later though today it is 
mainly Latin morphemes that are used. 
• Greek affected early English via Latin: 
devil — L. diabolus Gr. diabolos; pope - L. papa Gr. papas; 
church - Gr. kuriakon. 
Similar to Latin, Greek has yielded many unchanged forms (spelt 
in Latin) connected with literary science and terminology: 
drama, dogma, stigma, diagnosis, alphabet, and adapted 
words electric, criticism, biology, poetry, phallus (phallos), 
comedy (komoidia), epigramme, analytic, tragedy (tragoidia) 
zephyr (zephuros), odyssey (Odusseia), lambada, clinic 
133 
(klinike) cinema (kinema), as well as stems and affixes: tele-
(tele -far off), morph- (morphe - form), -phone (phone -
voice, sound), auto- (autos self), chromo/chromato-
(khrdma -colour) . 
• French has had a long history of impact on English. The 
Norman conquest (1066) brought numerous terms connected 
with the new ruling class and order which were assimilated 
within the next centuries. Thus many of the old borrowings are 
fully assimilated and not felt as loans: beef, castle, honest, 
judge, ticket, rich, pork, trick. The loans covered mainly the 
following spheres: 
1. Government government, authority, Parliament, state, 
minister, crown, royal, council, treaty, tax, duke, prince, 
baron, feudal 
2. Military battle, arms, army, armour, banner, peace, 
defense, enemy 
3. Law - accuse, crime, judge, jury, justice, heritage 
4. Church - abbey, clergy, confession, charity, prayer 
5. Cooking -- jelly, pastry, soup, toast, sausage, pork, beef, 
mutton, veal 
6. Fashions gown, frock, cloak, collar, kerchief, boots, 
fur, diamond, pearl, crystal 
134 
When the English of the 15th century again took over as the 
main language it was already a different language having 
absorbed numerous French loans. 
The loans of the second borrowing period from the second half 
of the 16th century (Late French borrowings / the Parisian 
French loans) bear traces of the donor language: aperitif, 
bourgeoisie, debut, liaison, toilette, prestige, petite. The 
huge number of French loans often gives English the character 
of a Romance language and French loans have penetrated the 
very basic word-stock of English. French has also given 
translation loans skyscraper (un gratte ciel), flea market 
(marche aux puces), third world (tiers monde) and fixed 
phrases chapeaux bas, I'etat, c'est moi, cherchez la femme, 
and acted as a mediator in borrowing from Latin, Spanish, 
Italian. 
• Dutch has given many words due to the intensive links 
between the nations at the time of their sea-power competition: 
boss (baas), brandy (brandewijn), yacht (jaghte), wagon 
(waghen), spook, skate (schaats), landscape (landscap), 
katkin (katteken), reef, deck (dec), measles (mazelen),cookie 
(koekje), clamp (klamp(e)), bumpkin (boomken), frolic 
(vrolijk), easel (ezel), slim, waffle (wafel), etc., plus has 
yielded some words through Afrikaans (See further). 
135 
• Old Danish (Scandinavian) influence was as thorough as 
unnoticeable it is now. English borrowed and easily assimilated 
words like sky, skin, skirt, scrape, hill, sister, slaughter, 
guffaw, window, ill, such everyday usage verbs as raise, get, 
give and even pronouns they, them, their, both. The ease of 
assimilation can be accounted for by the Germanic character of 
the loans. Modern Danish does not seem to affect English at all. 
• German, though a closely related Germanic language, has 
given relatively few words to English. Pfeffer's (1994) huge 
dictionary, however goes as high as more than 5000 German 
loans in English, yet few of them have a stable place in 
general English and most are highly specialized terms. 
German influence seems to have been very gradual, starting 
with snorkle in the 16th century there was on the average a loan 
a year for two and a half centuries, then the pace increased and 
in the first half of the 19th century it reached five per year, while 
still the next 50 years saw the apex of borrowing with 35 loans 
per year (Pfeffer, 1994). From then on there has been a gradual 
decline in the volume of borrowing. 
German has provided English basically with scientific 
terminology in the spheres of biology, chemistry, botany, 
politics, cooking, etc.. dachshund, poodle (Pudel), zinc (Zink), 
136 
cobalt (Kobalt), bismuth (Wismut), schnauzer, plunder 
(plundern), swindle (Schwindler), schnapps, Fahrenheit, 
frankfurter, hamburger, rollmops, hamster, kindergarten, 
kitsch, leitmotif/ leitmotiv (Leitmotiv), Totentanz, marzipan, 
sauerkraut, delicatessen, pumpernickel, noodle (Nudel), 
schnitzel, hock, pretzel, quartz, diktat, realpolitik, putzch 
(Swiss German), waltz, yodel, gletscher, zeppelin, 
homeopathy, allopathy ohm, gauss, herzog, Reich, poker 
(Pochspiel), foehn/fohn, nazi, bunker, stuka, blitz, blitzkrieg, 
autobahn, Zeitgeist, kitsch, vaseline (Wasser + Gr. elaion 
(oil)), rucksack (Rucksack); translation loans superman 
(Obermensch), loan word (Lehnwort), masterpiece 
(Meisterstiick), swan song (Schwanengesang), world-
famous (Weltberiihmt), Storm and Stress (Sturm und 
Drang), blood and soil (Blut und Boden) New Order (Neues 
Ordnung), beer hall, semi-loans or loan blends (Pfeffer, 
1994:121) apple strudel (Apfel Strudel), field marshal 
(Feldmarschall). As can be seen, the degree of naturalization is 
very different. 
• Italian has given a considerable number of terms in 
various spheres (many borrowed through French) 
137 
1. military terms: battalion (battaglione), brigade (brigata), 
infantry (infanteria), cavalry (cavalleria), barrack (baracca 
or Sp. barraca), salvo (salva), cavalcade (cavalcata), 
cannonade (cannonata), cavalier (cavaliere), colonel 
(colonnello), generalissimo, free lance (lancia), alarm 
(allarme), attack (attaco), citadel (citadella); 
2. art, architecture, literature terms: sketch (schizzo), model 
(modello), studio, miniature (miniatura), sonnet (sonetto), 
gazette (gazzetta), dilettante, burlesque (burlesco), 
balcony (balcone), trampoline (trampolino), replica 
3. culinary terms: semolina (semolino), pizza, salami, 
macaroni (maccaroni), lasagne, pasta, cappuccino; 
4. numerous loans connected with music: sonata, aria, trio, 
opera, alto, concerto, viola, violin (violino), piano, solo, 
stanza, maestro; 
5. specialized unadapted musical terms lento, presto, 
staccato, a cappela, falsetto; 
6. as well as various other terms: vista, fiasco, archipelago 
(from Greek), incognito, ciao, confetti, gondola, 
influenza, volcano, regatta, ghetto (getto), umbrella, 
mafia, fascism (fascismo), graffito, firm (firma); granite 
(granito), carnival (carnovale), carousel (carosello), 
rocket (rochetto). 
138 
• Spanish loans have come as a result of the might of Spain in 
the 16th century: cargo, armada, bravado (bravata), bravura, 
flamenco, corrida, plaza, cork (alcorque), picarescue 
(picaresco), toreador, barricade (barrica), grenade 
(granada), renegade (renegado), sherry (Xeres), embargo, 
cockroach (cucaracha), vanilla (vainilla), guerrilla, guitar 
(guitarra from Gr. kithara), as well as from Spanish from 
Africa, South America, Mexico directly or via US English tango, 
cigar (cigarro), mosquito, potato (patata), tobacco (tabaco), 
chocolate, cacao, banana, Negro, sombrero, ranch (rancho), 
alligator (el lagarto), caramel (caramelo), coyote, cannibal, 
condor. 
Many loans are adapted, others are not, many have parallels in 
Portugese Negro, banana, and many have been borrowed 
through French. 
• Portuguese caste ( also Sp.casta), albino (also Sp.), 
marmalade (marmelada), Madeira, baroque (barroco), port 
(Oporto), auto-da-fe, bamboo ( Dutch bamboes from Port, 
mambu), zebra (also It.), albatros (alcatruz from Ar. alkadus) 
139 
• Arabic has given many words which belong to the general 
international stock, mainly borrowed through other languages: 
admiral, alcohol (powder for staining eyelids), lemon (lima), 
coffee (kahwa), carat (kirat), sherbet (sarba), magazine 
(makazin), zenith (samt), sofa (suffa), henna (hinna), tariff 
(tarif(a)), mattress (almatrah), assassin (hassas), algebra (al-
jabr), zero (sifr), cipher (sifr), arsenal (darsinaa); as well as 
direct borrowings ayatollah, mujahidin (mujahidin), intifada, 
harem (haram), Koran (kur'an) 
Hebrew: cinnamon (kinnamon), kosher (kaser), sodomy, 
rabbi, camel, bedlam (Bethlehem), cherub (kerub) 
• Turkish: Cossack (quzzaq), divan (divan), horde 
(ordl), yogurt (yogurt) 
• Persian: turban (dulbant), caravan (karwan), chess/check 
(sah), mate (mat), tass (tast) 
• Norwegian: slalom, ski, lemming, fjord/fiord 
• Swedish: ombudsman, tungsten 
• Icelandic: eider (aethr), geyser (Geisir), saga 
• Czech: pistol (pistal), robot, pils(e)ner, polka (pulka) 
• Polish: mazurka, polak, zubr 
140 
• Russian loans constitute two relatively distinct groups - the 
one are the older loans: ukase, kopeck, kvas, balalaika, 
steppe, samovar, knout, sable, borsch, Cossack, muzhik, 
nihilist, babushka (headpiece), pogrom, dacha, czar, vodka, 
and the newer layer of soviet time loans: cheka, sputnik, 
soviet, Bolshevik, kolkhoz, komsomol, Leninist, glasnost, 
perestroika, samizdat 
• Finnish: sauna 
• Hungarian: coach (koczi), goulash (gulyas-hus), hussar 
(huszar from It. corsaro), paprika 
• Romany: nark (nak), pal 
• American (both North and South) Indian languages 
(often through Spanish): caucus, toboggan, jaguar, 
buccaneer, chocolate, chili, cacao, maize, potato, tobacco, 
anorak, parka, squash 
• Australian aboriginal languages: boomerang, kangaroo, 
koala, wallaby, murree 
• African languages: Afrikaans apartheid, commando, trek; 
others zebra, chimpanzee, tsetse, zombie, jazz, gnu, okra, 
juju 
• Persian: lilac, checkmate, kiosk, pajamas, tulip, turban 
141 
• Asia: Tamil: curry, mango, pariah; Sanskrit: guru, yoga, 
karma, swastika 
• others: shampoo, junk, copra, ginger, amok, bamboo, 
bungalow, dungaree 
• Chinese: china, chopsticks, ginseng, ketchup, kung fu, 
sampan, tea, taipan, typhoon 
• Japanese: banzai, geisha, haiku, hara-kiri, judo, jujitsu, 
kamikaze, kimono, samurai, tycoon, karate 
• Scottish: jockey, glamour, pet, slogan (sluagh-ghairm) 
• Welsh: flannel (gwlanen). 
