2.2. Многочленные словосочетания, состоящие из четырех и более элементов

Опорные элементы – это всегда существительные, а остальные могут принадлежать к различным частям речи. Подобные словосочетания могут иметь следующую структуру:

а) все члены непосредственно соединены с опорным компонентом, являясь его определениями:

new important safety regulations = new important regulations of safety, что может быть переведено как новые важные правила безопасности;

б) каждый компонент является определением к стоящему справа от него элементу:

a wall paper production machine = a machine for production of the paper for the walls, что переводится как оборудование для изготовления обоев.

Перевод связных словосочетаний

Как правило, связные словосочетания представлены фразеологическими единицами, характерной особенностью которых является преобладание значения целого над значением компонентов.

С переводческой точки зрения английские фразеологи­ческие единицы делятся на две группы:

1)        фразеологические единицы, имеющие эквиваленты в русском языке:

Н: from mouth to mouth - из уст в уста

the iron heel железная пята

2)   безэквивалентные фразеологические единицы:

Н: over the hills and far away ≈ за тридевять земель, за горами, за долами; на край света

LECTURE 2

Lexico-Semantic Problems of Translation

Equivalence and Adequacy in Translation

Translation equivalence is defined as a measure of semantic similarity between ST and TT.

According to Komissarov there are five types of equivalence in translation.

The first type consists of preserving only the part of the original's content constituting the aim of the communication.

Ex: 1. Maybe there is some chemistry between us that doesn't mix. = Character clashes are frequent.

Ex 2: That's a pretty thing to say. = You should be ashamed!

The second type of equivalence is represented by translations whose proximity to the sense in the original is not based, not even in this case, on the shared meanings of the linguistic means employed.

Ex:1. He answered the telephone. = He lifted the receiver.

Ex: 2. You are not fit to be in a boat. = You are not to be allowed to get on a boat.

In the third type, there is no lexical or syntactic parallelism, the two structures are not amenable to a simple syntactic transformation, communication aim and situation are unvaried and situation are preserved, while general concepts through which the description of the original's situation is realized are preserved, i.e. the "means of description of the situation" is preserved (62).

Ex: 1. Scrubbing makes me bad-tempered. = My mood grows bad due to floor washing.

Ex: 2. London saw a cold winter last year. = Last year winter in London was cold.

Ex: 3. That will not be good for you. = This business might end badly for you.

On the fourth level (which is called TRANSFORMATIONAL EQUIVALENCE), the target and the source language sentences manifest grammar transformations: the passive predicate can be translated by the active: The port can be entered by big ships only in tide. – Большие корабли могут заходить в порт только во время прилива. Likewise, part of speech can be changed in translation: We had a long walk. – Шли мы долго. Or the structure of the sentence can be modified: Jane was heard playing the piano. – Было слышно, как Джейн играла на пианино, where the sentence is translated by a complex one). Any other change of the grammar meaning within the sentence testifies to the equivalence on the transformational level, which is called by V. Komissarov the level of the invariant meaning of the syntactic structure.

This level of equivalence presupposes retention of the utterance function, the description of the same situation, the same meaning of the source and target sentences, and a very close (but variable) grammatical meaning.

On the fifth level (which implies lexical and grammatical equivalence), the most possible semantic semilarity between the source and target sentences is found: Every mother loves her children. – Каждая мать любит своих детей. I will write you every week. – Я буду писать тебе каждую неделю. As a matter of fact, this is a word for word translation where each word and the whole structure retains its lexical and grammatical meaning, the situation designated by the sentences is identical, and the communicative function of the utterances is the same. Every form of the target sentence is equal, with no variations, to that of the source language sentence. Therefore, this level might be called the level of formal equivalence.

Mona Baker distinguishes between:

• Equivalence that can appear at word level and above word level, when translating from one language into another.

• Grammatical equivalence, when referring to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages (e.g. number, tense and aspects, voice, person and gender).

• Textual equivalence, when referring to the equivalence between a SL text and a TL text in terms of information and cohesion. In this case the translator should take into account three main factors, that is, the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text type.

• Pragmatic equivalence, when referring to implicatures and strategies of avoidance during the translation process. The role of the translator is to recreate the author's intention in another culture in such a way that enables the TC reader to understand it clearly.

Vinay and Darbelnet use this term to refer to cases where languages describe the same situation by different stylistic or structural means. Equivalence is particularly useful in translating idioms and proverbs.

There are some other approaches to defining equivalence in translation, but even the brief outline of the issue given above indicates its importance within the framework of the theoretical reflection on translation.

So, translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and statement in one language by the same message and statement in another language.

Each exercise involves some kind of loss of meaning due to a number of factors.

The basic loss can result from overtranslation (increased detail - детализация) or undertranslation (increased generalization - обобщение).

Firstly, if the text describes a situation, which has elements peculiar to the natural environment, institutions and culture of its language area, there is an inevitable loss of meaning unless there is already recognized translation equivalent in the target language.

Secondly, as the two languages have different lexical, grammatical and sound systems, they determine many physical objects and intellectual concepts differently. Usually the closer the language and the culture the closer the translation and the origin.

Thirdly, very often the individual usage (словоупотребление) of the language of the text by the writer and the translator don’t coincide. Everybody has lexical, if not grammatical idiosyncrasies, or peculiarities (индивидуальная или групповая отличительная особенность (характера, стиля)) and attaches “private” meaning to some words. The translator usually writes in a style that comes naturally to him unless the text prevents it.

Fourthly, the translator and the writer of the text have different theories of meaning and different values. The translator’s theory colors his interpretation of the text. He may set greater value than the writer of the text on connotation (коннотация (дополнительное, сопутствующее значение языковой единицы или категории)) and correspondingly less on denotation (значение; смысл).

Thus, the translator requires knowledge of literary and nonliterary text criticism (критика (анализ, истолкование и оценка литературных и художественных произведений)) since he has to estimate and assess the quality of the text before he desides how to interpret it and then translate it.

SEMANTIC CORRESPONDENCES

I. Types of meaning

1. Referential meaning

2. Linguistic meaning

3. Emotive meaning

II. The Degree of Preservation of Meaning

1. Complete correspondence

2. Partial correspondence

3. Absence of correspondence

The term “meaning” should be considered as widely as possible, thus the task of a translator is to render completely all types of meaning:

1) referential meaning – the denotative ‘dictionary’ meaning (референциальное значение). This type of meaning has direct reference to things or phenomena of objective reality. Ex: Гомер - Homer, mammal – млекопитающее.

Ex:

2) interlinguistic meaning reflects the relationship between the language sign and the participant of the process of speech.

Ex: Куй железо, пока горячо. - Strike while the iron is hot. (полное совпадение)

Birds of a feather flock together. - Рыбак рыбака видит издалекалное несовпадение)

3) pragmatic meaning reflects the subjective relations, that is emotional, expressive and stylistic.

Ex: пьянству - бой! - drunkenness won't be tolerated!

policeman – 1) полисмен, полицейский

The policeman caught the thief. - Полицейский задержал вора.

2) полицай (recruited by Nazi authorities from among collaborating locals in occupied territories during World War Two)

The Degree of Preservation of Meaning

The degree of preservation of meaning in the process of translation is different; it mostly depends on the type of meaning.

The highest degree of preservation of meaning is that of referential meanings, because they are better translatable, the reason is easily explained as the objective reality of the language communities has more common features than differences and so referential meanings coincide more often than not in different languages.

Ex: graduation - 1) окончание (высшего) учебного заведения; 2) церемония вручения дипломов, присвоения степеней; 3) градуировка (на сосудах); деления (на измерительных линейках)

Pragmatic meanings have a lower degree and the difference lies in the fact that the relation of different communities to the given things, notions and situations will be different, so the attitude will be different, too. It especially concerns metaphorical meanings and complex cultural idioms, where the sense of the phrase is always diverges from the sum of the individual elements.

Ex: большевик - Bolshevik

(from Russian Bol'shevik majority, from bol'shoi - great; from the fact that this group formed a majority of the Russian Social Democratic Party in 1903); the derivative is bolshie - реакционер, бунтарь; ярый фанатик; несговорчивый приверженец своих взглядов

A minimum degree of preservation is in interlinguistic meaning. In this case a translator can resort to functional replacement.

Ex: to take counsel of one's pillow / the night brings counsel (the night brings counsel (night is the mother of counsel)) ≈ утро вечера мудренее

All types of semantic correspondences between the lexical units of two languages can be presented in 3 main types:

1. complete correspondence;

2. partial correspondence;

3. absence of correspondence (non-equivalent lexis).

Complete Correspondence

This case is relatively rare. As a rule these are mono-semantic words, that is, they have one meaning in both languages. Such words can be presented by the following groups:

Semantic group	English word	Russian word
Proper and geographical names	Elizabeth Great Britain	1) Элизабет (женское имя); 2) библ., рел. Елизавета, Елисавета Великобритания
Scientific and technical terms	paralinguistics thermoionic emission	паралингвистика термоионная эмиссия
Words closed in semantics	(days of the week, months, etc.) Sunday, March	воскресенье, март

However not all the words belonging to these groups refer complete correspondences.

