Conflict between syntactic roles and semantic functions of the pattern "X showed/demonstrated Y" in translations from English into Russian (on the material of AstraZeneca's press releases)

In English medical texts, particularly if they are about clinical trial results, the construction "X showed/demonstrated Y" is frequently used, where X is an inanimate subject in the semantic role of agent, and Y is an inanimate complement. Being translated into Russian, its formally close...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya no. 96; pp. 30 - 53
Main Authors: Kovalchuk, Aleksandr V., Matyushin, Alexey A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Russian
Published: 2025
ISSN:1998-6645, 2310-5046
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract In English medical texts, particularly if they are about clinical trial results, the construction "X showed/demonstrated Y" is frequently used, where X is an inanimate subject in the semantic role of agent, and Y is an inanimate complement. Being translated into Russian, its formally close correspondence "X pokazal/prodemonstritoval Y" is frequently used. However, it often contradicts the Russian language norms. The research aims to verify and validate a semantic and stylistic status of the construction "X pokazal/prodemonstritoval Y" as a literal translation correspondence for "X showed/demonstrated Y", identify and group different ways of how the English construction can be translated by other, non-literal ways, compare their frequency, and give practical recommendations. Comparative, lexicalsemantic and semantic-stylistic analyses help this research to achieve its aims. The analyzed material comprises 16 bilingual AstraZeneca press releases published during the whole year of 2023. The research reveals that the non-literal translation of "X showed/demonstrated Y" is used in every second case (50 %). Based on statistics, grammar, and dictionaries, we offer practical recommendations as such: (1) If "X showed/demonstrated Y" has an information source as the subject and a fact reported in this source as the complement, its literal translation is acceptable, although other constructions of the Russian language spectrum can be used. (2) If "X showed/demonstrated Y" has a drug as the subject and a fact about this drug as the complement, it is important to distinguish what exactly is being said about the drug: its property or its use effect. If you imply its property, a literal translation can be acceptable (e.g. preparat pokazal svoyu effectivnost') but its stylistic context should be taken into account as this usage is colloquial. On the other hand, if you imply its effect, it is highly recommended avoiding literal translation as the Russian verb pokazat'/prodemonstrirovat' has no relevant reason-cause meaning. In this case, it is possible either (a) to place the subject in position of circumstance, complement or adjective and, if necessary, change the verb (e.g. instead of "preparat pokazal snizhenie zabolevaemosti", you can write "blagodarya preparatu snizilas zabolevaemost'", or "na fone terapii preparatom proizoshlo snizhenie zabolevaemosti", or "v gruppe patsientov, prinimavshih preparat, snizilas zabolevaemost"; or (b) to change the verb (e.g. instead of "preparat pokazal snizhenie zabolevaemosti", you can write "preparat obespechil snizhenie zabolevaemosti", or "preparat snizil zabolevaemost', or "preparat sposobstvoval snizheniyu zabolevaemosti").
AbstractList In English medical texts, particularly if they are about clinical trial results, the construction "X showed/demonstrated Y" is frequently used, where X is an inanimate subject in the semantic role of agent, and Y is an inanimate complement. Being translated into Russian, its formally close correspondence "X pokazal/prodemonstritoval Y" is frequently used. However, it often contradicts the Russian language norms. The research aims to verify and validate a semantic and stylistic status of the construction "X pokazal/prodemonstritoval Y" as a literal translation correspondence for "X showed/demonstrated Y", identify and group different ways of how the English construction can be translated by other, non-literal ways, compare their frequency, and give practical recommendations. Comparative, lexicalsemantic and semantic-stylistic analyses help this research to achieve its aims. The analyzed material comprises 16 bilingual AstraZeneca press releases published during the whole year of 2023. The research reveals that the non-literal translation of "X showed/demonstrated Y" is used in every second case (50 %). Based on statistics, grammar, and dictionaries, we offer practical recommendations as such: (1) If "X showed/demonstrated Y" has an information source as the subject and a fact reported in this source as the complement, its literal translation is acceptable, although other constructions of the Russian language spectrum can be used. (2) If "X showed/demonstrated Y" has a drug as the subject and a fact about this drug as the complement, it is important to distinguish what exactly is being said about the drug: its property or its use effect. If you imply its property, a literal translation can be acceptable (e.g. preparat pokazal svoyu effectivnost') but its stylistic context should be taken into account as this usage is colloquial. On the other hand, if you imply its effect, it is highly recommended avoiding literal translation as the Russian verb pokazat'/prodemonstrirovat' has no relevant reason-cause meaning. In this case, it is possible either (a) to place the subject in position of circumstance, complement or adjective and, if necessary, change the verb (e.g. instead of "preparat pokazal snizhenie zabolevaemosti", you can write "blagodarya preparatu snizilas zabolevaemost'", or "na fone terapii preparatom proizoshlo snizhenie zabolevaemosti", or "v gruppe patsientov, prinimavshih preparat, snizilas zabolevaemost"; or (b) to change the verb (e.g. instead of "preparat pokazal snizhenie zabolevaemosti", you can write "preparat obespechil snizhenie zabolevaemosti", or "preparat snizil zabolevaemost', or "preparat sposobstvoval snizheniyu zabolevaemosti").
