методичка 3 (1)

North Carolina

Rhode Island

Ocean-city Grosvenor Square

Okehampton Castle

Г. Вологда Саяны

Беловежская Пуща Чудское озеро

Господин Великий Новгород царь Алексей Михайлович Тишайший Александро-Невская Лавра Киевская Русь Сергий Радонежский Кижский Погост Троицкий мост

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SEMINAR 4

LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION

The main elements of semantic structure of a message.

Semantic redundancy and successful transmission of information.

Lexical aspects of translation and the difficulties for a translator.

Subject field words (terms). Basic ways of rendering subject field lexical items.

Practical part

Translate the given passage from «Юридичний вісник» into the English language taking into consideration different ways of rendering subject field words.

Analyze the translation from the point of view of semantic redundancy.

Literature

Комиссаров В.Н. Теория перевода (лингвистические аспекты): Учеб. пос.

для ин-тов и ф-тов ин. яз. / В.Н. Комиссаров. − М. : Высш. шк., 1990. − С. 201208.

Комиссаров В.Н., Коралова А.Л. Практикум по переводу с английского языка на русский: Учеб. пос. для ин-тов и ф-тов ин. яз. − М. : Высш. шк., 1990. − С. 71-89.

Корунець І.В. Теорія і практика перекладу (аспектний переклад):

Підручник / І.В. Корунець. − Вінниця : Нова книга, 2000. − С. 91-140.

Федоров А.В. Основы общей теории перевода (лингвистические проблемы): Учеб. пос. для ин-тов и ф-тов ин. яз. / А.В. Федоров. − М. : Высш.

шк., 1983. − С. 132-170.

Чи не найпоширеніша приповідка нашого часу стверджує: дозволено все, що не заборонено законом. Принцип цей розповсюджується і на підприємницьку діяльність. Згідно з нині чинним законодавством, дозволяються всі види

підприємницької діяльності, окрім кількох винятків. Скажімо, виготовлення

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військової техніки, зброї та боєприпасів до неї, вибухових речовин,

наркотичних засобів, охорона об’єктів державної власності, якою можуть займатися лише державні організації. До порушників цих заборон застосовуються досить жорсткі покарання: штрафи від 100 до 300 мінімальних зарплат з позбавленням права посідати конкретні посади чи займатися певною діяльністю терміном до трьох років, навіть з конфіскацією майна.

Замислюючи свої бізнесові плани, варто пам’ятати, що є такі види підприємницької діяльності, на проведення яких потрібен спеціальний дозвіл – ліцензія. Це документ, який видається підприємцю компетентними державними органами – міністерством чи відомством. Він дає право на здійснення окремих видів підприємницької діяльності. Для того, щоб отримати ліцензію, юридична особа, або ж громадянин, після проходження державної реєстрації підприємства, має звернутися з заявою до відповідного ліцензійного органу. До заяви необхідно додати пакет документів. Якщо звертається підприємець – юридична особа – нотаріально завірені копії статутних документів. Якщо фізична особа – громадянин – копії документів про освіту і кваліфікацію,

необхідних для заняття певним видом діяльності, і копії реєстраційних документів.

ЗАВДАННЯ З САМОСТІЙНОЇ РОБОТИ

Завдання 3: Перекладіть текст. Складіть двомовний термінологічний словник для даного тексту.

Science often means different things to different people. To many it means bodies of knowledge about the physical world grouped under different subjects; to some it means research or the pursuit of truth; to some it means the development of technology intended to benefit mankind; and to others it means finding out, experimenting, measuring. These are all different aspects of science, as the knowledge, experimenting, technology, etc., have all been produced by what could be called the "processes of science". Environmental problems are just one aspect of life to which science can

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be applied, but they are quite urgently in need of solution. Some science concepts are

particularly relevant in the solving of environmental issues. Among them are

1.Energy (types of energy, law of conservation of energy, and law of energy degradation);

2.Ecosystem (energy flow in ecosystems, law of conservation of matter, nutrient cycling in ecosystems, evolution of ecosystems); f

3.Resources (the nature of resources: inexhaustible, renewable, irreplaceable);

4.Food (production, nutrition, energy use);

5.Pollution (pollutant, threshold, synergy, persistence, biological magnificati-

on);

6.Human population (growth and control, birth rate, death rate, fertility rate, marriage age, density, and distribution).

Термін виконання: семінарське заняття 4

Очікуваний результат: вдосконалені компетентності щодо складання

термінологічного словника, сформовані вміння практичного застосування знань

про труднощі перекладу термінів.

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LECTURE 6

GRAMMATICAL ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION

Grammatical difficulties typical for translation.