Latvian similar to English has borrowed massively at different 
periods of time from different languages. The extent of borrowed 
element in Latvian is as yet not fully clear. But in the basic word-
stock of the language it is supposed to be about 50%. Half of 
these borrowings are international words (Ahero, 1967). This 
is similar to another study which puts the share of 
internationalisms at 30% (Metuzale, 1985). Also within the 
sphere of terminology 32% of words are borrowings, mainly 
internationalisms (Skujina, 1993: 132). With the extension of the 
vocabulary the percentage of internationalisms grows but the 
percentage of purely national borrowings decreases. The latest 
borrowings are generally international ones. Latvian has mainly 
borrowed from Russian, German, English, French as well as 
142 
neoclassical coinages and elements from Greek and Latin. 
There are about 3000 Germanisms, about 1000 Anglicisms, 
about 2000 words of French origin (Bankav, 1985), about 1000 
words of Russian origin. 
In Latvian one can rather clearly distinguish types of borrowing. 
There have been two major direct contact languages - German 
and Russian, to a smaller extent Lithuanian, Finno-Ugric, Polish 
and Swedish. Direct contact with other languages has been 
minimal. Borrowings from them have come either via the two 
major contact-languages acting as mediaries or by way of 
cultural contact. English at present has changed its previous 
status as a solely cultural contact language to a direct contact 
language. 
In Latvian the problem of loans from separate languages and 
international loans has been a great issue. This has been 
determined by the strong, sometimes dangerous, influence of 
German and Russian. As a result borrowing from these 
languages is often viewed as endangering the quality of the 
national language, while acquisition of internationalisms 
(especially based on the classical elements) is viewed as a more 
beneficial process. Internationalism is usually defined as a word 
present in at least 3 main language groups of the European area 
Romanic, Germanic and Slavic. Eighty percent of loans 
treated as foreign words in Latvian (Svesvardu, 1978) are 
143 
internationalisms based on Latin and Greek. Of the others 9% 
are French, 3% English, 2.5% German loans. This does not 
include, of course, the numerous loans that are part of everyday 
language and fully assimilated. 
Morphemes (mainly Latin and Greek) are borrowed directly 
much less by Latvian than English since the former is not a 
major word-coining language. There are a few words of 
terminological character that have been coined in Latvian using 
the classical elements: scientiologija, religiologija. Yet, at 
present new words are usually borrowed ready-made from 
English or Russian, however taking into account the regularities 
of borrowing - pronunciation and spelling of the morphological 
elements. 
Loans in Latvian, unless fully assimilated, have certain formal 
signs: 
• words contain foreign sounds and letters — o, f, h - which do 
not exist in Latvian native stock words, e.g. bole, kolosals, 
finanses, fiksi, hokejs, haltura. This criterion has been used in 
the rather purist Mulenbach's Dictionary, where words containing 
these letters are not to be found 
• there are unusual letter combinations, e.g. mju - mjuzikls, 
IT - sifts 
144 
• some borrowings are non-declinable words, e.g. nouns solo, 
kino, foto, kanoe, kivi, veto, ragu, bordo, fiasko; adjectives 
lilla, roza, haki, bordo 
• there is the uncharacteristic of Latvian stress on the last 
syllable, e.g. Sp. какао, kaudiljo, bolero, sombrero; Fr. atelje, 
dosje, plise, komunike, rantje, draze but already assimilated 
relejs, zeleja, drazeja 
• there is a layer of fully non-assimilated terminology, e.g. 
musical terms of Italian origin: presto, andante, piano; foreign 
expressions, mainly French and Latin (see the respective 
languages). 
Borrowed words in Latvian normally undergo serious assimilation 
(much more thorough than in English). First comes the change 
to the Latvian alphabet. This is a very specific peculiarity of 
Latvian that borrowed words are transcribed and little trace of 
original spelling may be left. Transcription is done as close as 
possible to the pronunciation of the word but there have always 
been deviations and changes, often affected by the intermediary 
languages. The words become part and parcel of Latvian 
phonetic, morphological and lexical system. Retention of 
original morphology, e.g. plural constructions, is impossible. 
Some loans may remain non-declinable though. 
145 
During the process of assimilation some sounds and/or letters 
not existing in Latvian are substituted by Latvian ones: 
• German short u becomes Latvian i bise (busse MLG 
(Middle Low German), 
• German long u becomes long i - bidelet (budeln MLG) 
• German short б becomes e melderis (Moller MLG) 
• German long 6 becomes long e evele (Hovel MLG) 
• Greek and English x -- Latvian ks: ksero-, Teksasa (xeros, 
Texas) 
• monophthong short о in older loans turns into u bumba 
(Bombe), klucis (Klotz), or a pasts (Post) 
• long о gradually turns into Latvian diphthong uo: odere, 
roze, mode 
• German f is substituted by Latvian p: plinte (Flinte), 
kartupelis (Kartoffel) (historically also undropcieris 
(Unteroffizier)) 
• h can be either lost as in andele from German Handel, 
amurs (hamer MLG), angars from German Hangar, (in the past 
also ercogs from German Herzog), azarts from French hazard 
or it can turn into k: slikts, dikti (slicht, dichte) or k: kimija, 
kirurgs (Chemie, Chirurg) 
146 
• к and g followed by narrow vowels is changed to к and g 
kengurs, keizars, nikelis, geografija, gitara 
• Latvian spelling usually follows foreign pronunciation, thus 
German s (pronounced as z) turns into z in writing Suppe -
zupa, Sund - zunds, Sonde - zonde, Sohn zens, Segel 
zegele; German z pronounced as c) turns into с Zucker -
cukurs, Zink - cinks 
• In most of the borrowings the stress takes the traditional 
Latvian initial place. 
Yet these processes are generally characteristic of the older 
borrowings. The new internationalisms usually defy these 
old assimilation laws: fizika, fosfors, harems, arhivs. 
Nouns obtain endings and genders which may not correspond to 
the source language ones if they exist, e.g. plastilins (m) 
plastilina (f), mandolina (f) - mandolino (m). Masculine nouns 
become 1st and 2nd declension nouns and feminine nouns 
4th and 5th (rarely 6th) declension nouns as these are the 
declensions that are productive now. Proper nouns obtain 
endings of the gender characteristic of Latvian -- masculine for 
lakes and mountains, feminine for towns, isles, countries and 
rivers. More common Latvian endings may be supplied mitins, 
pudins (meeting, pudding) but it is rarely done today, e.g. 
147 
modern dansings, listings, kllrings, monitorings. At present 
there is uncertainty about such borrowings as: kalks kalka, 
kontrs: kontra, medijs, medijs medija, medija, 
kongresmens kongresmenis, etc. Verbs normally are 
included in the 2nd conjugation as that is the simplest. 
Change of meaning during the process of borrowing or even 
after is not unusual: avanset in Latvian means to pay in advance 
while the French word avancer means to move forward; montet 
in Latvian means to assemble while in French monter is to 
ascend. (See Semantic Change). Semantically the borrowed 
word may often develop a tinge, different connotational or even 
denotational meaning as in the following cases: Lithuanian 
kirmis is a worm while the Latvian loan kirmis is a woodworm, 
keve in Lithuanian means a thin horse while in Latvian mare, 
dujkes in Lithuanian is dust while in Latvian dregs. English cake 
has a broader meaning than the Latvian loan kekss. 
Changes during assimilation in Latvian are also connected with 
folk etymology, thus the word borrowed from Low German as 
pankoks (pancake) at the beginning of the 20th century turned 
into pankuka, in line with kuka (cake). Borrowing from Russian 
balamute changed its meaning from originally inspirer, rioter to 
modern gossip maybe because of the association of the word 
148 
with mute. As a result many notions in Latvian have two words -
one borrowed the other native: barza - liellaiva, kempings 
kempings. 
