GEOGRAPHICAL REALIAS IN SOMERSET MAUGHAM’S WORKS

ABSTRACT

The article provides information about geographical realias that investigated in the works of S. Maugham by identifying and classifying them into territorial names, names belonging to a particular region related to flora and fauna, geographical naming of regions ones. Those types are carried out by obtaining the linguistic interpretation of realias have been highlighted and different approaches to the classification of realias have been determined. The analysis of realias in literary text are given to prove the cultural sense of realias at the same time, since realias are regarded as non-equivalent lexicons.

Keywords: realia, non-equivalent lexicon, geographical realia, ethnographical realia, social-political realia.

Introduction. The word realia is derived from the Latin word realia, which means material, real. The Glossary of Linguistic Terms defines it as “the result of material culture in existence, and in classical grammar, words that express the state-building of a particular country, the history and culture of a particular people, a linguistic unit that expresses the characteristics of communication in a particular language” (8. 381).  An important feature of realias stems from the essence of the object they represent. The way of life, socio-economic development of a particular nation in different historical periods certainly has an impact on the essence of realias. That is why, when talking about realias, of course, the issue of national identity and historical color cannot be ignored. Because realias in any case have a national and historical color at the same time. This requires them to be treated separately. This article looks through the geographical realias in Somerset Maugham’s works.

Main Part. The most detailed classification of realias is performed by S.I. Vlaxov and S.P. Florin. According to “Непереводимое в переводе” (Those that are not translated in translation) - S.I. Vlaxov and S.P. Florin (1980, 1986/2012) there are three the typology of realias:

• Thematic typology
• Local typology
• Temporal typology

Scientists divide realias into 3 major categories according to which object they represent.

• Geographical realias
• Ethnographic realias
• Socio-political realias

Here is the classification and identification of geographical realias. Geographical realias are the least classified realias, they can include non-equivalent lexicons such as territorial names, names belonging to a particular region related to flora and fauna, geographical naming of regions where the human factor is mixed and formed on this basis. They mainly consist of three groups:

• Realias representing physical and meteorological objects
• Geographical realias related to human activities
• Endemic species (flora and fauna)

In the process of studying the works of Somerset Maugham, not only examples of all kinds of geographical realias were found, but also an interesting process, such as their territorial classification were done. This made it possible to classify realias geographically and to study them more accurately. Geographical realias can also be divided into continents, countries, and / or territorial units depending on their location. They can be classified in the works of Somerset Maugham as follows:

• Geographical realias of the countries of the African continent:

The Torres Strait between Papua New Guinea to the north and the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland on the Australian mainland to the south, Morocco - in the northwest corner of Africa

• Geographical realias of the Pacific:

Upolu, Apia in Samoa;

Benut, Pengerang, Tekong Island in Singapore;

Thursday Islands, Packe Islands, Friday Island, New Mapoon in Australia;

Santa Isabel Island, Auki, Buala, Bougainville Island, Gizo in Solomon Islands, Millicent ( is a town in South Australia),

at the Carlton and Ferdy (a restaurant or café in Barneo as for ‘Somerset Maugham’),

Grosvenor Square, the bread–fruit trees, Norfolk pines (a tropical plant);

Myanmar, Tahiti, Burma, Vietnam, Rangoon, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, the Parlour, the Han Kiang, the Kialing Kiang, and the Min Kiang, the N.E. end of Celebes, Molucca and Gilolo, Banda and Arafura Seas, Curzon Street in Malasia,

Kuala Solor (is a company which produces solor panels in Malasia),

The National Hydrographic Office (headed by the Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India, is the headquarters of Indian Naval Hydrographic Department stationed at Dehradun),

Maputiti (is a native village in Indonesia), Tanah Merah, Lalang (Malayan grass);

• Geographical realias of countries in the northern part of South America:

Cabo Verde, Coculi, Janela, Mindole, the rich mines of Rio Tinto (is a company of mining in Chile), Cuba ;

• Geographical realias of urban and territorial units of the United States:

Chicago, San Francisco,  New York, Honolulu, Hawaii, Cleveland (in the State Ohio, California),

Carlsbad (city, San Diego county, southern California, U.S.),

Peter Melrose Avenue (is a shopping, dining and entertainment destination in Los Angeles that starts at Santa Monica Boulevard, at the border between Beverly Hills);

• Geographical realias of the countries and territorial units of the European continent:

Berne at Germany, London in England

Zürich in Geneva  

Riviera, Mediterranean coastland between Cannes (France)

La Spezia (Italy), Venice, Monte-Carlo, Monaco, the Maritime Alps along the French Riviera, the Mediterranean, northeast of Nice, France; Deauville in France, King’s Road, Chelsea, England, La Falterona (is a restaurant in Florence, Italy),

Stafford House (is a mansion in the St. James's district in the West End of London),

Soissons (is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France),

Marquesa de San Esteban (is a hotel in Spain)

Hyde Park, the Marylebone Road, The Piazza di San Ferdinando, the Piazza del Plebiscito, The Strada di Chiara.

Somerset Maugham traveled to many countries and witnessed various peculiar events during his travels, and expressed the beautiful nature of the events in which he was directly involved during his travels. The works created during his travels to the countries of Southeast Asia are rich in physical and meteorological realias. For example:

I had been told about it first by the skipper of Dutch tramp, the S. S. Utrecht, on which I had traveled from Merauke in New Guinea to Macassar. The journey took the best part of a month, since the ship stopped at a number of islands in the Malay Archipelago, the Aru and the Kei Islands, Banda-Neira, Amboina, and others of which I have even forgotten the names, sometimes for an hour or two, sometimes for a day, to take on or discharge cargo. “The four Dutchmen” by Somerset Maugham Excerpted from Somerset Maugham's “The Four Dutchmen”, Merauke in New Guinea to Macassar, the Malay Archipelago, the Aru, the Kei Islands, Banda Neira, Amboina, and other geographical realias. According to the article “ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT OF MERAUKE DISTRICT BASED ON TOPONYMY ASPECT” (By Helman Geospatial Information Agency Jl. Raya Jakarta-Bogor Km 46 Cibinong, Indonesia), the word “Merauke” means “Maro-ke” among the indigenous people. The Papuans called the place Ermasoek. According to thematic typology the word "Merauke" belongs to the type of physical and meteorological realia, and as a local typology of geographical realia it is related to the original (the language's own reality and belonging to one language pair and alien to the other language), and according to temporal typology it can be classified into historical one. Realities such as Malay Archipelago, the Aru, the Kei Islands, Banda-Neira, Amboina, quoted from a given piece of work, are also from islands in the Malay Archipelago. They can also be classified as above.

Conclusion. Concepts that represent realias are national in nature and are inherent in an unalterable lexicon. The concept of "realia" should be distinguished from the concept of "term". Realia is inherent in the language of fiction and mass media, is closely connected with the culture of a particular people, has a character that is generalized to the language of that people and alien to another people. The terms, on the other hand, do not have a national connotation, but belong mainly to the field of science, and are artificially created to name only one subject or event, and are thus widely used.

References:

1. S. Maugham “Sixty-five short stories” Compilation copyright © 1976 by Gordon Stanley Blair, Kenneth Marr–Johnson, Alan Frank Searle as Executors of the Estate of W. Somerset Maugham Printed and bound in Great Britain by William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London
2. Realia in Literary Translation - A quantitative and qualitative study of Russian realia in Norwegian and English translations - Alla Kharina Ph.D. Dissertation Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages Faculty of Humanities University of Oslo 2018
3. Cultural Linguistics -D.U.Ashurova, M.R.Galiyeva- VNESHINVESTPROM-Tashkent,2019