INTERLINGUAL HOMONYMY IN THE ENGLISH AND UKRAINIAN LANGUAGES

Abstract

This article explores the phenomenon of interlingual homonymy in the English and Ukrainian languages. It has been established that the rapid development of intercultural interaction and the globalization of communication emphasize the relevance of studying linguistic units that may cause difficulties in communication. Among such units are interlingual homonyms – pairs of words from two different languages that appear or sound identical but differ significantly in meaning.The article defines the concept and nature of interlingual homonymy. It has been determined that interlingual homonyms occur in both related and unrelated languages, primarily due to borrowing or accidental coincidence.The study examines the specifics of how interlingual homonyms manifest in English and Ukrainian, analyzing their typological features and offering a classification based on semantic (complete and partial interlingual homonyms) and formal (phonetic, graphic, and phonetic-graphic homonyms) characteristics.The main reasons for the emergence of interlingual homonyms are identified, including: common etymological origin with divergent semantic evolution; borrowing from the same language into others with varying meanings; accidental phonetic or graphic similarity; formal resemblance between a word and a borrowing in another language, among others.It is noted that the presence of interlingual homonyms creates challenges for translators and bilingual speakers.Particular difficulties arise when translating socio-political texts, proper names, terms, polysemous words, abbreviations, neologisms, idiomatic expressions, and others.The article emphasizes the importance of an adequate approach to translating interlingual homonyms. The translation difficulties caused by interlingual homonymy are analyzed, and it is established that misinterpretation of such lexemes may distort the meaning of the original message. Special attention is given to the functioning of interlingual homonyms in specialized fields, particularly in economic terminology, where formal similarity does not guarantee semantic equivalence.It is stressed that interlingual homonymy is not inherently a negative phenomenon. Rather, it is an intrinsic feature of language (both native and foreign) that requires a conscious and critical approach within the field of translation studies.