The variety of assimilation, its strength and the changing habits 
and spelling conventions have lead to a situation where there 
have been different variations for one and the same loan, e.g. 
the original loan biljete has turned into bijete under Russian 
influence. Likewise the originally masculine forms konfekts, 
filejs, detaljs became feminine: konfekte, fileja, detaja; or the 
opposite change has taken place: procente - procents. The 
word gubernators borrowed from French through German and 
also Russian has had several forms gubernieris, 
gubernaters, gubernator (Roze, 1961:159). Many loan-words 
have had a multitude of forms: kartupelis has been kartups, 
tupelis, tupenis, kartpelis; misis missis, mistrise, 
mistrese, mistresa, mistris, mistriss; dzezs — dzess, dzacs; 
streiks - streikis, strikis, striks, strike; bifsteks - bifsteks, 
bifsteks, bifsteks, bifsteks, bifstekis, bifstekis, bifstikis, 
bifstiks, bipstikis, befstiks (Baldunciks, 1989), sekretars 
zekretars, sikreters, siktieris, sekreteris, sikters. 
149 
Latvian has in the past had intensive indirect borrowing. Often it 
is difficult to state which word has been borrowed from which 
language, usually German and Russian, e.g. priekssedetajs -
Vorsitzende, predsedatel', prieksraksts Vorschrift, 
predpisanie, aspratiba - Scharfsinn, ostroumiye, and words 
coined based on analogy angloamerikanu ~ Anglo-
American. 
• Latvian has borrowed from Finno-Ugric languages mainly 
from Liiv and Estonian. These are old borrowings, lacking any 
features and amounting to perhaps 100 words. They are mainly 
connected with the sea and fishing terminology: selga, vimba, 
joma, kals, loms, liedags, kaija as well as different other words 
like launags, paijat, puika, puisis, allaz, kamols, piladzis, 
jupis, linga, nuja, laulat, jandalins. 
• Apart from numerous parallels due to the common origin 
of the Baltic languages, there are minor direct influences from 
Lithuanian gindenis, pagiras, kekars, gimene, keve, lenkis, 
karalis, daile, veikals, laimet, kirmis, sadza, dujkes (Brence, 
1985; Laua, 1982), 
150 
• Kuronian though always hypothetical (Buss, 1985, 1987, 
1994) has given Latvian such words as dzintars, menca, 
venteris, kankari, luncinat, lence, skrandas, vandlt. Words 
like balanda, brangs, blenzt, dvinga, kunkulis, lunkans, 
trenkt, banga, rinda, mente, etc. might be of Kuronian origin 
but might as well be Lithuaninan loans. 
• Identification of borrowings from Swedish is difficult 
because many borrowed words can come also from German 
(common Germanic stock). There are also some older 
Scandinavian traces in the language, thus sijke (Sylecke) and 
muks (munk) are supposedly borrowings from Old 
Scandinavian also gatve is often treated as of Swedish origin. 
• Polish must have exerted serious influence over Latvian 
as part of it (Latgale) was for several centuries under Polish 
rule. Yet it is in most cases difficult to pass judgement as to the 
origin of many borrowed words due to their similarity (Zemzare, 
1961) in Polish and Russian, e.g. cena, ruda, tarba, pans, 
pi rags, baravika, etc. Yet there seems to be evidence for 
spiegs, piga, prava to be Polish, as well as such words as 
krakovjaks. 
151 
Due to the long (700 years) German dominance in Latvian 
history, German has had the most significant influence on 
Latvian wordstock as well on its morphological structure. 
There are about 3000 German borrowings, many of them very 
old and fully assimilated and established in Latvian, e.g. 
dvielis, sipols, ziepes, lode, katls, zens, meitene, slikts, 
slims, arsts, skinkis, elle, kleita, dienests (Dienst), amats 
(Amt), punkts, gurkis Part of German borrowings have 
become archaic or moved into the colloquial, slang or, so called, 
barbarism stock of modern Latvian (Ozols, 1968): dekis, kisens, 
luste, pageret (begehren), gifts, zafte (zapte), plinte, andele, 
vaktet, klapet, klaret, malet, knapi, benkis, forss, feins, 
brute, brutgans, skade, smuks, saufele, silte. Some loans 
undergo narrowing of meaning, e.g. slaktins from German 
Schlacht used to mean any battle, now a bloody massacre, of 
later loans feldseris (assistant doctor) — Feldscher (military 
doctor). Among the later loans one could mention snicele, 
hamburgers (through English), farenheits, kics, jodelet, fens, 
bunkurs, vazelins, glecers, lozungs, cehs, sprotes, stabs, 
krahs, marcipans, etc. 
German has also supplied numerous loan translations (caiques) 
for Latvian: laikraksts (Zeitschrift), kokvilna (Baumwolle), 
152 
mietpilsonis (Spiessburger), pretruna (Widerspruch), 
pildspalva (Fullfeder), talredzigs (weitsichtig), acumirklis 
(Augenblick), janoga (Johannisbeere), nosaut buku (einen 
Bock schiessen), zvaigznu stunda (Sternstunde), laika gars 
(Zeitgeist) (Veisbergs, 1989). Many of the loan translations 
have also counterparts in Russian so it is not always possible to 
determine the source language. Latvian has borrowed also some 
suffixes from German -Izeris, -manis, -uzis that are 
occasionally used with Latvian or other borrowed roots: eduzis, 
restuzis, vartuzis, platizeris, septmanis, vaguzis (waghus). 
There has been very little borrowing from German after the 
Second World War. 
• Borrowing from Russian ( about 1000 words) falls into 
several stages: the older stratum often going back as far as the 
9th-12th century: bagats, nabags, zvans, cena, mers, kapeika, 
baznica, ubags, cilveks, slava, sogis; 18th -19th century 
borrowings: katorga, baranka, braga, kvass, balalaika, 
balamute, stepe, etc. and the soviet times borrowings kolhozs, 
artel is, bojseviks, menseviks, as well as many translation 
loans padomes (sovet), baltrocis (beloruchka), dzijdomiba 
(glubokosmisliye), piecgade (pyatiletka), mirusas dveseles 
(myertviye dushi), melna sotna (chernaya sotnya). 
153 
There are numerous slang and colloquial Russian borrowings, 
many of which are rather old in Latvian siska, paika, macalka, 
apbizot, baska, bracka, spicka, samosvals, gruzoviks, 
stroika, elektricka, peska, pukovka, duraks, maika, as well as 
the wide heritage of rude and taboo expressions with bjag, т а к , 
etc. Among the lastest popular loans one could mention 
mobijniks, vizitka, kruto, krutais, besigs, tusins, krutka, 
some of which bear traces of strong assimilation. 
• Latin deputats, legions, tabula, senats, persona, klase, 
autors, students, fabrika, mode, stabils, tribuns, partjja, etc. 
• Greek alfabets, logika, marmors, gigants, muzejs, 
teatris, katedra, klimats, lambada, metals, leksika, ironija, 
idille, etc. 
Apart from direct borrowings from these languages Latin and 
Greek elements are widely used in borrowing internationalisms 
(neo-classical compounds) created from the stems and affixes in 
other languages: tele-: telefons, telegrafs, telefakss, 
televlzija; -metrs: barometrs, centimetrs, hronometrs, etc. 
as well as creating neologisms in Latvian hybrids makrovide, 
ultraskana, antiviela. 
154 
The languages with which the contact has been indirect have 
supplemented Latvian generally by international words all of 
which are also present in English. 
• French has supplemented Latvian wordstock via German 
and Russian (Bankavs, 1986) as well as directly: garaza, 
karafe, debates, komanda, konjaks, demisionet, soket, 
intims; also about a 100 of unassimilated expressions cherchez 
la femme, femme fatale, vis-a-vis, idee fixe; as well as about 
200 loan translations: sliktais tonis (mauvais ton), but kviti 
(etre quitte), zilonkaula tornis (tour d'ivoire), but zobam uz 
(avoir une dente contre qn), pienemt merus ( prendre des 
mesures). 
• English influence started in the 19th century with such usual 
words like planelis, pudins, punss, rums, groks, kekss, 
dolars, kuteris, (Baldunciks 1989) and has been growing ever 
since then, mainly giving terms for the technical, commercial, 
sports, music and vogue spheres: boikots, lideris, sprinteris, 
starts, klubs, hokejs, nokauts, rings, popmuzika, trilleris, 
hecbeks, bluzs, hipijs, dizains. Of late there are quite a few 
colloquial elements coming in kreizi, feiss, naturali, ceindzs as 
155 
well as economic and political terms such as implements, 
lobijs, reitings, rafinerija, sponsors, investors, marketings, 
audits, tenders, monitorings, dlleris, peidzers, fjucers, 
popkorns, prezentacija, etc. English has also enriched Latvian 
with semantic loans: iesaldet (freeze), zvajgzne (star), pele 
(mouse) and numerous (about 250) translation loans and semi-
loans: zilzeke (blue stocking), linca tiesa (Lynch law), 
smadzenu aizplude (brain-drain), dzeltena prese (yellow 
press) ziepju opera (soap opera), tevocis Sems (Uncle Sam), 
pedejais mohikanis (the last of the Mohicans) (Veisbergs, 
1994). 
The growth of English loans can be seen comparing newspaper 
language "Jaunakas Zinas"(1937), "Padomju Jaunatne" (1950, 
1970, 1980) and "Diena" (1995). On the average one paper had 
the following number of English loans: 
1937 27 
1950 18 
1950 27 
1980 20 
1995 85 
This shows the dynamic rise of English as the main contact 
language of Latvian at present. English influence is partly 
156 
enhanced by Russian as a supportive language (if there is the 
same loan in Russian). 
