Noun’s indications.
1. The article – a ( an ), the: a town; an apple; the street.
Possessive case of nouns: a teacher’s book; teachers’room; miners’club; children’s toys; the country’s natural resources.
Possessive pronouns: my, her, his, your, our, their, its.
Demonstrative pronouns: this – these; that – those.
Indefinite pronouns: some, any, every, no, many; few, little., a lot of; plenty of; a good deal of. She has got a lot of pencils: Don’t hurry. There’s plenty of time. You have a good deal of troubles. I haven’t much time. He works every day.
Numerals: one, two, three … a million.
Three – thirteen – thirty; four – fourteen – forty; five – fifteen – fifty.
Numerals:: whose country; which article; what book.
Numerals: s: on, at; in, about, with, by, of.
Verb’s indications.
Endings – d; ed; es; s. He worked hard. She knows English.
Auxiliary verbs – don’t; doesn’t; isn’t, am not; aren’t; weren’t; wasn’t; shall; will; to.
Modal verbs – can ( could ); may ( might ); must ( have to, has to ).
After the subject – noun, personal pronoun: he studies ≠ his study.
Questions
What basic terms and notions are frequently used in the theory and practice of translation?
How many meanings has the word “translation”? Explain them.
Where do one of the main difficulties of translating lie?
Why is there the lack of coincidence between the means of expressing the same content in SL and TL?
What does linguistic aspect of translation deal with?
What does extra-linguistic aspect of translation deal with?
What should a good translator know?
An analytical language. What does it mean?
What is the word order of an English sentence ?
LECTURE 2 TYPES OF CORRELATION BETWEEN WORDS IN SOURCE LANGUAGE AND TARGET LANGUAGE
I. Types of correspondences between the elements of the SL and TL lexical systems.
1. Equivalents
2. Partially coincided words
3. Words which have no correspondences in SL and TL
II. Context and its role in translation
I. There are different types of correspondences between the elements of the SL and TL lexical systems.
1. A word of SL and a word of TL may be identical in their meaning. Such words are called equivalents То this group usually belong proper names such as "London - Лондон", "Galsworthy -Голсуорси", etc.; terms such as "a morpheme - морфема","logarithm - логарифм", etc.; names of the months, days of the week; numerals. Equivalents are usually monosemantic words and they are easily translated.
2. The meanings of a SL word and a TL word may coincide partially (частичные, или вариантные соответствия). There are three variants within this type.
a) A word in one of the languages may have more meanings than the corresponding word of the other language, that means that the meaning of a TL word is included in the meaning of a SL word: eg. the English noun "finish" and the Ukrainian noun "фініш" both denote "the end", which completely exhausts the meaning of the Ukrainian word. But the English noun "finish", however, also denotes such notions which corresponds to the Ukrainian words "закінчення", "обробка", "поліровка". Thus the meaning of the word "finish" includes the meaning of the word "фініш", but is not exhausted by it. This is the first variant of semantic relations characterized by partial coincidence of meanings.
b) The second variant of semantic relations between partially corresponding words may be described as intersection (пересечение). It means that both the words have some meaning (or even meanings) in common, but at the same time each word has some other meanings which do not coincide. E.g.: the English word "cup" and the Ukrainian "чашка" both mean "a drinking-vessel", besides which the word "cup" means "an ornamental vessel offered as a prize for an athletic contest" (in Ukrainian - "кубок"), while the Ukrainian "чашка" denotes also "кругла та плоска тарілка, яку підвішують до коромисло терезів", which corresponds to the English word "pan". Thus the meanings of these two words ("cup" and "чашка") intersect in one point only - i.e. they both denote a drinking-vessel.
c) The third variant of relations within this type is somewhat more complicated. The fact is that different peoples reflect reality in different ways, and these differences find their manifestation in the languages which the peoples speak. It is well known that for the English it seems quite necessary to differentiate between a hand and an arm, while in Russian we, usually do not feel it so very important and use the word "рука" to denote both the notions indiscriminately (огульно, без раз бора) (cf. (confer) also "watch" and "clock" - "часы", "mirror" and "looking glass" - "зеркало", etc.). On the other hand we usually differentiate between "вишня" and "черешня", while for the English there exists one notion ("cherry"), as well as both "клубника" and "земляника" are indiscriminately called "strawberry"; we think that "почка" and "бутон" are quite different things and Englishmen always call it "a bud", no matter whether it is going to form a leaf or a blossom.
