Terms and their role in translating “I, robot” by Isaac Asimov

Having become a great necessity in stimulating political, economical and other relationships between nations, translation and interpretation are the most essential keys to unlock the door of inhibitions in intercultural competence. Since translation is the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language along with the production of an equivalent text delivering the same message in another language, it is crucial for foreign language learners to take into account a number of constraints, comprising context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions and words, especially terms. A term is a word or group of words designating something, especially in a particular field, as atom in physics, quietism in theology, adze in carpentry, or district leader in politics. Even though terminology is the study of terms and their use, few linguistic works have emphasized its significance so far; in other words this controversial theme still remains untouchable. According to A.A.Reformatorsky terms (from Latin “border”, “limit”) are special words which are defined by their special meaning, the words which aim to be unambiguous, well-defined as an accurate expression of the meaning and name of the things[1, 62]. It is necessary in technique, diplomacy etc. Terms exist not only in the language, but in the structure of definite terminology. If in a common language they can be polysemantic, in terminology they acquire unambiguity. A word always contains some meaning which a dictionary cannot define. The simplest message conveyed by the means of natural language has to be interpreted because all the words are polysemic and take their actual meaning from the connection with a given context and a given audience against the background of a given situation [2, 125]. As Douglas Robinson Says, "native speakers of a language can argue forever over the connotations of a word"[3, 15]. For example, term “valve” means клапан; вентиль; золотник; затвор; in botany – створка; in autonomy – клапан сердца; in engineering “deceleration valve” means тормозной клапан; “deceleration flow control valve" means регулятор, обеспечивающий плавное замедление движения потока; “deck drain valve” means мор. клапан сточной системы; “delivery valve” –нагнетательный клапан; “depress valve” means клапан сброса давления; “diaphragm valve” means мембранный клапан; мембранный вентиль; “diaphragm seating action valve” – гидро- или пневмоаппарат с мембранным клапаном; “differential pressure control valve” means клапан разности давления; “to valve off a line” means перекрывать трубопровод задвижкой. [4, 718].

We are going to give some examples of semantic change in the word place given in “I robot” by Isaac Asimov in order to make this polysemic change of the terms much more clear.

• 1.    “Robot DV-5 multiplied five-place figures to the heartless ticking of a stopwatch.” [5, 46] . “Под равнодушное тиканье секундомера робот ДВ-5 перемножал пятизначные числа.”¹ The word five-place figure means пятизначное число.

• 2.    “I bathed the place in gamma rays for five seconds”- “ Я на пять секунд включил гамма-лучи.” The translator skillfully chose the word включить instead of bathe the place here.

• 3.    “Carefully, he raised the little girl and placed her on his broad, flat shoulders.” –“Потом он осторожно поднял девочку на свои широкие, плоские плечи.” As it is seen in the translation the word place is omitted and without it the translator gave the precise meaning of the fragment.

• 4.    “Children aren’t allowed to go near our place in the evenings.” –“По вечерам детей даже близко не пускают к нашему дому.” Now here the word place changed into home so as to give concise meaning of the sentence.

• 5.    “I don’t see how I can quarter sixty-three robots all over the place”.- “Я не вижу, где я смогу держать шестьдесят три робота по отдельности.” Here the expression all over the place is translated as по отдельности [6,113].

Since “I, Robot” by Isaac Asimov is eminent in technical terms, especially robotic terms, it is fair to give examples of them and their meanings by the reference of this book.

Writing I. Asimov’s robot stories, the technology that people were really interested in wasn't robots, but atomic power. Researching the usage of terms in “I, Robot” by I. Asimov you can see this in Asimov's stories with the way that he uses "atomic" and "hyper atomic.". For instance, the robot's energy system is a "tiny spark of atomic energy" (Runaround.38) and Powell and Donovan build a robot in "Reason" with "atomic flare" tools (Reason.156). So the robots are clearly connected to atomic energy because, in some ways, they're standing in for atomic energy. The characters in the stories worry about robots, whereas people who were reading the stories around the time they were published were worried about atomic power—and weapons. There are a few other times that Asimov uses "atomic" and "hyper atomic" that might make us think about atomic energy and the atomic bomb. For instance, in "Little Lost Robot," Major-General Kallner is in charge of the Hyper atomic Drive program, which should remind us of Brigadier-General Leslie Groves, the man who was in charge of the Manhattan Project. For another example, US Robots is racing against Consolidated to build a hyper atomic Drive in "Escape!"—and that might make us think about the US and Germany racing to build an atomic bomb.