Thus computer language is one of the spheres where the 
trilingualism is reflected most clearly. Parallel to borrowing 
(enhanced by loans of Russian) there is an attempt to translate 
or create native terms (Angju, 1995): 
daisy wheel printer -- ziedlapprinteris 
mainframe - lieldators 
desktop - galddators 
palm top computer — plaukstdators 
file - fails, datne 
interface — interfeiss, saskarne 
computer - kompjuters, dators (Latin), skaitjotajs 
software - softvers, programmatura 
hardware - hardvers, aparatura 
menu - menu, komandkarte, izvelne 
operating system - operacionala sistema (R), operetajsistema 
bit - bits 
hot potato routing - karsta marsrutesana 
inkjet printer - struklprinteris 
inference - izvedums 
boot - saknesana, saktne 
virtual terminal - virtualais terminalis 
157 
• Italian loans constitute a rather large group about 300 
words and units, of which half are non-assimilated or partially 
assimilated ones (mainly musical terms): presto, adagio, al 
fresco, basta, spageti, bravo, salto mortale, tutti-frutti, 
fiasko, maestro, ravioli, fata morgana (also the assimilated 
variant fatamorgana) as well as many assimilated words: 
firma, pica, vulkans, finals, lira, alts, kupols, karnevals (was 
initially used in the nonadapted form came vale) also in the semi 
loan ciest fiasko (far fiasco). 
• From Dutch Latvian has borrowed mainly sea-going 
terminology: jahta, konvojs, reids, vraks, spoks, rifs, and 
words not in English borrowed usually through German: kajite, 
matrozis, apelsins. 
• Spanish has contributed about 150 words, usually through 
French and some other language: negeris, tango, sombrero, 
donzuans, donkihots, piekta kolonna, eldorado, bolero, 
flamenko, reals, heress (now being ousted by English serijs). 
158 
• Portuguese has given about a dozen words the most usual 
of which would be: kasta, marmelade, baroks, zebra, 
albatross, bambuks, autodafe. 
• Arabic: admiralis, alkohols, cipars, karats, serbets, 
zenits, henna, tarifs, kafija, algebra (al-jabr), arsenals, 
matracis (almatrah), ajatolla, mudzahedins, harems, korans. 
Other languages have contributed a few words, like 
• Turkish/Tatar: kazaks, divans, orda, jogurts, kumiss, etc. 
• Persian: turbans, magisks, paradize, talks, karavana, 
sahs, mats, tase, etc. 
• Roumanian: brinza, leja, musts 
• Norwegian: slaloms, lemings, fjords 
• Icelandic: geizers, saga 
• Czech: pistole, robots, polka 
• Finnish: sauna 
• Swedish: tungstens, ombudsmenis 
• Hungarian: gulass, huzars, 
• Hebrew: rabins, kerubs, kanelis 
• Chinese: taifuns, teja. 
159 
Transfer 
Loans as a linguistic category do not cause any stylistic 
problems for transfer unless purist tendencies are ruling high. 
Thus no specific translation strategies are to be adopted in this 
case. Latvian loans from minor contact languages are all 
practically present in English too (apart from some loans from 
the Latvian neighbours Estonian and Lithuanian). It is 
interesting to note a few borrowings of international stock 
present in Latvian but non-existing in English. These are 
generally of French origin and the result of Russian or German 
mediation. 
Summary 
Both in English and Latvian there is a massive element of 
borrowing. In both languages one foreign language has had a 
very strong impact on the development of the lexical system. In 
the case of Latvian it is German. In the case of English 
French. Both languages have been and at present are very open 
to borrowing. In both there have been periods of purist 
tendencies (stronger in Latvian due to the smaller number of 
language speakers, later development and the dangerous 
situation for survival of the language at different points in 
history). English has a wider distribution of donor languages 
160 
while Latvian has a rather clear pattern of one or two 
intermediary languages: in the past it was German, then also 
Russian, during the soviet period Russian alone, then also 
English, at present mainly English, partly Russian. In both 
languages borrowings undergo adaptation and assimilation 
(stronger and more systematic in Latvian). The loans from 
smaller languages are very often the same in both languages --
these are internationalisms that have spread in most European 
languages. 
References 
Ahero A. (1967) Par latviesu valodas aizguvumiem. In: Latviesu 
valodas ku/turas jautajumi. Riga: Avots, 40-48. Ipp. 
Anglu - krievu - latviesu skaidrojosa vardnica (1995) Riga: SWH. 
BaldunciksJ. (1989) Anglicismilatviesu valoda. Riga: Zinatne. 
Bankav A. (1985) Slova francuzskogo proishozhdeniya v 
sovremennom latishskom yazike. In: Baltu valodas senak un 
tagad. Riga: Zinatne, pp. 59-65. 
Bankavs A. (1986) Die Gallizismen in der Lettischen Sprache. In: 
Journal of Baltic Studies, vol. XVII, S. 42-47. 
161 
Brence M. (1965) Lituanismi latviesu literaraja valoda. In: 
Latviesu valodas kulturas jautajumi. Riga: Avots, 53-65. Ipp. 
Buss O. (1985) Kursu valoda musdienu zinatnes skatljuma. In: 
LPSR ZA Vestis, 2., 65-71. Ipp. 
Buss O. (1988) Literaras valodas kursismi un kvazikursismi. In: 
Valodas aktualitates - 1987 Riga: Zinatne, 79-86. Ipp. 
Buss O. (1994). Latviesu valodas leksikas cilme, vesture un 
musdienu lietojums. Riga: LVI. 
Cannon G. (1987) Historical Change and English Word-
Formation. New York: Lang. 
Laua A. (1981) Latviesu leksikologija. Riga: Zvaigzne. 
Metuzale-Kangere B. (1985) Latviesu valodas atvasinajumu 
vardnica. Hamburg. 
Ozols A. (1968) Aizguta veclatviesu rakstu valodas leksika un 
latviesu valoda. In: Latviesu leksikas attistiba. Riga: 
Zinatne, 11-49. Ipp. 
Pfeffer Alan J. (1994) German Loanwords in English: A Historical 
Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
Roze L. (1961) "Peterburgas AvTzu" sabiedriski politiska leksika. 
In: Leksikologijas un leksikografijas jautajumi. Riga: LPSR 
ZA Izdevnieclba, 133-191. Ipp. 
Skujina V. (1993) Latviesu terminologijas izstrades principi. 
Riga: Zinatne. 
Svesvardu vardnica (1978) Riga: Liesma. 
162 
Veisbergs A. (1989) Vacu cilmes frazeologija latviesu valoda. 
In: Valodas aktualitates 1988. Riga: Zinatne, 138-147 Ipp. 
Veisbergs A. (1994) Borrowing of English Idioms in Latvian. In: 
Journal of Baltic Studies. X X V / 1 . pp. 43-52. 
Veisbergs A. (1994) Latviesu anglu, Anglu latviesu viltus 
draugu vardnica. Riga: SI. 
Zemzare D. (1961) Latviesu vardnicas. Riga: LPSR ZA 
Izdevnieciba. 
163 
leva Zauberga 
University of Latvia 
Place of the Translator in the Modern World 
The switch to target orientation and growing regard for the 
interests of the receiving side has gradually led to the increase 
of translator's responsibility and a claim for translator's visibility 
Today the translator has to cater for the needs of several parties. 
To quote Donald Kiraly: "The translator has to produce a target 
language text that will communicate the message that the author 
wants to send, that the commissioner wants to have sent, that 
the user expects to use, and that will have the appropriate and 
desired effect" (1995: 2). The long-standing viewpoint that 
translating and interpreting are serving professions and serving 
does not usually go with well-developed egos calls for revision in 
the contemporary international environment. However, in many 
cultures the traditional image of the translator as a mechanical 
reproducer of the source text still prevails. That is why in 
translator training programmes there is a stronger and stronger 
emphasis on raising the self-awareness and self-confidence ( cf. 
Kussmaul, 1995:32) of would-be translators the two features 
that mark a professional translator. 
164 
Theoretical framework 
Though translations have been generally accepted as 
indispensable part of modern civilization, they have likewise 
been regarded as undeniable inferiors to their originals. The 
original is eternal, the translation dates. The original is a form of 
self-expression, translation a copy. This approach is 
characteristic of the Western society, where translation actually 
started with written translation of scripture which required word-
for-word translation. The long-standing tradition of faithful 
translation accounts for low prestige of the translator. As Andre 
Lefevere points out: "It is easy to see why: any idiot can match 
words from word lists" ("Chinese and Western Thinking on 
Translation" lecture delivered in the 7th CETRA summer 
research seminar in Leuven, 1995). In China, for example, 
where translation started with the interpretation of spoken, rather 
than the translation of written texts, the skills of 
translators/interpreters were obviously on display. In China 
translation activity does not find its origin in the translation of 
sacred or even literary texts, but in the translation of oral 
communications that concerned trade. Often interpreters just 
could not afford to translate literally, in many cases they would 
just convey the gist of what one partner in the conversation said 
165 
to the other, they would quietly convert weights and measures, 
adjust cultural expectations. If interpreters helped strike a good 
deal, they were good interpreters, no matter how they might 
have distorted what has been said to help the client strike the 
deal he wanted. Accordingly the importance of the interpreter 
was obvious and they did enjoy a higher social status. Only with 
the rise of faithful translation translator's prestige fell. 
In last decades noteworthy attempts have been made to redefine 
the role of translations in contemporary cultural situations. In simple 
terms it can be said that the original has been pushed off its throne. 