It does not mean, of course, that we cannot express the difference between a hand and an arm in Ukrainian or that Englishmen do not see any difference between a leaf bud and a blossom bud. They do, but traditionally some aspects of reality are reflected as differentiated notions in the mind of one people and as undifferentiated notion in the mind of another people. Theoretically speaking every language can express everything, but it differs from other languages in what it should express.
This group of words demands special attention because it often causes trouble in the process of translation (for instance, try to translate the following sentence into Ukrainian: "They both married their cousins").
In all the cases when the meanings of words coincide partially there arises a problem of choosing the right variant of translation. This choice should be based on two factors: on the knowledge of possible semantic relations between the words of SL and TL and on the information derived from the context.
3. Finally in one of the languages there may exist words which have no correspondences in the other language at all (безэквивалентная лексика). They are usually proper names which are not used or even known in other countries (personal names such as Aubrey, Hope, Игорь, Галина, etc.; place-names such as Hindley, Catmose, Молитовка, Урень, etc.), and names of specifically national notions and phenomena (such as lobby, muffin, drugstore, самовар, щи, агитбригада, стройотрядовец, etc.).
II. Context and its role in translation. The meaning of equivalents practically does not depend on the context, so to translate them one should merely look them up in a dictionary. The demand to consult dictionaries is essential. No guesswork is allowed in translation: a word should be either known or looked up; otherwise there is always a risk of translation the word "data" as "дата" or "billet" as "билет" or writing some other nonsense of the kind.
It is much more difficult to translate those words of SL which are characterized by partial correspondence to the words of TL. Such words are mostly polysemantic. That is why in order to translate them correctly it is necessary first of all to state which particular meaning of such a word is realized in the utterance. The most reliable indicator in this case is the context in which the word is used.
They usually differentiate between linguistic context and extralinguistic context (or context of situation). Linguistic context in its turn is subdivided into narrow (context of a phrase or a sentence) and wide (utterance-length context or sometimes context of the whole text). Very often the meaning of a word is revealed(обнаруживается) in the minimum context, i.e. in a phrase ("green" - зеленый, юный, незрелый, etc., but there is no problem in translating the phrase "green trees" - "зеленые деревья" or "green years" - "юные годы"). However, there are such cases when we need at least a sentence to see what the word means, e.g. "I'll be sitting in the 3rd carriage from the front of the train" - "Я буду у третьому вагоні від голови поїзда". The whole sentence is necessary here to understand the meaning of the word "carriage" and to choose the variant "вагон" but not "экипаж, повозка".
Sometimes linguistic context is closely connected with extralinguistic factors. It may be illustrated by the following sentence:
... he came to be convicted of perjury (лжесвидетельство) ... in Wakawak, Cochin China..., the intent of which perjury being to rob a poor native widow and her helpless family of a meager(СКУДНЫЙ) plantain-patch, their only stay and support in their bereavement (тяжелая утрата)
and desolation. (Mark Twain)
The word "plantain" denotes either "банан" or "подорожник". In the sentence there is no direct indication of the type of plant. However, we know that the events took place in Cochin China, where the climate is quite suitable for bananas, not for "подорожник". Moreover, it is said in the sentence that the plantain-patch was the "stay and support" which gave the family either food or profit. All this settles the problem of choice: in this case "plantain" means "банан".
The context of the situation becomes especially important if the linguistic context is not sufficient for revealing the meaning of the word. When one of G.B.Shaw's characters warns his interlocutor(собеседник) not to drive him too far, it is necessary to know that they are both sitting in the parlor and not in any vehicle, so the verb "to drive", is used in the meaning "привести в какое-то состояние, довести до..." It may so happen that linguistic context does not give any clue to the meaning of the word. Especially often it is the case with neologisms that do not correspond to any words in TL. To understand the word "Reagangate", which appeared in American newspapers in 1983, one must remember the notorious political scandal called "Watergate" in 1972-1974 and know some facts characterizing political methods or President Reagan. Only in this extralinguistic context can we understand the meaning of the word "Reagangate" - "a new political scandal revealing dishonest methods used by Reagan during the election campaign and resembling the methods once used by Nixon".
So translation of any word begins with contextual analysis of its meaning after which it becomes possible to choose correctly the corresponding word of TL. All types of context can help to identify the meaning of words in SL characterized by partial correspondence to the words of TL, as well as the meaning of words that do not correspond to any words of TL. Translation of the latter group causes many difficulties and requires special means. Questions
What words are called equivalents ?
