WHAT IN FACT DOES IT MEAN? SOME INTERLINGUISTIC PROBLEMS IN LIBRARY SEMANTICS

The article examines a number of specimen terms of interest to librarians in various languages with a view to establishing the degree of ambiguity inherent in them and the extent to which the connotation of apparent equivalents in other languages matches. The inference is drawn that in many cases a simple statement of equivalence is not appropriate, and that a scries of detailed studies is needed, analysing the actual use of particular groups of terms in various fields and languages. The first question to be answered is ‘What does this term mean?’ not ‘How is it translated?’.