Opposition between the source and target texts as well as the 
integrity of the source text has been questioned. If traditionally the 
value of the translation has been seen as self-effacement, a 
vanishing act, then today poststructuralists argue that a translation 
is growth of the original which completes itself in enlarging itself... 
and if the original calls for a complement, it is because the original is 
not without fault, full, complete, total, identical to itself (Derrida, 
quoted from Gentzler: 167). Poststructuralists modify the traditional 
relationship between the original and translation from ST-+TT into 
S1,S2,S3...«^ T1,T2,T3... thus emphasizing that no text is ever 
final and that the meaning of the text depends on interpretation, 
i.e. on the translator Deconstructionists put forward many 
provocative questions: What if one suggested that without 
translation the original text ceased to exist, that the very survival 
166 
of the original depends not on any particular quality it contains, 
but upon those qualities that its translations contain? (Gentzler, 
1993: 145) Indeed, doesn't the reception and appreciation of 
literary works hinge on a series of interrelated factors ranging 
from poetics to economics, from prestige to profit, rather than 
the inherent qualitative inferiority or superiority? Andre Lefevere 
in his book "Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary 
Fame" (1992) reminds of what is often overlooked: the modern 
reader increasingly does not read literature as written by writers 
but as written by its rewriters, i.e. translators. It becomes 
essential to recognize that translation in its many aspects - from 
the selection of foreign texts to implementation of translation 
strategies plays an enormous role in the construction of 
national identities and hence can play an important geopolitical 
role. 
With poststructuralist and deconstructionist discourse of the last 
twenty years the erosion of the authority of the Author/Original 
has started. The birth of the reader celebrated by Roland 
Barthes entails the death of the author. The reader — translator 
begins to be recognized as an active producer of meaning 
whose interference is not merely tolerable but inevitable. 
Lawrence Venuti claims that the moment has come for 
translators to assume flesh an blood and become visible. 
167 
Also Skopos theory (1978) legitimizes translators' rights to 
creative handling of the source text. It claims that it is the 
intended purpose of the target text that determines translation 
method and strategy and not the function of the source text. It 
recognizes faithful translation only as one of several possible 
strategies. Since the function of the target text is not arrived at 
automatically from an analysis of the source text, but is 
pragmatically defined by the purpose of the intercultural 
communication, the function of the target text may differ from the 
function of the source text. In such case translators take 
important decisions and their role in the production of the target 
text cannot be denied. 
Practice 
However, in practice translator-induced changes, especially such 
major alterations as the change of the source text function, are 
treated with certain reservations. Translators' work is often 
underrated by statements which claim that the goal of most 
translators is to work from contract to contract and move from 
one foreign text to another; that translators are always hard at 
work, but they are producing translations, not translation 
commentary, criticism or theory; that they are not critically self-
conscious writers who develop an acute awareness of the 
cultural and social conditions of their work. This stand-point is 
168 
often sustained by the commissioner. For example, to pass the 
certification test with the Swedish Board of Trade, translators are 
instructed (1) not to add anything to the translation and (2) not to 
take away or leave out anything from the translation. In other 
words, translators are required to copy the source text as closely 
as possible. Accordingly the trainers for translation/interpretation 
courses in the Interpreter and Translator Institute of Sweden 
abide by the assumption that "no personal likes, dislikes or 
imagined improvements are allowed to cloud the transferred 
texts; the interpreter/translator must retain a neutral and 
impartial approach when translating" (Zajkalns, 1997 160). Thus 
it is nobody's responsibility if the translated text makes little 
sense in the new culture situation. The translator is even 
expected to ignore obvious defects in the texts to be translated; 
she should just follow the maxim "garbage in, garbage out" as it 
is pointed out with dismay by Paul Kussmaul (1995: 145). 
Counterpoints 
Similarly to many other translation scholars I would like to argue 
that professional translators are also good writers who are well 
aware of the context in which they work. They want to produce 
good, functionable texts and are ready to take responsibility for 
169 
the final product. In many ways, for a professional translator it is 
easier to create faithful than functional translation as in that case 
the scale of decisions to be made in the process of translation is 
considerably smaller. Strategies like omission, explicitation, 
footnoting, pragmatic adaptation require certain courage and 
determination on behalf of the translator. If the product is faulty, 
in case of faithful translation, the translator can always excuse 
herself by pointing to the defective source text. Yet, a good 
translator aims at well-written texts, if not for any other reason, 
than the possibility, that the target readers will assume that they 
are faced with bad translations. If they are aware they are 
reading a translation, they will be disappointed with the badly 
written source text. Neither the author, nor translator will want to 
create this effect and would want defects corrected. 
The scale of intervention depends on the text type. Even if a 
source text has been written without any particular purpose, the 
translation is always addressed to some audience and is thus 
intended to have some function for the reader. Yet, in case of 
expressive (literary) texts, the translator is expected to keep a 
lower profile and be more cautious as these texts are author-
oriented and in their rendition loyalty to the author, in most 
cases, is top priority. However wayward, cliched, jargonized the 
language of a literary text may be, the translator tends to pursue 
the same style assuming that the personality of the author is 
170 
more important than clarity and readability of the target text. 
Functionalists would argue that this is precisely the reason why 
translations of expressive texts are not really fun to read! 
Informative (technical) and operative (promotional) texts are of a 
different nature: they are often anonymous, often badly written, 
their function is to pass information or persuade the reader to 
perform an action, thus the translator should "translate in a way 
that enables the text to function in the situation in which it is used 
and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way 
they want it to function" (Nord, 1997:29). As pointed out by Peter 
Newmark, the majority of translations of technical texts today are 
better than their originals- or at least ought to be (1988:41). 
To make a case for functional approach I would like to point to 
drawbacks of faithfully translated Latvian promotional texts. If 
the translator just dutifully reproduces the source text, there 
appear functional shifts in the final product. For comparison let 
us consider two similar texts with the same promotional function 
published in "Riga This Week", summer 1993 and "City Paper. 
The Baltic States" June/July 1996. I would label the first text a 
nonprofessional translation, it has been dutifully transferred from 
the Latvian cultural environment into the English language 
without ever raising such questions as what the function or 
addressee of the target text could be. 
171 
It is no secret that different people have different eating, drinking 
and sleeping habits, nobody wants to upset habitual rhythm of 
life when travelling either. Thus, it is impossible to find a hotel 
corresponding both to one's needs and thickness of wallet. Our 
city guide will help you choose a proper hotel. 
A real surprise for foreigners proved to be the fashionable "Hotel 
de Rome" During post-war years its name was stirring up 
nostalgia of Riga citizens for bygone times. Now, with the help of 
Polish restorers who have revived a lot of Riga buildings, it is 
again on its former place, but in modernized execution. 
The second highlight is Latvian — Swedish JV "Eurolink Hotel" 
which is intended for businessman. It works in an autonomous 
regime being situated on the 2nd floor of hotel "Riga" As regards 
its interior, the mode of rendering services, its cuisine - they are 
European ones. Provisions are supplied by Swedish party, only 
flowers and greens are local. 
("Riga This Week" summer 1993) 
Apart from direct linguistic transfers (e.g. thickness of wallet), the 
text contains much information which is irrelevant for readers 
with a different background knowledge {Why Polish restorers? 
What nostalgia for bygone times?) The statement about all 
provisions supplied by the Swedes certainly creates the opposite 
172 
effect on non-Latvian readership who do not suffer from a low 
self-image — Why should we have Swedish food in Latvia and 
why has this aspect been made so emphatic? The text fails to 
provide information about the location of the hotels as the 
inhabitants of Riga, for who the source text has been created, 
already know where these hotels are to be found. The text has 
been created in the void, as it were, with no concrete user or 
purpose in mind — in the way amateurish translations are often 
created: with nothing added, nothing omitted and nothing 
modified in the target text. A well-functioning text could display 
the following information and structure: 
Hotel de Rome: Ka[ku iela 28, tel. 7820050. This is arguably 
Riga's most elegant hotel, located on the edge of the old city and 
across the street from McDonald's. A back-packer could live a 
solid month on the cost of a single room. Those who can afford it 
will love it. 
Eurolink: Aspazijas bulvaris 22, tel. 7820060. On the third floor 
of the Hotel Riga, renovated in 1992 by a Swedish hotel chain 
into a four-star hotel, the Eurolink lives up to its rating for the 
most part. A favourite of foreign businessmen. Also renowned 
for its British breakfast. Expensive. 
("City Paper. The Baltic States" June/July 1996) 
173 
Apart from the content aspect, the text also complies with the 
promotional text type conventions stylistically and structurally. 
Deletion, addition, substitution, or reorganization should be 
considered part and parcel of normal textual operations 
performed in any translation in order to produce functionally 
adequate target texts for a given use. 
Translators are free to translate how they feel, but their 
professional and financial survival will depend on the degree to 
which their mode of translating is acceptable by their clients and 
readers, i.e. on the degree to which translators conform to the 
expected norms. The path taken will also depend on the status 
of the translator in question, and on the status of the translator 
profession in the cultures concerned. 
In conclusion I would like to discuss the status of the translator in 
the present Latvian cultural situation. It seems to me that of late 
certain changes can be observed in the attitude towards 
performers in translation market. In early days of Latvian 
independence translators, and in particular interpreters, enjoyed 
a relatively high status. It can be explained by the novelty of the 
situation - a closed country, which Latvia was before, practically 
required no translator/interpreter services with the exception of 
literary translation. So there were few people who were prepared 
to embark on this job. Accordingly their services were 
174 
appreciated and attitude was not too critical. Today the demand 
has increased considerably, the ranks of translators and 
interpreters have respectively grown. At the same time the 
number of experts in different spheres with a relatively high 
foreign language competence level has also grown. 
Expectations for translator/interpreter performance have 
increased and it is no longer enough to transfer texts semi-
automatically in the target language. To create a functionable 
target text the translator needs not only language skills to 
comprehend the linguistic part of the message, but also 
intercultural awareness and strategic or problem-solving 
competence. Professionally qualified translators should be 
competent and responsible, i.e. willing to take trouble to serve 
the users of the translation. At times also by educating them. 