What words belong to the group of equivalents?
What words do linguists call partially coincided words?
How many variants of partially coincided words are there? Explain each of them.
The meaning of which words does not practically depend
on the context?
6. Why isn’t any guesswork allowed in translation?
7. What is necessary to state first in order to translate the
words of SL which are characterized by partial
correspondence?
8. What does the narrow linguistic context mean?
9. What does the wide linguistic context mean?
10. When does the context of the situation become especially
important?
11. In what case more often can’t the linguistic context give
any clue to the meaning of the SL word?
LECTURE 3 TRANSLATION OF WORDS HAVING NO CORRESPONDENCE IN TL
Plan
I. Ways of translating the words having no correspondence in TL
Transcription as a means of translating such words
Transliteration
Footnotes and explanations as the means of translating the words having no correspondence in TL
Loan translation
Analogical translation
Descriptive translation
1. There are several ways of translating words which having no correspondence in TL. The simplest way is to transcribe them: to render the original sound-form of the word by means of TL letters. (lobby - лобби, lump - ламп, спутник - sputnik, комсомол - Komsomol, etc.). This method is widely used for rendering personal names, place names, titles of periodicals, names of firms and companies.
2. Sometimes transliteration is used for the same purpose, but transcription is preferable because it renders the original sound-form of the word, while transliteration is based upon its graphical presentation (cf. two ways of rendering the name of Shakespeare in Russian: its transcription is Шекспир while its transliteration is Схакеспеаре). It is evident that for the purposes of oral communication it is necessary to know the sound-form of the names, so with the growth of contacts between the countries transliteration is being gradually ousted ( to oust- вытеснять)by transcription. Those names which have already been rendered by means of transliteration are now traditionally used in this form (King George -король Георг, not король Джордж) and there is no need to change them. Such names should not be translated anew, they have their translated equivalents. However, in translating those names which have no equivalents, it is preferable to use transcription.
3. Being a very good way of rendering proper names, transcription is not very convenient for translating notional words (слова, обозначающие понятие). Substitution of the Russian sounds for the English ones does not make the English word understandable for the Russian readers. The words "драгстор" or "ламп" are hardly more informative for them than the original "drugstore" or "lump". That is why transcription is often combined with footnotes (сноски) or explanations introduced into the text by the translator. As soon as the new word is thus explained it can be freely used in the text in its transcribed form. A good example of such introduction of a foreign word is found in one of G.Simenon's books:
...они отправились на авеню Фридланд к юрисконсульту посольства - к "солиситору", как его называют американцы. .. .Солиситор позвонил по телефону следователю... А затем они возвратились в "Маже-стик", и там Кларк в компании с солиситором, выпили в баре по две рюмки виски... (translated by Н.Немчинова)
The word "solicitor" here is transcribed and its meaning is explained ("юрисконсульт"), after which the transcription is used without further explanation.
The same method is used when translating the names of companies or titles of periodicals. E.g. " 'Daily Express' reports..." should be translated as "Английская консервативная газета 'Дейли Экспресс' сообщает..." because the title "Daily Express" is well known to the Englishmen and "Дейли Экспресс" is not known (and not informative in itself) for the Russian readers.
It is necessary to remember that explanations and footnotes contain additional information which is not expressed directly in the original text and is introduced by the translator. So it demands great knowledge on the part of the translator.
4. In case of composite words loan-translations (кальки) can be coined ( to coin - создавать) in the TL, e.g. the English noun "moonquake" is quite adequately translated as "лунотрясение", "as well as the Russian "луноход" is rendered in English as "moon crawler".
5. The next method of translating words having no correspondence in TL is based on approximate rendering of the notion (приближенный перевод). It can be described as "translation on the analogy". [ə'ńǽłəđзі] (аналогия,сходство). If a word in SL expresses some notion that has no name in TL it is necessary to look for some analogous [ə'ńǽłəgəs], similar (though not identical) notion in TL. E.g.: if we are not translating a cookery book but a story or a novel it is quite possible to translate the Russian "кисель" as "jelly", though actually they are different things (they use starch ( крахмал) for "кисель" and gelatin (желатин) for jelly). Another example - in our country we do not use wardrobe trunks and it is next to impossible to find a Russian way of expressing this notion, but usually (unless it is very important for the context) it can be quite satisfactorily translated as чемодан (or, if necessary, большой чемодан, or сундук-шкаф для верхней одежды).