Author Matyushin, Alexey A.
Kovalchuk, Aleksandr V.
Author_xml – sequence: 1
  givenname: Aleksandr V.
  surname: Kovalchuk
  fullname: Kovalchuk, Aleksandr V.
– sequence: 2
  givenname: Alexey A.
  surname: Matyushin
  fullname: Matyushin, Alexey A.
BookMark eNo1kE1LxEAMhgdRcF29eg5e1ENtpx-z7VGW9QMWBFFQLyWdSd1CO7NMRmT_mz_O1o9Tkvchb8J7JPatsyTEqUyu5CJNs1hWValUXsSVitM9MUszmURFkqt9MZtYNMFDccLcNaOq0kKVi5n4Wjrb9p0O0FD4JLLAOxtQh06Ddz0xoDXANKCdpPbDjshZBtdC2BBsMQTyFs5egDfuk0xsaBh58BjIwOsZdBbGwXKPv4utdwOs7Hvf8WaEwcHjx_gUWrhw9sdzGFd9h_1043pyeiNLGs8Ztp6YwVNPyMSXx-KgxZ7p5K_OxfPN6ml5F60fbu-X1-tISylDpBZYJmOrsDBVQ1iUUlc5aiSp0rLJiUxKWUKLHEk3smiawmBpZKbaKmkTk83F1a-v9o7ZU1tvfTeg39UyqX_ir__jrytVp9k3L6h-3w
ContentType Journal Article
CorporateAuthor I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
CorporateAuthor_xml – name: I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
DBID AAYXX
CITATION
DOI 10.17223/19986645/96/2
DatabaseName CrossRef
DatabaseTitle CrossRef
DatabaseTitleList CrossRef
DeliveryMethod fulltext_linktorsrc
EISSN 2310-5046
EndPage 53
ExternalDocumentID 10_17223_19986645_96_2
GroupedDBID AAYXX
ALMA_UNASSIGNED_HOLDINGS
CITATION
VCL
VIT
ID FETCH-LOGICAL-c111t-67a80c116a5d9bea581c94acae1628b4eed2e30e74aecb15bb5da8d136f90f0d3
ISSN 1998-6645
IngestDate Sat Oct 25 05:14:55 EDT 2025
IsPeerReviewed true
IsScholarly true
Issue 96
Language English
Russian
LinkModel OpenURL
MergedId FETCHMERGED-LOGICAL-c111t-67a80c116a5d9bea581c94acae1628b4eed2e30e74aecb15bb5da8d136f90f0d3
PageCount 24
ParticipantIDs crossref_primary_10_17223_19986645_96_2
PublicationCentury 2000
PublicationDate 2025-00-00
PublicationDateYYYYMMDD 2025-01-01
PublicationDate_xml – year: 2025
  text: 2025-00-00
PublicationDecade 2020
PublicationTitle Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya
PublicationYear 2025
SSID ssib046625687
ssib044764464
ssib052499354
ssib015893640
ssib030194903
Score 2.2784472
Snippet In English medical texts, particularly if they are about clinical trial results, the construction "X showed/demonstrated Y" is frequently used, where X is an...