Many customers are not aware of the circumstances required to 
provide the translation/interpretation service professionally. E.g. 
many are not aware of the importance of good equipment for 
simultaneous interpreting or the additional psychological strain 
the exposure to the audience in consecutive interpreting entails. 
Accordingly they economize on equipment or employ only one 
person for consecutive interpretation who fails to perform 
efficiently after a three hour overload. It is high time for 
translators and interpreters to become visible by improving 
badly written source texts, adapting originals to their new culture 
175 
environment or specific needs of the readership, by insisting on 
adequate working conditions in order to be able to provide a 
professional service. If we want to be trusted as professionals 
visibility may be more helpful than invisibility. 
References 
1 Gentzler, E. (1993) Contemporary Translation Theories. 
Routledge. 
2. Kiraly, D. (1995) Pathways to Translation. Pedagogy and 
Process. The Kent State University Press. 
3. Kussmaul, P (1995) Training the Translator John Benjamins. 
4. Lefevere, A. (1992) Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation 
of Literary Fame. Routlege. 
5. Newmark, P (1988) A Textbook of Translation. Hemel 
Hempstead: Prentice Hall. 
6. Nord, C. (1997) Translating as a Purposeful Activity 
St.Jerome Publishing. 
7 Venuti, L. (1995) The Translator's Invisibility. Routledge. 
8. Za[kalns, L. (1997) The TOI Model of Translator/Interpreter 
Training. In: Veisbergs, A. Zauberga, I. & Pernica, B. (eds.) 
The First Riga Symposium on Pragmatic Aspects of 
Translation. Riga. 
176 
Veneta ZTgure 
University of Latvia 
Norvegu un latviesu sakamvardu t ipologiskolpatnlbu 
salldzinajums. 
Sakamvardi uzskatami par universalu paradTbu, jo cilveki kas 
runa dazadas valodas un kuriem ir dazadi politiskie, religiskie un 
filozofiskie uzskati, dalas kopTgaja sakamvardu mantojuma. 
Lai gan norvegu un latviesu valoda pieder pie dazadam grupam 
indoeiropiesu valodu saime, tomer abu valodu sakamvardu 
krajumos atrodami joti daudz ITdzTgu vai telaini radnieclgu 
variantu. Varam runat par t.s. genetisko ITdzTbu, kur sakamvarda 
pirmsakumi meklejami laika, kad dotas valodas vel nav 
sadalljusas atseviskas patstavlgas valodas, bet radusas cita 
veida UdzTbas, proti tipologiskas UdzTbas, kam pamata ir 
sinonimitate. Sadas UdzTbas radusas pec koplga modeja, 
neatkangi katra no valodam. 
"LTdzTgu apstakju raksturosanai dazadas tautas pilnlgi patstavlgi 
radTjusas an UdzTga rakstura sakamvardus, ietverot tos savai 
zemei raksturlgos telos. Bet ja tik ITdzTga domu izpausme 
noverojama visai dazados geografiskos apstakjos dzlvojosam 
tautam, tad vel jo vairak tas iespejams tur, kur domasanu un 
uzskatu attlstibu nosaka vienadi dzlves apstakji." (Kokare, 1957: 
17). 
177 
Saja raksta norvegu un latviesu sakamvardiem, galvenokart, 
meklets fidzTgais un atskjrTgais tipologiska ITmenT, aplukota 
sakamvardu forma, ka an sakamvardu grupas pec to tematiska 
iedafljuma. Par sakamvardu avotiem izmantoti J.Niedres un 
J.Ozola, E.Kokares sastadTtie latviesu sakamvardu un parunu 
krajumi, ka an norvegu sakamvardu krajums, kas sistematizets 
alfabetiska kartlba. 
Nedaudz pieversoties terminologjjai, jaatzTme, ka jautajums par 
preclzu sakamvarda definTcjju v i l joprojams ir atklats, jo preclza 
ta definlcjja nepastav neviena no aplukotajam valodam. 
Latviesu literatura sakamvardi pirmoreiz piemineti G.Mencela 
"Phraseologia Lettica" 1638.gada, bet seit sakamvarda jedziens 
nav definets. Vecais Stenders sakamvardu nedaudz raksturo 
"Lettische Gramatik" izdevuma 1761g. 
"Latvju literaturas vestures gramata vidusskolam" kuru sastadTjis 
Vilis Pludons 1929.g., atrodama sada sakamvardu definlcija: 
"Sakamvardi un parunas ir Tsi, kodolTgi izteicieni, kas nopietni vai 
zobgaUga karta izsaka kadu dzlves gudrlbu vai graiza kadu 
sadzTves vajTbu" (Pludons, 1929: 54). Seit an noradlta atskinba 
starp sakamvardu un parunu, kur sakamvards ir satura zina 
plasaks un dzijaks, kamer paruna irvienkarss aplinkus teiciens. 
Runajot par sakamvarda definejuma pirmsakumiem norvegu 
valoda, jaatzTme, ka laika no 1812-1901. gadam konkretu ta 
definTcjju nav devis neviens no trim folkloras vacejiem un 
178 
apkopotajiem Kristians Asbjansens, Sofuss Birge un muks 
Jorgens Mu. Izdevuma "Edda" 1852. gada Sofuss Birge sauc 
sakamvardus par norvegu zemnieka leksikonu vardu krajumu, 
kura var atrast katram dzlves gadTjumam piemerotu izteicienu. 
Velakajos valodu petljumos sakamvardi raksturoti ka Tsas, 
vienkarsas un viegli izsakamas frazes, kas pielietojami dazadas 
dzlves situacijas, nevis ka noteiktu un patstavlgu domu 
izteikumu kopumu. Jautajuma par sakamvardu krasanas un 
pierakstlsanas pirmsakumiem Norvegija, jamin an fakts, ka 
18.gs. beigas valodu petnieks Ivars Osens (Aasen), no 
"saskaldTtajiem" norvegu valodas dialektiem radlja rakstu valodu 
(Landsmaal), kas velak kjuva par otru literaro valodu ITdztekus 
stipri norvegizetajai danu valodai (Riksmaal). Ta, jaunnorvegu 
valoda (Nynorsk), kas ir viena no oficialajam rakstu valodam, 
radas no lauku apvidus dialektiem, kamer bukmols (Bokmal), kas 
ir otra oficiala rakstu valoda, attTstTjas no danu valodas 
(Riksmaal), kura runaja pilsetas iedzlvotaji. 
§eit an meklejams izskaidrojums apstaklim, ka norvegu 
sakamvardi krajumos pierakstlti un apkopoti Nynorsk vai kada 
no izloksnem, nevis bukmola, kas uzskatama par standarta 
norvegu valodu, kuru lieto vairak ka 80% iedzlvotaju. 
Nacionalais un internacionalais, kas raksturlgs sakamvardiem 
dazadas valodas, ir vesturiski nosacrts process. Satura un forma 
UdzTgi sakamvardi norvegu un latviesu valoda sastopami 
visdazadakajas tematiskajas grupas. Dalai sakamvardu piemlt 
179 
arl kadas nacionalas iezTmes, piem., sakamvardos pieminetas 
naudas vienlbas, raksturo kadu periodu nacijas vesture: 
Ein uaerlig skilling et upp ein dalar. 
(tulk.) Nieka silins iztaisa dalderi. 
Latviesu sakamvardu krajuma atrodam: 
Grasis pie grasa iztaisa rubuli; 
Santins pie santina iztaisa latu. 
Norvegu sakamvardu krajuma atrodami aptuveni 80 sakamvardi 
par berniem un bernu audzinasanu. Gribetu minet vienu, kuru 
var pieskaitlt pie sakamvardiem, kas atklaj kadu nacionalu iezlmi 
norvegu gimenu tradTcijas: 
Barn er Guds gavor, nar det ikkje vert bene gjentungar. 
(tulk.) Berni ir Dieva davana, ja vien tie visi nav meitenes. 
Sakamvardiem latviesu valoda raksturfgs ieksejs ritms, tajos reti 
sastopamas atskarjias un to izteiksme ir joti koncentreta. 
Atskirfba no latviesu sakamvardiem, daudzi sakamvardi norvegu 
valoda ir izteiksme garaki un nereti atgadina aforismus, piem.. 
Urn mannen gl0ymer aldren, so gl0ymer ikkje aldren 
mannen. 
(tulk.) Ja cilveks aizmirst vecumu, vecums neaizmirst 
cilveku. 
Vert ein ikkje ven til ein er tjuge, sterk til ein er tredive, 
klok til ein er fyrti og rik til ein er femti - ja, so vert ein det 
aldri. 
(tulk.) Ja tu nebusi skaists lidz 20, stiprs Udz 30, gudrs 
fldz 40 un bagats lTdz 50 gadiem - tu tads nekad nek{usi. 
180 
Ingen ting so gall at det ikkje kann vera sant. 
(tulk.) Neviena lieta nevar but tik traka, lai nebutu 
patieslba. 
Daudzviet norvegu aforismos sastopama tiesa runa, kas nav 
raksturiga sakamvardiem latviesu valoda, piem., 
"Ja, ja", er fatigmanns trugsmal og stormanns ord. 
(tulk.) "Ja" neskan vienadi nabago un bagato mute. 
"Takka ikkje for maten, - du skal fa supe og" sa mannen. 
(tulk.) "Nesaki paldies par edienu tad vel dzert ar' 
dabusi", nodomaja vTrs. 
Norvegu sakamvardos samera biezi sastopamas atskanas, 
piem. 