6. The last way out of the difficulty caused by lack of correspondence between words of SL and TL is the so-called descriptive translation (описательный перевод). In this case the meaning of one word in SL is rendered by a group of words in TL ("spacewalk" - "выход в открытый космос", "spacesick" - "не переносящий условий космического полета"; "самодеятельность" - "amateur talent activities", "районирование" -"division into districts", etc.).
So there are six principal ways of translating words that have no direct lexical correspondences in XL. They are 1) transcription, 2) transliteration 3) footnotes and explanations, 4) loan translation, 5) analogical translation, and 6) descriptive translation. They all have certain drawbacks and their use is limited both by linguistic and extralinguistic factors (explanations make the text too long and sometimes clumsy, loan translation is applicable only to composite words, analogues are not always accurate enough, etc.). However, proper combination of these means makes it possible to translate any text rendering all the necessary information. When choosing the means of translating it is also important to keep in view stylistic characteristics of the text itself and of different words in both the languages. Special attention should be paid to peculiarities of word combinability in TL, which may differ greatly from that of SL.
Questions
1. What is transcription as the means of rendering the notion of a SL word ? Give your examples.
2. What is transliteration as the means of rendering the notion of a SL word ? Give your examples.
3. What are footnotes and explanations as the means of translating the words having no correspondence in TL? Give your examples.
4. What is loan translation as the means of translating the words having no correspondence in TL? Give your examples.
5. What is analogical translation as the means of translating the words having no correspondence in TL? Give your examples.
6. What is descriptive translation as the means of rendering the notion of a SL word ? Give your examples.
LECTURE 4 TRANSLATION OF PHRASES
Plan
Phrases with prepositive attributes
a. The structure of phrases with prepositive attributes
b. The ways of translating with prepositive attributes
The ways of translating set phrases
Types of set phrases
b. Ways of translating figurative phraseological units
Usually translation of free phrases does not cause any specific difficulties. The main thing to be remembered here is the interplay ( взаимодействие) of the meanings of components, because every component should be translated in such a way as to form the whole meaning of the phrase. In the English language, however, there are some types of phrases, which deserve special attention due to peculiarities of their semantic structure. Fist of all it refers to phrases with preposed attributes.( определения, находящиеся перед определяемым словом) All these phrases are built according to the pattern ATTRIBUTE + (ATTRIBUTE+...) + SUBSTANTIVE (существительное) but their semantic structure may vary considerably. Preposed attributes may denote properties and qualities of the substantive itself or of other attributes (cf. "south-coast convalescent camp" - where both "south-coast" and "convalescent" [konve’lesent] (выздоравливающий) characterize "camp" – and "free educational institution" where "free" is not connected semantically with "institution"); besides properties and qualities, they may denote some notion with which the substantive is connected, they may express local, temporal and other characteristics. That is why it is often impossible or at least undesirable to translate such phrases using similar Russian constructions, since in Russian semantic relations between a preposed attribute and a substantive are rather uniform: if a "happy man" is certainly "счастливый человек", "a medical man" can hardly be translated as "медицинский человек". There may be several attributes in a phrase and they are not necessarily expressed by adjectives. Very often the function of a preposed attribute is fulfilled by a noun (the "stone wall" type of phrases) which, in its turn, may also have an attribute (e.g. "the front door key"). Sometimes it is not easy to see which of the nouns is characterized by a particular attribute (does "retail business" mean "business of retail philanthropy"[fi’lǽθrəpi] (благотворительность) or "retail business of philanthropy"?). Such ambiguity [ǽbi’gju:ti] (неясность,двусмысленность) is practically impossible in Russian attributive phrases.
Another peculiarity of English phrases with preposed attributes is that an attribute may modify a noun which is as it were omitted and only implied (e.g. "dry pruning" does not mean that the process of pruning is dry, the word "dry" denotes the state of branches that are being pruned). (обрезка сухих ветвей)
T
hese
semantic and structural peculiarities should be taken into
consideration when translating attributive phrases with preposed
attributes. First of all it is necessary to translate the final noun,
which is always the main word in such a phrase. Then one should
single out sense groups within the phrase and analyze relations
between them. If all these groups modify the final noun they may be
translated in the same succession as they are in English, or in a
different succession, according to the norms of the Russian language.
If they modify each other in consecutive (непрерывно
следующий
друг
за
другом,
последовательный)
order the reverse way of translation is often recommended:
1 2 3
"Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty" –
"Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений"
1 2 3
There are several ways of translating such attributive phrases.