SourceID crossref
SourceType Index Database
StartPage 30
Title Conflict between syntactic roles and semantic functions of the pattern "X showed/demonstrated Y" in translations from English into Russian (on the material of AstraZeneca's press releases)
hasFullText 1
inHoldings 1
isFullTextHit
isPrint
journalDatabaseRights – providerCode: PRVHPJ
  databaseName: ROAD: Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
  customDbUrl:
  eissn: 2310-5046
  dateEnd: 99991231
  omitProxy: false
  ssIdentifier: ssib044764464
  issn: 1998-6645
  databaseCode: M~E
  dateStart: 20070101
  isFulltext: true
  titleUrlDefault: https://road.issn.org
  providerName: ISSN International Centre
link http://cvtisr.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwtV1Lb9NAEF5FhQMXBAIEFNCqQirIcuLn2j5WVSMkUIVQiFIu0dpet1Eau4rt0lz4ZfwyTszswzaPQzlwiGVtoom183nmm_HMmJDXGQ5pSzPPTn0IUYIidW0e-Hi7ewFP4cNlVeX8Q3R6Gi8WycfR6Ifphbm-jMoyvrlJrv6rqmENlI2ts_-g7k4oLMA5KB2OoHY43krxx7rRoyvBqndlI1uhZCmhmslciw1sKSyhX-uK4WTblBy4iZDwFlZ9UX3FbOg0FxskkjhXIrfO4DtZH4l-ztTSyT4V3RSMQygq61Nbyw5N4LDqiYQF7FjugKS_KO0LWNqMy2cGsiBXvsIF_GptEhSaNs_Bd5WrtTWrNvW6Oq-s86puc4jJG7DVJS60psBENHxsTVeX0qjvOqfzvoI9zi7ate7qWdewDVtrPu5T8s2uxXycafsBY3k0HiZFVOu0tuDYM8iYmlE5FnINOawdOjrXqQCdDM22fjSkCIAaXvyHa4k8OeMC5aN4rCxhXTvNL3O8f_OvXdUjxlsoZWlkLBO2BPpwx4sgrMOy028nxha6IRBJ1s_hATucBEn_xDwIImCyfagbMAhkWU-1QwirEz9URRV6R_TMUryEibmEScIm3oCTDcjV7AG5r6MieqTQ_JCMRPmIfDdIphrJtEMylUimoEJqkEw7JNOqoIA2qpFMDxZU4XgyRDE9O6Crkg4xTBHDVGOYIoapxjB9U5VSpkEw_scAwYc1lfilBr9vH5PP05PZ8Ttbv2zEzsDdNzaLeOzAKeNhnqSCh7GbJQHPuHCZF6cBcElP-I6IAi6y1A3TNMx5nLs-KxKncHL_Cdkrq1I8JdSJRCxCn4nMzQNWcDCTcZZCaFKwlHPuPCOHZruXV2qmzPLv2Hh-61_uk3t4H6jk4Auy12xb8ZLcza6bVb19JaH1E7_Lxek
linkProvider ISSN International Centre
openUrl ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Conflict+between+syntactic+roles+and+semantic+functions+of+the+pattern+%22X+showed%2Fdemonstrated+Y%22+in+translations+from+English+into+Russian+%28on+the+material+of+AstraZeneca%27s+press+releases%29&rft.jtitle=Vestnik+Tomskogo+gosudarstvennogo+universiteta.+Filologiya&rft.au=Kovalchuk%2C+Aleksandr+V.&rft.au=Matyushin%2C+Alexey+A.&rft.date=2025&rft.issn=1998-6645&rft.eissn=2310-5046&rft.issue=96&rft.spage=30&rft.epage=53&rft_id=info:doi/10.17223%2F19986645%2F96%2F2&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_17223_19986645_96_2
thumbnail_l http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/lc.gif&issn=1998-6645&client=summon
thumbnail_m http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/mc.gif&issn=1998-6645&client=summon
thumbnail_s http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/sc.gif&issn=1998-6645&client=summon