Rask ved borde er rask pa jorde 
Tri ars gamal galte, ligg best i salte 
Gamal hest, hittar vegen best 
Den som vide vanka, kann mykje sanka. 
Ars groda er ars foda. 
Apskatot sakamvardus no tematiskas uzbuves un telainlbas 
viedokja, jaatzTme, ka latviesu sakamvardu krajuma vislielakas 
sakamvardu grupas attiecinamas uz darbu un taja guto pieredzi; 
cilveku attieclbam dazadas dzTves situacijas, gimeni un bernu 
audzinasanu. Aplukotaja norvegu sakamvardu krajuma, kas 
sistematizets alfabetiska kartlba, sastopami skaita Tpasi daudz 
sakamvardu par tadiem cilveka morales un etikas aspektiem ka 
181 
gods, (~ 60 sakamvardu), pateiclba, paldies 50), krisana, 
klupsana (« 40), varda speks (« 70), jaunums 70), bailes 30). 
Turpmak ilustracijai dota neliela daja sakamvardu, kuri iedallti 
jau pieminetajas tematiskajas grupas. Ar zvaigznlti atzlmeti 
sakamvardi, kuri abas valodas ir ITdzTgi ka nozTmes, ta 
izteiksmes un telu zina, talab uzskatami par identiskiem. Otru 
sakamvardu grupu veido tie, kuri atskiras formas zina, bet atbilst 
nozTmes zina. Sie sakamvardi noradTti ar atzTmi (atb). 
GadTjumos, kad nav atrodams atbilstosais sakamvards latviesu 
valoda, izmantots burtisks tulkojums. 
Darbs, darba guta pieredze: 
Liter tue velter stort lass. * Vel begynt er halt fullendt. * 
Mazs cinitis gaz lielu vezumu. Labs sakums ir puse darba. 
Skite arbeid og blanke pengar. Ein fa bruka hamaren 
Kads darbs, tada alga, (atb.) medan jarne erheitt 
Cilveku attieclbas dazadas dzlves situacijas 
Vanen er halve live. * Takk for hjelpa er lite l0n. 
leradums ir puse dzTves. Ar paldies vien nepietiek, kulite ar3 
Betre pengelaus enn serelaus. * Betre daud enn aeresnaud. 
Kal dzelzikamerkarsta. (atb.) 
vajag. 
Parpliku paldies kaki spragst. (atb.) 
Labak bez naudas, neka 
bez goda. 
(tulk.) Labak miris, ka bez 
goda. 
Den som vandt gjer er altid 
redd.* 
Kas vainigs, tas baifigs. 
Redd er radlaus mann. * 
Bailes ir slikts padoms. 
182 
Sant er sant, un so ingen Takka er god, men gava 
trur del er betre. * 
(tulk.) PatiesJba paliek PateicJba laba, bet devlba vel 
patiesJba, labaka. 
neviens tai netic. 
Kjope katten i sekken. * I morke er alle katter gra. * 
Pirkt kaki maisa. Tumsa visi kaki melni. 
Stryke katten med Det er snarere a fall a enn 
harene. * a rusa seg. * 
Glaudit kaki pa spalvai. 
Vieglak krist neka piecelties. 
Kas kritis, tarn gruti piecelties. 
Det alle taler, er det ingen som h0yren etter. 
(tulk.) Kur visi runa, nevies neklausas. 
Ka latviesu, ta norvegu folklore biezi izmantots tels ir veins. 
Norvegu sakamvardu krajuma ietverti aptuveni 70 sakamvardu, 
bet latviesu sakamvardos ap 40 dazadu sakamvardu, kas 
saistas ar velna vardu. Ka popularakos no tiem var minet, piem.. 
Far fan' fyrst ein fing, tek ban snart hiile hande. * 
ledod velnam mazo pirkstinu, vins parjems visu roku. 
Fan' hjelper sine. 
Veins savejos pazlst. 
Veins pazTst velnu, kungs kungu. 
Ко tu tarn padansi, kam veins par krusttevu. (atb.) 
183 
Nar du talar un fan', so kjem ban. * 
Kad velnu piesauc, tas ir klat. 
Velna saistTba ar baznTcu atzTmeta sakamvardos abas valodas, 
piem. 
Nair fan vert gammal vil ban verte munk. 
(tulk.) Kad veins paliek vecs, vins kfist par тики. 
Veins nav tik melns ka tie apustuji. 
Veins mute, bJbele paduse, u.c. ' 
Par to, ka veins ir joti sena paradTba folklora, liecina kads 
interesants latviesu sakamvards: 
'Tas bija 1012.gada, kad veils puis! bija" 
Interesanti atzlmet, ka starp norvegu sakamvardiem atrodami 
tadi, kuros piemineti gada menesi, kas savukart saistiti ar laika 
zlmju verojumiem tautas ticejumos, piem. 
Kald mai gjer varn sumar. 
(tulk.) Auksts maijs taisa siltu vasaru. 
Turr mars, vat april og kald mai gjer godt ar 
(tulk.) Putenains marts, slapjs aprilis un auksts maijs 
taisa labu gadu. 
Starp parunam latviesu valoda nav daudz tadu, kas saistltos ar 
Janiem, Martiniem vai Ziemassvetkiem, jo laika paredzesana 
latviesiem vairak saistlta ar tautas ticejumiem par laika zTmem. 
Norvegu sakamvardu krajuma lasami ap 20 sakamvardu, kas 
saistiti ar Ziemassvetkiem un nedaudzi, kas saistiti ar Jarjiem un 
Vasarsvetkiem, piem., 
184 
Onnor jul og onnor kake. 
(tulk.) Citi Ziemsvetki, cita кйка. 
Jonsokregn gjer lande rikt. 
(tulk.) Janu lietus dara zemi bagatu. 
Det vert aldri for mykje regen tyre jonsok. 
(tulk.) Lietus pirms Janiem nekad nav par daudz. 
Pinseregn er sjelden godt. 
(tulk.) Vasarsvetku lietus reti kad irlabs. 
D'er vandt gjera skil pa dag og natt jonsok - bel. 
(tulk.) Janos gruti atskirt dienu no nakts. 
Vel var minet dazus objektus, TpasTbas un paradfbas, kuras 
ietvertas sakamvardos norvegu valoda, bet trukst vai retak 
sastopamas latviesu sakamvardos, piem. 
osta 
Ein er tryggere hamnen enn pa have, 
(tulk.) Drosak osta neka uz juras. 
sarkans 
Sarkana krasa savukart piemineta slimTbas sakara, piem. 
/ dag raud i morgen daud. 
(tulk.) Pa dienu sarkans, no nta beigts. 
Raud ir morgen er svart um kvelden. 
(tulk.) Sarkans nta, melns vakara. 
Nelaime biezi sastopama paradlba ka latviesu ta norvegu 
sakamvardos. Turklat kibele, keza ir joti plasi izmantots jedziens 
norvegu sakamvardos, piem. 
185 
Naudsyn bryt lov. 
(tulk.) Kibele nav laime. 
Naud laerer nakja kjering a spinna. 
(tulk.) Kibele iemaca pliku veceni verpt. 
traks, trakums 
Dei galene hev det godt. 
(tulk.) Trakais vienmerjutas labi. 
Ung og galen er tilgjevande, men game! og gallen kann 
ingen tilgje. 
(tulk.) Var but jauns un traks, bet ne vecs un traks. 
Sakamvardiem ir sena vesture, kuras gaita daudzi no tiem 
mainTjusi saturu, formu un lietosanas jomu. Arl starp nacionalas 
un internacionalajam iezTmem sakamvardos pastav savstarpeja 
mijiedarblba, tapec var atrast tik daudz koplga norvegu un 
latviesu sakamvardos. Abu tautu ITdzTgie sadzlves apstakji 
izskaidro to, ka atrodami salTdzinosi daudz pilnlgi vienadu 
sakamvardu variantu. JapiezTme, ka visuma norvegu 
sakamvardiem piemlt nedaudz filozofiskaka un visparinataka 
izteiksmes forma, kamer latviesu sakamvardi ir Tsaki, kodolTgaki 
un trapTgaki. Saja nelielaja ieskata aplukoti tikai dazi ar 
tipologiskam TpatnTbam saistiti aspekti, saUdzinot norvegu un 
latviesu sakamvardus. 
186 
Bibliografija 
Latviesu literatures vesture l.da[a (1935) "Literatura" Riga. 
Pludons, V. (1929) Latvju literatures vesture I cfa/a. Valters un 
Rapa, Riga. - 75. Ipp. 
Niedre, J. Ozols, J. (1955) Latviesu sakamvardi un parunas. 
Latvijas Valsts IzdevniecTba. 
Kokare, E. (1957) Latviesu sakamvardi un parunas. Riga, 17.Ipp 
Vindkryss (1994) En Nord Norsk Antologi. Harslad titteaturlag. 
Kragh 0.(1994) 7000 Ordsprak och talestatt fran hela varden. 
lenvalav. 
Heide H. (1985) 20 000 Proverb, Sprichworter, Proverbes, 
Ordsprak, ordspog. 
Norbok A.S. (1990) Norsk-Engelsk bla ordbok. Gj0vik, Oslo. 
Summary 
The theme "The Comparison of Norwegian and Latvian proverbs 
based on typological Features" has been chosen to study the 
similarities and peculiarities of both languages with regard to 
proverbs. Studying various definitions of proverbs proposed by 
the Norwegian and Latvian scholars, it has to be admitted that 
no perfect definition has been given by the present time. Many 
proverbs in Norwegian and Latvian have adequate or closely 
related variants in imagery, which is most probably a case of 
genetic likeness. The equivalence of Norwegian and Latvian 
proverbs is of different degrees identical, partial coincidence 
and non-identical. The proverbs are basically classified 
according to the thematic principle proverbs referring to work 
and life experience, proverbs referring to upbringing of children 
and proverbs referring to relations among people. 