A preposed attribute may be translated with the help of a corresponding Russian preposed attribute: "a fine day" - "чудесный день", "matri’monial ad" - "брачное объявление".
A postpositional attribute may be used in Russian: "always-at-ease-girls" - "девушки, всегда чувствующие себя непринужденно". Often these postpositional attributes are expressed by nouns in the genitive case: "opposition leader" "лидер оппозиции".
A preposed attribute of an English phrase may be expressed in Russian by a postpositional attribute joined to the modified noun by a preposition (usually N + prep + N): "highway robbery" - "грабеж на большой дороге", "youth unemployment" "безработица среди молодежи".
A preposed attribute may be rendered in translation by an apposition: "her millionaire friend" - "ее друг-миллионер".
Sometimes one of the components of an English phrase (usually the preposed attribute itself) is best translated descriptively, i.e. by a group of words: "a bargain counter" "прилавок (отдел) товаров по сниженным ценам".
When translating English attributive phrases with preposed attributes it is often advisable or even necessary to rearrange components of the phrase and transfer the attribute to another noun (present in or omitted from the phrase): "free educational institutions" - "бесплатные учебные заведения", though in English the word "free" is connected with "educational" and not with "institutions"; "Parliamentary Labour Party" - "парламентская фракция лейбористской партии" (the word "парламентская" here is an attribute to the noun "фракция", introduced into the phrase according to the norms of the Russian language); "the nine Common Market foreign ministers" -"девять министров иностранных дел стран Общего рынка", where two nouns are introduced ("дел" and "стран") to show real semantic connections.
For the purposes of translation an attribute may be transferred to another noun used in the same sentence outside the phrase. E.g. "dismal [‘dizməl] (мрачный,зловещий) array(строй,порядок,матрица) of titles" in Mark Twain's "Running for Governor" should rather be translated as "набор ужасных прозвищ", though in English the adjective "dismal" modifies the noun "array", and not "titles".
7. Very often English attributive phrases are translated with the help of Russian adverbial phrases, especially in case of English
t
o
be
to have
to give + A + N phrases:
to take
"to give a loud whistle" - "громко свистнуть", "to have a good dinner" - "хорошо (вкусно, как следует и т.д.) пообедать", etc.
8. Finally there are cases when due to different reasons it is impossible to preserve the structure of a sentence including an attributive phrase with a preposed attribute, so the structure of the sentence is changed completely: "a girl with whom he had previously had a slight party-going acquaintance" - "девушка, с которой он раньше лишь иногда встречался на вечеринках".
The choice of a particular way to translate preposed attributes is predetermined mainly by semantic relations between the components of a phrase, grammatical norm, and combinability of words in TL.
There is a specific type of preposed attributes in English - attributes with inner predication. Their translation mainly depends on their stylistic properties. If such an attribute is rather extended and used for the purpose of irony, it is usually translated by means of a subordinate clause (mostly an object clause): "one of those quick Send -me-two-hundred-by-messenger-old-man-or-my-head-goes-in-the-gas-oven touches" (P.G.Wodehouse) - "одна из тех наскоро написанных записок, в которых обычно пишут: "Пришли мне, старина..." If it is not very long and no special ironical effect is intended it is better to find some laconic variant of translation using a preposed or postpositional attribute or sometimes even a noun without any attribute (if the meaning of this noun includes the characteristics which in English are expressed by the attributive phrase): "a 'God, you are wonderful' type of woman" - "восторженная женщина", "a grab-it-and-run ... counter" - "место, где можно наскоро перекусить" or "забегаловка".
* * *
Speaking about set phrases it is first of all necessary to differentiate between ‘figurative (переносный, метафорический)and non-figurative set phrases. Non-figurative set phrases are translated according to the principles that have already been discussed in connection with words and free phrases. The main guiding principle here is to remember the norms of TL.
Figurative set phrases deserve special discussion. The main peculiarity of these phraseological units is their specific meaning that often cannot be deduced from the meanings of their components. It is the meaning of the whole, not of separate words, that should be rendered in translation. Based on imagery, phraseological units serve to make the text more expressive; they are also often responsible for stylistic coloring of the text. Since the text in TL must be as expressive as it is in SL and characterized by the same stylistic coloring, it becomes very important to find an adequate variant of translating every phraseological unit.
There are four main ways to translate an image-bearing phraseological unit: 1) the image may be preserved as it is; 2) it may be partially changed; 3)it may be replaced by an utterly (весьма, совершенно) different image, and 4) a translated version may contain no image at all.
