FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE IN TRANSLATING IT TERMINOLOGY: UKRAINIAN ADAPTATION STRATEGIES

Abstract

The article explores how functional equivalence can be effectively achieved when translating English IT terminology into Ukrainian, focusing on linguistic adaptation strategies and the challenges posed by the rapid expansion of global information technologies. Since IT communication is dominated by English, Ukrainian translators must ensure that borrowed or translated terms preserve both the conceptual accuracy and the communicative function of the original. The relevance of the issue is reinforced by Ukraine’s growing demand for standardized Ukrainian-language IT documentation, software interfaces, and educational materials. The study reviews recent publications that examine translation patterns for specialized terminology, showing that Ukrainian translators tend to rely on several key strategies: calquing, transliteration or transcription, equivalent translation, and descriptive rendering. Corpus-based research demonstrates that loan translations (calques) and direct Ukrainian equivalents constitute the majority of IT term conversions, as they ensure transparency and seamless integration into the grammatical and morphological system of Ukrainian. Transliterated terms though widely recognizable may hinder readability or violate language policy norms if overapplied. Meanwhile, descriptive translations are reserved for highly specific or structurally complex terms that lack established equivalents. The article highlights the importance of morphological adaptation, noting that English loanwords must be assigned gender and adopt Ukrainian inflectional patterns to function naturally in the target language. Examples include phonetic borrowings like «гіпертекст» or adapted forms like «беклог», which gain full grammatical integration. The research concludes that achieving functional equivalence requires balancing international recognizability with linguistic assimilation and user comprehension. Standardization efforts, cooperation between translation specialists and IT practitioners, and further corpus-based investigation are identified as essential for the continued development of coherent Ukrainian IT terminology.