Difficulties in rendering English articles, tense forms of the verb, forms expressing unreality.

Syntactic transformations in translation.

Pragmatic problems of translation.

Different Aspects of Stylistic Problems.

Translation etiquette.

1. Grammatical difficulties typical for translation.

Every word in the text is used in a particular grammatical form and all the words are arranged in sentences in a particular syntactic order. Grammatical forms also convey some information which is part of its total contents. They reveal the semantic relationships between the words, clauses and sentences in the text (Komissarov, Koralova). The semantic role of grammatical forms and structures should not be overlooked by the translator.

Grammatical forms and syntactical constructions cannot be isolated from the lexical units they consist of. Most translation transformations are complex and include both lexical and grammatical components. In practice interpretation begins only after the interpreter has comprehended the SL message, i.e. perceived meanings of the words and unpacked grammatical structures. Researchers have observed that failures to translate messages correctly are seldom cuased by grammatical factors, especially if the languges involved belong to the European family. In simaltaneous interpretation certain problems may be caused by the difference in the SL and TL syntactic structures, first of all, in the word order. Interpreters may also have problems with rendering English articles, Perfect tense forms of the verb and forms expressing unreality (oblique moods), affirmative and negative constructions. Interpreters have to be aware of certain potential threats listed below.

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Difficulties in rendering English articles, tense forms of the verb, forms

expressing unreality.

The article, both definite and indefinite, is a functional word. In some wordcombinations they may acquire some peculiar grammatical, functional and lexical meaning, may be lexicalized. Their lexical meaning becomes inseparable from their functional meaning (Korunets). The occurrence of lexically meaningful articles is not accidental, foe it is predetermined by context. Whatever their quantity, none of the lexically meaningful articles should be ignored or overlooked by translators. The translator has to keep it in mind that some contextual meanings of the definite article may seem similar to those of the definite article and vice versa. The translator should also be attentive to the style of the TL message.

Ways of rendering lexically charged definite articles:

as the demonstrative pronoun цей (ця, це, ці)

as the demonstrative pronouns такий, той самий, такий самий

as the possessive pronoun її, їхні, свій

as the identifying pronoun весь, вся, все

as the relative pronoun який (яка, яке, які)

as the indefinite pronoun якийсь, певний

as the identifying attributive pronoun сам, інший

as an adjective (according to the contextual meaning)

as a particle emphasizing the attributive pronoun or numeral Ways of rendering lexically charged indefinite articles:

by the cardinal numeral один

by the indefinite pronoun якийсь

by the demonstrative pronoun цей

as one of the possessive pronouns

as a negative pronoun жоден

as the relative adjective цілий

by different relative adjectives in context (справжній)

by different adverbs in context (навіть, зовсім)

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by emphatic or modal particles (чи не…, такий собі…)

Every student of English has been challenged by the difference between English and Russian/Ukrainian tense and aspect categories. English and Russian/Ukrainian forms are not parallel, though some regularities might be observed between them. English Simple tenses denoting regular, permanent actions, progressive tenses, denoting temporary continuous actions, correspond to the Russian/Ukrainian imperfective aspect. English Perfect forms, when expressing a completed action, correspond to Russian/Ukrainian perfective verbs. Lexical compensation is often a way out in contrasting tense and aspect forms: «Почему ты не знаешь правила?» – «Я учил.» – «Учил, да не выучил.» “Why don’t you know the rule?” – “I learnt it.”

- “You tried to, but failed.”

In both English and Russian/Ukrainian the Subjunctive Mood expresses a hypothetical, unreal action. In Russian/Ukrainian, there is only one form: the past form of the verb + the particle бы/б: Я хотел бы пойти туда. Чайку бы! In English there are many verb forms to express the subjunctive mood: synthetic forms be/do, were/did; analytical forms should/would, do/have done, might/could do/have done, may/can do, had done, which is a challenge for a translator. It is not infrequent that English and Russian/Ukrainian sentences differ in degree of certainty or uncertainty expressed by the mood construction. An English sentence shows more vividly the speaker’s attitude to the situation, whether s/he considers the situation real or unreal. Cf. It looks as if he were sick. (I am not sure). – It looks as if he is sick. (He really is but I wouldn’t like to sound categorical.) In Russian/Ukrainian this subtle difference in meaning is lost: Кажется, он болен.

Syntactic transformations in translation.

The sentence communicative structure is different in English and in Russian/Ukrainian. In Russian/Ukrainian it is more rigid, which compensates a loose word order of the sentence. English fixed word order, on the other hand, is compensated by a free, to some extent, functional sentence perspective. In Russian/Ukrainian neutral style, the theme precedes the rheme, which means that a

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logically stressed part of the sentence is in the final position. In English, the rheme can be interrupted by the theme or even precede the theme: There is an unknown word in the text. (T-R-T) – В тексте есть незнакомое слово. (T-R).