Partial Correspondences

Partial correspondence is the most widely spread case in the process of comparing lexical units of two languages. In this case one word in the SL has several semantic equivalents in the TL. So there are 2 types of partial correspondence:

1. inclusion (включение);

2. overlapping (пересечение).

Inclusion is a case when the amount of meanings in a word is wider in one language than that of its equivalent in the other.

Ex: The Russian noun характер has 3 meanings:

1) the combination of treats and qualities distinguishing the individual nature of a person or thing (тип поведения человека) - character; temper, disposition

Ex: дурной характер — bad temper

тяжелый характер — difficult nature

легкий характер — easy / sweet temper

иметь твердый / сильный характер — have a strong character

2) moral force (твердость, воля) - character

у него есть характер, он человек с характером - he is a man of (strong) character показать характер - show what one is made of; show some muscle

3) quality (отличительные особенности) - nature; type

характер почвы — nature of the soil

характер местности — nature / characteristics of the locality; nature of the ground; character of the terrain

характер изменений — type of change

In English the noun character has the following meanings:

1) the combination of traits and qualities distinguishing the individual nature of a person or thing – характер, тип поведения

2) one such distinguishing quality; characteristic - характеристика

3) moral force; integrity – твердость, воля, честность, порядочность

4) a) reputation, esp. a good reputation

b) (as modifier) Ex: character assassination - злобная клевета, злостная клевета; подрыв репутации

5) a summary or account of a person's qualities and achievements; testimonial; written recommendation

Ex: My last employer gave me a good character

6) capacity (роль, должность, качество), position, or status

Ex: He spoke in the character of a friend rather than a father

7) a person represented in a play, film, story, etc.; role – герой, действующее лицо

Ex: fictitious character - вымышленный персонаж

leading / main / major / principal character - главный герой; актёр, играющий главную роль

8) an outstanding person -

Ex: one of the great characters of the century

9) (informal) an odd, eccentric, or unusual person - оригинал, чудак, тип

Ex: he's quite a character - Он такой оригинал!

10) an informal word for person

Ex: a shady character – темная личность

11) a symbol used in a writing system, such as a letter of the alphabet

Ex: the Japanese characters - японские письмена

Absence of Correspondences (Non-equivalent lexis)

Non-equivalent lexis is words and word-combinations of the source language, denoting objects, processes and other realia which do not exist or have correspondences at present in the target language. Krupnov, a famous Russian linguist, considers that regarding this problem it’s necessary to take into account two points:

1. Lexis can be non-equivalent because the target language has no ready equivalence (that is temporary non-equivalence). Ex: bungee jumping - прыжок с помощью эластичного троса (с моста, скалы), coach-surfing (

2. Lexis is regarded non-equivalent as there can’t be equivalent and the only way out is loan translation (or calque) or transcription/transliteration (that is constant non-equivalence). Ex: самовар samovar, косоворотка - Russian shirt (with collar fastening on one side); backbencher - рядовой член парламента, "заднескамеечник"

Lacunas can also be regarded as non-equivalent lexis because these words don’t have equivalents in the target language because they denote specific elements typical of the source language national culture only (siblings - полнородные братья и сестры; родные братья и сестры; arm/hand – рука).

Most often non-equivalent lexis can be found in science fiction and scientific and technical literature where authors use a lot of terms and neologisms, in social and political essays (Bushism – бушизм: an apparently fatuous statement attributed to George W. Bush, 43rd Presidnt of the USA; шарашка – sharashka: a prison camp in the former Soviet Union where academics and technicians worked on secret state projects to avoid forced labour in harsher camps) and among the following realia: geographical and ethnographical (Stakhanovism - (in the former Soviet Union) a system designed to raise production by offering incentives to efficient workers; Stakhanovite – стахановец); everyday life realia (brandy, изба) and political ones (агитпункт - propaganda / agitation centre; (в предвыборной кампании) canvassing / campaigning centre, election campaign centre / office).

The main ways of translating non-equivalent lexis are transcription/transliteration (окрошка – okroshka; know-how - ноу-хау), loan translation (brain drain - утечка мозгов (массовая эмиграция научных работников), дом культуры - house of culture) and descriptive translation (щи - cabbage soup; дружинник - (добровольный помощник милиции) member of voluntary police, police helper).

And it is the context and translator’s knowledge that play the main role when translating non-equivalent lexis.