But here's one thing to keep in mind: although we often think of atomic energy as dangerous (it can be used in bombs and nuclear energy plants may have problems, like what happened at Fukushima) , in the 1940s, a lot of people were a lot more optimistic about atomic power. For instance, check out this picture from the Atomic History Museum of products that are marketed as "atomic" or "nuclear." Atomic energy used to be really cool—people even used to have parties to celebrate atomic tests. So when Asimov uses the word "atomic," we should remember that atomic energy in the 1940s was new and exciting. While it could be used to create weapons, it could also be used to make life better. So in that way, atomic energy really does seem related to the issue of robots: everyone is worried that they'll be dangerous, but they also might just make our lives a bit better. The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround" (included in the 1950 collection I, Robot) , although they had been foreshadowed in a few earlier stories. The Three Laws, quoted as being from the "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.", are:

• 1.    A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

• 2.    A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

• 3.    A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

These form an organizing principle and unifying theme for Asimov's robotic based fiction, appearing in his Robot series, the stories linked to it, and his Lucky Starr series of young-adult fiction. The Laws are incorporated into almost all of the positronic robots appearing in his fiction, and cannot be bypassed, being intended as a safety feature. Many of Asimov's robot-focused stories involve robots behaving in unusual and counter-intuitive ways as an unintended consequence of how the robot applies the Three Laws to the situation in which it finds itself. Other authors working in Asimov's fictional universe have adopted them and references, often parodic, appear throughout science fiction as well as in other genres. The original laws have been altered and elaborated on by Asimov and other authors. Asimov himself made slight modifications to the first three in various books and short stories to further develop how robots would interact with humans and each other. In later fiction where robots had taken responsibility for government of whole planets and human civilizations, Asimov also added a fourth, or zeroth law, to precede the others:

• 1.    A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. мThe Three Laws, and the zeroth, have pervaded science fiction and are referred to in many books, films, and other media, and have impacted thought on ethics of artificial intelligence as well.

• 2.    The miles of relays and photocells had given way to the spongy globe of plantinumiridium about the size of a human brain.- Relays are switches that open and close circuits electromechanically or electronically ; photocell are a solid-state device that converts light into electrical energy by producing a voltage; plantinumiridium is an alloy of the platinum group precious metals platinum and iridium.

• 1.    Glorie came back from town bubbling over with enthusiasm, for the visivox had been a gorgeous spectacle indeed.- Visivox is a type of show in which some visual and vocal entertainment patterns are mixed. This word was first used in Isaac Asimov’s work.

• 2.    She waited for her father to maneuver the jet-car into the sunken garage . - Jet-car is a car propelled by a jet engine; sunken garage is a type of garage which is situated at a lower level than surrounding area.

• 3.    She had enough for her Physics-1 paper on “Practical Aspects of Robotics ’. - Robotics is a technology dealing with the design, construction, and operationof robots in automation. Isaac Asimov first used this term in his works.

• 4.    At potential equilibrium , half the positronic paths of his brain are out of kilter . - Equilibrium is a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced; positronic paths is enforced calculated neuronic paths, which is used first in Isaac Asimov’s work; kilter is harmony or balance;

• 5.    Not when that half-ton has to be a mass of condensers , circuits, relays, and vacuum cells that can handle principally any psychological reaction known to humans. – Condenser is an apparatus or container for condensing vapor.

• 6.    The trouble is well, you had better look at the blueprints of yourself. – Blueprint is a design plan or technical drawing.

As it was stated above, a huge number of not only technical, but also various terms can be found while reading a book ‘I, Robot’ by Isaac Asimov. It has to be fair to admit that translating such kind of books from English into Uzbek is a challenging task lying in front of linguistics and translators. In the past decades it has been a prominent trend among the authoritatives to opt for an interpretator who is the master of the terminology on the field which they are meant to deal with or to know the terms of the field themselves. It is obvious that translators as well as interpretators correctly deliver the message from source language into target language only if they know terminology in their work. Being pretty aware of terms is one of the providers which can help us handle with the inappropriate ways of translation and interpretation.