1. They usually preserve the image (and even the structure) of the so-called international phraseological units. Such units are mostly based on some historical, mythological, biblical, etc. references: "In the seventh heaven" - "на седьмом небе", "to go through the fire and water" - "пройти (сквозь) огонь и воду", "а blue stocking" - "синий чулок", "not to see the wood for the trees" - "за деревьями леса не видеть", etc. Such phraseological units of SL and TL are called equivalents. In case of equivalents, there arise no difficulties of stylistic or any other character.
Sometimes it is possible to preserve the image underlying a phraseological unit in SL even in the case when there is no corresponding unit in TL. It is achieved through loan translation: "no man can make a good coat with bad cloth" - "из плохого материала хорошего платья не сошьешь", "nothing comes out of the sack but what was in it" - "из мешка не вынешь больше, чем в нем было" (or - "ничего, кроме того, что в нем было"), etc. However, this means may be resorted to ( прибегнуть к ч-л, обратиться к ч-л) only if the image is absolutely transparent for the people speaking TL, that is if the figurative meaning of the phraseological unit is easily and unmistakably deduced from its direct meaning. In this case the translated version is no longer phraseological, but it remains figurative, so it renders the idea of the original phraseological unit and adds to the expressiveness of the whole text. If the image is not transparent and the meaning of the whole (and mainly its figurative meaning) cannot be deduced from the lexical meanings of the components, loan translation is absolutely impossible. "To send somebody to Coventry" (бойкотировать) cannot be translated as "послать в Ковентри", and translating "to find a mare's nest" ("попасть пальцем в небо") as "найти гнездо кобылы" one really finds a mare's nest.
2. It often happens that phraseological units of SL and TL express the same idea and are based upon similar though not identical images. They both express the idea figuratively and the imagery[‘imidзəri] (образы) underlying them is basically the same. In such cases it is possible to ignore slight differences between the images and though in the phraseological unit of TL the image is partially changed in comparison with that of SL, it can still be accepted as an adequate translated version: "a fine suit doesn't make a gentleman" - "не одежда красит человека", "at a glance (at a glimpse)" - "с первого взгляда", "a burnt child dreads the fire" - "обжегшись на молоке, на воду дует". In the last example the difference between the English and the Russian variants seems to be rather serious: there is practically no lexical correspondence between the words. But the image is nearly the same - he who once was burnt is afraid of everything which is hot (hence the same generalized figurative meaning). Some more examples: "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" - "лучше синица в руке, чем журавль в небе", "look not a gift horse in the mouth" - "дареному коню в зубы не смотрят", "to lay by for a rainy day" - "отложить про черный день", etc.
3. Since the phraseological stock of every language reflects the history and culture of the people speaking the language, many ideas which are common to all peoples are expressed differently in different languages: in Russian we say "когда рак на горе свистнет", while Englishmen say "when pigs fly", in Russian -"рыбак рыбака видит издалека", and in English - "birds of a feather flock together". Since the meaning of the first phraseological unit is in no way connected with either crayfish or pigs the lexical way of wording the idea ("something never going to happen") is of secondary importance. The main task here is to find a phraseological unit of TL expressing the same idea and belonging to the same stylistic register (стилистический регистр) as the original phraseological unit. The same is true about the second example. The complete substitution of the image does not in any way change the general meaning of the proverb. "У семи нянек дитя без глазу" is an adequate translation of the English "Too many cooks spoil the broth" because of complete coincidence of meaning and stylistic reference.
So in all the cases when phraseological units of SL have no equivalents in TL and in TL there are no expressions based on the same image, complete substitution of image (i.e. use of phraseological analogues) is recommended.
4. In SL there may exist phraseological units that have neither equivalents nor analogues in TL. The idea expressed in these units has no fixed expression in TL. If the image underlying them is not transparent and loan translation is impossible, such phraseological units are translated descriptively, i.e. by free phases which are neither phraseological nor figurative: "a skeleton in the cupboard" - "семейная тайна" (an attempt to translate it as "скелет в шкафу" leads to utter misrepresentation of sense), "get the right (wrong) end of the stick" - "оказаться в выгодном (невыгодном) положении", "in a whole skin" -"благополучно, без повреждений", etc.
These are the main ways of translating figurative phraseological units.
