Les sigles français et polonais: entre noms propres et noms communs. L’impact de la valeur sémantique des sigles sur leur traduction

Acronyms are lexical units that have been thoroughly explored in terms of their morphology or pronunciation. However, their semantic value has not been entirely determined yet. The present paper aims at investigating the manner in which a semantic value of an acronym, and particularly a difference between proper and common acronyms, influences techniques applied to translating them. In order to achieve the aforementioned objective, on the basis of the cognitive theory of proper names, the authors have distinguished Polish and French acronyms being ergonyms as well as acronyms belonging to proper names and these designating item classification. The paper concerns the analysis of both Polish and French translations of ergonyms in foreign language press and French common acronyms in the Polish press. The performed analysis allows observing a tendency towards transferring acronymsergonyms that play the role of a rigid designator rather than full names in the target text. By contrast, the techniques of translating common acronyms differ, depending on whether they designate phenomena typical of the source culture or universal ones.