187 
Recenzijas Reviews 
Skatuves ABC. Terminu glosarijs, by Alfreds Straumanis. 
Riga: Spriditis, 1997. 240p. 
This new dictionary of Stage terminology, called a glossary by 
its author is a compilation of the theatre terminology. No need to 
explain that it is a necessary tool for this profession in conditions 
of growing internationalization of arts. The dictionary presents a 
list of Latvian terms with explanations in Latvian, accompanied 
by translation equivalents in English, French, German, Spanish, 
Russian and Italian. Thus the dictionary can be viewed as a 
combination of explanatory dictionary and multilingual one. 
The end matter consists of indexes in all these languages, an 
index of proper names, a small glossary of English theatre 
jargon (Why English one?) as well as drawings of stage 
geography and bibliography. 
The author has consistently used by now old fashioned soft r 
aktieris, jokdaris, and ch combination where modern Latvian 
prefers simple h psihologisks - psichologisks, as well as 
some other older forms perkona perkona, dramatisks 
dramatisks. These deviations from the modern norm have been 
pointed out in the introduction by the author himself though with 
188 
a touch of guilt, which make me wonder why a problem like this 
has been deliberately created. Unwelcome Russicisms are 
pointed out. 
The author has not escaped a few false friends personazs -
personage (character would be better), trupa troupe 
(company is better), korifejs - should be luminary (not chorus 
leader like in ancient Greek), 
Is otrais plans really secondary plane, or parters - parquet 
circle, patoss - pathos (pathos = a quality causing a pity or 
saddness)? Is there a word like uzjautrinajums 
(entertainment) in Latvian or we still prefer izklaide? 
However these separate dubious cases do not overshadow the 
volume of work done and the usefulness of yet another 
dictionary filling the lexical gaps of Modern Latvian. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
189 
Libushe Zorin-Obrusnikova. Czech-English Idioms and 
Figurative Expressions. Praha: JTP, 1997. -175p. 
This is a relatively big bilingual compilation of expressions a 
useful tool for the translator more than 6000 units (all 
numbered). The book contains also a subject and keyword 
index. Calling this compilation "Figurative expressions" has 
allowed the author to include not only idioms, exocentric 
compounds but also words used expressively. Where the 
borderline between expressive use and polysemy of a word lies, 
however is not stated. The latter could be put under a question 
theoretically but not practically as the glossary is a useful 
collection for the translator. This accounts for the unusual way of 
combining words and expressions in one and/or the language. 
What strikes me most is the gloomy introductions, suggesting 
either a too pedantic a tradition or low self-image. Instead of 
pointing out the uniqueness of her work the author has basically 
pointed out what she has not included, what could be viewed as 
inappropriate and not corresponding to the accepted patterns. 
While the Publishers note some of these things, they go on in an 
equally apologetic way commenting that they have left all 
shortcomings without any change. Of all these drawbacks 
maybe stylistic matching is the one that could be desired. 
The compendium comprises units used at various times of the 
twenty century as the publishers note "covering at least two 
190 
generations" This is not a bad strategy for a dictionary aimed at 
the translator who might have to deal with expressions of various 
ages and spheres. As one is used to idiomatic dictionaries being 
either very traditional (Brewer's, etc.) or very up-to-date one 
feels a marker of time of usage might be of great benefit, as 
idiomatic language tends to change fast. It is not possible for me 
to judge the Czech units from the point of view of their place in 
time. It is however worth pointing out that disbalance on the time 
equivalence is one of the gravest faults in idiom matching 
testifying to the users being lost in time warp. 
There are a few items that make me wonder. The first page 
provides an equivalent umberufen which is more suggestive of 
German than English; there are rarely or never seen words 
phonus-bolonus (1401), robustious (1402), to walk 
barelegged (better barefooted) (1426); hasbeen (3285) would 
still look much better hyphenated has-been. 
Still it is great that a Union of Interpreters and Translators has 
decided to publish the material and has been able to do it. It 
seems JTP is one of the strongest associations in Europe to be 
able to carry out such a task alongside its other versatile 
activities. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
191 
Newsletter January - December 1997 
of the Department of Contrastive Linguistics 
Visitors 
Dr. D.Kiraly un V.Srinivasan 
University of Mainz, Germersheim, Germany ran a set of 
Translation workshops and delivered lectures on computational 
linguistics to BA and MA students of the Faculty of Foreign 
Languages, April 4-12. 
Dr. David Snelling 
University of Trieste, Italy, gave a series of lectures on 
interpreting for MA and BA students, September 16-23. 
Roderick Jones 
Brussels, EU, coordinated cooperation in training MA students of 
the University of Latvia in Brussels and purchase of interpreting 
equipment, September 9-10. 
Peter Barber 
Translation Agency, U.K., discussed collaboration with the 
department on translation issues, September 11-13. 
Dr. Brian Griffiths 
Bradford University, U.K., gave a series of lectures on 
interpreting for MA and BA students, discussed the state of 
translation and interpreting in Latvia in the EU perspective, 
November 24-30. 
Staff Activities 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated in a TAIEX workshop on interpreter 
training,Brussels,January 31. 
192 
leva Zauberga 
Participated in a TAIEX workshop on interpreter training, 
Brussels, January 31 . 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated with a report "Dazas problemas divvalodu vardnTcu 
veidosana" in EndzeUns Conference, Riga, Latvian Language 
Institute, February 21 . 
Arvils Salme 
Lectured, researched, conducted a Latvian Language course in 
University of Munster, Germany, February 23 - April 24. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated with a report "Reala vai velama latviesu valoda -
ieskats leksikografija" in a PBLA Conference "Latviesu valoda -
esamlba, vide, konteksti", Riga, PBLA, Kulturas fonds, March 14. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Lectured on Contrastive linguistics and Modern Latvian in 
Stockholm University, March 21-22.. 
Gunta Locmele 
Lectured on pragmatic aspects of Latvian advertising. Stochholm 
University, March 21-22. 
Maija Brede 
Taught Latvian by Natural approach at the University of Mainz, 
Germany, April 9 - May 25 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated with a plenary report "Lexicography as a Reflection 
of a Small Nation's Contacts, Needs and Weltanschauung" in 
3 r d International Symposium "Ubersetzerische Kompetenz". 
Germersheim, Germany, May 9-12. 
193 
leva Zauberga 
Participated with a plenary report "Translation as Part of 
Ideology: Latvian Translation in 1990s" in 3 r d International 
Symposium "Ubersetzerische Kompetenz" Germersheim, 
Germany, May 9-12. 
Svetlana Korojova 
Participated with a report "The Problems of Text Selection at the 
Initial Stage of Translator Training" in 3 r d International 
Symposium "Ubersetzerische Kompetenz" Germersheim, 
Germany, May, 9-13. 
Veneta ZTgure 
Taught Latvian by Natural approach at the University of Mainz, 
Germany, June 1 - July 15. 
leva Zauberga 
Participated with a paper "Acculturation and National Identy in 
Translation", in the International conference "Translation and 
Power" at the Warwick university, U.K., July 13-15. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Gave an open lecture on Polysemy. Riga, University of Latvia, 
July 11. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated in a TAIEX workshop on interpreter training in 
Brussels, July 13-14. 
Svetlana Korojova 
Participated in a stage program organized by SCIC, the 
European Commission Brussels. August 11 - September 6. 
194 
Maija В rede 
Participated with a report "Discourse Markers in Spoken Latvian" 
at the Second Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe "Values & 
Norms of Society im Change" Vilnius, Lithuania, August 20-23. 
Arvils Salme 
Participated in a UN Latvian language programme for the army. 
August 18-11 September. 
Department Conference 25.9.1997 
Andrejs Veisbergs Dictionary Users What Do They Want 
and Do They Get? 
Maija Brede Contrastive Aspects of Discourse Markers in a 
Dialogue. 
leva Zauberga Ideological Turns of Feminist Translation. 
Gunta Locmele Observations in Translating Children's 
Literature. 
Arvils Salme Principles of Study Aid Compilation. 
Veneta Zigure Typological Comparison of Latvian and 
Norwegian Proverbs. 
Svetlana Korojova Teaching Consecutive Interpreting at the 
University of Latvia. 
Anita Naciscione Teaching of the Stylistic Use of 
Phraseological Units as Part of Discourse Analysis for Advance 
L2 Learners. 
David Snelling (Italy, Trieste) Summary of Interpretation 
Teaching in Trieste. 
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Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated as an instructor in the TAIEX Programme of 
interpreter training in Brussels, October 5-11. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated in the conference "Language and International 
Communication in the New Century with a report "The New 
Indentify in a Different World: the Case of Latvian" CUNI, New 
York, October 16-17 
leva Zauberga 
Participated as an instructor in the TAIEX Programme of 
interpreter training in Brussels, October 16- 26. 
Arvils Salme 
Participated in the International seminar on language training 
situation in Europe, Budapest, Hungary, October 24-31. 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated in a TAIEX workshop "Terminology Tools for 
Interpreters" in Brussels, October 27 
leva Zauberga 
Participated in a TAIEX workshop "Terminology Tools for 
Interpreters" in Brussels, October 27 
Andrejs Veisbergs 
Participated in the Second Conference of SCIC Universities 
"^Interpretation de Conference et le multilinguisme" Brussels, 
December 15. 
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