[Lexicog] Key-words and comparative lexical studies

[Translation MALI]

Dear Juri,

You must be Russian. I am German.
I am also interested in key-words, especially in the Bible
but also in literature. As I am a Bible translator, I can
especially help you with biblical key terms in German, one
of the languages you are familiar with.
Write to me off-list at Fritz_Goerling at sil.org and/or on
this list because this subject might interest more
people on this list. Off-list you can write to me in
German if you feel more at ease in German.
Of course, "Gevatter Tod" is male in German, but I would not
derive any ethnopsychology from that. This often just
has to do with grammatical gender. This might be the same
with your Russian female "smert." I agree that "death" is
a key word in any culture. What gender is "love" in Russian?
In German it is feminine. But, again, I do not trust
ethno- or gender- or psycholinguistics in this area.
Isn't "amor" masculine in Spanish?
What authors and poets do with language is another thing.
As you know Spanish, why does Hemingway refer to the ocean/sea
by "la mar" and "el mar" respectively?
Anna Wierzbicka has done excellent comparative studies on
German "Schicksal", English "fate/destiny", Russian "sud'ba"
and also comparing "soul/mind/heart" in these three languages.
I find these studies very helpful for adequate translation
and mutual understanding between peoples. That is why I
brought up the subject of comparative dictionaries/lexicons
for the religious vocabulary of major religions recently.
(I also wrote a dissertation  on the translation of biblical
key terms in an African context).

I hope to hear more from you.
Dosvedanya (probably spelt completely wrong),

Fritz Goerling
B.P. 2232
Bamako
MALI, WEST AFRICA


Hi to all,
I'm sorry, but i can't spak and write anglish good, my languages is
german, russian and spanish. i have a question to all linguists on
this site.
I looking for practical studies of the "key-words" (Vierzbicka) in
russian, german and english in the books of german/russian/english
autors and in translated books.
p.ex. (very old example by Jakobson) "death" in Russian is "smert'"
and this is female, in german is "Tod" male. In russian poems etc.
is "smert'" very frequently a female person, in translated russian
poems is it a man. "Death" is in russian psycholinguistic
(associative) dictionary (by Karaulov et al.) and in the english
associative thesaurus (by Kiss) a "key-word" (this is a very
important word for the culture and mentality).

What's up for studies of "key-words" in translated books, that you
know?
Best rgards from Leipzig and im sorry for the mistakes in this mail.

---
Juri V. Istjagin, Ph.D.
Blümnerstr. 31
D-04229 Leipzig
Germany




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