When translating phraseological units it is necessary to remember that some of them have a definite national character, which makes their translation rather difficult. On the one hand, it is not always easy to preserve the national "flavour" in translation, on the other - there is always a danger of introducing national elements of TL. Semantically "to carry coals to Newcastle" and "ездить в Тулу со своим самоваром" are analogues, nevertheless one can hardly insert Тула in a text translated from English. In such cases it is advisable to find (or coin, if necessary) a neutral expression with the same figurative meaning: "носить уголь в шахту (воду в реку, дрова в лес и т.д.)". There should be no "коломенская верста" or "Тришкин кафтан" or "щи лаптем хлебать" in a Russian translation of any foreign text.
Questions
1. What way should every component be translated in a phrase?
2.What is the phrase with prepositive attributes? ). ( it is a phrase with a word or speech element placed before the word modified)
3. What is the structure of phrases with prepositive attributes?
4. The properties of what may prepositive attributes denote?
5. Is it necessary first of all to translate the final noun or the first word while translating attributive phrases with preposed attributes?
6. What should one do after translating the final noun?
7. What way of translating is recommended after analyzing relations between sense groups?
8.How many ways of translating the attributive phrases with preposed attributes?
9.Is it possible to translate the attributive phrases with preposed attributes descriptively?
10.Is it possible to transfer the attribute to the omitted noun in the phrase while translating attributive phrases with preposed attributes?
11.When can English attributive phrases be translated with the help of Russian or Ukrainian adverbial phrases?
12. What does the choice of the way of translating preposed attributes depend on?
13. Do figurative or non-figurative phrases make the text more expressive?
14. How many ways of translating figurative phrases are recommended in the lecture? What are they? Give examples of the each way.
15. When it is not easy to preserve the national "flavour" (особенность) in translation do they recommend an analogue translation or finding a neutral expression with the same but figurative meaning?
LECTURE 5 LEXICAL TRAVSFORMATIONS
Plan
The cause of using lexical transformations
Transformation by means differentiation and concretization
Transformation of generalization
Semantic development.
Antonymic translation
Compensation
1. The cause of using lexical transformations
They say that translation starts where dictionaries end. Though somewhat exaggerated, this saying truly reflects the nature of translation. Dictionaries list all regular correspondences between elements of lexical systems of languages. Translation deals not so much with the system of language but with speech (or to be more exact - with a text, which is a product of speech). So in the process of translating one has to find it by himself which of the meanings of a poly semantic word is realized in a particular context, to see if under the influence of this context the word has acquired a slightly new shade of meaning and to decide how this new shade of meaning (not listed in any dictionary) can be rendered in TL. E.g. no dictionary ever translates the verb "to be" as "лежать", nevertheless it is the best way to translate it in the sentence "She was in hospital" - "Она лежала, в больнице". Moreover, it has already been said that every language has its specific way of expressing things, a way that may be quite alien [‘eiliən] (несвойственный) to other languages. That is why a literal (word-for-word) translation of a foreign text may turn out clumsy (if not ridiculous) in TL. To avoid it one has to resort (прибегать) to some special devices worked out by the theory of translation and known as lexical transformations (or contextual substitutions) (лексические трансформации, или контекстуальные замены). There are several types of such transformations.
2.Transformation by means differentiation and concretization (Трансформация дифференциации и конкретизации)
1. The first type of lexical transformations is used in translating words with wide and non-differentiated meaning. The essence of this transformation lies in translating such words of SL by words with specified concrete meaning in TL (трансформация дифференциации и конкретизации). When translating from English into Russian they use it especially often in the sphere of verbs. If English verbs mostly denote actions in rather a vague general way, Russian and Ukrainian verbs are very concrete in denoting not only the action itself but also the manner of performing this action as well: "to go (on foot, by train, by plane, etc.)" - "идти пешком", "ехать поездом", "лететь самолетом", etc.; "to get out" - "выбираться","выходить", "вылезать", "высаживаться", etc. The choice of a particular Russian or Ukrainian verb depends on the context. It does not mean, of course, that the verb "to go" changes its meaning under the influence of the context. The meaning of "to go" is the same, it always approximately corresponds to the Russian "перемещаться", but the norms of the Russian language demand a more specified nomination of the action. The same can be illustrated with the verb "to be": "The clock is on the wall", "The apple is on the plate and the plate is on the table" - "Часы висят на стене", "яблоко лежит на тарелке, а тарелка стоит на столе", though in all those cases "to be" preserves its general meaning "находиться". The sentence "He's in Hollywood" in J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" should be translated as "Он работает в Голливуде", but if "Oxford" were substituted for "Hollywood" the translation would rather be "учится". This transformation is applicable not only to verbs but to all words of wide semantic volume, no matter to what part of speech they belong: adverbs, adjectives, nouns, etc. E.g. due to their most vague meaning such nouns as "a thing", "stuff, "a camp" are used to denote practically anything, often remaining neutral stylistically. In Russian, however, nouns with so general meaning are less universal, besides, they sometimes belong to the colloquial register which often makes it impossible to use them in translation (cf. "a thing" - "вещь", "штука", "штуковина"). That is why in every case there should be found a word with a more concrete meaning denoting that particular "thing" or “stuff” which is meant by the author: "...this madman stuff that happened to me" - "идиотская история, которая со мной случилась"; "...all the dispensary stuff - "все медицинские препараты" or "лекарства": "toilet things" - "туалетные принадлежности", "you have never done a single thing in all your life to be ashamed of - "за всю свою жизнь ты не совершил ни одного постыдного поступка".