Lexical universals

A translator is always looking for linguistic or semantic universals, that is lexical items, that have more or less the same application in two or more languages. Sometimes they are called isomorphous (изоморфный) units. The most likely instances are words denoting objects, common to ecology.

Ex: sun, moon, see (German has two words for sea), star, rain (Russian has no verb), etc.

Another examples:

1) the terms sun and moon appear to be lexical constants. But English and German distinguish between sky and heaven;

2) French has two words for river;

3) Russian has one word for wood and tree;

4) German – the same for hill and mountain.

Parts of the body, common human activities and kinship terms would appear to have claims to universality. Moreover, Russian doesn’t distinguish between hand and arm; English distinguish from tongue and language.

The only semantic invariables appear to be the numbers and a few terms in that lexical field.

Ex: minutes, seconds, days of the week, months

Words denoting universal natural objects are likely to be more isomorphous than others. Such words are much easier to translate than those more obviously coloured by the uses of feelings or thoughts.

Translation of Internationalisms (Borrowings) and the Problem of False Friends

Internationalisms (Borrowings)

Borrowing is a word or phrase which has been taken from one language and used in another language.

Borrowed terms often pass into general usage, for example in the fields of technology ("software") and culture ("punk"). It can be pure (without any change, when speakers pronounce them as they are pronounced in the original language), e.g., lobby (English) and лобби (Russian), or it can be naturalized (when speakers pronounce it according to the sound system of their own language), e.g., globalization – глобализация. (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics, p. 57)

False friend is a word or expression in one language that, because it resembles one in another language, is often wrongly taken to have the same meaning

Classification of False Friends (Читалина, стр. 25-26)

4. The Translation of Attribute Groups and Multinomials

The Translation of Attribute Groups

I. The attribute group consists of two words.

In these word-combinations the right noun is a prop word (опорное слово) and the left noun is a determiner (определяющее).

The prop word is considered the first member, and the determiner is the second member.

From the structurally-semantic point of view attribute word-combinations are divided into two groups:

1) adjective / participle + noun (A/P + N);

2) noun + noun (N + N).

The attribute group (or the nomial word-combination) can be introduced by articles, possessive pronouns (this, that), indefinite pronouns (some, any), negative pronouns and nouns in the possessive case.

So they serve as syntactic words but not as members of word-combinations. As a rule they refer to the prop word.

One should bear in mind that these syntactic words are the markers of the left border of the word-combination, and the marker of the right border cannot be anything but a noun.

Ex: our service station is … - наше обслуживание станции …

In order to understand the two-member word-combination correctly it’s necessary to establish a sense connection between its members.

Ex: a service station = a station for service

We are to transform this word-combination into a noun word-combination with a noun in the function of the right attribute and find a suitable preposition which will connect both nouns into a logical word-combination.

Ex: radiation protection equals protection from radiation

shape difference equals difference in shape

II. The multinomial word-combination consists of several members.

The Translation of Three-Member Word-Combinations

This kind of word-combinations differs from the two-member one by the fact that there is one more third element, which is the extreme (крайний) left member.

Ex: family size norm - норма размера семьи; средний размер семьи

Such word-combinations can be of two structural types:

1) the third and the second members are attributes to the first;

Ex: empty fuel tanks = empty tanks for fuel (пустые топливные баки = пустые

баки для топлива)

attribute attribute prop

word

2) when the second member is an attribute to the first and the third – to the second.

Ex: high temperature measurement = measurement of high temperature

NB! The ability to define the current structural type is very important for the correct understanding:

Ex: the forward car wheels = 1) передние колеса а/м;

2) колеса передней а/м

The correct translation depends upon the context.

Practically one should decide what member the third member determines as the second member always determines the first.

More often the third member is closely connected with the first (but it is not a rule because our translation should be based on the context).

The Translation of Multinuclear Nomial Combinations

The multinuclear nomial combination consists of four and more members.

The first and the second members are always nouns.

The rest can belong to different parts of speech.

Such word-combinations can be of three structural types:

1) all the members are connected directly with the prop member, that is they are its attributes.

Ex: new important safety regulations = new important safety regulations of safety

2) each member is an attribute to its right hand member.

a wall paper production machine = a machine for production of the paper for the walls

3) mixed type – the second member determines the first.

Ex: seasonal winter clothes price reduction

1 – the reduction of price

2 – price for clothes

3 – the reduction of prices on winter clothes

4 – reduction seasonal

Этот материал (HANDOUT), пожалуйста, распечатайте на семинар.

