AVOIDING SEMANTIC AMBIGUITY IN THE USAGE AND TRANSLATION OF THE TERM “CHILDREN’S LITERATURE” – A TRANSLINGUISTIC STUDY

Sergiu LUPAŞCO Universitatea de Stat din Moldova

Abstract

Despite the fact that the term Children’s literature seems to be self-evident, we still attest the coexistence of a large number of synonymous terms used to refer to this notion. This article presents a multilingual study that explains the origin of the terminological synonymy and the chronological evolution of certain concepts referring to the notion of children's literature, demonstrating that some terms that many specialists consider to be synonymous, are, in fact, not, while other terms, even if designating one and the same notion, have not exactly the same conditions of usage and can not substitute each other in a perfect manner. Therefore, it would be better if those terms were regarded as variants. Also, the article pinpoints that children's literature is regarded as a sort of sub-literature and the problem of youth reading as a minor matter, a fact that finds its reflection in terminology as well. Keywords: Children’s literature, juvenile literature, terminological variation, The sphere of children's reading, linguo-cultural community.