Oil and gas metaphorical terminology: equivalence and asymmetry of translation (based on Russian and English languages)

The topic analysed in the article is oil and gas terminological systems in English and Russian languages. In the present research the terminological systems are studied from the perspective of equivalence and symmetry. The relevance of the research is due to the insufficient knowledge of the basic principles of metaphorical oil and gas terminology functioning. Today the study of branch-wise lexis is one of the most timely and promising directions in modern linguistics, science of terminology and theory of translation. The main objective of the article is to study metaphorical terminology of the oil and gas industry from the perspective of equivalence. The data for the study are terminological oil and gas dictionaries and also professional dictionaries, created by the interpreters and translators in different oil and gas companies for internal use only. The presentation of the terms in translation dictionaries and professional dictionaries stated the problem of equivalence. Equivalence is one of the criteria of a successfully performed translation. However, while analyzing the selected data it has become evident that metaphorical terms in two languages are asymmetrical. Therefore, equivalence is not always achievable. We can say that the metaphor in scientific text facilitates the creation of new hypotheses and vision of the world, it makes possible to have a look at a habitual object from another perspective; metaphor adds volumes and shadows to the known notions. In our research we investigate metaphorical scientific terms in the framework of the system. Metaphorical terms are integral components of a terminological system. In our study we compared the metaphorical fragment of terminological systems and therefore revealed the difference in the scientific experience structuring. This difference again highlights the cultural distance, which is the reason for a number of translation problems, and therefore problems of scientific communication. Asymmetry, both quantitative (in the English language there are more metaphorical terms than in the Russian language) and qualitative, reveals two main types of relatedness of metaphorical terms in the two languages: ''metaphor - direct naming'' and ''metaphor - metaphor'', which in its turn is represented by three subtypes. Moreover, the analysed terminology was investigated from the position of equivalence. We found the following peculiarities: equivalence in translation of metaphorical terminology can only be achieved on three levels out of the existing six levels. The absence of equivalence is the result of asymmetry and the fundamental cause of metaphorical terms asymmetry is the gross difference in the processes of formation and interpretation of human experience.

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