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[xmca] вращивания, or, Vygotsky's Jabberwocky
We are wondering a little bit about how to translate made-up words, like Vygotsky's "вращивания" (in section 3 of Chapter 4 of Thinking and Speech.
За этой третьей наступает четвертая стадия, которую мы образно называем стадией ≪вращивания≫, потому что она характеризуется прежде всего тем, что внешняя операция уходит внутрь, становится внутренней операцией и в связи с этим претерпевает глубокие изменения. Это - счет в уме или немая арифметика в развитии ребенка, это - так называемая ≪логическая память≫ пользующаяся внутренними соотношениями в виде внутренних знаков.
The English translations, as usual, seem way off: "ingrowing" sounds more like something unpleasant that happens with toenails, and "rooting" is too placid and botanical--and besides, "rooting" is NOT the THIRD stage of plant growth.
Besides, they are real English words, and "вращивания" is a portmanteau word, like "brillig" and "slithy" and "mimsy" in Carroll's poem of made-up words, "Jabberwocky".
Last Sunday, Mr. Bae (who is a lurker and occasional contributor here) pointed out that "smysl" and "znachenie" are really related to the "money" metaphor for word meanings: "smysl" is something like "use value" and and "znachenie" is something like "exchange value".
Yes, it is PARTLY a matter of "microgenetic" value versus "sociogenetic" value, except that of course microgenetic meaning is really much older. All meaning making is, in the final analysis, concrete, and that means that it is in the final analysis LOCAL.
I think there's a similar problem here. "вращивания" has the idea of "revolution", of "seizure of power" ("prise de conscience") but it also has the idea of turning a relation between people into a relation between mental functions, of transforming an external, imperialist war into an internal, civil, one; as the Weathermen used to say during the Vietnam era, "bringing the war home".
The problem is that "вращивания" is not an accepted Russian word. It's some kind of portmanteau word, right? It's a microgenetic "sense" rather than some kind of sociocultural "meaning". How to get the USE value that Vygotsky intends?
Perhaps "вращивания" is "interiorevolution"?
David Kellogg
Seoul National University of Education
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