HANDOUT SEMINAR 2

1. Define the degree of preservation of the following lexical units. Use C for complete correspondence, P – for partial, and A/C – for absence of correspondence.

Lexical unit	Its Russian equivalent	Degree of correspondence
no-brainer	не бином Ньютона (что-л., не требующее большого ума, простое, очевидное)
the King's / the Queen's English	литературный английский язык, правильный английский язык
motionless as a carving / as a statue	неподвижный как изваяние / как статуя
using stick and carrot	политика "кнута и пряника"
All shall be as God wills.	Всё будет так, как хочет Бог.
dumb as an oyster	нем как рыба
She learned the language at her mother's knee.	Она впитала этот язык с молоком матери.

2. Comment on the ways of translation of the following non-equivalent units.

Non-equivalent unit	Its Russian translation	Way of translation
Safety gates	двустворчатая дверь в форме ворот, используемая в качестве предохранительной конструкции на лестнице, которая позволяет уберечь маленьких детей от падения с верхнего этажа
Fingerprinting	"фингерпринтинг"(метод "отпечатков пальцев")
Food court	ресторанный дворик (зона торгового центра, где расположено множество экспресс-кафе)
Изба	izba, peasant's log hut
Car pool	автомобильный пул (для поездок на работу)
Bungee cord	тарзанка (эластичный трос для прыжка с моста, скалы)
Hot spot	"горячая точка", опасный район

3. Translate the following sentences, paying attention to the translator’s false friends.

False Friends of a Translator

“False friend”	English sentence	Russian sentence
Audience - 1) публика; зрители; 2) аудитория - радиослушатели; телезрители; 3) аудиенция	The objectives of using discussion techniques are … 1) to get the audience to participate actively in learning …
Argument - 1) довод, аргумент, доказательство; 2) дискуссия, обсуждение, прения	Make sure that everyone is following the argument.
Paradigm - 1) образец, пример; экземпляр; 2) парадигма, система взглядов и понятий; 3) парадигма, совокупность всех форм слова	The rationale is that these tests are paradigms of the sort of challenges people have to meet at work …
Auditor - аудитор, бухгалтер-ревизор; 2) аудиторская компания; 3) слушатель; 4) вольнослушатель (какого-л. учебного курса в колледже или университете)	25 auditors have been enrolled in the History course at our University.
Essence - 1) существо, сущность; 2) существование; 3) экстракт, эссенция; 4) аромат; духи	essence of roses
Capital – 1) капитал; 2) столица	Hollywood is the capital of the movie industry.
Element – 1) элемент; 2) стихия (часто как составной элемент мироздания согласно мифам и доктринам древнегреческих философов)	Element is any of the four substances – earth, air, fire, and water, from which the material universe was thought to be compound.
Reserve - 1) запас, резерв; 2) оговорка, условие; ограничение	She told me all about it without reserve.
Artefact = artifact - 1) артефакт, предмет материальной культуры (обычно предшествующих эпох); 2) артефакт, ложное изображение, дефект изображения (например, в оптической системе); 3) явление, наблюдаемое при исследовании объекта, не свойственное этому объекту и искажающее результаты исследования	The apparent pattern in the data was an artifact of the collection method.
Lemon – 1) лимон; 2) ненужная вещь, барахло; 3) простофиля, неудачник (человек, которого легко надуть)	Criminal carelessness, that's what it was! Leaving me standing here like a lemon!
Starter – стартер (device for starting engine etc); закуска (first course)	Would you like soup or melon as a starter?
Carton – пакет (в русском языке – картон)	a carton of milk

4. Translate the following word-combinations.

ATTRIBUTE GROUPS

Attribute group	Its Russian translation
shape correction = correction of the shape
brand loyalty = loyalty to the brand
antinuclear movement
salary rate
development strategy
personnel training
technology transfer
tax evasion
target consumer
food supplements
heart contraction
language learning
translation studies

MULTINOMIAL COMBINATIONS

Word-combination	Its Russian translation
cash flow streams = streams of cash flow cash (наличность) => cash flow (движение денежной наличности) =>cash flow streams
sixties youth culture = youth culture of the sixties
minimum wage legislation
early warning system
round table talks
on-the-spot manager
full employment ceiling
early-bird discount
health and safety legislation
environment quality index
money market mutual fund mutual fund (взаимный фонд) + money market (валютный рынок, денежный рынок) => money market mutual fund
Fine Art degree studies = studies for the degree in Fine Art
Long-Term-Disability workers compensation medical benefits
local economic development planning process
virtual reality modeling language