English Multi-word Expressions as False Friends between German and Russian: Corpus-driven Analyses of Phraseological Units

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper we outline the issue of borrowing multi-word expressions from English into German and Russian. It is established which forms of borrowed multi-word expressions (original or translated ones) predominate in contemporary German and Russian. The сorpus-driven analysis of functioning of English multi-word expressions in the German and the Russian press has revealed direct borrowings and calques. The majority of the multi-word expressions borrowed from English into German over recent decades are direct loans, where as multi-word expressions borrowed from English into Russian are still calques. Uncommon direct loans in Russian often belong to professional or youth slang. In this case direct loaned multi-words expressions from English are considered in German and Russian as stylistic false friends. Direct loaned multiwords expressions can rarely have semantic differences in both languages and be semantic false friends. The text corpora comparative study helps identify semantic and stylistic false friends and provides examples for a German-Russian and Russian-German dictionary of false friends, which are represented in this paper.

Corpus Analysis as a Tool for Identifying Semantic Changes of Phraseological Units - Translator’s “False Friends”

“…Теоретической базой исследования послужили труды таких отечественных и зарубежных авторов, как А. Н. Баранов и Д. О. Добровольский [1], И. И. Чернышева [14], Л. А. Нефедова [26], Д. О. Добровольский [16], Х. Бургер [15], В. Фляйшер [20; 21], Е. Пиирайнен [27; 28], В. Коллер [24], Л. Лемнитцер и Г. Цинсмайстер [25] и др.…”