Genotypic Language and Formal Semantics

Abstract

e formulated as follows: how is translation possible from a language
to another ? Con.par the following two sentences:
Mn’e nrav’tsa jabloki (in Russian)
I like apples
(I like apples).
The syntactic structure of the two sentences is markedly different.
The dative “mn’e” in Russian corresponds to the nominative “I” in English. The nominative “jabloki” in Russian corresponds to the object case “apples” in English.
Verbs also have a different structure: the construction in
Russian is reflexive, while in English it is not. The translation is
one of the most common aspects of human activity, but we do not
let us never ask the question of how the sentences of a language are
transformed into sentences of another language. This is why this process
poses no problem for us. The problem has never been
posed by structural linguistics. Only those who found a direct application in it addressed the question. However, it is precisely in the process of translation itself that we must look for this fundamental problem from which all the other problems that present themselves to contemporary linguists must arise.