TRANSLATING INTRANSLATABILITIES: SEMIOTIC PROBLEM AND PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD (Perekladannia neperekladadnostei: semiotychna problema i filosofskyi metod)

The article deals with the analysis of untraslatability in terms of modal logic with identity. In the centre of the approach is the idea that generic names in natural languages have at least three functions: predication, description and identification. Untranslatability is considered, following Lotman, as a problem of linguistic communication. A structural similarity is stated between the semiotic problem of untranslatability and Jean Laplanche's psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious as inexpressible. The author introduces logic of name identifications with variable domain of objects, plural names and two kinds of designators. This logic combines the main features of Priest's modal theory of identity with elements of the Lesniewski's Ontology. The logic of name identification is applied to the analysis of untraslatabilities and of the problem of identification of intentional objects. The article ends with discussing the translation of untranslatables as a specific method of philosophical enquiry.