It is necessary to take into consideration not only denotative but connotative meanings (скрытый смысл) as well. The verb "to employ" is usually translated as "нанимать, принимать на работу". But if Mark Twain's character is "accused of employing toothless and incompetent old relatives to prepare food for the foundling hospital", of which he is warden, the verb acquires a shade of negative meaning (he is said to have used his position in order to pay money to his relatives for the work which they could not do properly); so it should be translated by a less "general" verb - e.g. "пристроить".
The English pronoun "you" deserves special attention. It can be translated only with the help of differentiation, i.e. either "ты" or "вы". The choice depends on the character, age, the social position of the characters, their relations, and the situation in which they speak. One should remember that the wrong choice can ruin the whole atmosphere of the text.
3. Transformation of generalization (Трансформация генерализации) “generalized translation”
The second type of transformation is quite opposite in its character and is usually called "generalization" (трансформация генерализации). In many cases the norms of TL make it unnecessary or even undesirable to translate all the particulars expressed in SL. Englishmen usually name the exact height of a person: "He is six foot three tall". In Russian it would hardly seem natural to introduce a character saying "Он шести футов и трех дюймов росту"; substituting centimeters for feet and inches wouldn't make it much better: "Он 190,5 сантиметров росту". The best variant is to say: "Он очень большого роста".
Generalization is also used in those cases when a SL word with differentiated meaning corresponds to a word with non-differentiated meaning in TL ("a hand" - "рука", "an arm" -"рука", etc.).
The necessity to use generalization may be caused by purely pragmatic reasons. In the original text there may be many proper names informative for the native speakers of SL and absolutely uninformative for the readers in TL. They may be names of some firms, of the goods produced by those firms, of shops (often according to the name of the owner), etc.: Englishmen know that "Tonibell" is the name of various kinds of ice-cream produced by the firm Tonibell, while "Trebor" means sweets produced by Trebor Sharps LTD and "Tree Top" denotes fruit drinks produced by Unilever. Transcribed in the Russian text these names are absolutely senseless for the reader who would not see any difference between "Тонибелл", "Требор", "Три Ton" or even "Тоутал", which is not eatable since it is petrol. An English reader in his turn can hardly guess what they sell in "Динамо" shops (even if it is spelt "Dynamo") or in "Весна" (no matter whether it is rendered as "Vesna" or "Spring"). Hardly are more informative such names as "Снежинка" (a cafe or a laundry), "Байкал" (a drink), "Первоклассница" (sweets), "Осень" (а cake), etc. That is why it is recommended to substitute names (unless they are internationally known or play a special role in the context) by generic words denoting the whole class of similar objects: "Он сдает свои рубашки в 'Снежинку'" - "Не has his shirts washed at the laundry", "Они ели 'Осень', запивая ее 'Байкалом'" - "They were eating a cake washing it down with a tonic"; "...Domes of glass and aluminium which glittered like Chanel diamonds" - "купола из стекла и алюминия, которые сверкали, как искусственные бриллианты". То translate "Chanel diamonds" as "бриллианты фирмы “Шанель” would be a mistake since the majority of Russian readers do not know that this firm makes artificial diamonds. If the text permits a longer sentence it is possible to add this information ("искусственные бриллианты фирмы “Шанель”), which may be useful for the reader's scope but absolutely unnecessary for the text itself. However, the generalized translation "искусственные бриллианты" is quite necessary here.