This transformation is evident in comparing the structures with the subjects introduced by the definite and indefinite articles. A sentence that has the definite article with the subject has the same word order: The woman entered the house. –

Женщина вошла в дом. On the other hand, a word order change takes place in a similar sentence if its subject is determined by the indefinite article: A woman entered the house. – В дом вошла женщина.

Sentence partitioning means substituting a complex or compound sentence with several simple ones, or a simple sentence with a complex one, containing some clauses. Sentence integration is the opposite transformation – substituting several simple sentences with a complex/compound one, or a complex sentence with a simple one.

For example, there are some special constructions in English that do not exist in Russian. They are translated by a complex sentence (the Complex Object, Complex Subject, Absolute constructions, etc.). I want you to speak English fluently. – Я хочу,

чтобы вы бегло говорили по-английски.

Sentence integration is necessary when the English sentence starts with the conjunctions or, nor, but, for, since the beginning of this type is alien to Russian written speech: Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to. (Shaw) – Человек – единственное существо, которое краснеет или которому надо бы краснеть.

Pragmatic problems of translation.

Each utterance in a speech act is aimed at somebody. When speaking, an addresser has a communicative intention, or purpose of the speech act. An utterance has a communicative effect on the receptor: it can inform a receptor of something, or cause some feelings, etc. The potential effect of the utterance is its functional force. Communicative intention does not always coincide with the communicative effect.

In terms of linguistic pragmatics, developed by J. Austen, three types of relations

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are locution (reference and the utterance sense), illocution (communicative intention and functional force), and perlocution (communicative effect).

The adequate translation is the one whose communicative effect is close to that of the source text; at best, its communicative effect coincides with the author’s communicative intention. Regarding this principle, P. Newmark introduced two types of translation – communicative translation, which attempts to produce on its receptors an effect as close as possible to that produced on the readers of the original, and semantic translation, which attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow, the exact contextual meaning of the original. Taking these concepts into consideration, the sentence Beware of the dog! could be rendered as Осторожно, злая собака! (communicative translation) or

Опасайтесь собаки! (semantic translation).

In summary, translation pragmatics is a multi-aspect approach. Its analysis requires discussing the role of each of the translation situation components.

The communicative effect of the source and target text upon the receptor should be similar. A lot depends on the functional style (register), genre, language and speech norms. Neither of them can be changed in translation because, ultimately, they make up the functional force of the text, so important from the point of view of pragmatics.

Disregard of the style or register produces a strange impact upon the receptor. Imagine a person declaring love in a businesslike manner – he will not be esteemed in the proper way.

Very often genre requirements of the text are so strict that they cannot but be met in translation, or the target text may be spoiled. For instance, when translating patents, one should observe all the elements of the structure and the necessary formulas and set phrases.

Shifting a set of language units leads to changes in text perception. For example, a scientific text is characterized by impersonal constructions, such as passive voice and indefinite structures. If a text is abundant in personal pronouns, interjections and other expressive means, it will never be considered as belonging to the scientific

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register.

Incorrect choice of words may result in comic consequences contrary to the expectations of the text author.

A translator should be aware of the author’s purpose of introducing this or that element into the text. Some problems are associated with this requirement:

Rendering regional dialect;

Rendering social dialect;

Rendering foreigners’ speech;

Rendering substandard speech.

A target text should convey the same information as the source text and produce the same impact on the receptor as does the source text. To get full information from the text, the receptor must have adequate background knowledge. This knowledge may not be enough if the receptor is not well acquainted with the source language culture. New realia, habits and customs are usually commented upon by a translator. Sometimes a translator uses commentary notes in the text, but they are inconvenient, as they distract the reader’s attention. It is also possible to place a commentary in the footnote. But most typically, explication is given after the text or, more rarely, before it.

Besides extended commentaries, a translator can use a technique of explicatory translation: вчера мы купили коробку «Птичьего молока». – We bought a box of candies “Bird Milk” yesterday. Irrelevant information can be reduced from the text or generalized, if its explanation distracts the reader’s attention: “I’m very busy,”

Ollie answered as he sat in a worn Naugahyde chair. (Grisham) – «Я очень занят»,

- ответил Олли, сидя в потрепанном дерматиновом кресле.

In the attempt to make a good translation, a translator, nevertheless bears the influence of cultural and literary trends typical of the time, which affect his/her outlook and have a certain impact on the translation. These days it is considered necessary for a translator to follow only the source language author, sometimes at the expense of his/her own artistic work.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the quality of translation is dependent on

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